Photokano

Well, what do we have here. It's PhotoKano, a series based off the dating game of the same name. The series focuses on this young boy named Kazuya Maeda who happens to be a high school student enjoying the youth of his life. Perhaps he is enjoying it too much though with that little toy of his. It's a camera and used to capture memories through its lenses. With imagination, you can discover magic through a camera. But that's just all an imagination because in PhotoKano, magic doesn't exist. Rather, there exists many girls who wants to pose for you in lascivious positions just wanting ... to capture those 'memories'. Honestly, this series is definitely something that I don't want to be part of my memories.

Now for starters, the anime series is adapted from a dating sim developed by Dingo and Enterbrain. The way it structures its series is a bit bizarre as rather than a linear storyline, it focuses on our lucky protagonist-kun who is involved in several arcs each with a different girl whom gets acquainted with him. But hey, that's just high school life right? It's all about teenagers getting involved in romance angles and creating drama. Well, the thing here is that Kazuya, the protagonist becomes the chick magnet who somehow is not only be able to attract the various girls in this show but also get them to do pose in seductive positions. Talk about having a lucky life.

Well, there are some basic merits to this show. For instance, there's the Photography Club who invites Kazuya to join as a member. The club itself is made up of guys who likes nothing more than capturing those seductive photos of girls and making them worth a thousand words. Kazuya on the other hand seems to be the easy-going guy who is able to make friends with both guys and girls like a day in the park. The catch here is that as a bonus, he is able to take pictures of girls with his camera. It's making friends, taking seductive photo-shoots, and striking relationships all in one package of this lucky guy.

For some reason, the girls of this show only allows Kazuya to take pictures of them in those seductive poses. Why? That's probably a magical question beyond what I can comprehend. Perhaps it's because of his easy going personality. But wait, the guy doesn't seem to have a clue what to do with the girls he hangs out most of the time. Rather than just 'hanging out', the girls of this show all seems to be interested in the boy for reasons beyond just 'taking photographs'. Kazuya on the other hand plays the follower and goes with the flow. Sometimes, this lands him into trouble as he is accidentally labeled as a 'pervert'. Despite Kazuya trying to negate these situations, they just happen to come by like pouring rain with the compromising positions, accidental kisses, and even other situations where he doesn't want to be in. Ugh.

The series falls under many of the cliched themes of an ecchi/romantic romance. There's the childhood love, the beach episodes (more than just one of them actually), various confessions, and the obvious fan service. Speaking of which, the fan service of this show is thrown at your face literally every episode. There's the panty shots, the suggestive poses, the swimsuits, and camera angles. The OP song even focuses this as if it''s some sort of art. Then, there's the camera shots that focuses more than just painting a memory. Rather, it points at the various angles of the camera at suggestive body parts. Again, Kazuya is having the fun of his time.

At some point, I just decided to watch this series for the sake of a possible deeper story to develop. Unfortunately, the plot of PhotoKano is more dry than sands of the beach. It doesn't progress and makes little sense. For whatever reason, Kazuya is like a bachelor and whether he likes it or not, he gets the attention of the girls through his charms. At many points, the boy isn't even trying and girls are allowing him to take suggestive photographs of them. Then, there's the love confessions and lovey dovey scenes that follows. Oh and no one is safe either. Whether you're a class president, an athlete, a school beauty, an imouto type, childhood friend, or the shyest girl on Earth. No girl is safe from Kazuya's 'charms'. NO ONE. Once you're part of the route, expect romance to pop out of nowhere.

Well at various points, I try to dig out something out of this series. I mean, there has to be something that can attract the viewers right? The artwork might be part of that from what I originally thought but it's nothing at all attractive. Rather, it's generic, standard, and poorly constructed. The school uniforms are all generic and nothing stands out. It's not even unique in the sense of being attractive. Rather, it's typical and hardly memorable. The soundtrack isn't any better as the OST itself hardly makes an impression. The OP song "Koisuru Lens" by Kaori Hayato clearly matches the theme of the series through those lens of the camera. Only problem is that it seems Kazuya isn't getting any highlights in it. Rather, the girls are the main course of the dish and gives those delicious poses.

To conclude, this series is something crafted out of a weak plot, with weakly developed characters, and a lackluster premise that makes it a dull experience. The main male protagonist is dull anyways so nothing else new to see there. It doesn't help with the lackluster soundtrack or the artwork. On a positive note though, the series does have a variety of characters to watch and see how they interact with Kazuya. Unfortunately, it all ends with predictable results that spells out what a cliched series this is. I can't recommend PhotoKano to anyone, not unless you enjoy photography or something in animated form. But then again, it makes fun of that in a lascivious way of an attempt to spark interest. It tries too HARD and this was one series that I had a HARD time getting through. But if you really want to try this out, then the ball's in your court.

