Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata

Saekano is the most frustrating kind of bad show: the kind which could have been legitimately good if it tried.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hyped for Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata (Saekano for short) at the start of winter 2015. It’s a shiny new adaptation of Fumiaki Maruto’s light novel series – the same Fumiaki Maruto who wrote White Album 2, which got an anime around a year and a half ago. He also wrote Parfait and Sekai de Ichiban NG na Koi – both of which I’ve seen glowing reviews of. Naturally, I’d expect Saekano to be something close to his work ... in eroge.

I probably should’ve listened to the warning signs. Certain Maruto fans on Twitter had already panned the show and the LN for being self-gratifying otaku humor. People who have watched the first two episodes called the show obnoxious for having snarky commentary on its clichés while also indulging in them.

But let’s give credit where it’s due: Saekano isn’t complete trash. I would probably be more forgiving of the show if it were: it’s easier to let go of a show that’s a total failure than a show that flubbed with its great ideas. There are two things that Saekano did well in portraying: the relationship between consumer and creator, and the character of Katou Megumi. Let’s start with the former.

Episode 6 of Saekano is the first episode where I thought the show was being genuine. The episode frames Utaha as the creator and Tomoya the consumer, and the show asks: how far should an author go to in trying to please their readers? And I feel that the show gave a good answer to the question: fans want something that the creator wrote, not something that would go with their expectations. The framing of the scene was even reminiscent of White Album 2: two high school kids throwing their emotions at each other under the snow might be a clichéd scene, but if there’s anyone who can make it work, it’s Fumiaki Maruto.

Episode 9 is another good episode that gave Eriri much-needed characterization past her generic tsundere shtick. This time, the show asks why a creator, well, creates works for fans – for whose sake are they putting out content? Again, the show frames this question with Tomoya as the consumer and Eriri as the creator: does Eriri draw so she can get better for her fans, or does she just draw to satisfy herself and stay where she is? Eriri finds her foot forward when she decides to get better at drawing to win over Tomoya and satisfy her fans. The show doesn’t give a complete answer, but it gave her character a push forward.

Ultimately, I think Saekano’s best point was Katou Megumi’s character: the deadpan non-otaku who joins the group as the “main heroine”. There’s no mistaking that the title’s “boring heroine” refers to Katou: the show keeps referring to her as having “no character” and a “half-assed personality”. On the contrary, her character doesn’t conform to the show’s pre-established archetypes: even though she doesn’t stand out within the show, Katou is perhaps the most memorable character because she’s not a generic archetype. And this is what I think the show was trying to accomplish with Katou: characters should be people, and not just generic archetypes.

Unfortunately that's where the show’s good points stop. The conversation between Eriri and Tomoya from the start of episode 5 exemplifies what exactly makes the show so frustrating:

“But I just want to always be myself.”
“That’s impossible. Everyone has a secret side to them.”
“But… Katou doesn’t, does she?”
“She’s a non-otaku, but even when mixed up with us otaku, she stayed exactly the same as she was, right?”

It's an insightful conversation, only to be cut short by Eriri acting like the stock tsundere archetype. Saekano knows that Katou stands out the most among the characters, and it knows that characters that follow archetypes like Eriri need to have more than their shallow character traits. The show demonstrates a degree of awareness of its clichés – it knows that its characters are generic archetypes, and Katou serves as a direct contrast to them. But that’s where it stops – it’s satisfied at being aware of its clichés, but never does anything to rise up above them. Even worse, the show’s title and all of the show’s characters want Katou to become one of them: a generic character who talks and responds to situations with nothing but stock phrases. It’s hypocritical and obnoxious – in short, it’s a show that gives advice and chooses not to follow it.

But I would’ve been okay with the show if it had stopped there. Instead, Episode 10 onwards indulges in all the trashy tropes that it comments on. Episode 10 throws all subtlety out of the window and pours male gaze all over the show, not to mention indulging in classy humor such as flashing a girl. It’s not even the more sensual kind of fanservice like episode 6’s Utaha scene where she puts on her stockings. It’s the point where the show stops trying and just revels in all the trashy LN tropes we all love and “cleverly” comments on all of them. This show is completely in love with itself and all of the trashy things that it comments on.

The bottom line: if you’re watching this because you heard it was by White Album 2’s author, don’t bother. If you’re watching this expecting a trashy, fanservice-y show, you’re better off watching an actual trashy, fanservice-y show, because shows like those don’t bother pretending that they’re not trashy, fanservice-y crap. Saekano is obnoxious, hypocritical, and pretentious. Avoid it like the big, stinky turd that it is.

