Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de

Moderator Edit: This review may contain spoilers.
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Ever go into a burger restaurant, only to realize that it sells some of the most kickass tacos? That's what watching Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de feels like.

Came in expecting superpower battles, came out having experienced one of the best anime dealing with friendship. Right off the bat, this anime tells a story of a group of normal high schoolers (and one primary schooler) gaining superpowers. For some inexplicable reason, they are now held with the burden of functioning as normal students with these destructive weapons at their disposal. Not surprisingly, this presents quite a problem for them; ... and I think that's the purpose these superpowers serve. They were implemented as a device to see how the main male character, Andou, would resist his chuunibyou desires to use his cool-yet-dangerous powers. They were implemented to see how Sayumi, the most level-headed member of the group, would manage this newfound burden as the leader (and so on and so forth). At the end of the day, we didn't get many battles; rather, we received a story of a series of struggles that these high schoolers faced while possessing these powers.

There were many hints of romance throughout the series, but again, they were used as devices to highlight the friendship between the main characters. Tomoyo had to come to terms with her own self, accepting her chuunibyou and not being afraid to be who she was. In order to achieve that, she also had to come to terms with her feelings for Andou, as he was the one who truly allowed her to express herself. In a Sakurasou-like fashion, there was a side-story in which Tomoyo strove to be a light novel publisher. Initially hesitant, with the support of Andou, she boldly put her name out there (and got pretty damn far!). It's amazing how much an anime (that's technically a romance-comedy) can teach me about hard work and dedication. At the end of the day, it's not about how far you get; it's about how far you extended your efforts. Because of that, Tomoyo didn't have anything to regret, and Andou acknowledged her regardless.

Another "romance" of Inou-Battle came in the form of Hatoko's relationship with Andou. Admittedly, while watching her interactions with Andou, I could greatly relate to a lot of the frustrations she had. Unable to relate to Andou (due to not having the same interests--see: chuunibyou), she was hopelessly trying to grab his attention, and yet, unable to do so. So frustrating a effort finally culminated in one of the most emotional seiyuu performances I have ever seen in an anime. So much emotion was put into every word; I truly understood the magnitude of Hatoko's frustration. I would dare say this scene alone makes Inou-Battle worth the watch (for those curious, it is in episode 7). At the end of the series, Hatoko didn't fully understand the person whom she affectionately calls "Ju-Kun"; despite that, she certainly had matured as a character and became infinitely better at understanding those different from herself.

With the final episode, I think most who had been following Inou-Battle weekly would agree that there was a huge surprise; there was an actual battle with strategy! Indeed, a lot of confusion was cleared up with the explanations in the final battle, and it showed that there was a maturation process all the characters had to go through (especially Andou) in order to learn how to manage their powers. At the end of Inou-Battle, I think there are two main takeaways: with power comes the need for great responsibility, and friendships only strengthen when friends take the time to talk things out. Rather than harboring a silence anger, voicing frustrations is often the best thing that could happen for a friendship. It was a definite pleasure to watch such characters as Hatoko learn how to better relate to others, Tomoyo learn how to be honest with herself, and Andou learn how to balance chuunibyou with maturity.

With Inou-Battle, don't look forward to supernatural battles. Instead, look forward to deep themes of hard work, responsibility, self-honesty, and friendship. Inou-Battle will deliver.

When Supernatural battles become commonplace.
That's the title of this anime but it is highly misleading, I repeat, it's HIGHLY MISLEADING.
There are no supernatural battles in this anime. This anime is your average romcom harem anime situated in school and the characters all belong to the literature club.

Story 7/10:
One day, the members of a literature club get superpowers. There superpowers are such, that if it were an action, shounen anime, it would be epicly amazing. But as it turns out, you only get to see the powers being used for fun and in a few episodes. Most of the series is spent in the romcom lives ... of the characters as they pass through everyday troubles.

Character 8/10:
The characters are quite nice. They've got there own stories and all of them have affection for the protagonist and there's quite a bit of comedy. Each character is unique in his/her own way.

Enjoyment 8/10:
This series is meant to be seen as a romcom series. I picked it up thinking there would be good action with some romcom because who doesn't like superpowered action harem romcom anime. But there is barely any action in it. But the romcom is good enough to enjoy.

Overall, it's not a loss. Nor it's as awesome as other fall anime. But it's a good watch. But still, it could've been a lot better.

Okay, for starters just going to get this out of the way. Caps for emphasis. THIS IS NOT A SHOW ABOUT BIG BATTLES USING SUPER POWERS. This is a slice of life and a harem/romantic comedy. This is a show about a club of friends and them developing powers is more of a background setting thing. Apparently a lot of people missed this completely when they decided to watch it. Taking that into account, I found the show to be quite enjoyable and cute. Some pretty funny bits but not too much that made me laugh out loud. ...

Regarding the harem aspect, there's next to no fan-service so it manages to avoid many of the same harem tropes seen in countless other shows (for example, the "Oh no you tripped and grabbed my boobs/walked in on me while bathing" = scream + slap routine). The slice of life aspect is mostly just their club activities or episodes mostly centered around a few of the girls at a time. Things move pretty slow.

Moving on, the MC isn't a spineless self insert or a pervert either, you can actually understand why these girls are all falling for him. When he decides to drop the chunni bit and act serious, he is insanely good at saying the right things and just happens to keep raising their affection levels. It's entirely possible that he could talk himself into a harem ending without realizing it and getting hogtied by the girls.

For the girls, I found them each to have their own personality and problems and were pretty decently done. Childhood friend gets a special mention just because she has the usual jealousy issue that gets old, but it's flavored by more reasons than just him getting along with another girl.

All that said, this show is by no means perfect. There's really no plot, just something shoehorned into the setting (that probably fit better in the source material) that gets needlessly distracting. Also the show really is all about the girls falling for the MC. Best just to view it as a romcom. Not surprisingly there isn't much of an ending either. Not a cliffhanger, but not any resolutions to the main plot. Personally I wasn't bothered by it since the plot didn't really feel like it fit in this show anyways.

What do you get when you put a group of girls with extraordinary powers and a guy with nothing but an ordinary flame that he likes to brag about? The answer is Inou Battle Wa Nichijoukei No Naka De. Literally meaning ‘When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace’, this show based on the light novel of the same name adapted by Trigger pulls off this strangely yet addictive gimmick to grip your eyes to the screen. And how does it do that? It’s those supernatural battles and the characters that gets involved in them as part of a common place ritual.

