Maburaho

Hmmm, as I sit down to write this review, I notice that a lot of other viewers say that this anime is un-original, simple, and all together a decent but under achieving anime. I don't see it that way however, for I think Maburaho embodies exactly what a harem - ecchi anime should be. Now as far as harem animes go, you have over a million and one to choose from, but I think that Maburaho is the one that perfected the formula, the one that got everything just right.

Now, people will complain that the story is simple and rather un-original, but what did you ... expect. When I watch a harem anime, I expect pure unbridled comedy, not some deep fulfilling story, it'd be like going into a Home Depot and expecting to find a sales associate, it just isn't there!! Anyways... the plot is simple but effective, a boy happens to inherit the genes of some of the strongest wizards in the world, and while he is rather pathetic in that he can only cast 7 spells in his life time, he will apparently give birth to the potentially strongest wizard ever. As such, 3 daughters from 3 prestigious families decide that the best thing to do would be to bear his child. Now... if you can't read that and at least get a little bit of a chuckle (even if it is while you roll your eyes at the sheer stupidity of it), then there is something seriously wrong with you. Its simple, but exactly what the situation calls for and fits the harem perspective perfectly.

The characters are also in play, and also work well for the story. Kazuki, our hero, is the epitome of harem leads, in that hes pathetic, stupid, but extremely nice. Its not all bad for him though, as he actually has some deus ex machina powers at his disposal. You see, while he can only cast a spell 7 times, the spells happen to be freaking powerful, and if he willed it, he could destroy the earth 7 times over. But nobody cares, because you watch a Harem anime for the girls, and thus we have Rin, Yuuna, and Kuriko. All somewhat cliched but still powerful characters in their own right, Yuuna (the main) is the only one who is originally in love with Kazuki, and is nice and cutesy, but has a strong jealous side to her. Kuriko's next, and shes the sex appeal girl, with the perfect figure, who at first just wants to get in Kazuki's pants to have his baby, but later figures out she actually kinda likes him... and still wants his baby. Finally, Rin, the sword wielding angry girl, who's absolutely terrible at being a woman, and tries her best to appeal to Kazuki without ripping off his face. Each character slowly but surely will grow on you, and have some of the funniest moments in anime history. And as far as harems go... they actually have some pretty decent growth to them. Most've the growth is just accepting that they love him, but still its not bad.

Finally I'm gonna add a end note here before I rap this thing up and say that humor is the main reason to watch maburaho. People seem to find the boring plot a turn off for this series, but really, if thats what turns you off the series, then your watching it wrong! You don't watch Death Note for the humor, you watch it for the epic mystry, the battle between L and Kira as the best each other at ever corner. You don't watch Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann for the girls (well maybe you do... but you shouldn't), you watch it to get hyped up at how great it is to be a man with manly things to do! So the whole reason you should be watching Maburaho, is so that you can enjoy a fabulous cavalcade of humor. In fact, ill go as far as to say that Maburaho, while not being the funniest anime ever, has the funniest episode of an anime ever. And that is episode 18. Many people will argue with me on that but no other has ever made me laugh so hard.

As a harem, I will always consider Maburaho to be one of the, if not THE, best there is. I'll recommend this series for all its worth, and say at least give it a chance to surprise you.

Maburaho,

Story:
The story, it's good, mostly like your regular harem but has a type of hidden charm that you just can't put your finger on.

Art:
Art is good, nothing outstanding like Madhouse or Bones production, but who cares? It is good animation for the type of genre it is. You wouldn't want to see Death Note drawn like Maburaho and Maburaho like Death Note would you? It would completely ruin the atmosphere.

Sound:
The soundtrack is good, nothing outstanding but short of great. Character voices are good as usual, fits the characters perfect.
...
Character:
What can I say, I'm a sucker for a person with hidden powers, and when the time comes completely owns. The main character is great, another loser with hidden powers is always a plus. All the girls are like any other harem anime, all different personality's, oh look... There's another girl with a sword...

Why did I like this anime?
The story wasn't great, but the feeling and the characters themselves make up for it. It is a good breather type anime between series. Hidden power guys surrounded by beautiful girls has it's charms. Anyways this anime gives off a good feeling and that makes up for all it's cons. Why all the characters in the op song but not in the anime? Because the production crew only wanted to focus on the relationship between the main character and all the girls, if you want more substance go read the manga.

Thank God it wasn’t longer than 24 episodes. It was just bad. I don’t even know why it was in AnimeNfo’s top 194.

The story had its highs and lows. Its highs were average, and its lows were really bad – catch my drift? Most of the time it was almost unbearable to watch, and there were episodes that almost got me (Just the ones with Rin and Yamase in it) but still came up short. In a word, disappointing. It was bad execution all over again – the concept was almost acceptable, but the concept was disappeared along the series to who knows where ... (Specially during the second half of the show). The realm of bad execution, maybe. It ended up to be a set of really shallow topics. Speaking of end, that was a really bad last episode. It was surprising, sure. No one expected it would end up that way, but the last episode made you go “What the f*ck was that? Where did you get that idea?”