(Full review with images here: https://oneofepisodes.wordpress.com/2015/04/17/saekano-how-to-write-a-stinking-pile-of-crap/)

It's kinda difficult to express my dislike for Saakeno, without sounding like a total snob, but I will try. So, here it comes. BEING SELF-AWARE DOES NOT MAKE YOU A GOOD PARODY OR SATIRE.
Yeah, Saekano is one of those. The kind of work that pokes at some over-used trope or cliché and then loudly proclaims "Isn't that totally a cliché, huh, guys?!". Yeah, it is, but so what? Are you going to expand on that? Maybe in some way subvert that trope and bring about something new? You just poke at it. Okay.
And that's the main problem with Saekano. It tries to be a parody ... simply by being self-aware. It keeps saying that characters are "Tsunderes" and "Yanderes" without even trying to expand on them. It keeps saying how given situation is "Totally out of some harem anime" and then proceed to play it out exactly like that. Nothing is expanded upon or subverted, just acknowledged.
And that's the root of the problem. Well, that and the protagonist, who was made by combining all the annoying traits from other romance protagonists. He's oblivious, obnoxious, doesn't have any talents except "HIS FORCE OF WILL!", has only two voice settings (boring and YELLS RIGHT IN YOUR FACE) and for some reason all of "The most popular girls in the school" are hopelessly in love with him.
I'd say the only redeeming quality the show has is Megumi Katou, the "Boring Girlfriend". She is stated to be incredibly boring, bland and generic. And she is. She genuinely is, but precisely because of that she is the most interesting character in the entire show, because she manages to be original in the sea of over-used tropes and generic characters.
For me Saekano is an example of great wasted potential. There were so many instances where I hoped it'd go to a different, more original direction and become something more. I was hoping Kato would get fed up with Aki's obnoxiousness after he forbade her to go out with her cousin, because majority of rational people would draw a line there.. I was hoping Eriri would accept other circle proposition, because it appreciated her talents, unlike Aki. I was hoping it would go deeper with Utaha's backstory to explain why would she fall in love with Aki to such a degree, that she was willing to compromise her career and artistic integrity for his sake. I was hoping it would expand more on girls' relationship with each other, probably even showing that they don't really need Aki to fulfill their own ambitions. But no. That didn't happen and all we got was some self-referential humor and a creepy camera operator who kept focusing on girls' different body parts for no reason during casual conversations.

(Reposting because apparently it fell foul of rules about previews :/ )

How to write a boring parody

Don't you just love it when a show knows it's a show? When characters find themselves in a situation that only occurs in fiction & they know it? How pretty much every new series nominally set in the real world has someone say “This would only happen in manga” or “This isn't anime” at least once? Well I hope you do, because Saekano is basically an entire series made up of such oh so witty observations & self-referential jabs at the genre it is set in. Too bad it ... sucks.

Our main character is one Tomoyo Aki, a super otaku with a popular blog & a reputation for being the nerdiest nerd in nerdom, which apparently is a good thing. Basically he's Keima Katsuragi from The World God Only Knows, except instead of finding himself tasked by a demon to put his otaku skills to use date raping his schoolmates, he instead has the type of only in fiction encounter with a mysterious girl that inspires him to create the greatest dating sim ever made.

There's just one problem with this plan, he can't write. Or draw. Or indeed do anything beyond feel inspired. Luckily for him, he knows the two most popular girls in the school, hot headed Eriri Spencer Sawamura & aloof Kasumigaoka Utaha have secret otaku identities as a mangaka & LN author respectively, & so he sets about convincing them to make his dream game come true. Even better, he soon encounters the mysterious girl whose chance encounter began this whole affair. However, unlike in his fantasy, she turns out to be the utterly unassuming Megumi Kato, & so not only does our MC set out to make the greatest game ever, but also shape the real miss Kato to be more like the heroine he thinks of her as. Cue hijinks.

I'm going to get straight to the point. I do not much care for Saekano. Tomoyo is a generic main character, oblivious to the feelings & emotions of everyone around him & yet feels compelled to do everything he can to, to use the unfortunate parlance of the genre, raise the flags of every girl he comes into contact with. With the exception of Kato, the rest of the cast are similarly cliche. Would you believe that Eriri & Kasumigaoka both have deeply held feelings for Tomoyo? Well no, you wouldn't, because he's an un-likeable brat of a person, & yet they most certainly do. Of course they can't just share those feelings with him (but they certainly can share them with the audience) because then there wouldn't be a show. Ho hum.

Speaking of being a brat, it's quite stunning just what a brat Tomoyo is. As seems to be the way for men in anime, he is incapable of expressing his emotions without shouting. He shouts a lot, usually at other people, usually telling them why what they're doing is wrong. Be it shouting at Megumi for being too boring or shouting at Kasumigaoka for not writing his story for him just the way he wants it, Tomoyo seems incapable of expressing himself any other way but loudly. & when he's not shouting, he's usually smugly proselyting about how great otaku culture is & by implication how great he is for being one. It's like if Madarame from Genshiken was giving his 2D girls speech for an entire series. Of course everyone puts up with it because this is a romance anime & tolerating the main character's foibles & failings, even seeing how they are in fact ultimately correct about everything, is what makes a good girlfriend.

Now because this is apparently satire, one must assume that those parts which appear obviously cliche (ie the whole show) are intentionally so. By that logic, the characters go through the harem routines we've seen their character types go through a hundred times before precisely because it's what they're expected to do.The obnoxious fan service, & it really is at times, is so because
boob & crotch shots are so ubiquitous in this genre that it has to be so over the top just to stand out. Saekano isn't trying to change anything, merely point out how silly it is once you start to notice it, which it certainly does.

Here's my problem with that. For one, I don't think there's a fan among harem viewers who isn't already aware that in every respect the harem story type is stupid & unrealistic. We already know it's dumb, so simply smugly pointing out how dumb it is while not offering any ways to change it for the better makes Saekano the equivalent of at best a comedy fandub & at worst an annoying guy sitting next to you while you try to watch, pointing out all the silly cliches & unrealistic situations but throwing up his hands & saying "don't ask me" when asked what he'd do better.