The series’ title speak for itself as ... the very first episode quickly demonstrates the female characters in this show are ladies you don’t want to mess with. In essence, they have supernatural powers ranging from time manipulation, elemental abilities, healing/repairing objects, or even creating object themselves. Simply put, these girls are part of this group known as the Senko High School's Literature Club but there’s one oddball in the mix: Jurai Ando. Unlike the others, he is an ordinary kid who pretends that he has powers. If you ever remember watching ‘Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!’ before, then you’ll get the general idea. Just replace the words of ‘Dark Flame Master’ with Dark Flame Dark; a seemingly useless flame that is spawned from his imaginations. Despite the wacky way the show handles itself, there’s also surprisingly a strong degree of fun that viewers can get out of this series.

It all starts with our characters. While Ando isn’t anything extraordinary, he does have an innate ability to influence people whether he knows it or not. His interactions with the members of the Literature Club often provides a genuine amount of comedy. In fact, every episode generates some sort of new gimmick that involves most of the characters. No one is left behind in the dark as Ando is able to create ways for him to get involved despite being different from them. This even applies to supporting characters such as the student council president Mirei Kudo when she misunderstands a situation that ends up being much complicated than it should be. But surprisingly enough, the show doesn’t kill off this sub-plot but actually provide some genuine moments of honesty. In retrospect, the show is self-aware of itself and is able to balance between the comedy and dramatic moments; a feat that is quite something for a show such as this.

When it comes to the girls, this show qualifies for cliché to the max. We have the tsundere Tomoyo, the polite airhead Hatoko, the book nerd Sayumi, and the playful Chifuyu. All of their personalities contrast from one another but are somehow all able to co-exist as a group together. And unlike most series with similarities, Inou Battle appeals more to lighthearted comedy by employing the characters’ gimmicks. Examples are evidence with clever jokes involving Ando and any of these girls or as a whole. Although he ends up being a butt monkey on occasions, the girls are appreciate for his presence and are interested in him as a person. At times, the show gets a bit crazy for its own good but that really never drowns what it’s trying to accomplish: to create genuine comedy for appealing entertainment. Thanks to our characters, we get most of that.

Individually, the main characters also get their backgrounds fleshed out and spotlights throughout the series. Various episodes explores their personalities and brings out challenges like common place. The thrill of the show doesn’t rely on what might come next from guessing. Instead, it lies at where the viewers may feel being part of such a story with its expositions. It’s also noticeable that Ando once again plays key roles as part being of each episode. Rather than standing in the sidelines or becoming a victim, he plays the role of a guardian angel to help the helpless. It’s also ironic since he is the one without the powers and is able to help the girls who are blessed with these supernatural gifts, no?

Despite crafting a bucket load of fun and laughter, the show can be hard to get used to after a while for some. Characters are still one-dimensional and doesn’t escape its harem-esque tropes. It should be obvious but all the main girls seems to have an implied crush on Ando. These also are mixed with various reactions ranging from jealousy, to loneliness, to even aggression (See Hatoko’s ragefest episode). However, the show is lighthearted so it doesn’t steer its wheel too far onto the drama road. The back stab is that it can hardly be taken seriously in this manner. Sure, there are moments where we feel compelled to realize these emotions but most of it is still covered by the immense amount of comedy. At later stages of the show, even the comedy seems to be a bit diehard and loses its momentum. The superpowers gimmicks also dies down considerably to a point where the show almost seems like a slice of life. Ando himself doesn’t improve much either as he still tries to go die-hard with his chuunibyou behavior. Despite standing out more than a dull average boy, he is also oblivious to the girls’ feelings which leads to generic moments of misunderstandings and saturated nonsense. Speaking of which, the romance aspect of this show should be treated as a bad joke. While it shouldn’t be taken account as a shoujo fest of love angles, the series still makes the romance look like a silly slab of bland cliché collection.

You’ve heard about them before and seen what they can do. Studio Trigger takes a crack at this light novel adaptation as one of their first non-original series. The end result is satisfactory when it comes to artwork although nothing astonishingly remarkable. Let’s face it, the backgrounds looks goofy and hardly noticeable with its generic school setting. However, the character designs offer a fun degree of diversity. Tossing Ando aside (since he is the most dull looking character), the girls are illustrated well in suit of their personalities and roles. During ‘action’ and ‘fighting scenes’, the series tries its best to make it look real with various degrees of success. Fan service is also limited although there are a few occasions of suggestive camera angles; usually aimed at cosplay gimmicks in particular one episode and swimsuit shenanigans.

Background music doesn’t play a huge role in the show but the character voices do when it comes to their roles. While Ando is a dull-looking boy, he brings in an immense amount of energy with his personality. Similarly, the girls create an atmosphere of recreational fun with their casual way of speech mannerisms. They say what’s on their mind and often does it without repetitiveness. I give praise to the ensemble cast of our characters (including Ando) for their ability to draw in viewers at what they try to achieve. On the other hand, the OP and ED songs aren’t very appealing. While it is cute and has a decent amount of colorful attractiveness, there’s nothing special about it with its generic themes.

To say the least, this show isn’t for everyone. If you’re used to some of Trigger’s previous work, then you will find Inou Battle to be somewhat different. I don’t mean it different at its premise but rather the gimmicks the show holds when it comes to connecting its characters. Still, the characters makes up a bulk of what you can enjoy from this show. Now, fuse that with comedy and with every day common stories and you’ll get entertainment at its most definite form. Just be aware though that the show isn’t trying to drive a story with an ultimatum. Instead, it celebrates supernatural culture in way that doesn’t involve high level battles to save the world.

Inou battle tries to blend the chuuni over-the-top comedy with the teenage drama commonly found in series like Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo. Do not be fooled by its title. While the series is named "Supernatural battles within daily life", the "Nichijou" part is far more prevalent than the "Inou battle" part, and what little plot or action concerning their powers there is gets confined to the very last episodes (and left with no closure) and its presence and relevance is marginal at best.

The "nichijou" part is not too succesful either, as the transitions from comedy to drama sections are often abrupt and do not ... fit the general tone of the series well. The fact that everyone is in love with the MC is eyebrow raising as well because they hardly show why the female cast develops feelings, and therefore all the romance and drama arising from it is not as effective as it should be. While the series would have benefited from a stronger comedy section, it's still generic enough to be enjoyable if you don't mind the style in the first place but it is no more than filler between better series.

Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de was suggested to me by a friend, and at first, it seemed like your everyday typical Haganai rip off. I'm here to tell you right now, that is indeed NOT the case. It quickly sets into motion what can only be described as the best damn harem you will ever see. The first episode gives a sort of self insertion vibe, but by the next episode you will have realized that the main character, Andou, is too unique for any of that. It feels almost as if he has two different personalities. That, children, is what we call INDIRECT ... CHARACTERIZATION. This is a process that not many authors in the manga writing world seem to understand. Right off the bat we are SHOWN that he is an overactive chuuni (A Japanese slang term which roughly translates to "Middle School 2nd Year Syndrome". People with chuunibyou either act like a know-it-all adult and look down on real ones, or believe they have special powers unlike others.) in a club filled with some of the most unique harem characters seen to date.

STORY: Andou, Jurai is a boy who believes his right arm harbours a supernatural dark flame. This of course being nonsensical couldn't possibly be a reality, especially since he is a chuuni, right? This could technically be right, except for the fact that one day, while in the literature club room he and his club mates spontaneously gain 'superpowers'. From this, the story heads down a path of broken hearts and strengthened friendships. Anything said passed this is spoiler territory since the anime pretty much starts from the word go.

ART: It's not amazingly good, but it's up to standards for modern times. The boob physics are somewhat broken, though. The animation really adds to a lot of the moments. There will be times where how fast (or slow) something is happening will really add to the comedy. I forgot to mention, this show can be really funny when it wants to be, just not often. All of the members of this guy's harem are drawn really uniquely, not often matching their personalities.

SOUND: Holy shit, the voice actor for Andou is absolutely amazing. The voice cracks when he screamed sounded not at all forced and added to a lot of the humour. Every character is voice acted perfectly, I just specifically noticed that his stood out. The ED and OP as well as the OST don't stand out a ton, but set the mood whenever need be.

CHARACTER: Pretty much every character has two sides to them. Andou is dimwitted, but not to the point of absurdity. He acted in ways most guys would act when a female does not explain why she is feeling the way she is feeling. On the other hand, he can be calm and serious enough to know what to do in most situations. Chifuyu is your loli for this harem, however, she is manipulative and straightforward. If something is on her mind, she will blatantly say it out loud. Tomoyo is a true tsundere, no, not in that annoying fashion that has become commonplace in anime. She gets understandably upset, but does not abuse the character even if it seems inevitable. Take notes, light novel writers. Hatoko is the childhood friend and I have never felt so bad for one in a harem as I have with this one. She is not dumb, per se, just confused. She does not understand what a chuuni is and therefore comes off as ditsy when those situations arise. Another thing I have to give props to is that she IS the childhood friend, you get backstory on it as well as you get to see the chemistry between them. Sayumi is the senpai, she surpasses in everything that she does. She is calm and collected. Nothing passed that really. Oh yeah, she's got a body like a hot tamale. All these characters have reasons to actually love the MC. You get to see them develop their feelings and it all feels so natural. I had to take breaks between each episode to gather myself and comprehend what just happened. The side characters are fleshed out quite well, but are not able to be mentioned due to showing up at a later time in the series.

EENJOYMENT: I think I may have enjoyed this more than Hagani, and that's the only other harem I sort of liked. This one far surpasses that, however.

OVERALL: IT'S A SOLID 9.

Purgatorial hellfire dancing in the abyss, distorting black flame in turbid crimson darkness, the light that leads to madness, screams, and destruction, admonish sin with sin: gouge your dark fragment in my body and bare your fangs against arrogant providence!DARK AND DARK!!!!!!!!! And that ends this 12 episode cliche harem anime, so Happy Holidays to everyone, time to make my review.

Story

The anime's title is Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de or in English, it either means:When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace, Inou Battle Within Everyday Life or Inou-Battle in the Usually Daze, which isn't what the anime is, cu'z the so called Supernatural Battle only happens ... with Kiryu Hellkaiser Luci-Frist's posse, and not with Andou's harem, in fact this series should be titled 'When Supernatural Beings Becomes Common Place, cu'z that's what really has anime's plot is, and in most episode it always involve the main guy Andou and his harem. so, I'm giving this part a 5.

Art


Well, there isn't much fanservice involve, thought the character's school uniform looks good on the females it doesn't look good on the guys, frankly , it would have been better off if the guys would don a Gakuran instead of a red top and white trouser for the guys that makes them look sissy. Also, I don't get as to why Hatoko has to wear a cardigan during summer. Cu'z of it, I'm gonna go for a 3 for the crime of fashion that illustrator, Kōsuke Kurose did with the boys uniform and making Hatoko wear a cardigan during summer.


Sound

Despite of Sayumi sounding like a milf, I'm still gonna give this part a 7 for the opening and ending theme.


Character


Ok, so Andou is a good MC according to a lot of MAL users, but to me he is just the usual harem guy, then again I gotta give the guy credit for what he did in the last episode, what I don't get was that he becomes a chunni in the later part of his teens, let's not for get that in one episode he is seen being a normal middle schooler helping Tomoyo who is the chunnibyou back then, so why the sudden reversal?

Hatoko Kushikawa, was a typical wife material for Andou, what I like about her.......was her being wife material, what I don't like about her was her being too nice to the point of being an air head.


Tomoyo Kanzaki, what I like about her was that I like herb to be Andou's love interest and I'm glad that she actually like him.

Sayumi Takanashi, well I guess somebody has to be the older girl, who is smart and a typical Yamato Nadeshiko which is her.

Chifuyu Himeki, what can I say she serves as this lolicon material for the MC.

Mirei Kudou, I can never understand why original creator Kota, Nozomi limit her to be a support character, whereas she has potential to be one of the main characters.

If you look at all of them they're just the usual characters that would be found in any anime with a harem genre, so it's a 5 all the way for this part and not even the addition of Kiryu Hell Kaiser Luci-frist's Fallen black posses can make me change my rating for this anime.


Enjoyment


Despite of all the cliches, it was still funny enough to be watched, especially with the added mystery of Kiryu's group, so it's a 7 for this part.

Overall

I giving it a 3 cu'z of the following:

- Inconsistencies about the MC being a chunni where at one point he was seen as a normal teen and all of the sudden he becomes this obnoxious chunni in his later life.

- The misrepresentation of the anime's title, where it should have been applied to Kiryu's group.

-Putting all the main climax at the last episode instead, of equally distributing it within every episode.

-And not including Andou's harem in the so called "Fairy Wars" where imo would have provided such intensity to the anime.

"Super powers are the coolest thing ever! And cool is all they need to be."