Applause for the girls, they're like a tool to use and getting expired after he says "I love you".

I hate it more, just because Madhouse disappointed me. The thing is they're got the wrong show to make money for.

Okay if you're going to say WHY you're making a review in only an 8 episodes done. Let me say, this show hasn't been something to look forward to, other than seeing the girls. So i thought why not, girls will keep coming in the end.

The jumping from one to another girl. That's something should develop that guy. I'd say it's a developing BUT it's not, because ... he always taking the same pictures but with a different girls. And how he take the picture is simply saying "always look at me, i'm the good guy, can i take pictures now?" and the girls keep saying "why not i trust you" (THAT SUCKS) .

Folks that's Photokano doing its thing. To make that guy loving his thing. (Which is taking pictures of girls with mostly swimsuits or anything they got on, it'll do), so he could be a great Photographer.
He joined a club or class Photography with 3 guys and 1 girls. The main thing of the club is to take girls pictures. (Fan-services). Every time he ends with a girl, you'll start to think this is the end scene of the series.

Let's talk about "the trust" which is always comes from back then, when they were kids!. And he never stick with one girl, he's only acting cool and the girls trusted him as person whom they met when they were kids. Is that the trust? seemingly NO it is not.

Characters are the worst personalities you'll ever see. The main character is a bit annoying for me, the annoying part is, he keeps doing the same thing. The other characters aren't something special and they haven't got the light as the main character yet, they're only a reminder characters. (I mean the guys only)
The girls are tools as i said before.

Art: School backgrounds (mostly) which is a common thing, and sometimes out of the school. Still nothing special.

Overall: I'd rather watch some Hentai, other than watching this crap. I haven't got any interest, at all. I wish i could, but i'm not.

Harem anime offer a multitude of aspects for a viewer to enjoy when watching one. Viewers are offered what`s essentially a line-up of different female characters (or males for the reverse genre) who tend to all follow a certain archetype that`s become fairly common in most genres of moe-blob, and slice of life shows, and almost staple to visual novel adaptations. Given that the characters are interesting enough, with a sensible plot behind them, anyone can find at least one character who found themselves enjoying the time of day given to that one specific character, even though that, canonically, the main girl will be chosen ... in the end. But the overall experience can be enhanced when the show offers a good sense of humor, nice presentation, and interesting character designs. What happens when all of that is achieved, but it fails horribly? Photokano.

What is unfortunately considered the spiritual successor to the more successful game, and subsequently more successful anime, Amagami SS, Photokano attempts to take the same direction but with what is arguably a better studio, Madhouse. What this means is that this is almost guaranteed a visually appealing show, which it actually does accomplish. There are multiple scenes where the studio can show off its budget and skill of animation, and create a pseudo-3D scene when the characters themselves are just drawn in. Photokano also inherits the style and character designs from its earlier games, KimiKiss and Amagami. The characters themselves are vaguely original in design, and they don`t try too hard to adhere strictly to their respective archetypes (i.e. the tsundere, the little sister, the childhood friend) by not actually shoving that fact in the viewers` face.

The overall theme of the show is that of a camera, where the main character obtains one and begins his journey of self-discovery through his newly acquired `new look` at the world around him. This also gives the show a unique excuse to include ecchi scenes and panty shots left and right. A clever aspect to the show is the overall setup of the rest of the series. In the early episodes, most, if not all, of that `flags` for the girls are setup n what can be considered subtle, and not out of place or awkward in writing. This gives somewhat of a justification for the following `arcs` that the show presents itself in.

However, the problem with Photokano lies in its delivery, in that there is none. The character flags are set up in the near beginning, the setting with the Photography Club is created, and the main character isn`t a terribly boring and generic person. But what comes to follow is essentially a string of one episode arcs, where each episode is dedicated to one girl. The camera motif is quickly rendered meaningless because the (very few) character dynamics have almost nothing to do with the theme of the camera itself. The secondary characters, who are the members of the Photography Club fall flat after their introductions (which is unfortunate because one of them is voiced by Shiraishi Minoru) and are never developed. The final and most important flaw of the show lies in the girls. While the show can cleverly jump from arc to arc, there is absolutely no time for any characters to be developed. All that can be presented in the end is a character trait, like one`s love for food, or the other`s stoicism, and then immediately tries to force false character development in the span of 10-15 minutes.