For another, a lot of the witty observations it makes have already been made, better, by other shows. Genshiken was joking about the power of childhood friendship over ten years ago, & it didn't feel the need to labour the point by repeating said joke every episode. Haganai had the female characters be the ones who got into male aimed dating sims, joking that while they might be porn games for girls they're also as close as they get to a friendship sim. Making your titillating fan service that extra bit more in your face might serve to illustrate how ubiquitous it is within the genre, but any point Saekano might be trying to make with it is pretty well hidden behind Utaha's stockings & Michiru's tits.

Finally, all of the things Saekano apparently does differently are pointless because none of them have any effect on the overall story, which continues down the well trodden path of everyone ultimately working to achieve the main characters goals while the various relationships are kept in an stasis until the author decides they can't be bothered to keep writing & wraps everything up in the final book. Kato might be the nominally "normal" girl in the group, but for a normal girl she has an abnormal tolerance for Tomoe's bull & ultimately ends up wanting to be more involved in the group, even going as far as to find things for herself to do since Tomoe is too busy with his shenanigans with the other girls to notice.

Eriri has a big outburst & falling out with Tomoe, which briefly makes it look like Saekano might actually shake things up. But no, in the end all that happens is she shouts at him because she feel's he's not paying her enough attention, he shouts at her about how crap her latest doujin was, & instead of doing what you might expect, tell Tomoe where to stick his dating sim & go back to her more lucrative mangaka work, she declares that she'll make him notice her & everything goes back to normal. It ends up just like Hatako's outburst in Inou Battle, a last, desperate expression of rebellion before she falls back in line with how harem girls are meant to behave. The point is that despite ample opportunity, nothing stops the plot train from traveling to cliche harem town which renders Saekano's attempts at "satire" pointless, in my opinion; nothing more than self-satisfied jokes about how clever it is for noticing all these things.

I'd like to be able to say that there's something beyond the main character that redeems Saekano, but there isn't. The notion making a dating sim on the whim of an otaku seems straight out of Welcome to the NHK, but Saekano lacks a character even remotely on the level of Yamazaki or Sato, nor does it seem interested in using its set-up for any kind of commentary or satire, instead just going through the motions of contriving situations that get the main character alone with each of the girls where they all learn something about each other that somehow makes the episode not feel like a complete waste of time. The art, in particular the character designs, are generic as you can get without falling into the realm of outright plagiarism. They also noticeably suffer from anime's push to remove any bone structure from characters faces. The animation is fine for the most part, although the use of CG for some character movements stands out like a sore thumb at times. Oh, & the music ranges from forgettable to I wish I could forget it.

In short, Saekano is the worst kind of parody. It recognizes the clichés, tropes etc. of what constitutes a bad harem romance, but instead of using that knowledge to make a good one it just contents itself with being bad but self aware. Maybe that's enough for some people, & it does have its moments, I'll grant it. However, to me there is a world of difference between being a good show about a bad one (Extras or Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
come to mind) & a bad show that thinks repeatedly saying how bad it is makes up for it. It doesn't.

I’ve never really been an A-1 Pictures fan, but it’s like they used up all their goodwill with the people who do consider themselves a part of that fanbase after making Your Lie In April, because 2015 has been a bad bad BAD year for them. So bad in fact that prior to my decision to watch this, I have yet finish any of their output, and half of them have already been forgotten by the mainstream crowd as of this writing. From an Aldnoah Zero second half that failed to live up to the promise of its predecessor to some Spring anime that I ... already forgotten the names of to this, I think it’s safe to say that “A-1” and “quality” will be antonyms for at least the remainder of this year and most likely many more to come. At least until they learn about a little business practice I’d like to call quality control.

But let’s not bash on A-1’s retarded “let’s release five anime a season and hope that one of them will strike gold” policies and focus on the actual anime, shall we? Some of you may recall that I didn’t give the main series much of a chance during the season it aired because that prologue that supposedly takes place just before the first season’s (and there will be a sequel apparently) conclusion had some of the worst usage of smug, fan-wanking meta-dialogue this side of Vampire Diaries, which might have been tolerable if the entire plot of said prologue didn’t revolve around the dialogue entirely. However, a bunch of people assured me since that said prologue was a poor representation of the show and that the actual series was a genuinely heart-warming tale of friendship and anime fandom with no more irritating meta-dialogue giving me an aneurism. Although it turned out that there was a miscommunication regarding the latter (and the former too for that matter).

“No more meta-dialogue, Mr. Flawfinder?” they said after I downloaded the thing. “Oh I’m sorry. I thought you said LOTS more meta-dialogue!” Oh and just so you know, you can't prove anything, so don't even try calling the cops on me regarding some recent hospitalizations of known anime fans.

Saekano’s premise is basically a non-pornographic version of Eroge H Game wa Blablabla, in that it focuses on a group of four girls and one guy trying to make a quality visual novel/porn game without the women drawing art in their underwear 24/7 or practicing the sex moves they want to implement whilst wearing a gimp suit and rope. It also shares similarities in that it takes place in some shitty fantasy world where despite the characters being fully aware of these terrible tropes, it doesn’t stop their entire characterizations being defined by said tropes right up to indulging in them willingly in order to get the right amount of detail into the final product. I mean a half-British blonde highschool girl who is considered an idol by many and yet happens to be a very popular underground doujin artist and childhood friends with the main lead? You’d see less overstuffed details in a song lyric written by Train.