Huge cast of characters? Yeah right. Most of the characters that were shown in the opening theme, roughly 80-85%, didn’t even have a speaking role. They had distinct looks, but I never got their name. What was the name of the girl with the glasses, or the guy wearing the Simon Cowell tank top who was flexing? No one will ever know. If the characters didn’t speak, they were either useless (like that manager/caretaker person looking all goth-like) or irritating – specially Yuuna, who did nothing but be jealous and stupid. That Nakamaru guy was equally irritating. He was just insecure and jealous – of Kazuki, a loser with an irritating voice (By the way, I wanna take note of the bad voice acting. It’s just bad, and nothing more can be said about it.) and is just as insecure of himself.

The drawing style was good, but something is wrong with it. Can’t point out what exactly, but I think there was nothing exciting or new about it. I did notice that the characters heads were bigger than their bodies. Although this is acceptable in anime, I prefer it that the anime characters I watch have proportions that are at least a little close to reality. Everything was just blown out of proportion, specially Kuriko’s boobs.

Music was ok, but still sub par. Most of the time, I found myself recognizing similarities of Maburaho’s music with other series, or other songs in general. For example, the opening song sounds a lot like the third opening of Yakitate!! Japan – in fact, my brother noticed this too. Then there was this BGM that sounded a lot like lady marmalade. It was used more in the second half of the series, usually in the scenes with Kuriko in it.

And now for the part that I hated the most – the fan service. It was just too all out – literally, thanks to Kuriko and the other girls unnecessary showing of skin. Maybe I didn’t like it too much because I’m a girl, but really. Are guys willing to overlook the lack of substance to the stories just so they can ogle at genitals – lacking bodies? Men..

I can’t believe J.C. Staff is responsible for something like this. I’ll give them an A for effort though, since on the surface, it does look like it’s nice. Beneath the surface, definitely a different story – literally.

Well after reading the above info on this title, you probably have a good idea as to what this series is about. Yep, its an"ecchi harem anime". It stays basic, but is still enjoyable.

Story: 6/10
Well there really isn’t an actual plot going on per-say, it simply revolves around this boy named Kazuki, who has magic that is far beyond anyone else’s. (yeah, its a place where everyone knows magic) Only problem is--he can only use it a limited amount of times. (8 to be precise) So upon hearing this, three female students hear about this and decide to make him their lover, for the sol ... reason of having his genes. Well technically not all of them, but a majority of them do. A girl named Yuna however, is the exception. It turns out the this young man made a promise to a female friend of his at a young age, and guess who that little girl is? Hehehe, yup its Yuna. Now I know at this point your probably saying to yourself: Wow, I have seen this before a million times! And in all honesty you would be correct, Maburaho is nothing new at all to the whole "harem" franchise. As the whole story is really not going anywhere with a particular goal in mind, its simply set to see which one of the girls will walk away as Kazuki’s wife. Surprisingly though there are a few plot surprises that take place, as well as new characters that are introduced past the half way point. One thing I found odd though, is that they show a ton of characters at the opening of the anime, yet you never even get to know 75% of them. Heck some are there for only an episode or two. But since this is in fact a echhi harem title, you aren’t technically watching this for any kind involving story. The ending to this is pretty good--though a bit on the weird side. I won’t say what it is so as not to spoil it, but it just seemed a bit odd to me. Still, given the act that many anime titles out there NEVER really conclude, its nice to have one that at least tried. My only other gripe with the storyline was, it tended to drag on a bit towards the end.

Artwork: 7/10
Maburaho is a pretty darn colorful title, it has some nice character design, even if it is a wee bit basic as far as style goes. The backgrounds though (especially in the foliage areas) seemed to be a bit bland and not very well detailed as the characters. The girls cast magic spells that can be pretty fund to look at. But Maburaho’s greatest asset in this area is its colorful artwork!

Soundtrack: 6/10
The opening to this anime is so fun to listen to that I downloaded it for my ipod, the ending is also nice, its much more suttle than the high pitched opening, but does add good variety to the mix. I watched both the sub and dub to this, and must say that the dub is awesome, I think ADV really went out to find the appropriate voice actor. With the exception of Kazuki, his voice sounded a bit to old for his character. Either form is pleasant to watch it in.

Characters: 8/10
The characters were probably the best part of the anime, while some came off more as a cliche depending on your view point. I couldn’t find one that I didn’t like. I especially loved Yuna, she was so sweet and caring--yet definitely had a jealous streak as well! Nobody as comes off as annoying and just seem to mix well with the title. Plus their personalities are quite varied, so you never have to worry about seeing a character’s persona that is recycled.

Bottom Line: 7/10
Had Maburaho actually done something different with its "harem" formula, I probably would have given it a higher score, as it did tend to start dragging on near the end. Perhaps if this anime would have only been half as long, would it have been more memorable. Still, Maburaho is a good choice if you like harem titles, just so long as you keep in mind that its formula stays pretty basic throughout. Yet still remains fun to watch regardless.