Have you ever wondered how much more exciting life would be if you had a supernatural power? If you could be more than the average human being capable of all kinds of cool magical abilities, just how much more fun would your everyday life be? Fortunately, the human mind has a great imagination, and as a result many young men and women like to pretend to be their favorite superheroes in real life as a sort of make-believe persona, a condition known as chuunibyou. Inou-Battle (just going to refer to it ... as such as the full name is way too damn long) follows the lives of a quartet of high-schoolers and one elementary schooler who together make up a club of just these kinds of people. However there's one thing that differs between this group and the ordinary chuuni characters. Their powers are actually real.

As someone who absolutely loved the (original) Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai TV-series, the aspect of finally finding yet another slice of life comedy starring chuuni characters was a very thrilling idea for me. Admittedly it's not quite on that level comparatively, but Inou-Battle is still most certainly a very characteristic and entertaining series. Initially, the anime is very straightforward. It follows the various club members' daily lives with crazy comedy antics which take full advantage of the chuuni setting of the characters (especially the protagonist), and delivers a very simplistic but extremely humorous and enjoyable experience.

However it must be stated that while this simple premise works wonderfully, the anime does not really maintain that concept all the way throughout. Unlike what the synopsis and setting of this series may indicate, Inou-Battle actually does attempt to have a serious story, starting a couple episodes down the line. It tries to give all the characters back stories in order to help us understand them and their circumstances, and then attempts to build upon that in present time in a typical drama-like fashion. The problem is this however; while I'm all for having more depth and character development in an anime, the fact of the matter is that there is a time and a place for everything... and honestly I don't think this was the right one. The story tries to bite off more than it can chew, and about halfway though, the anime turns into more and more of a stereotypical romantic harem drama fest. Now personally I don't actually dislike harems by any means, but in this case I can't help but feel it was awfully misplaced. The show goes from something simplistic, incredibly silly and non-serious to an attempt at being an emotional romantic rollercoaster every so often, but really it just ends up feeling awfully needless in my opinion. In addition to this it simultaneously tries to have some sort of grander, overarching story by introducing a bunch of rival side characters seemingly out of nowhere but it barely ever touches upon that part of the story again for real. Where did they come from? What is their purpose? I don't know. We never get to find out. Then it keeps going back and forth between chuuni mode on and chuuni mode off, and the overall sense of coordination starts feeling somewhat lost. Given how rare chuuni anime are to come by, I would have much preferred if it had just stuck to its roots and kept the same sort of atmosphere as the first few episodes did from start to finish. Slightly wasted potential.

On to the character cast then:

The protagonist of the show is the die-hard chuunibyou victim Andou Jurai who has the power of "Dark and Dark" which allows him to... spawn a black, lukewarm fire in his palm... which does absolutely nothing at all. He likes to pretend it does however.

Secondly, we have the redhead tsundere Kanzaki Tomoyo and her "Closed Clock" ability which enables her to slow down or temporarily freeze the flow of time at will.

Thirdly, we have Kushikawa Hatoko, the polite, somewhat air-headed childhood friend who has the frightening power of "Over Element", which as the name somewhat implies allows her to have free reign over the five elements of earth, water, wind, fire and light.

Coming in as number four, there's Takanashi Sayumi, the refined club president who wields the power of "Root of Origins" which enables her to return things to their original state, an ability that can heal people, repair items and similar.

Last but not least, there's the goddess-tier loli elementary schooler Himeki Chifuyu who hangs around the high-school club solely due to being related to the club's adviser. Her ability is arguably the most powerful of all: "World Create", which as the name implies enables her to create items and surroundings out of thin air as well as portals and dimensions, and it also makes her capable of manipulating materials down to a sub-atomic level.

As cool as all of that sounds however, for the reasons I mentioned earlier, these abilities are not really properly explored to their full potential. It's only really in the beginning that you get to see their actual capabilities, but there's not enough time to cover them all to their full extent. Of course the chuuni aspects and the accompanying supernatural abilities still exist throughout the rest of the anime as well and are definitely used, but not as frequently or as deeply as I would have liked, as its screen time tend to get replaced with more ordinary anime-esque love drama. Not that the drama side of Inou-Battle was actually terrible (it was fairly mediocre though), but it's really not what the anime should have been about at heart.

The animation and sound I don't really have much to say about, they're both very average throughout. Although it's animated by Studio Trigger, you shouldn't go into this expecting it to look like anything as wacky as Kill la Kill did for example; Inou-Battle looks very much like your typical moe romcom in its art style, good enough to be pleasing to the eyes but nothing spectacular. The OP and ED are both decent, but again nothing amazing. Special shoutout to Hayami Saori though for having one of the greatest single rants I've ever heard a voice actress pull off in an anime history. You'll know exactly what I'm talking about when you get there.

In the end, I think this anime could honestly have been one of the best moe comedies of the year, just like Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai was back in 2012. However Inou-Battle missteps somewhat along the way and for some reason tries to get away from the very thing that makes it unique just in order to make it more generic instead... which really is a shame because the show could have been something truly special if it hadn't. That being said, I still enjoyed the show from start to finish, just not as much nor for the same reasons in the second half as the first one. I know some people are surely going to be a lot more bothered by the sudden change in direction the series had midway than I did however, so take all this with a grain of salt. On the other hand, even with that taken into account it doesn't change the fact that the first few episodes were just as good as I could have hoped for them to be, and I would definitely recommend you to watch that much at least. After that, it's up to you to see if you like the direction the story heads in or not.

Oh, and if you were wondering just how on earth everyone managed to make their chuuni abilities real in the first place... you'll just have to keep wondering. We may never find out. Just accept it for what it is, lean back, and try to find some enjoyment in what this little anime has to offer. There are certainly much worse ways to spend an evening.

After reading the title and synopsis and watching the first episode or two, you might expect to be treated to an anime where a group of friends gain superpowers and proceed to battle with each other for their own enjoyment...
- That might even have turned out to be a unique and enjoyable adventure story, adding some flair to the supernatural genre...

...but, you'd be wrong for expecting something special.
In fact, you'll be disappointed if you expect this anime to live up to its premise at all!

This anime is, in fact, nothing more than a generic harem with an abundance of emotional drama.

Supernatural battles are minimal and ... take a back seat to the harem drama. In fact, they have a negligible effect on the overall plot.
It would be possible to remove the supernatural element, re-write the story without it, and end up with something essentially the same.