Our main hero is Tomoya Aki, a stereotypical nerd who has a very similar name to Tomoya Okazaki from Clannad, looks like a polished version of Yamazaki from Welcome to the NHK, will also probably be voiced by Greg Ayres in the dub for this too, and is - to put it lightly - a massive fuck. He gets motivated to follow his dreams upon seeing a girl named Megumi Kato on a hill like in his visual novels, but once he finds out that she's in the same class as him, he ropes her into being his model for the project on the condition that she act exactly like the quiet pure maiden he imagined her to be before he actually got to know her - except she has to play video games like he does. What's that noise you ask? Why yes, that is the sexism train going over the speed limit, why do you ask?

Since he's an untalented cock who talks big on dreams without actually putting much effort into realizing them himself, he needs someone to do the job of actually making the visual novel for him. Luckily, he happens to know two beautiful girls who have secret lives as a well-renowned ero artist and a best-selling light novel author and convinces them to join because they secretly crave untalented cock for breakfast. Fucking hell, this sexism train is nearly breaking the speed of light isn't it? You can talk about him being the director all you want, but the only directing he ever really does is make the girls sacrifice their personal lives to satisfy his own. Which is true to life, but I'm pretty sure Stanley Kubrick's desire for perfection didn't involve him getting humped by his own cousin.

As part of the show's insistence that being ironic equals being satire, the entire structure of Saekano is pretty reminiscent of your standard visual novel adaptation beats. The first few episodes are dedicated to introducing the girls and setting things up. The next few are spent on giving the girls individual focus and explaining why Tomoya is important to them whilst setting up their roles in events to come. The final few episodes introduces a completely new girl and sets up her role in all this...actually, it never really goes past the setup phase. Fuck all actually happens in this anime aside from establishing things, which isn't a story at all. It's a power point presentation with a poor sense of humor, not helped by the fact that the show desperately wants to ride on Monogatari's coattails with so many of the animation tricks being blatant rip-offs of Shaft's cost-cutting techniques whilst spouting dialogue that isn't the least bit as clever as it thinks it is, nor does it progress things in any significant way.

Not that the show doesn't have moments of actual deliverance. They're just few and botched really badly to boot. There's one dramatic shout-fest between Tomoya and Eriri three-quarters of the way through the show regarding their badly damaged friendship back in their elementary days due to the former's refusal to stand down as an anime geek and the latter having outside pride to maintain. Good of you to know I was getting bored Saekano, but this was like inter-splicing the climax of Pride and Prejudice into Adam Sandler's Jack and Jill - and it doesn't help that the only thing resulting from said drama was more "Jesus make it stop"-setup.

Oh and do you want to know how much time is spent on actually making the goddamn visual novel? We never even get to see the tools they use. They just show results at convenient times, the most egregious being the final few minutes that try desperately to have some kind of closure to the whole mess by suddenly revealing the characters created one route without so much as a montage of them doing it. As far as I'm concerned, that's the equivalent of putting the celebration party in Return of the Jedi right after the final climax of The Empire Strikes Back.

But where Saekano fails the most for me is that there's no urgency to anything going on. The show loves to indulge Tomoya's constant rants regarding his dreams, but it never really gives me a reason regarding why I’m supposed to care about 'em. To bring up Welcome to the NHK again, remember how the main thrust of that show was also about the leads wanting to make a visual novel because it turns out you can make money from it and Satou kinda needed it because he was a NEET that was in danger of being evicted? Aside from just being a huge anime geek since elementary school, Tomoya doesn’t have any real reason for why this dream is important to life, let alone seem to have any personal problems related to it.

It never conflicts with his school stuff, he doesn’t seem to be suffering any money problems, and the show barely focuses on its romantic aspects to begin with, so saying “it’s so he can be with the main heroine” doesn’t hold water even if you do try to utilize that weak excuse. And since the girls still get to live their secret lives consequence-free by helping him in their spare time, they aren't really sacrificing anything to help him either apart from the safeties on that sexism train, which stops just short of going so fast that it breaks into another dimension at this point in the article. As far as actual thrust goes, it has about as much conflict and tension as a gang leader forcing you at gunpoint to play Monopoly with him because his family is on vacation. And said gun is a Super Soaker with no water in it.

Struggling to see the point of its existence beyond fan wank, I read the surprisingly large number of positive reviews for clarification and they didn't help one jot. A bunch of fans like the character dynamics, which is fine if you do, but you cannot base an entire show on interactions alone unless it's really really funny ala Seinfeld. And I didn't laugh once watching this, unless you count that time when I broke down after realizing the show was going to conclude on the personal problems of a girl that was thrown in at the last minute with little connection to the overarching story. Some people praise its relatability, but not only do I not see how I can possibly relate to these pricks, it's also completely contradictory to these same people praising that it's a meta-commentary on harem situations. Is it true to life or is it a satire of fictional life, guys? You can't be both.