Ok, ok, so now I've just completed watching this classic (since it was released in 2003), time for me to make my review, take note that I'm yet to read its manga, so my review is only for this anime. So, let's get down to business:

Story- fair 6.

Ok, so this is your typical comedy, set in the school, with magic and a ghost, but this anime is focus on the harem and its comedy revolves around it. However this is one harem that can be considered as a "TRUE HAREM," because unlike other harem this one has all parties having feelings for the muchacho (male ... lead) and the muchacho also has feelings for his harem as well, but there is still the typical “who should I pick” thing that any harem genre has. Another thing about it is that the muchacho (male lead) was able to provide a compromise (sort of) for his chiquitas (female leads) in the end so that none of them (chiquitas) would have any hard feelings for him……..sort of. So, what’s with the rating? Ok, since the comedy thing is only focus on the harem, it is most the funnies part of this anime, the rest of the funny stuff……well not much, though the ecchi part is what makes up for the most common funny part.


Art- Mediocre 5.

Not much for me to say since, it is not unusual that there is some familiarity with the same art as I found in other animes. However, I don’t see the illustrator giving Yuna a broom stick or having angel wings when she’s levitating in mid air except in the openings, and same goes for the rest of the cast who were also flying.

Sound-Mediocre 5.

Nothing much here for me to comment. But I do like the opening theme.

Characters – Good 7.

Well, the role that the characters played really does match up and I feel like wanting to mentioned it:

Yuna Miyama – They way she was drawn really match up as a fateful housewife material for the muchacho (Kazuki Shikimori), I like the way in which she takes possession of her so called husband (Kazuki) and protect him not only from her competition but from himself as well (I’m referring to the muchacho). Also, I kind like that she’s portrayed as someone with matching beauty, brains and devotion to family, but she also has a side which one should be aware that she’s not to be trifle with, especially when it involves her so called husband Kazuki.

Katzetsubaki Kuriko – This girl has it all, beauty, wits, wealth, influence and born into a family of privilege, at first one might think that she’s the antagonist in this anime, but as this anime goes on, one would find out that she not really a bad girl after all, but she’s still a tease and she’s still after the muchacho’s genes and wouldn’t hesitate to pop the muchacho’s cherries anytime provided that Yuna’s Kazuki Radar won’t get in her way of being alone with the muchacho.

Rin Kamishiro – As mentioned in MAL’s info, she brought up in an uptight clan tradition were it disgust her, initially she doesn’t want anything to do with the muchacho, but as orders from her clan she has no choice but to comply, actually killing the muchacho is what she sees as her way out. But as usual in a harem genre, she a tsundere who later on warms up to the muchacho and even competes with everyone else for his affection.

Yamase Chihaya – Well, we all know as to what happens to a childhood friends, they get push on the sides, in fact I like that way which she was introduced and the timing she appears in this anime, then again, if not then there’s gonna be a 4 way with the muchacho instead of just a 3 way.

As for the rest: I just feel like adding them.

Sayumi Morisaki, Kazumi Matsuda and class 2B gang boss Yukihiko Nakamaru are just merely additives that makes up for the comic part of this anime.

Also:

Kaori Iba and Dr. Akai Haruaki, well I guess we can say that they are friends with benefits.

There are also the 2 MILF’s, Shino Akai who also desires to have Kazuki and the dorm manager Karei Hirosaki who does some subtle flirting with the mucahcho.


Enjoyment and Overall- Good 7.

Well, I guess I’ll just simplify it by saying that this anime, though maybe a bit lame is generally all good.

I can sum everything up in but a few words -

Why did you not just end this at twelve episodes J.C. Staff?

The story was partially decent leading up to the first arc if you want to call it such; then comes episode thirteen onwards... just a highway disaster.

It would have been a rather touching anime worth at least a 6 or 7 overall if they had left it to end at the mid point.
Kazuki went out of his way to gain some manly points with how carefree he sacrificed his limited amount of magical usage on the 4 girls he cared for and loved.

Time for ... he characters themselves with Kazuki proving to be, at the start of the series, the kind of male protagonist that is a stable point for any harem anime. Kind, dense and easily agitated by situations which might not be to his liking.
Moving onto the female cast relies purely on how you prefer your stereotypes; all I can state here.

There is nothing to say about the audio as nothing much appealed to me here or even left me with a, "Oh, this is unique?" feeling at all.

The series itself with the conclusion of the 24th episode earns it:
3/10.

Kazuki Shikimori lives in a a world where everyone can use magic. Not everyone’s magic is equal. Everyone has a set number of times that he or she can use their magic. Most normal people can to use magic around hundred times or so, while others can use their magic several thousand times. A person's social status is determined by how many times you are able to use magic. If however you use up all your magic, your body turns to ash and is scattered in the wind. Kazuki however is different from most because his magic count is less than 10. Then one day ... three girls Kuriko Kazetsubaki, Yuna Miyama, and Rin Kamishiro show up all wanting one thing...his genes. Although he himself has very little magic it is believed that his genes will one produce the greatest magic user of all time. Though they all want his genes only Yuna proclaims to be his wife after a childhood promise of marriage.