Anything and everything that was set up by the beginning of the show, which was in all fairness actually not that bad, is completely stunted and abandoned. In its attempt to try and accomplish what Amagami SS did, which had roughly 40 episodes total when OVAs are included with each girl getting at least 3-4 episodes each, Photokano hurts itself by spreading itself too thin. Sadly, the only problem really was the length of the show.

Art & Animation: 9/10 - Madhouse sure knows how to show off when they can do a pseudo-3D space camera trick. Good colors, good backgrounds, nice shading when the detail is there.

Sound: 7/10 - While voice acting is nothing special in this show, the music tends to stand out for at least 2 or 3 tracks when things get serious in mood.

Story: 5/10 - It`s a shame to say that time restrictions are whats holding back nearly everything about that show, even though that isn`t saying much to begin with, but it`s the truth and the story suffers for it.

Character: 3/10 - There are nice designs for the girls, and some of the secondary characters look pretty nice, but style only goes so far when the characters are literally paper thin and shallow.

Value: 2 - Nothing too meta or self-aware about the show, and no significant impact on the industry other than being an attempt at what Amagami was.

Enjoyment: 5 - Personally, I wanted to like the show. There was just no real chance to.

WARNING SPOILERS ARE CONTAINED (Last Paragraph)

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Ohhh boy, here we go, Kazuya, a mild-mannered high school sophomore receives a gift (Camera) from his father. Kazuya begins to take pictures of a-lot of things he find as a "Photo Opportunity". The club leader of the Photography club spots Kazuya and wants to recruit him. However, he only wants to recruit him for perverted reasons since Kazuya knows some popular girls and can get some dirty pictures out of them for the perverted Photography club. That's basically the main story (So far).

To be honest here, this is one of the most stereotypical cliche Animes I have ever watched. ... To me, this anime is just another Harem Slice of life Cliche Moe Anime. What the Anime to me is about a guy trying to protect girls "purity" from his perverted club members, however takes erotic pictures of the girls he's "protecting". Not to mention he sexually harasses the girls (Or atleast I think he does) by touching their boobies, taking photos without first asking, and blackmailing the student president for what he wants, but I guess it's okay since THE GIRLS DO NOTHING ABOUT IT. And since it's just another Slice of life Harem, you'd think there is comedy, BUT NO! There is none at all! Maybe if comedy was constantly having the main character sexually assaulting "by accident" and taking erotic photos of the girls. Really though, this anime is nothing but fan service to me.

There is one character in this Anime that is pretty interesting, however, her story is ALSO CLICHE ( in my opinion). She wants to be another girl. I might change my mind on her and this anime later in the series, but for now, i'm completely dissapointed. And after watching 10 minutes of episode 5, Kazuya was put into an sad mood from some stupid rumor and a guy asking out the girl he likes (Nimii-san), he thinks he's not "worthy" enough to be with her. I can't do this, I dropped this.

This anime is one of the worst i've ever seen and i didn't just watch one episode. I watched eight, yes i wasted a good couple of hours sitting and wasting my time on this. Ok, its based on a game and to be fair, when you're watching it, it feels as if you were playing a videogame. But if i wanted to play i videogame i would have bought the videogame.
Now, lets start by saying that the music in this show is the most intrusive music ever, you cant focus on the utterly pathetic dialogue and almost non existent but most certainly dreadful plot ... because there is this arrythmic clown-like music playing at a volume and speed that will probably annoy you to the point where you just want to stop watching the show.
The dialogue...oh, the dialogue. I just cant imagine this crap bien written by anything else than a undeveloped monkey that is high on acid, forced to write.
So, i wont say much more, but this is just my opinion and i dont want to make it too long so yeah. This show is just. Bad

Well, it's been a while since I wrote a review on MAL, but since I've got nothing to do now, I thought I'd do one.

Now, this is gonna be a fun one to write. Photokano has been on my radar for quite some time now for several reasons: 1) It's by Madhouse, 2) but it's got a pretty mediocre score, and of course 3) just because it's got Ecchi as a genre. Well, what can I say? I am a guy after all and I ain't gonna miss out on some 'nice' shots that I may come across. And speaking of nice shots, it really ... fits the topic of this review because Photokano actually is about a guy who got a camera passed down from his father.

First, let's get it out there regarding the best thing about this anime. Being a product of Madhouse, I am happy to say that this anime has got some fantastic shots. The animation technique commonly used by slowly panning the camera around the girls make for some beautiful and undeniably sexy collections. Not to mention, it is a good thing Madhouse did not slack on the art quality. Added detail definitely puts this anime ahead on the ecchi ranks. There should be more than enough reason for me to consider this a decent guilty pleasure anime. Unfortunately, almost everything else about this anime just ruins that potential.