And if it's meant to be a satire that raises questions regarding the otaku lifestyle, the foregrounds and backgrounds of visual novels, and why these harem anime are everywhere, then why is it so unchallenging to the mind and creatively bankrupt, like a high-concept sci-fi premise by way of a self-indulgent Disney writer? Combine those problems with garbage animation and zero plot progression that focuses too much on the build-up at the expense of payoff, and Saekano ends up being nothing more than an irritating pile of gimmicks that leaves you with an empty feeling inside, poorly drawn females trying to arouse you, and a crappy cover of the Gurren Lagann opening that made me go from being indifferent to the song to absolutely hating it.

Saenai Heronine no Sodatekata, for me, started out promising. The storyline had the potential to be a really good anime and would really connect with the viewers who would obviously share the same interests conveyed in the characters such as anime, manga and so on.

However the title of "How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend" soon became known to me as "How to Make a Boring Anime." At times, I found the show to be very dialogue heavy, which I usually don't mind however it was often just waffling on. I was always waiting for something to happen when i watched the newly released episode ... each week, but I always felt like there wasn't too much development, and if there was, it was too predictable.

Watching this anime series quickly became a chore rather than for my own enjoyment, as I was really trying hard to like this anime but couldn't. I would sometimes become so bored during the episodes towards the end of the series that I actually skipped through scenes as I found them to be excruciatingly long. Of course, I went back to re-watch the episodes, just to ensure that I felt the same as when i first watched it, and my view has not changed.

I feel bad that i didn't like this anime as I've seen many great reviews and many of my friends have said they enjoyed the series but, alas, I found the series was lacking and I was overall disappointed with this series. I'm not a massive fan of Harem anime to begin with but i don't feel my dislike of Harem skewed my view of the anime, because even I felt like the Harem in this anime could have been done a whole lot better.

I could go into further detail about what I don't like about this anime but I just wanted to cover the main points.

As for what i did like, even though she was labelled as "The Boring Girlfriend", Megumi was my favourite character and I liked the connection she and Tomoya had. (Although i wish it did focus a little more on them)

If you've watched the anime and you feel the same as me, or at least have a similar view, please let me know, as i feel like the only one who didn't enjoy Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata.

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata began as a series of light novels by Maruto Fumiaki. It's also had multiple manga and, in 2015, A-1 Pictures decided to do an anime version. It's a harem comedy series, like Love Hina, OreImo, Sekirei and some of the other series I've been asked to review and really disliked. Will this be the first harem series I do a full review of that gets a decent score, or will that wait until someone asks me to look at Ranma ½? Let's find out.

Story:

We open with our protagonist, Blandon, picking up a girl's beret after it blows away. This ... inspires Blandon. You see, Blandon is an otaku who's only interested in 2-d girls. As such, this scene straight out of a bad romantic comedy anime inspires him to begin work on a galge. He decides that his heroine will be the girl he saw on the hill that day. His writer will be a light novelist he knows and the artwork will be done by his childhood friend who draws pornographic doujinshi. By sheer coincidence they all happen to be attractive girls and interested in him in spite of his lack of redeeming personality traits and plain looks. Can Blandon convince the three Blandas to join him in making his galge?

Let's start with the problems with the series. The biggest one is that it's extremely clichéd. The series likes to lampshade this fact with dialogue that points out just how trite the plot points and characterisation they're using are. Blandon even asks what's wrong with clichés at one point, as if to challenge the audience to come up with something. Okay. I'll play your little game, Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata.

So, what is wrong with clichés? Well, when you have something well written and clever with a unique style, nothing. In fact, it's impossible to write without using some. There are clichés in Good Omens, Watchmen, Dune, Gail Simone's Secret Six and every other brilliant work. The problem is when you have a lazy, derivative series that strings together clichés with no originality and without doing anything surprising with any of them. A series like this one, for instance. When that happens, you get a painfully dull series where every event is predictable. Every character is bland and there's no reason to care about it. You get a series that's aiming for mediocrity and nothing more.

The other issue I have with the series is the way the ending conflict gets resolved. It's contrived, rushed and hackneyed. The series itself does lampshade this fact because Maruto seems to think that if you lampshade how trite or stupid your developments are that that somehow makes it better. It doesn't. Not unless you actually have some subversion or some twist on the elements to make them unique. Neither of which is anywhere to be found in this series.

Characters:

The cast in this isn't bad. The biggest problem with them is that they're bland. We've got the harsh senpai, the tsundere childhood friend, the dull protagonist and some other basic tropes that don't involve any complexity. To the series credit, there's only one character who's actively annoying. In this case, it's Blandon's cousin, Blanda number five, who shows up towards the end and acts as the happy go lucky love interest type, constantly pressing herself against him in sexual ways. And to think, before that point I thought that this series might not have an incestuous love interest in the group.

Art:

The character designs in this are pretty standard. With most of them being so generic that they look like characters I've seen elsewhere. The series also does the same eye highlighting thing as Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry, resulting in the cast looking like they're wearing thick eye-liner. I will give the series credit for having some strong background details and I do like the background effects they do for the childhood flashback scenes, making everything in the background look like a child's painting and really illustrating that sense of nostalgia. The series has some problems with fan-service, featuring several scenes where one of the Blandas slowly puts her clothes on or where the focus goes to her bosom/bum while she's in a state of undress. In one particularly egregious incident, one of them decides to go into full bad 90s superhero comic mode and contorts so that you can see both at once. Her poor, poor spine. I also really hate the colour filters in this series. There are a bunch of scenes where the visuals are all tinted red or blue or some other colour for no good reason and it looks terrible.