Story & Characters (8/10)
Okay, I have to start off by saying that although I'm giving the story an 8 only, I still think that it's an extremely well done and fleshed out storyline, considering that they only had such a limited number of episodes to work with. The fact that this isn't just your typical harem anime is quite nice. And the use of magic is what adds a touch of spice to the overall story. Things start off a little slow, with Kazuki needing some time to warm up to the girls presence (ha, wouldn't we all?) but then just as things are getting a little repetitive the show turns out a twist at the end of episode 12 that gives the series a fresh plot to contend with in a lot of ways. Most of the relationships, like the 3 main girls to both each other and Kazuki are fleshed out rather well, but some things that I thought would be explored further weren't and those incidents left me really wanting something more. For example in episode 4 the question of just who summoned the behemoth's is never answered, they were just used as a plot point to allow Kuriko to start to realize that Kazuki might just be worth something more than his genes after all. The same thing happens with the magic virus in episode 11, which I really would have liked to see more elaboration on. As well as the back story that the groundskeeper and Akai's sister. Of course while it would have been nice to see those potential sub-plots delved into a little more throughly, but with only 24 episodes I still think they did quite a good job of making the fullest of what they wanted to.

Art (9/10)
In my opinion it is both here and in the sound department that Maburaho really shines through. From the get go the artistic style and character animation fit the genre to a tee, and the happy go lucky sense that the series is going for is really boosted by the colourful, charming artwork that is abundant in the world of Maburaho. The magic use, while not the main point often, is still particularly well done. I especially like the touch of each of the main characters having there own style of magical flavour. Kazuki is often snow-related it seems (at least in some cases). Yuuna always has those little sprites helping her out, Kuriko always uses charms (man is that open for a pun of what?) and Rin mostly channels magic through her trusty sword. It is touches like these that help bring up the art level to what has to be one of the best in the genre, if not the best. If I had to have one complaint it would be that sometimes the backgrounds can be a little bland, but the background should never overpower the characters or action, so that can be easily forgiven. Everything else is top notch!

Sound (10/10)
The sound is yet another high quality work that Maburaho has to offer. From the cheerful and spunky opening, to the various chimes and jingles that accompany the magic effects and facial expressions of the characters, to the way Kazuki often sounds like a chicken when surprised, trust me he tends to squak a lot in oddly intimate situations..., the sound is done masterfully and is never too overpowering or underwhelming. The voice work is especially well done, with all the girls voices fitting their personalities to a tee, and the supporting case is done just as well, from the sleepy headed Iba-Sensai, to the somewhat melancholy Akai, to the always upbeat groundskeeper, all the voices add depth and style to the characters that they accompany. There might not be much else to say, because in my opinion it's all so well done. Even the voices of some of the summoned beasts fit nicely into the motif, although granted they don't show up too often, still it is the little touches that really help a series like this, and Maburaho hits all of them right on the mark.

Overall (9/10)
The presentation of Maburaho is an extremely well put together, solid work that is a great addition to the harem anime genre. From the artwork, to the music, to the overall plot, everything comes together in a way that few animes can bring it to bare. Also the fact that the characters grow on you, despite being a little on the stereotypical side, is a great testament to the enjoyability of the series. By the end most everyone has a favourite girl, whether it be the spunky Yuuna, the voluptous and over the top Kuriko, the quiet and conserved Rin, or the girl next door Yamase who shows up from time to time. Also, Kazuki uses the average guy who's quietly amazing design very well. Other good touches include such things as Yuuna getting more jealous after the events of episode 12 despite Kazuki's condition, because she realizes that the other girls are actually warming up to Kazuki and aren't just looking for his genes anymore. These sorts of things are what make the series fun to watch, and entertaining for more than one viewing. The last point is that the show doesn't ever get to bogged down or full of itself not to enjoy, the viewer always knows what's going on, and even through the twists they can easily keep pace and continue to enjoy the anime in every regard. I myself have watched the series 4 times in total, and will probably watch it more in the future. It's the kind of happy go lucky anime that can be just the thing after a hard days work. So I would recommend this anime to anyone in my book.

Well, thanks for taking the time to read this review, I hope it was okay. But as long as it was helpful than that's good enough for me. Peace!

Meh..Just another typical Harem with a wimpy kid that gets 3 (or 4 depending on how you wanna look at it)girls chasing after him but he is too gay to go for any of them+Magic.

Story 3/10

Craaaap.
Ok i admit at the beggining i was kind of interested,but then halfway through the series it just went downhill.
The story begins with as earlier stated this wimpy kid named kazuki
who can only use magic 8 times,he surpasses 8 he dies.

