Final Approach

Either bashing my cranium against a solid, brick wall because the main character, Ryo Mizuhara, is ceaselessly making stubborn and defiant choices -even though he is completely aware of hurting his fiancée's feelings- or because his fiancée, Shizuka Masuda, is almost annoyingly hell-bent on receiving affection from someone who obviously does not care, I'll have to admit that (most-importantly) my head seems to be in relatively good shape, despite a solid beating(s). And since my skull-bashing proved to be ineffective time-after-time, I could actually sit and enjoy some of the finer moments that Final Approach had to offer.

Yes, it has the long-running and omnipresent anime ... cliché of "making horrible, dumb decisions in a relationship," almost to the point where all of us in real life actually start feeling better about our relationships.

Yes, I've already said it, but they really did make "horrible, dumb decisions in a relationship."
Regardless, I (somehow?) still had a little sympathy for our destined pair. Maybe it was that pitiful? Maybe I'm starting to get weak? Maybe it should not have taken 10 or so episodes for them to realize their callow mistakes? Who knows...

But even so, being trapped within a torrential vortex of "stupidity" still brought a tear in my eye (I'll have to admit, painfully) and made me laugh like the little schoolgirl I most probably am.
But hey! Final Approach was intended as a mixture of comedy and romance, and it certainly lived up to those expectations.

The cast of characters: simply hilarious. Maybe I, in fact, enjoyed the head-bashing (masochist?). Even so, it was practically random, unprecedented fun which stemmed into bouts of laughter.
There was no telling what would happen next between the zany characters, and that is simply what separated this "typical" romance anime from the rest, but not enough to noticeably distinct itself and turn into something absolutely amazing.

Final Approach is possibly one of the most demented, impossibly defunct anime I’ve ever watched. Not only does it strangle the viewer with absurd, illogical plotlines and unexplainable (and oftentimes incomprehensible) conclusions to cap 10 minute long episodes, but the characters can go from annoying to lovable in 0 to 60 without breaking a sweat.

The story is supposed to be about a guy, Ryo, who is forced to marry this girl, Shizuka, because of a government program meant to up the childbirth rate. But the anime completely abandons that premise half-way through in favor of some kind of twisted love triangle between Ryo, Shizuka ... and Emiho (who is truly this anime’s saving grace.) that makes no sense and refuses to lean one way or the other.

Now I will admit the story does have some interesting twists and surprises in a few of the episodes, originality that I would have thought was impossible for a series that basically spans a grand total of 130 minutes of viewing time. However, the bad often times far outweighs the good. It’s unrealistic on every level and Shizuka is half the time, the most annoying character I’ve possible ever watched. Her cheerful ignorance and gung-ho even in the face of obvious lack of interest from Ryo really started to piss me off after a while. For a little icing on the cake, the anime takes a few turns at tearful emotion at such terribly inopportune times that are so laughable that I actually DID cry!

So watching this, I realized that the difference between my watching and then forgetting this anime completely in a year or regarding this as one of the worst anime I’d ever seen all hung on the ending. If they did what I thought they were going to do, it was going to be the latter and I was going to have to throw my computer out the window so I could somehow be satisfied with not getting the opportunity to personally hitting Shizuka in the face. So what was the result? Well, let’s just say the review you’re reading right now was written on a brand new computer.

However, the worst part about this anime is that midway through, it hinted at something that’s possibly good. They just barely touch on something I could really get into and I was happy for maybe 20 seconds and then they took the final 6 episodes or so to crush me into oblivion while I was watching. THEN, the makers of this anime had the audacity to shove the fact that they squashed that mid-point possibility by reminding me of it in the 13th “bonus” episode.

This is by far the biggest waste of time in my life and I thank God that it was so short. Do yourself a favor and stay far away from this trash and stick to a good romantic comedy… or even go with more sanitary garbage. It’s better than this curse on humanity.