Sound:

The voice acting is pretty mediocre. To be fair to the actors, the cast is so dull and under-developed that I doubt anyone could take their dialogue and give strong performances. The worst is Yasuno Kiyono who sounds like she just doesn't care, but her character is also supposed to be boring, in a cast that's entirely made up of boring characters. So, chances are pretty high that she was directed to sound like that. Then again, I haven't heard her in anything else, except Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge which had horrendous acting. So, maybe she always sounds completely uninvested. The music is okay. Hyakkoku Hajime does just fine with it. It's certainly not on par with his work on K-on, but it's decent.

Ho-yay:

There isn't any in this series. It would only detract from the completely boring and uninteresting dynamics between the various Blandas and Blandon.

Final Thoughts:

In all fairness, Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata is not among the worst harem series I've ever reviewed. It's a series that aims for mediocrity through embracing clichés and it comes close to succeeding at that. It's boring, not even remotely compelling and just tedious. However, there are a few things that do bring it down. Primarily the ending and no, I don't care that they lamp-shaded how bad it is, & the cousin character. Which aren't enough to make the series bad, but they do weaken it. If you're looking for a completely standard harem series, you might like it. If you want something with originality, I can't recommend it. Overall, I give it a 4/10. Next week I'll take a look at El Hazard: The Magnificent World.

I write this review, my first on myanimelist, in hopes of saving any other poor soul that comes here seeing the glowing reviews and scores, for ye be warned:

If protagonist that is self-centered beyond any reason is not what you look for in your entertainment, avoid this anime like the plague. For Tomoya(protag), only thing in the universe that matter is himself and his interests, all else is secondary. I fell genuinely sickened by him as character, and the idea that I should relate to him is staggering.

A few crowning moments of his behavior: Telling a member of harem to cut ties with a blood ... relative because he's of the opposite gender, while Tomoya himself is nose-deep in his cousins boobs. When a member of harem seriously is pondering her future plans, Tomoyas first instinct is to ensure she stays where she is most convenient for him, without a single thought of the affects on her future.

To add insult to injury, the anime insists that this boy is just the thing every popular girl could want, and they will keep coming for him no matter how much abuse and manipulation he dishes out.

LNs' translated to anime often are hamstrung by not being able to show character development in the short time they have, but I cannot imagine how something as despicable as Tomoya could ever grow on me.

The best way I can describe how I feel after finishing this show is if I went outside, someone ran up to me and kicked my ass, but I was somehow also bored while they were doing it.
There are all the pieces of a good anime here, but they forgot to add in a little thing called dramatic tension. That would be bad enough, but I'm a sucker for good romance, so if the romance was good I could forgive it a little. Well its not good, it left me feeling disgusted, sad, and overall wishing I could wash it from my brain like ... drinking water after a foul meal.
Honestly, the whole thing had good writers, good artists, good voice actors, good sound, but felt so utterly soulless that I couldn't get invested in anything that was going on or any of the characters. There were a couple moments where I felt something other than disgust or boredom, or where I got excited about a character or line or plot development, but it felt like someone trying to make a joke at a funeral... so out of place that the enjoyment was tainted by the realization that it was nothing more than a faint flicker of life in a mangled, dying body.
I kept watching it because the ratings kept going up as the seasons went on, so I was praying that the ending would redeem at least some of the time and investment I had put in... but the ending was the worst part! When a romance anime ends with a confession that is more or less "You're boring and plain, but that's all I deserve so lets be together"... what the fuck even is this show? It's so so so bad. The only thing that saves it from being a 1 in my book is that the somewhat realistic take on artistic creation in the show was somewhat interesting, and it had a couple moments that were decent.

Saekano is a bland sauce series about a bland girl that gets chosen to be a visual novel protagonist, due to the Kirito voiced, spastic protagonist that sees Megumi from afar and has an epiphany about a VN he wants to make. It’s like the creepy painter that claims that seeing a pretty girl nude will somehow burgeon a magnum opus.

• Kirito invites Megumi to be his lead heroine. He also has an artist and a writer friend who go to the same school and just happen to be insanely talented. Why DO they help him with his project when he has no other ... talents aside from being an otaku? My only answer to this is that this show is a fucking harem, so bullshit plots are almost required.

• Similar to all of Nisiosin’s works, every option except for the normal girl (Megumi), are beautiful prodigies within their craft. I don’t know if that’s just normal in Japan or what. I thought that after the first season, the second might go somewhere, but is ultimately very forgettable. This show primarily focuses on the appeal of pretty girls, rather than giving you a series of substance.

• Much like Sword Art Online’s Kirito this Kirito MK II is even blander and more of a self-insert character. Unlike SAO’s Kirito, this one isn’t talented at anything except for inciting useless drama and having zero usefulness to the story, except making pretty girls fight over him, while Kirito had his talent at… gaming?

• There’s the typical tsundere character and the witty Senjougahara copy-paste that has stockings and is obviously the foot fetish character. The most interesting thing for me in the series, was their strife to get their dream recognized, since I’m a sucker for those kind of things and have a major passion for visual novels.