Well turns out his kid is gonna be the most powerful magicien in the world or some shit like that,and out of the blue 3 girls (at the same ... time of course >_>)just come outta no were and try to make him theyre wife ..Well not exactly Yuna tries to show that she really wants to be his wife too bad she is so annoying you want to crucify her through your tv/computer screen,kuriko wants too to have the baby and ditch him,and rin would rather kill him then anything else,but of course this changes and they all develop feelings for him...wooow i never saw that coming. *sarcasim*

Like i stated earlier no matter how horrible the story is its watchable till halway through the series at the point i really wanted to drop the series
but kept watching it since i never dropped a series once and didnt ever want to do it,but oh god was that a mistake.

Art 7/10
The art is...pretty good.Nothing amazing but it's not one of its bad points.

Sound 8/10
I liked the soundtrack and the character songs (yes there are character songs)
The opening and ending were espeacially Addictive.One of its strong points for sure.

characters 4/10

Oh god...were to start.
Ok...to me there were only 3 likeable characters:
Kuriko,Rin and kazuki's childhood friend.

The rest to me served little to no purpose,and yuna?Yuna is the most annoying anime character i have ever seen.All she does is bitch and whine about how kazuki is her husband even though he is a pure fag.

Overall 4/10

If you are looking for a deep story and characters don't look here.
If you are looking for a ecchi anime,well..what can i say you might be disapointed.

Do yourself a favour and skip on this anime all its going to do for you is put Yuna in your top 10 most hated anime characters.

Oh, harem, harem. You're so indecisive.

I start it off like this because if you're looking for a harem that goes against the grain and has a distinct, "I choose [insert girl's name here]," you'll be sadly disappointed with this anime. It sticks to the generic harem formula, deviating here and there, but ultimately, it comes out the same product.

Story: 7
For me, harems' storylines must be alike and different. This one was an average mix of those two. It pleased me, but didn't wow me. I enjoyed the story much more than I thought it would, and I have to say, Yuna's over the top ... reactions to anything involving Kazuki and any of the other girls later in the story was pretty funny.
Read more about the story if you're interested in it. But, I will say this: the genes premise is a good way to start it off and I'll think most of you who decide to watch this series will be happy when it begins to take a backseat to the girls' feelings.

Art: 6
Made a little while ago, so don't expect anything mind-blowing.

Sound: 8
I really liked the voice acting in this one. Kudos to the voice actor of Yuna.

Character: 8
Typical well-developed characters for this sort of anime. I mean, us, the audience can't make shipping pairings if we don't know about the characters' emotions or feelings. I could have easily understood our hero's choice with any of the girls.
But, this score is not any higher because the characters really don't get passed the first stage. The way you view their actions in the first few episodes will ultimately give away how they act in episode 24. There's hardly a change.

Enjoyment: 7
Frustrating, but what can you expect, it's a harem.

Overall: 7
Try it out, if you don't like the first few episodes, I can almost guarantee it that you won't like the next 20+.
It's meant for a true-blooded harem fan, nothing more. A few explosions and things thrown in to jog your conscience, but that's about it.
I liked it, though. I just wish that more harem animes would follow Shuffle!'s example about ACTUALLY PICKING A GIRL.

Story:
When I first started maburaho some odd years ago, I was very intrigued by what the previews showed. Simply, in a world where people can cast spells a certain number of times, Kazuki Shikimori, has a very low count a considers himself worthless. This is until he becomes the target of an unwanted harem when it is revealed to his class, that he has some impressive magical genes. Going in, you get what you asked for. A harem series set in a magical world. At the time, I didn't expect much but now that I had some time to think, I realized a lot of ... potential was lost in the making of this series. First of all, the magical world; I believe this is the first time (outside of games with mp) where I've seen magic being in a set number. It wasn't much, but it would have been interesting to see them go into depth about it. Secondly, there's a few character stories that could have been used to show the political side of the world. We will get to that later.

Art:
Of the things that haven't changed about my opinion of maburaho, the art is one of them. It is nothing special. It does not stand out as breath taking, but it's easy to look at.

Sound:
The same can be said about the sound. Maburaho's opening theme for one was very enjoyable when I first heard it. So was the slight musical notes played when one of the female characters appeared. A different tune for the three girls of choice. It's not an original touch but an enjoyable one nonetheless.

Character:
Now to get back to the bad. Maburaho is a harem series with opening video that just doesn't belong. Even during my original viewing of the should, I stared in awe at the reel of characters shown and wondered how they'd be integrated into the story. This left me solely disappointed because they were more background noise than anything. Out of the twenty something characters you see, less than ten of them play major roles. As for the main cast, thinking back, I feel that some of the stories shouldn't have been played for romance. While the love developing wasn't bad, Kuriko's business associated story had some grand attention, and would have worked perfectly as a sort of battle arc. Rin's story, while not getting as much attention as Kuriko, could have worked epically in a drama sort of sense. This is a harem though, and while there are battles in this one, they aren't as great as the aforementioned ones could be, and comedy is valued more than drama.

Enjoyment:
I gave it an eight because I enjoyed it for what it was. Maburaho was a harem and going in understanding that, you will not be disappointed. Of the anime genres, harem is one of the more generic ones, but maburaho slightly averts this by implementing it's magical elements.