Final Approach is a romantic comedy with a total runtime of 2.6 hours (13 episodes X 12 minutes each). I can understand why the anime is short because it would make little sense for it to be any longer since the story and events of this show are quite simple. Although this is not the best anime out there, I have to say that it is not bad at all. It really depends on the audience. I am not really into the whole romantic comedy genre but I do not detest it either. I think this is one of the reasons why I liked this ... show. If you hate romantic comedy, then I suggest you run a mile from this anime. Anyway, here goes my review:

Story: 6/10
Read the synopsis.

Art: 7/10
The art was generally good and suitable for this sort of genre. The way I understand art in the context of anime is based on it's suitability for the theme. Because this is a romantic comedy, it would be stupid to have buff looking characters with 28 inch biceps dressed in dbz outfits. The characters were drawn pretty well to reflect normal high schoolers and the general art was a well done job which reflected a normal high school and home environment.

Sound: 6/10
I cannot re-call the music being spectacular for this anime. I must confess that it has been a while since I watched this show so I am not completely sure. Having said that, when I usually find the music to be absolutely splendid for a given anime, it sticks in my mind. I cannot remember the music sticking in my mind so my conclusion is that it was not all that great.

Character: 7/10
The characters were perhaps the strongest element of the show. I found the relationship and chemistry between Ryo and Shizuka quite entertaining and hilarious. There were some really funny moments. Perhaps the weak aspect of the anime was that the characters did not really develop with time but were rather static in how they behaved. Nevertheless, they did a good job with the characters.

Enjoyment: 7/10
I completed this show on the same day because it is not very long and I must say that I found it enjoyable. I was tucked in bed with my laptop and I can remember clicking on the next episode button every time the previous episode finished. Since each episode is only 12 minutes, it was a unique experience for me. As a comedy, I think this anime is good and I am sure it will have you laughing.

Overall: 7/10
I recommend Final Approach to people who 1) enjoy watching comedy and 2) do not detest romantic themes. I do not want to compare this to other anime that I like because the genres are completely different. I feel that Final Approach has its own place, where it sits as a funny, light and entertaining anime worth watching.

Final Approach, the title has nothing what so ever to do with the content of the story, which is about a girl who is forced to marry someone because of a 'government program'. I don't know about anyone else but i found this quite enjoyable.

[Story]
The story is great. I say its great not 'amazing' or 'excellent' because the forced marriage thing is kinda overused and people like me, who are heavily into romance, comedy, harem type animes, will think 'been there done that'. But the reason why its 'Great' and not 'Mediocre' is that it adds a certain twist to the story (you'll find out ... if you watch it) that gives it a kick thats enough to last the rest of the anime.

[Art]
Once again, another 7/10, the art (please dont hate me for this) is great, and its reminiscent of Clannad, but its just so-so for the atmosphere of the storyline and really pulls it down a litle.

[Sound]
The voice actors were awesome! You can feel the emotion and the passion of the characters with full force. The music was also awesome and complemented the story completely.

[Character]
Well, i dont know about the characters, since when i watch anime, i dont pay attention to how far the character is developed and how much we know about them. But in Final Approach, the two main characters are mostly fleshed out but the supporting characters feel like shadows, we know what they look like but dont know whats inside.

[Enjoyment]
For me personally, i like these genres anyway, so it was a good watch. If your into Rizelmine, you'll definately like this one. But there feels like theres something missing, so im only giving it 9

[Overall]
Overall, its fair, reasonably drawn, carefully plotted anime. Though some aspects are typical of the genre, it adds certain twists that make it enjoyable!
9/10 overall

Final Approach is probably ONE OF THE BEST, if not the best there is, anime of its genre. For those who would like to make a review for this series, pls watch all the episodes first before doing so.

[Story]: The story, I admit, seemed uninteresting at first, but got better and better as the story progressed. It got my interest, probably because of of its comedy-romance genre mix-up.

[Art]: What more can I say? The anime character art that I've always loved. How they mixed the typical anime characters with chibis versions was very interesting. That really gave the series a great comedy twist...

[Sound]: The ... sounds in this anime (opening, ending, and insert songs, the seiyuus) got my attention, especially the insert songs. To how they chose the songs and how to place and insert them in certain scenes was very astounding... I don't know how they did that, but they really did a great job. Also, the seiyuus really gave life to their respective characters.