The supernatural aspect of the story is somewhat developed, but leaves much to be desired. We are given a slight bit of background, but it ultimately just leaves us with more questions than answers. All the potential that was there to turn this show into something unique and exciting was essentially wasted by taking it in an entirely different direction. With the exception of the last episode, nothing significant really happens.

// [Note: I've avoided spoilers, but the plot is so generic, that the following part of my general review might just spoil it. //
// That being said, you should rather read it anyway so you know what you're in for and avoid some disappointment.] //

The harem aspect is the main focus of the show and is about as generic as they come. All the girls will ultimately fall in love with the male MC and end up competing with each other (Note: NOT with their supernatural powers) to be the "chosen one".
For a show that looks to be a "fun" story, there is an unnecessary amount of emotional drama. Even [that] is just the generic jealousy/bitterness/longing/depression cycle - where girls bring themselves pain by bottling up their emotions. They'll eventually have their breakdowns, release their stress, come clean, make up, and ultimately just go back to trying to win over the MC for themselves.
~ Move along, nothing to see here ~ (etc.)

As a harem fan myself, I should be enjoying this - I enjoyed many other generic harems after all ...but that is not the case. Most generic harems have some unique, worthwhile story to provide a little variation to the generic setting. Many throw in some fanservice and comedy. This anime, however, does not add any interesting flair to the harem setting - just an insufferable amount of drama - leaving the harem portion with an entertainment value of 0.

In general, the anime does include small amounts of action and comedy to keep you watching, but not enough for meaningful enjoyment.

The biggest crime of this anime, however, is that it didn't make proper use of the supposed "main" premise/setting. It ultimately fails to deliver on the [fun, supernatural battle action] that the [supernatural anime] fans, who'd be the most likely target audience, would enjoy. The whole basis of the story is neglected for the sake of bringing you a love drama. It's the ultimate bait-and-switch.

The failed plot aside, the video is good, the sound is good, and the characters are somewhat interesting if you put their obsession with the MC aside.

== Final verdict: ==
If you're into supernatural battle action anime: Don't waste your time watching this - it's pretty much all filler.
If you're into harem anime: Put it LAST on your plan to watch list - every other harem I've seen is better.
If you're into drama: Go right ahead - this one's for you.
If you're a troll: Recommend it to your friends.

For not being what it's supposed to be, I give this anime a mediocre 5/10.

~ My review contains spoilers


1. This is just my opinion, if you don't like my review feel free to give your OWN REVIEW!

2. If you are expecting a lot of superpower actions from this anime, then your hopes will be crushed like mine.

3. The name has "everydaylife", you shouldn't expect action from the anime. Let me correct, actually the name is "When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace" I thought it might be because of superpowers where everyone fights to prove themselves. Hence, the battle becomes commonplace!

Story- ~Let me ask you a question! Like other reviewers asked. What will you do if you get superpowers? Surely, You ... will step out of your average life, put on a badass costume and starts helping random citizen, not like carry out your daily routine events and act like you never got any powers to begin with. Well, basically that's what this anime is showing us from last 12 episodes! Let me tell you the summary of all 12 episodes.

-Episode 1 (This is where everyone gets power, I had really high expectations from that point)

-Episode 2 (A new girl is introduced she can steal other's power, though she falls for Andou because of some misunderstanding and that girl has like one time appearance)

-Episode 3 (this is where every girl realizes how good Andou actually is pretty nice development)

{now from this point on this anime takes the random route. Every girl in the club gets a fair chance to be female lead in the upcoming episodes}

-Episode 4 (Chifuyu's turn the loli of this series)

-Episode 5 ( Tomoyo's turn the tsundere of this series)

-Episode 6 (Sayumi's turn the kuudere of this series)

-Episode 7 (Hatoko's turn the perfect waifu of this series, but she gets kidnapped in the end finally a turning point of the anime)

-Episode 8 ( My hopes were up again, but one of the girl that has route of origin ability recalls her at the near end of the episode and she is back like nothing happened)

- Episode 9 (Back from where we started, Now this time every female has given equal amount of time and now they realize they actually love andou, even though they kicked Mirei in the 2nd episode because she falls for andou, fair enough)

-Episode 10 (is your typical ecchi pool scene)

-Episode 11 (is your typical beach and firework festival scenes, Did I mention? This show is about supernatural powers?)

-Episode 12 (Finally, at the last episode it takes serious turn for real this time but, How can it possibly explain everything in just 1 episode of 24 minutes? So many plot holes and questions and Can you guess what andou's really powers his in its 2nd stage? Its amaterasu black flame from naruto just give it purple color. YOU HEARD ME RIGHT IT IS AMATERASU, the only thing that show made me watched till the end and it turns out huge disappointment. I will just delete my memories of this show and forget it even exists)

Characters- I already said everything about characters, there no character's development or even power development. One is your typical loli, there is Tsundere, kuudere, perfect waifu. Most of all our Useless andou who is this power called "DARK AND DARK" which is actually a purple flame (don't know why it called dark then, I guess its just a gesture)

Art- Needless to say anything its "TRIGGER", though really disappointed from Kill la Kill to this. I guess they are make money for the upcoming epic anime!

Sound- meeh nothing rememberable, that gives a rewatch value. There's not even a single fight scene yet that gives some tensed background music. All there is medicore tunes playing randomly

Enjoyment- I re-edited my review and explained it in detail why I hate this anime. Again, this is just my review. Even though there are people who love this anime but superpowers+slice of life+harem combo is just not my cup of tea!

I just couldn't let Inobato sit with a score of 7.**
That would be an injustice! So here I am writing a short review trying to convince any readers who stumbled on this page to stop contemplating and just watch it.

I actually found the story refreshing. With the way they all got powers out of nowhere and just went on with their lives. Can't think of many shows that would do that and it kept a great pace all throughout.
Art is very pleasant on the eyes and kinda looks familiar. I just couldn't figure it out where I saw this style before until I looked it ... up. Lo and behold: TTGL and Kill La Kill! *facepalm. I'm ashamed I couldn't point it out sooner.
Sound was great. Loved the OP sequence, and how Andou would switch over to chuuni mode (reminded me of Lelouch and not nearly as painful/embarassing to watch like in Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai) but what really stood out and gave me the chills was Hatoko's rant in episode 7. Damn son that was some fine voice acting.
The character development hit the ground running. That is to say, that you would go into episode 1 with their identities already fleshed out and we, as the viewers, would have to play catch up. Personally I like that style of portraying the characters every now and then. And once you're familiar with each character you'll be sure to love them. Especially Chifuyu. Crap I might be turning into a lolicon because of her. I really really want to write more about the characters but that would make this too long. But safe to say the main character is more badass than you would initially think and much of the fun comes from watching their interactions.
I don't think I need to say more about how much I enjoyed this show. I mean, here I am writing this so I could share the fun I had with it.