Overall:
Despite my altered opinion of the series, Maburaho is what it is. If you don't think much about the perfectly good plot that was wasted, you will likely enjoy this series.

People may look at my score and say that its outrageous, but i feel as if it was more of the spur of the moment score. This anime was pretty dope. It was incredibly entertaining and just loads of fun. Its as simple as that.

This is one of those rare little gems that made me laugh a lot. There's a lot of ecchi, but personally im okay with that. I mean theres a guy surrounded by a bunch of different girls, so what do you expect? Im not a pervert or anything, but if i was in his situation ... this anime would probably have played out the same or a little more to my liking ;).

The story is pretty good and is interesting and keeps you occupied, but i loved this for the laughs. You have your typical pussy of guy as your male lead and some hella hot babes that are outgoing and want his "genes" and will do anything for them. Also did i mention that there was magic and i dont mean the bed room kind, but theres a lot of that too.

If you dont like a little ecchi and that description that i just got, then you shouldn't watch this, but your going to be missing out on some laughs and a really enjoyable anime.

~ Review ~

Anime Information
Anime Production : J.C.Staff
Director: Shinichiro Kimura
Episodes: 24 episodes
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Ecchi, Magic, Romance, School, Harem
Duration: 24 min. per episode
Original Run: October 14, 2003 - April 6, 2004

... Synopsis:
Kazuki Shikimori is a 17 years old student who attends Aoi Academy, a prestigious school for elite magician. In this world full of magic, each magician has a set limit of spells, and performing more spells than the limit allows will cause the user to turn into dust. Thus normally for many people, their set limit of spells are about around hundreds or thousands but for Kazuki Shikimori, he's got to be the unluckiest guys around. In this case, the number of magic Kazuki can use is far below the average in his school. Then one day, a huge twist of fate come. all of a sudden, three girls: Yuuna Miyama, Kuriko Kazetsubaki and Rin Kamishiro, appear before him. But of all the things that they are after, it is his genes. Why? And for Kazuki, the girls’ appearances may also spell his doom, as he soon realizes that his magic count is decreasing ever steadily due to the fact that he can’t resist using magic to help them. Is it really doom for Kazuki or maybe not?

Storyline: [8/10]
This is quite a straight forward anime from first episode to middle episode. Well I like an anime with suitable and considerable amount of plot, not always into the main plot but also not many diversion plot from the main plot. I will only touch a sneakpeak of the synopsis but, from the first episode, you will find out about the world and what the story main theme is. It is world of magic thus doing something with magic is regular to use. This a world with a ton of possibilities can be happen.
Interesting point is about Kazuki Shikimori's very, very, very low set of spells. Wonder if you became one-of-a-kind person with a limited use of magic spells and you surrounded by many people who can use many magic spells? How do use your limited magic in your life? How do you run your life knowing that your usage of your limited set of magic is as same as decreasing your lifespan?
I personally think this is one of my favorite anime because it has a good storyline, great drama and strong main plot and. Not many anime have a great storyline, great drama and strong main plot especially ecchi and harem type. You will get that feeling if you watch through all episodes.
As I stated before this is a world of magic where a ton of possibilities can be happen. Frankly this is a world full of miracle. This anime have great main theme and many room to expand and develop into many season.

Art: [7/10]
Each female character from main character through supporting character have their own characteristic and trademark that makes them become so alluring and eye-catchy. Yuuna with pink hair, Kuriko with blonde hair and huge boobs, Rin with purple hair with a unique miko dress and always carry a sword, and Yamase with brown chocolate hair.

Despite all of that, for me this anime didn't give much unique characteristic for male character and focusing only to female character. Supporting character didn't leave a strong impression for my eyes but then again, they have a cute and funny facial expression which can make me laugh and that is a good one.

For an anime who release in 2003, this is a good art anime in his time.

Sound: [8/10]
This anime have a good OST and BGM. I find it fit with certain situation in anime. OP and ED in great and can capture the meaning of this anime.

Character: [9/10]
This anime director gives each character a unique personality for main character even down to supporting character which is a great plus for this anime. Kazuki with happy-go-lucky, pure and kind personality, Yuuna with cheerful and jealousy attitude toward Kazuki, Kuriko with mature and motherly sense personality and Rin with sincere personality and a slight of tsundere type.

Enjoyment: [7/10]
I will be straight about it the main enjoyment about this series is for those who are lovers of harem/ecchi and drama themed anime. The plot for this is rather interesting especially as the story progresses further in to the series. Seeing the various magic and drama behind of it. It have this kind of memorable and tear-jerking drama scene which is make this anime great.

For me, this anime successfully delivering the meaning and feeling contained in it. I won't deny there is fan service but then again for a series which is a harem/ecchi themed it is to be expected.