• Most of the strife just links back to the tired, prevailing narrative of catty drama reminiscent of the Tenchi Muyo spats, so the struggle seems pathetic. Saekano is pretty to look at, but it’s as deep as a puddle. If you have watched the anime: Nisekoi, then you’ll understand how the vapidity of these two series are comparable. I give the first season on Saekano a 4/10 and the second season a 3/10.

Story & Writing:

Right off the bat this thing follows that shitty trope where every cute girl in the vicinity inexplicably wants to suck the protagonist's dick. While this was tolerable at first, it gradually became nigh insufferable due to how immature and passive-aggressive its cast of characters handle the situation. The "conflicts" and "problems" faced by these characters are actually very insubstantial and extremely easy to solve. Why? Because the cause of these conflicts are obscene to begin with. Characters will get mad at one another for just about any reason, and screaming at each other or having a crying party is usually the best ... resolution that this braindead show can come up with.

Also, it irks me that the main selling point of this show - the creative process behind a game - is mostly kicked to the curb in favor of drama, angst, and rom-com antics. If you came here for the game-making then haha fuck you.

Now, I don't usually include an entire section for the "characters" in my reviews because I think the characters are a part of the story and writing, and it's better to talk about the characters along with the story. However, Saekano's characters are special and warrant an entire section. Why? Because to understand why Saekano is so bad, we'll have to examine the characters.

Characters:

Up first is the protagonist, Tomoya, an oh-so-popular otaku and a prime medium for neckbeards to self-insert. He's also a popular blogger and one of the most popular kids at school, and I just cringed out of my fucking skin writing these two sentences. He is not the best of the cast nor the worst either. To me, he's just barely tolerable as a protagonist because he drives the plot forward to some extent and has a somewhat amusing personality. However, the way he treats Katou, the way he undermines her lifestyle and personality and tries to "mold" her into something that is more to his liking, feels extremely bizarre at best and slimy at worst. I don't understand this character dynamic. What is going on? What kind of person is the "right" person? The kind that you can jerk your little ding dong to as opposed to the kind that provides enjoyable companionship and emotionally fulfills you as a human being?

Katou was the only saving grace for this anime. She's the definition of chill and does not give a single fuck. I never get bored of watching her deadpan reactions to Tomoya's antics in her monotone voice. There's something so inherently amusing and soothing about her personality. She was a genuinely fun and interesting character who could have made this an enjoyable series but unfortunately, she can't negate the damage done by all the other characters, who are just fucking obnoxious cunts whose only purpose is to stew up some dogshit melodrama and angst.

Take Eriri for example: she's a whiny and narcisstic bitch who brags and bluffs to protect her laughable self-esteem but whines and cries whenever things don't go her way. She gets mad at the protagonist for extremely unreasonable things and is always the shit-talker. Her thought process and behavior verge on complete sociopathy, and in my honest opinion this bitch needs professional help more than she needs the protagonist's dick. This misstep in character writing came back to bite Saekano in its ass when Eriri's character arc inevitably comes around, and I am left sitting in front the screen swearing and fuming at how the show still expects me to take this dumb bitch seriously. Utaha is another stupid bitch who holds a grudge against the protagonist for not preemptively reading her work...? For not doing what she wants him to do because it goes against his personal ethics? These two bimbos constantly act as if they hate the protagonist, but the moment he announces that he's going on a date with Katou they become extremely passive-aggressive and obsessive, which is extremely childish at best and absolutely retarded at worst. Man you bitches need Jesus. And by Jesus I mean Tomoya's dick and some Xanax.

There is more to talk about here, but I don't feel like sitting here and typing up two or three more paragraphs for the remaining members of Tomoya's harem. I don't wanna spare the effort for Saekano when it clearly can't spare the effort for its audience.

tldr: most of the characters are extremely unlikable and they have about as much chemistry with one another as a catholic nun has chemistry with a pimp.

Art:
Mediocre and uninspired.

Sound:
Nothing too memorable. Once again, the picture of mediocrity.

Enjoyment:
6/10 The rom-com antics were somewhat fun while they lasted - before the show decided to shove its head up its own asshole pretending that it's something it's not.

Overall:
5/10

Dropped this one after 4 episodes. The first episode hooks potential viewers with gratuitous fanservice that approaches, but never reaches parody. Character designs are attractive, but the characters themselves are forgettable. I struggle to even recall their names, save for Kasumigaoka Utaha, whose name I remember not because of an interesting personality, but because the show forces her name down your throat, as some kind of bad joke.

In concept, the show's premise is at least vaguely interesting. The problem lies in the execution. At least within the first four episodes (Three, not counting the blatant fanservice "pilot"), the show focuses *exclusively* on the most boring ... parts of creative work, game development or otherwise. There is no catharsis to be found in the "creative process" that the show promises.

The brightest points are those scenes Megumi, the only character for whom the "self-aware parody" style of comedy works, which is ironic, considering her whole personality (read: gimmick), is that she is so forgettable and bland, the main cast hardly notices her when she's around.

In conclusion, don't go into this show expecting a good look at what game development, or rather any creative venture is like. Expect a very, very mediocre slice of life / romcom. Perhaps it drops these tropes after the first four episodes, but I couldn't bring myself to suffer through anymore of this show to find out.