I've been on a bit of a marathon spree this year and have probably watched most of the titles in the top 200 or so and it got a bit boring to be honest. What I usually do when this happens is pick something from the middle of the crop to shake things up a bit and Inobato delivered. I practically finished it in one sitting and enjoyed from start to finish. Problem is it left me wanting more and unfortunately the LNs aren't translated yet. And if I had one major complaint to voice out, its that they didn't give enough screen time for Kudou!

Cheers!

(This has been adapted from my reddit thread)

It's kind of strange to think about what one goes about doing on an everyday basis. Waking up, putting on clothes, heading to work/university, grabbing something to eat, hanging out with friends, going on the Internet, and heading to bed sounds like a pretty normal day.

And for many, this is exactly the type of life they lead, one of common, simple happenings without much excitement or action to change up the formula. There may exist dreams of something interesting occurring, but that's it. Wishes which exist only in fairy tales.

The question is, then, what would one do if ... such a dream came to fruition? *Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de* would have you believe that, honestly, nothing much would change, giving us a different little adventure with a not-so-little heart.

**STORY**

Inou-Battle follows Andou and the rest of the Literature Club: Chifuyu, Tomoyo, Hatoko, and Sayumi. Following a rather fantastical phenomenon, the group find that they have amazing new powers that affect matter, time, and space.

As the anime progresses, it goes about the story-telling in a rather interesting way. Instead of focusing on what *should* be the more interesting aspect -- the supernatural abilities they have gained -- it instead chooses to make the cast's simple, everyday lives the center of attention. It's rather unconventional; choosing to ignore the inherently "cool" portion of the show when it is purposely incorporated is a strange move that, even more strangely, works.

It creates a misplaced feeling of expectation that is never quite met. And by doing so, what is occurring on-screen is that much more engaging. The story can and could weave a grander tale, but it opts not to, making the story rather slice-of-life and character driven. This technique isn't even used just once. There exist multiple points at which Inou-Battle decides to forego the common route in favor of the more obscure one: Andou and Mirei's relationship and the later-introduced sub-plot come to mind. It's a fascinating move that contributes to the "everyday" feeling that the show is trying to accomplish.

At its core, Inou-Battle is a romance story and, more specifically, a harem. In this regard, it performs at least well enough. Each girl is usually given her respective story and attempt to win over Andou. Either due to his personality or that girl's newfound understanding, the harem remains mostly intact the whole way through. Yet, there is the "obvious" choice among them. But once again, the show defers to its tried-and-true tactic, avoiding coming to a resolution that would bring satisfaction to one group. That is to say, it ignores the expectation and gives us the more contextually unrealistic situation.

All of this serves to give us the overall theme of the anime. It is explained directly to us quite unnecessarily (or perhaps it is just one more example to the growing list): how life really doesn't need to have a wrench thrown into it. There are plenty of opportunities waiting out there; it just requires a bit of initiative, knowledge, and luck to find them. And when they are found, enjoy them. Relish in what they bring today, so that tomorrow even more opportunities can be discovered.

**ANIMATION**

Inou-Battle follows a blended style both in terms of art and animation, giving it an overall positive feel.

The art style at times feels rather generic, but Trigger injects some of their own signature style for a breather. Over-the-top segments or more "rough-and-tumble" frames give it a weird mixture of both well-done set-pieces and "badly" designed caricatures.

The character designs have their own flair, with distinct hair designs, differing outfits, and a certain simpleness to their eyes and faces. They are each appealing in their own ways, making them a welcome addition to anime.

The animation receives the same treatment from Trigger as the art style did. It is above average in nature, with plenty of moments to showcase quick or crisp character movements and the use of their otherworldly skills.

**CHARACTERS**

The cast of Inou-Battle are fairly stereotypical, but actually contain a surprising amount of depth. Instead of elaborating on the characters, the anime chooses to make each of the girl's relationship with Andou the focal point. Everyone has their chance and background looked at, providing the audience with more to the cast than is first given credit.

Actually an elementary school student, Chifuyu is a little girl who enjoys participating in the extra curricular activities of the high school's Literature Club. Adorable, small, and constantly clinging to her stuffed animal ("Lissun"), she is very smart for her age but still unable to cope with the emotions she feels. Dubbed "World Create," she can manifest anything into existence, be it other dimensions or transitional portals. It's pretty evident how much she'll never win Andou's heart, but their relationship is one of mutual protection. That is, neither wants to see the other get hurt, physically or mentally. But when it comes to matters of love, there is always a chance.

Sayumi is the eldest in the group, having a great physique, good grades, and holding a strange intolerance for being deemed cute. Her outwardly cool and calm demeanor hides a rather fragile young woman looking to have her feelings returned to her. Her code-name is "Root of Origin," due to her being able to return anything to a previous state. While she tries to get Andou's attention, she never seems have it go her way. And that's fine, because sometimes relationships don't need to go beyond anything more than friendship.

As the childhood friend, Hatoko already has a hard hurdle to overcome. Somewhat slow, she usually tends to go with the flow. Her inability to really say what she wants prevents her from obtaining the kind of connection she wishes to have with Andou. She is "Over-Element," having the capability to manipulate the various elements of the world itself. While she may wish to be the one Andou calls girlfriend, he instead places her in a different light. Love has many different shapes and sizes, and Hatoko proves this through and through.

Of all the girls, Tomoyo seems to be the destined victor. Easily flustered and with a particular prettiness and charm, she most easily connects with Andou due to her closet-chuunibyou ways ("chuunibyou" is a term referring to "8th-grade middle school syndrome," where imagination is often replaced with reality). Known as "Closed Clock," she is able to manipulate the very fabric of time itself. It's not easy being in love, and even harder knowing that one is. She may think otherwise, but there is no denying the feelings she has for "Dark and Dark."

In an interesting move, the anime actually includes a very clever piece of characterization. The superpowers that each person receives seem completely random in nature, but that is far from the case. In fact, they each obtained their powers based on what they were missing or needing in regards to their relationship with Andou.