[B]Overall: [8/10][/B]
The main aspect overall for a series such as this although it consists of mild ecchi content the story line itself was developed rather well especially when comparing it to other harem/ecchi series. What's more is that this series is has quite the interesting character development even though its generic in the type of main character most people would expect for an anime series such as this the point is when comparing how he undergo's his personality and his life. Through half episode story began to develop into climax. After that, half of the rest episode is somehow cooling down and began to develop as anti-climax but still enjoy to watch. Nevertheless the drama in this anime is great.

[B]Personal message and opinion:[/B]
This is a good anime with a great drama, main theme and strong storyline with colorful character. It is one of the first harem/ecchi series anime that I ever got so this anime really gave something in my heart. I still hope that this anime can get their second chance to have a remake and continuing season. After all, they make the ending to show to us that this anime will get another season so I think they (J.C.Staff, I mean) must at least take responsibility for that. I personally wish to all animation production out there (prefer Xebec) to give this anime a second chance to get a remake and continuing season. If it does, I'm surely will watch it again.

For me, this anime successfully delivering the meaning and feeling contained in it. I won't deny there is fan service but then again for a series which is a harem/ecchi themed it is to be expected.

Overall: [9/10]
The main aspect overall for a series such as this although it consists of mild ecchi content the story line itself was developed rather well especially when comparing it to other harem/ecchi series. What's more is that this series is has quite the interesting character development even though its generic in the type of main character most people would expect for an anime series such as this the point is when comparing how he undergo's his personality and his life. Through half episode story began to develop into climax. After that, half of the rest episode is somehow cooling down and began to develop as anti-climax but still enjoy to watch. Nevertheless the drama in this anime is great.

Personal message and opinion:
This is a good anime with a great drama, main theme and strong storyline with colorful character. It is one of the first harem/ecchi series anime that I ever got so this anime really gave something in my heart. I still hope that this anime can get their second chance to have a remake and continuing season. After all, they make the ending to show to us that this anime will get another season so I think they (J.C.Staff, I mean) must at least take responsibility for that. I personally wish to all animation production out there (prefer Xebec) to give this anime a second chance to get a remake and continuing season. If it does, I'm surely will watch it again.

This anime is one of my favorites by far, and I know that anyone who watches this will have some sort of place for it in their hearts.

Story - (9/10)
The story was simply amazing. Shikimori Kazuki, a 17-year-old boy, attends a school for elite magicians. However, due to his physique, test scores, and various other things, girls walk right on past him.

However, out of the blue, he is "attacked" by three beautiful girls: Kuriko, Rin, and Yuuna.

But, they're really only after one thing: his genes (you heard it guys, they wanna *bleep* him =O ).

Aside from making the whole male population at the school jealous ... and angry, Kazuki has to somehow live his normal life without using magic!

If that's so, why do they want his genes?

In the anime, everyone has a certain number of times they can use magic before POOF, they turn into dust!

The numbers are usually in the thousands, tens of thousands, etc.

How many times can Kazuki use magic? 8.

Then... why are those three girls so determined to make a baby with Kazuki? It's because of his lineage. He derives from great and ancient magicians.

While HE may not be super-powerful (...which he is *cough/spoiler*), his child certainly will be, and with high-ranking, industrial families having at it, who DOESN'T want a super-strong heir?

The only reason I docked the story by 1 point was the simple fact that there were a few fillers and a story that was a little drawn-out...

Art - (8/10)
While the art was like that of any other anime, it has a personal touch that I found quite amusing and played pretty-pretty colors with my eyes (no... seriously, near the end... the colors... *drools*).

Sound - (7/10)
The sound was... *sigh* let's face it, like every other anime in terms of the amount of originality (...wait for it... wait for it!~...), which means it didn't have anything NEW, but it didn't fail in terms of the quality in which it was displayed.

Character - (9/10)
The characters were great, I loved Kazuki throughout the entire anime, and there were a few others I was fond of, as well.

But, like any romance anime, the 3 types of girls were almost boring and way too typical: busty ego girl, determined childhood lover/promise made girl, and arrogant and too-tough-to-admit-to-love girl.

The only thing that saved the character development of those three was Kazuki and how he responded to each of them (yes, that means differently than in most animes).

Enjoyment - (10/10)
This series was actually quite a tear-jerker near the middle and end. I fell in love with the anime the moment that the series took a twist towards the... "disappearance" of one character (wonder who? watch the anime!).

Overall, I had to give this anime a 9/10, and if you don't watch it - to put it simply - you're missing out.

If your looking for a show you don't care about the artwork, story, etc, and are looking for a little bit of ecchi/harem.. you will probably still be disappointed.

Ok, we have a story about a boy, who only has 8 spells, after that he will die, and turn to ash. Despite knowing this, of course, guess what he does, uses the spells, dies, and turns to ash. Despite time spent with him still, not a lot is done to fix him, and eventually, they find, that if they put all his ashes together. They can reconstitute him, which of ... course goes wrong for different reasons.

As its harem, they are all after sex with him of course but for his magical genes, and of course, he is a clueless guy, who has no experience with girls with your typical tropes of bf, yandere, tsundere, and that one girl who just would anyway.