Have you heard of an anime called Amagami SS? Basically, it is an anime that follows a guy named Juunichi and he falls in love with 6 different girls. How does that work? The anime is separated into 6 different arcs spanning 24 episodes with each arc focusing on 1 of the 6 girls, showcasing alternate possibilities for Juunichi's romance. In essence, it was the perfect solution to adapting a visual novel with all the different routes being shown in anime form. Now, take that concept of Amagami SS, increase the number of girls from 6 to 8, and half the number of episodes, and you get Photokano. Do you see the problem here?

The first 4 episodes were basically an introduction to the setting of the anime. This phase was alright because it does give us a general understanding of each character. We are also introduced to the main character Kazuya. His introduction was as bland as it gets. We know very little about him, his ambitions and such, and his personality is just contradictory the more the anime goes on. He gets dragged into The Photography Club, which is interesting in its own way because of its members. And while the club does create some highlight moments, their significance in the anime seemed kinda lacking. And with the exception of Haruka, every other girl gets literally just 1 episode in the spotlight. And from this point on, just get ready for some random ramblings as I recollect my thoughts about each arc.

If we're talking about rushing, Photokano has got that covered. What's even more painful is that we have to go through that process 8 freaking times. An extra episode for Haruka's arc didn't help much because of another problem: This anime is awful at handling drama. This was particularly evident in Haruka's and Nonoka's arcs. With so little time to set up these personal conflicts, the drama just comes off as out of place and sometimes even laughable. That brings about another atrocity: Character Overreactions. While this is most evident during dramatic moments, the biggest crime involves Aki Muroto. If this is the best the anime can depict her as being STRICT, then this anime has failed tremendously. I've seen many strict student council presidents in anime, and Muroto would be considered tame amongst many. In fact, she had every freaking right to lecture the accused because of clear solid evidence. And the way she was treated by Kazuya makes me want to smack this jerk in the head. By the way, what I meant earlier about Kazuya's personality being contradictory can be summed up as 'The closer the girl is to Kazuya, the less aggressive he is'. It makes absolutely no sense that Kazuya would be a dense idiot towards his childhood friends but somehow being so persistent with someone as hard to get as Hikari Sanehara. Though I will say that the best backstory was in Sanehara's arc. If only that quality was prevalent in the other arcs. And while my personal favourite arc was Tomoe Misumi's arc, it was still bogged down because this anime is just too damn short for its own good. To be perfectly honest, there is very little variation between arcs. And because of that, it's not surprising that the anime felt unnecessarily repetitive and boring after a while. While it is nice to see a happy ending for every girl, there really isn't much point if every one of these arcs just feels so empty and hollow.

And then the icing on the cake, the fact that they pulled out that trope between the relationship of the two individuals in Episode 13. Seriously, is this a common occurrence in Japan or just a fantasy that every Japanese individual have? I have seen it pop out in so many anime and I am honestly getting sick of it at this point. By the way, I'm referring to how the characters are related, not what they decided to do.

I guess I was less surprised once I found out the director and series composer of this anime would later direct Cutie Honey Universe, which I have dropped after 3 episodes. Photokano is an anime that had all the elements to be a decent romance series but everything about it just screams BAD DECISIONS. If you seriously don't mind the story at all, then by all means go ahead and check this out because Madhouse did great work with the fanservice. But honestly, I would not recommend this anime even for that because you can't very well ignore its attempt of creating romances, which it takes seriously but by no means competently. If anything, I would rather you check out Amagami SS which I have mentioned because it still has some nice fanservice moments but its character arcs are heaps more developed than this.

Seriously, there are two ways this anime could have been improved:
1) INCREASE THE NUMBER OF EPISODES
2) DECREASE THE NUMBER OF LOVE INTERESTS

What can I say, in the beginning I was enjoying this show, a lot.

It had some interesting romance going on. Up to the breaking point I would give this anime an 8.

What breaking point? After the episode 6 ends, we get some of the other finals that you could have chosen in the game.

Sincerly, if you are going to adapt a visual novel, just stick to one time line, adapting all cliché time lines does not bring any satisfaction, at least it didn't do it for me.

I felt so let down, when I was watching, first I got really confused because things started to make ... no sense but finally understood that from the episode 6 forward it's only the other ends.

I think this strat of doing "the best final choices" to please everyone ended up being the reason this anime got this score. Could have been an 8, but had to please everyone, not take any risks