Chifuyu is the lost cause, literally needing anything and everything to come out on top; for Sayumi, she is essentially "friend-zoned," warranting her the need to *reset* her relationship with Andou from the ground-up; like a towering tsunami, an exploding volcano, or a ravaging tornado, Hatoko needs to make her passion, her *emotions*, more tumultuous because of her always-reserved nature; and despite being the leader, Tomoyo requires all the time in the world to understand what her heart-of-hearts is telling her.

Even Andou's ability holds a deeper meaning: his power does nothing because he requires nothing in regards to himself. He understands where he comes from, who he is, and what he wants to be.

**SOUND**

I really like the beginning part of the OP, and the repeat of it during the middle of the piece. The song is pretty "pop-y," with a nice set of vocals and catchy background beat. The ending "ahhh-ahh" also provides a nice finish to the track overall.

The ED is quick and fun, with a good mix of guitar and drums. The final portion, with the stuttering of the music and vocals, sends it off with a cute little finish.

The soundtrack contains suitable pieces for the scenes involved, with piano tracks for the more sad or dramatic parts or more mysterious ambient tones for tenser situations. Nothing is extremely notable, but the music plays its part.

As for voice-acting, everyone involved performs above average. Saori Hayami as Hatoko goes above and beyond, with a stellar moment during the anime that definitely leaves an impression on those who watch it.

**ENJOYMENT**

Being the romance man that I am, this was a joy to follow. All of the girls involved are cute or beautiful in their own way, so watching them struggle to get Andou to love them, with dates to the pool or their embarrassment from him complimenting their outfits was enough to make me smile. I really wanted Tomoyo to step her game up, but that was more me being frustrated that she wasn't able to come to terms with how she really felt. But watching her blush and overly-defend herself every chance she could get made it at least worthwhile in the long-run.

As many people may know, I'm a fan of chuunibyou antics. Listening to Andou's ridiculously long-winded speeches or seeing Tomoyo and the other girls take part in a fun imaginative get-together was always good for a laugh. And the show contains many other comedy bits as well, usually revolving around Andou and his quirky personality. But the girls do have their comedic moments, again mostly due in part to their relationship with Andou.

Lastly, when the cast are going about using their powers, it's pretty awesome to see. Chifuyu being able to walk through walls, Tomoyo being given the right to stop time, and Andou's "spectacular" flames made these portions of the show great to see, due to the varying ways in which their abilities were used or overlapped.

Going through this anime at first, I wasn't wholly impressed. But behind Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de's chuunibyou, supernatural moves, and hilarity lies a smart story filled with a cast of interesting characters. Everyday life may seem boring, but as this one proves, there's a lot more to it than meets the eye.

**SUMMARY**

Story: Good, dodges expectations to tackle its themes well

Animation: Good, nice detail with Trigger's signature style

Characters: Great, everyone involved is given clever characterization

Sound: Good, good OP, okay ED, okay soundtrack, nice VA work

Enjoyment: Good, chuunibyou, comedy, and romance are known to work

Final Score: 8/10

Inou Battle was an anime that can't get anymore cliche than it already is, just put one super kind guy that love to help other people between a bunch of female and voila all the female will fall in love with him.

If you think that this anime is about epic superpower battle royal anime in school setting than you can't get anymore wrong than that.
Inou Battle was a story about a bunch of people that gather in a club because they share something in common, each of them had some kind of superpower, the story will portray mostly their daily life and club activities and ... sometimes dive deep to explore the characters.

Character: Simply put, it's 1 super kind guy and 5 female characters that head over heels with the protagonist.
The protagonist - Andou July, is super kind guy that had chuniibyou (google it) problem, nothing much I can say about this character since there's nothing to talk about him.
Heroine - Tomoyo is one of the heroince in Inou Battle, he falls for the protagonist because they share the same problem, there's not much to tell about this character.
Heroine- Sayumi and Chifuyu, A big boobed and a loli, both of them had the same circumstance, they fall in love with the protagonist because the protagonist care deeply about them
Kudou - A heroine that got into misunderstanding with the MC, she is quite interesting but she rarely got screen time.
Heroine - Hatoko, This is the only heroine that had somekind of interesting interaction with the main character, He fall in love with the MC but at the same time, among all the other heroines, he is the only one that can't understand the MC chuniibyou problem, resulting in her suppressing her own stress while trying to get along with the MC even though she can't even understand even one bit of what the MC is talking about.

Sound and Art, Even though I said this anime is not about superpower battle, it's not like there's no superpower battle in this anime, there is superpower battle but it's just not the main focus in this anime.
This anime had a pretty good animation when the character start using they're power and a pretty good soundtrack that add to the 'cool' vibe when they did a battle.

Overall: It's sure hard to get into this series at the beginning because it's not what we would expect it to be but once you get used to this anime, it could be very enjoyable with all the character interaction, comedy, animation and soundtrack, if you a slice of life fans than this anime is definitely for you since it's cover a story about friendship properly.

At least my eyes weren’t bleeding by the time it finished.

Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de (will be referred to as InoBato from here on out), for a lack of better words, does not bring anything new to the table. Sure, it isn’t bad, but it’s not exactly original either. Let’s break things down:

The premise is pretty poorly set up. On the surface it looks simple – you basically have five club members (plus Mirei, I guess, lol, so six people total?) who gain some pretty awesome superpowers. But are these powers used half the time? Nope. Thus, their powers seem more like a gimmick ... – in other words, the powers are just there just for the sake of making the show interesting – and serve no real significant purpose for most of the show. (And how do they even get their powers…?)

Another big downside to this show is how new characters and other plot elements were introduced. A good example of this is Episode 8. I’m going to try to refrain from spoiling anything, but if you pay attention to this episode, it spews (yes, emphasis on spew) a boatload of new characters and supernatural elements without fully explaining what is going on. Many questions still remained unanswered by the end of the show.

What about the plot? Well InoBato is your basic generic harem, so don’t really expect anything deep or meaningful. Most of the romance, as with other harems, is pretty forced. Chifuyu’s romance came straight out of left field; meanwhile, Sayumi was being forced along by a side character we don’t even care about. Hatoko and Tomoyo aren’t as bad but even they sometimes come off as a little off (if you were like me, you’d say something like “That’s a really lame thing to argue about”). Also, the romance doesn’t even kick in until the last few episodes… talk about forcing the plot along…

(And then you have Mirei who’s gone for a good chunk of time after her little tidbit in the first two episodes, which is really too bad, I feel like she could have contributed so much more to the show.)