[Character]: Character plots and personalities made this anime quite fun to watch. All of the characters had their own unique traits and personalities that (surprisingly) complemented each other. The most noticeable personality would be the ultimate "sibling love" of the main character towards his sister (ooops! Almost made a spoiler there... ^_^), but IT'S NOT INCEST...

[Enjoyment]: Throughout the series, the development of the story and the situations of the characters made me "long for more" (want to watch the next episode right away).

For an overall rating, I'm giving it a 9. I recommend this anime to all! Happy watching.

Well i was just bored at only watching ongoing shows for a while and just wanted to give a marathon of a random anime and then i picked this anime i dont know why.

the synopsis and the original plot was absurd enough to ruin my interest, however, i kinda liked the main girl shizuka and ryo's sister akane from the first episode and decided to stick with it.

in the end, i am glad that i finished it and its way way better than stupid anime like akane-iro no somaro saka. if anyone compares this anime with akane-iro, then they have pretty bad anime taste.

tonikaku,

plot: one ... word. stupid.

story development: the anime started with stupid child birth issue forced by government, midway became an unasked for love triangle and ended up close ended and if it hadn't, i would have given this anime a 5/10 after all the affections she showed for him, did i just spoil you, i think i didnt, because from the start you can tell there was only one girl for him. unlike ichigo 100%/ urgh. i had to remember that sub per anime.

characters: 13 eppys x 12 mins runtime wasnt enough to focus on all the characters in the anime but they did great job making them kawaii and at time going chibi-forms which was the best part of the entire anime. the love triangle seemed to be unnecessary but somehow helped develop their feelings for each other on the closing episodes and unlike many anime, ryo isn't a total jackass nor a pervert, which makes him different. and shizuka is like...can i have her for myself?

seiyuu: 10/10. this is where the anime scores the maximum. i loved the way they carried their emotion and feelings, as well as their expressions with their voice, two thumbs up!

art and sound: i watched froth-bite fansubs xvid release and from the medium video quality, i have to say the aniime is neatly drawn and although the BGM wasnt to be found in many cases, the OP and EDs were good enough to give it an overall 8/10.

enjoyment: 9/10. despite having a weak plot, i have to say i loved the last few episodes around the climax. overall the anime was really funny and i had my share of laughing doses and went through romantic labu-labu moments. i wish there was a shizuka popping up in my life, i would have taken her as my wife anytime. she is probably one of the cutest heroins in anime :P

well there ends my robotic regular review, overall the anime gets an 8/10 from me. i wasnt being generous. i have seen many love comedies, and this one falls in the better half. that sums up the overall reaction for you. too bad to see that the average score is below 7, when this anime deserves at least 7.5/10, if not better :/

Foreword
Found the torrent from Tokyotosho RSS feed. Yes, it's another release from Jumonji-Giri. They've been around re-encoding old series,those that aired when .mkv format was not so widespread, and widescreen broadcast was uncommon. After a quick look on AniDB, I downloaded this series. FYI, this time too, J-G peer swarms were small, and up/down speed was so low, around 8 kBps.

Story
This kind of theme has been recycled again and again for romantic comedy (particularly harem, and ecchi) anime. Although there's not much similarity between them, I am tempted to compare FA to Daa! Daa! Daa! (UFO Baby). No... no... don't ask me anything if you ... feel this comparison is not really relevant. I just feel like it.
On both anime, the hero and heroine live together like a newly wed couple, with less intensity in FA, for there is another girl with close age too. There, the driving force for this whole series are Shizuka's naivety and our hero's coldness. Many incidents here and there, could only count as really standard slapstick jokes. Each episode just passed away, with few laughters (sometimes rather forced ones) and went by, hardly leaving any traces in my mind.
Several story elements' in FA also made me drop huge sweat from my chin. Those 'Agent Smith(s)', really freaked me out, feels like I'm seeing artificially bred and cloned human beings. I don't wanna think that they're cloned from Shizuka's DNA, for it's too gross. The arranged marriage, and a girl soliciting herself to a boy she never knows. It makes me feel really sorry for Shizuka. Really gross plot, I think.
To sum it up, FA has many things any average (or better) romance anime offers, but it fails to deliver them well.