To start i hated the characters generally Yuna was overly possessive, declaring she was his wife, she had no real depth to the character except her love for him. The BF is the typical loved you from afar character and takes a turn later on for fear of losing what they once had, the tsundere, of course, is just following family orders really and never shows her real feelings, probably as will never know them herself and the girl always with a bit more adventure in her, just cares for the DNA primarily but gains feelings. None have any real depth, none have anything to be attracted to really, and if his magic is so strong, he could do better.

They hint early on at the whole class could push on the harem element, but then forget by the next episode. Just like they forget Yuna's drop in her spell count, as she continues to use magic without thought, but never dies. Glaring plot hole.

Honestly, 24 episodes were far too long for this as the poor storyline was dragged out and so much filler which often lacked the fan service or ecchi levels many people want from such an anime. The sad fact is it fails as a story, it fails as a harem as he doesn't want to be with any of them except as friends, the show is about 20 years old so the art and music/sound are mediocre and outdated. Character development is non-existent really as the show pushes one coupling more than the others to a point anyone else suffers for being near him leading to an overall product that is boring most of the way through. Even for a harem/Ecchi it was really bad

I did not rate this series so badly because of plot or dreadful character development. I expected all that; I picked this series to watch solely for the mindless fan service and comedy it appears to offer.

There is as much ecchi in this show service as in Naruto. Instead of focusing on girls and ecchi moments, this show leans towards interaction of characters and plot. This would not be so bad if the plot is not paper thin, instead it causes moments to feel stretched, and repetitive. (*cough* Haruhi endless eight)

conclusion

Show is like soft-core porn without the arousal.

The ending to this anime is pretty shocking really. The main guy has three girls around him who really want a shagg yet throughout the whole series he purposely tries not to get close to them in a sexual way he actually runs away if they take a piece of clothing off. This doesn't reflect a person of his age or sex.

The story changes half way through and the protagonist pretty much just wastes away his powers for stupid reasons. there is no real villain, everyone just has some weird obsession with the main guy.

i would only advise someone to watch this ... if they really don't have anything else to watch. A waste of my time and i skipped most episodes most episodes because after briefly skimming the synopsis before hand i could tell the episode was not worth watching.

Dissapointment is all i can say about this anime. I had such high hopes for this anime, until the 12th episode that is. When they killed off the MC and made him into a ghost was when this anime died for me. After that he was basically a side character. Most if not all of the characters in the anime were just awful people being far too greedy in terms of money and lust. The highest i'd rate this anime would be a 4/10 because anything higher than that would just be a lie. The writing this anime had was just horrible and the direction ... it took after episode 12 was just sad. Throughout the anime all i really felt for the MC was just pity. The best girl was supposed to be yamase but she really shot herself in the leg at the end. So i'd go with either Yuna or the blonde. All in all i kinda do regret watching this anime to the end as it didn't really add to the story after episode 12. You could probably skip episodes 13-20 and actually be fine due to most of it being filler like episodes. All in all this was a bad anime, so bad i had to write an essay on how bad it actually was. 4/10.

Cruz Reviews:Maburaho
Maburaho is a romance story of a shy and kind male getting chased by three girls for his genes. This is a great if you like light romantic comedies in anime. I like this "harem" style anime because of the humor. There were little sentimental moments as well shared between the main character Kazuki Shikimori, and main three female characters (Yuna Miyama, Kuriko Kazetsubaki, Rin Kamishiro), so it's not all chasing after a male. The ending was a lil whack for me and seemed a lil rush as if it was made just to end the series, I was hoping for something ... better and more romantic.

This was the first harem/ecchi anime that I've watched so I wasn't to sure of it at first.
I actually found it enjoyable and really funny :D
The main character isn't very popular because he only has 8 times he can use his magic so of course he feels abit worthless, then suddenly 3 girls are after him however some of them only want his genes!! You'll get why when you watch it ;)
The characters will get on your nerves at first but as the anime goes on you start learning alot about them
I love the opeing of the anime I think thats what got me into ... at first lol
Of course there will be the occasional boob bouncing and funny positions but thats what a harem and ecchi is :D
Overall a charming and funny anime to enjoy ;)

I am fine with harem and magic anime. However, this magic anime is not fun to watch at all. It is about a Kazuki who is dumb, too kind and always gets picked on by a lot of people. Yuna declares to them that she is Kazuki's wife and the people all started to attack them and things get rough.

The English dub was horrendous. The women voices in the dub are like annoying. The syncing of the lip movement was horrendous.

The art is ok and the sound is also ok. You know, when I watch anime, I wanted to see good character development but no. ... The characters all argue and moan at each other for nothing. Like acting cool and stuff like that. They just don't have feelings for each other. I just can't believe this is happening. The characters are so god awfully annoying.

And here comes the biggest whiny and crybaby character Chihaya Yamase. She just never do anything in the last episode when Kazuki Shikimori's life is in danger but at least she and Yuna managed to give him a kiss and revived him.

Miyama Yuna is also a crybaby. I just really cannot stand crybabies in anime. They always ruin the show for me.