What follows is something I wrote a while back to post on crunchyroll, but apparently crunchyroll thought it was too long, which is dumb, so I just saved it in a document. I won't rewrite it, other than to fix a spelling error, as I don't remember enough about the anime to do so, and I have no intentions of going back to watch it again. Enjoy the somewhat disgruntled rant.

It annoys me when this happens. I watched up until some point in episode 10, sort of enjoying it, and then it suddenly hit me that I don't like or care about any of these ... people, and I could not make myself keep watching.

The base premise is, while pretty dumb, something that could have been entertaining. The art is decent. The voice acting is pretty good.

But the characters are awful. Below I will detail why. May contain mild spoilers.

Aki Tomoya: The protagonist. I think the story is supposed to be about him going from consumer to creator, and yet he never actually does anything creative. He is weak and indecisive, and, be it his own fault or not, ends up continuously hurting people around him.

Katou Megumi: I do not dislike her. She is quite funny, and certainly not a sort of character you see often. But, her entire personality, her whole character, is based on her playing off of the rest of the cast with retorts. Without them she would be nothing, and I do not like them.

Sawamura Spencer Eriri: While I like the mix of totally innocent and completely rotten, she is a good example why tsundere really are just awful people to deal with, and is generally horrible. She threw the protagonist aside, cast him to the wolves to save her own skin, didn't talk to him for years, and yet expected him to not look at any other girl for that entire time. When challenged on this she refused to apologise because apparently betraying him had made her sad too. That is not a card you are allowed to play. She is not a victim. She is jealous, unreasonable and self centered, and yet the show treats this incident like it's supposed to make her endearing, and apparently people in the comments did think so. To me this is inexplicable, and I strongly dislike her.

Kasumigaoka Utaha: People in the comments called her cute, but either this has to be based on looks alone, or they have some deep seated issues. She is in essence an obsessive, possessive, abusive and perverted stalker. Let's just say that if someone who is not a pretty girl rolled around in and sniffed someone's bed sheets, not even the comment section would have called that cute. Me, I find this character nothing but repulsive and creepy.

Hashima Izumi: As far as I got in the story she was nothing but an annoying trope and a story devise to make Eriri blow up in unjustified jealous rage.

Hyodo Michiru: I stopped watching shortly after she was introduced, but from I could tell she was yet another disrespectful self centered ingrate. The newly introduced character being this way is the catalyst that made me realize I no longer cared.

Hashima Iori: Like his sister, an annoying trope treated as little more than a plot devise. And on a side note, while I don't know if these kids bothered with copyright, stealing the premise and story of a game in development and making it yourself has a certain word attached to it: crime.

So, over all I do not care about any of the characters because they are all the worst, and as I do not care what happens to them, the story is pointless to me. If you only care about a few cheap laughs you may very well enjoy it, but don't expect anything too grand.

Sorry about the rant. Making this review was more for my own benefit than anything else. Thanks for reading :)

This anime literally just panders to incel weebs who couldn't talk to female for a living, honestly this anime is kind of cringe and unrealistic. The male lead is one of the most embarrassingly poorly written characters I've watched, there is no backstory on why the girls like him to begin with and all of the females are subservient and even the tsundere girl gives in to his demands.

Unlike the yahari ore no seishun, which also had an unlikable male lead, Hachiman was never the "dominant" male in the story that had everyone subservient to him, despite being characterized as a loser with excessive ... amounts of edge, but still remained likable due to his character progression and gradual interactions with other characters. There is nothing remotely close to relationship progression or any of that sort in this anime.

There is nothing appealing or romantic about this anime and would highly not recommend it.

A-1 made the animation great
The reason why i dont recommend this is because you'll get tired of the guy MC who is a total otaku like us and still manages to get girls without even trying his not good at sports studies etc.. I do admit its pretty funny from its comedic state but the more i watch the more it irritates me more than the funny parts its not worth the trade

The point is you need hardships dedication determination in girls to get them well yeah lets say his dedication is in the VN itself but i hoped they didnt have to make it ... harem
Its pointless
The reason why im frustrated in this anime its because he had the 2 best girls in his school without even trying....

This is one special type of anime. It both pisses you off and make you smile sometimes at the same time. While it don't bring anything too new to the table it trys to cut ties with it gene and its typical mistakes and ends up doings the same mistakes anyhow.

All characters but 1 fall into a normal harem archetype but even so their fun to watch but no development is made much between their relationship for long periods of time. The main heroine (As the title would suggest.) Is both the best character and worst while shes don't fall into a specific archetype she ... still feel like a character we see all the time. And while she brings the funniest moments in the anime to life she can also screw up the best parts as well.


In the ending without giving away any spoilers its a anime thats trying to hard to break away from generic aspects to fall into them again and somewhat create a big hole for its self. i enjoyed it alot but it also made me flash and pause the episode to say WTF? And explain where ut all went wrong

This show is targeted towards incels. This show is normalizing toxic behavior and the main character is living his incel fantasy where women obey his commands and his toxic beliefs about women.

This show is trash and only appeals to incels.

The women in this show are unreasonably attracted to an incel who does nothing but make outrageous claims about women.

The character depth is also terrible.

This show is so garbage because its characters are garbage and it creates incels and well as perpetuates incel thought.

I do not recommend watching this show. This show normalizes incel behavior that is not acceptable in reality.