Art
I'm not really familiar with romance anime art from that era (the time when this anime was aired, I have no access to any anime except those that were aired in local TVs). I could scarcely remember School Days or Daa!3x tho, and I could confidently say, the art is not superior compared to those latter two. The hero was poorly designed, his shoulder being too wide and his eyes too sharp, as if he was from an average beat-em-up' action anime. The girls were not particularly interesting, too.

Sound
Not really paying much attention. Not much special, but the insert song for the last episode (is it the same song as the OP Theme?) is quite good.

Character
Not much to say. Average characters, you'll most likely meet characters like those in FA in other countless titles you've watched, and other countless series to come.
FYI, although she's not appealing enough to be admitted to my anime harem, I never refuse a girl like Shizuka, and Emiho's sanguine friend is interesting too (I always like that kind of voice character).

Enjoyment
At least, worth for spending your free time.

Overall
Right now, out of about 400GB storage space (I'm poor, huh?), I'm considering freeing up more. Maybe, I'll delete this one, but I'm trying to keep this series. It's worth archiving.

Final Approach is about a young high school boy who is suddenly picked to be the arranged fiancee of Shizuka. Due to the recent low birth rates, a system picked the two at random to be the perfect match for each other, however, Ryo disagrees.

Story: The story is pretty common in the sense that it's yet another anime about an arranged marriage. There isn't really much of a twist to the overly used storyline either. The girl is all excited about being engaged to the boy and the boy just wants nothing to do with her. A slight twist would be the government's involveent I ... suppose.

Art: While the background art was sometimes lacking at certain points, it was still overall fairly decent animation. The character designs are great though, it's just the things that surround them.

Sound: The opening and ending fit well with the rest of the series. The voice actors did a good job. Shizuka's truly shine because you could tell her deep deviotion to Ryo through her voice. With Ryo's you could really hear hw mixed his emotions were about Shizuka.

Character: The characters were pretty bland and nothing new. Ryo at times would really get on my nerves because in one scene he'd make a major character develope and in the next, he'd just go back to the way he was. Shizuka was typical in wanting to be with Ryo, regardless of the cost. And of course, there is the doting sister, Akane who feels she is faing from hr brother's life.

Enjoyment: I'm not sure if I should say this anime was a complete waste of time because in some parts it was enjoyable and it was only 12 minutes per episode for 13 episodes, but most of the time while watching it felt more like a chore than enjoyment. The plot just seems to go nowhere at times and many of the things in each episode are pointless.

Overall, I'd say that if you like cliche over-done anime that is severly lacking in the comedy, romance, and drama part than this is perfect for you.

I found this pretty interesting because I liked the character designs and voices. The length is short enough without dragging on like many romantic-"comedy" series.

It's a basic premise - a girl drops in from the sky (literally), and introduces herself as our main character's fiancee. This is where the response is markedly different from others - he gives a very definite no, instead of reacting in consternation or thinking he's never seen such a cute girl, or allowing himself to be walked all over.

That said, he isn't the best of characters personality-wise, but isn't a polite wimp either.

Several things stood out:

- No jealous childhood friend
- ... No pre-pubescent girls
- Our main character isn't starved for female attention

Overall, I'd recommend this to someone who wants to watch a romantic comedy without the usual cliches.

after just finishing watch Final Approach, this is my quick review of the series

There are spoilers in this review so be careful

Genres - comedy, drama, romance, slice of life

What I Liked about the anime -

1 - I will admit that the first couple of episodes of the show were both boring and slow, but as the show went on, the more it got better.

... 2 - This was one of the very few occurrences when having short episodes were better than having the traditional 22 minute format (these were round about 11-14 minutes per episode).

Dislike -

1 - The one thing that was bad for me was the ending, the thing I mean was that it ended perfectly on episode 12, so what was a point for episode 13.

Favourite Character - I actually liked both Shizuka and the bodyguards that she has with her

Overall rating for this anime - 8/10

I liked this anime because it was hart warming and funny. lots of romance. It takes a long time for the romance to progress.