One good thing, however: there were a couple of episodes where the show clarified Jurai’s relationship with each of the girls (i.e. how does he know them, what significance he is to them, etc.) that made up a little bit for the lack of character development throughout the show.

Tl;dr

Story: 2
Art: 4
Sound: 6
Character: 3
Enjoyment: 5
Overall: 3

Pros:
- Mediocre plot execution (as a whole), but it was still relatively easy to follow along
- Relationships clearly established among Jurai and the others
- Decent sound + voice acting, especially in eps. 11 & 12

Cons:
- Characters are not fully flushed out in terms of development
- Personalities are drawn from very stereotypical anime archetypes
- Use of gimmicks = poor premise
- New plot elements poorly embedded into the show
- Forced romance, it doesn’t even factor into the show until the last few episodes
- Transitioning is sporadic (e.g. episode 11, 12)

P.S. Jurai stop being a Mr. Nice Guy and leading people on lol

By the command of the dark lord, I summon my power, Reviewer's Scope! Superpowers, we all want them. The ability to be able to fly freely or be able to lift something 10x your weight has been a fascination for many kids, and even some adults. But what happens when you ACTUALLY get superpowers, hmm? How would you react?

Story (6.99/10): The story of Inou-Battle follows the story of the literature club, five individuals that one day, get exposed by a flash of light, each of them ending up with a special power, each one different from the last. Now, ... with these special powers, the literature club must now cope with their newfound abilities in their ordinary lives.

Describing Inou's storyline in and of itself is a bit of an interesting thing to witness because compared to a normal superpower show, this one doesn't really utilize the character's perspective superpowers all that much. In fact, there are even some episodes that don't even mention or show the superpowers at all. This comes with a mix between pros and cons with the series, a mix that is both of equal parties.

Pros:

The series does follow a slice of life style of storytelling. It follows the lives of these five individuals and just generally how they live life. One thing that Inou does well in, is character exploration. All four of the girls featured do get a bit of backstory for each perspective girl (some more than others) and give each of them a little bit more depth to all of them as a whole. It's not a terrible amount, but it is some.

In addition, the show puts some realism to the idea of the characters' superpowers. While the show for the most part is comedic with the Chuunibyou lead, Andou being our main focus for comedic acts and memorable moments, Inou does delve into the idea of what it would be like to have superpowers in real life, not only focusing on the cool stuff you could do like mastering the elements like the Avatar, creating whatever you want out of thin air, or control time (to an extent), but about what kind of dark and inverse effects it could have on other people. On occasion, the show does make note of what kind of sinister effects have powers can have, which does add a nice twist to what would otherwise be a generic story.

Cons:

While the story does have some nice elements to it, there are some very glaring and obvious flaws to the story. One of the biggest ones happens at the 75% way mark of the series. In this point in time, the story takes a drastic turn, creating an explanation for how the powers came to be and how people in this world obtain them. Personally, I feel as if this explanation is unnecessary. The reason why is due to the fact that the way the show tried to explain the way people got their powers was horrendously incomplete. You don't really get the whole story as to why these powers exist and the whole explanation is rather incomplete and really beats down on the show's quality because of how little explanation you get when this show gives you this backstory.

In addition, transitions from one scene to another is some select scenes can be somewhat awkward to watch. They're not overly glaring, but they do exist.

Overall though, the show as a whole has a decent story for it. There are some good points to it, but there are some very obvious points about it that hinder the show as a whole. As for a story ending, there really isn't any sort of satisfying resolution aside from "established harem." It doesn't really have a completely satisfying end, and I'm a little sad for that.

Overview:
+ Good take on the superpower genre
+ Decent character development
- Unnecessary and under explained backstory
- Unsatisfying end

Characters (7.00/10): The characters for this show vary quite a bit, becoming a mixed bag that doesn't really quite work out.

First is Andou Jurei, our main protagonist. Andou is a bit of an interesting character because he's essentially a male Takanashi Rikka, infected with Chuunibyou. Being very ecstatic about being a Chuuni and referencing his dark powers on a near constant basis, Andou is very quick to make reference about his "dark power" just like a normal Chuuni. Andou is an interesting character because he doesn't really have all too much going on for him. We get some semblance for his backstory and he does have some interesting traits about him, but apart from that, he's really just a generic harem protagonist as he doesn't see the girls around him crushing on him and he's just mostly really nice.

And then we have the four harem girls of the series. Hatoko, Tomoyo, Chifuyu, and Sayumi. All four of these girls, like Andou, have a special power that they were granted without word or warning. In the series, all four of them get their own time with Andou, giving each of them a bit of character depth to them, making them more than just generic harem girls. However, they dn't really change all that much in terms personality or as characters. The depth that each of them receive is more or less a backstory to their character and how they are towards Andou. They're all decent characters, but in the end of the day, they really are just harem girls.

In addition, there's one girl that does also drag down the series as well, and that is the character Kudou Mirei. What really bothered me in this series is the fact that this specific character isn't really used all that much. She's a character that was featured heavily in the first few episodes, as well as the last couple. Aside from that, she's basically non-existent. The reason why I felt that this character was handled unfairly is because she technically is a harem girl and functions similarly to the other girls in the series, having both a special power and a crush on Andou. She's even featured in both the opening and ending songs, leading one to believe that she is an official harem girl. I felt sad seeing that we didn't really see so much of her because seeing more of her could've made a little more impact to the story because she posed as a character that was an outsider in a similar situation.

Aside from these characters, the side characters come in a wide variety of characters, that you barely see. To be quite honest here, the amount of side characters that you see here compared to the amount of time you actually see them is a lot to none. They don't really serve any purpose aside from building onto the dysfunctional and incomplete backstory for the idea of how people get superpowers, which in and of itself isn't thoroughly explained.

Overview:
+/- Somewhat decent main cast
- Lost potential with unused character
- Unneeded supporting cast

Art and Sound (7.79/10 and 7.00/10 ): The show was produced by Studio Trigger, the same Studio that made the ever popular Kill la kill. The show definitely is made in a nice looking and quality art-style, mostly using a somewhat moe artsyle in order to exhibit the characters, using a lighter gradient color scheme. The animation is definitely done rather nicely. There aren't any jarring moments in the series, and nothing in the series is particularly done wrong.

The music of the series is a group of decent tracks. There aren't things I would particularly say are fantastic about it aside from its upbeat nature and cheery tones. There're nice tracks to listen too, but they're not particularly memorable.

Overview:
+ Nice looking art
+ Decent soundtrack

Personal Enjoyment (8.00/10): Regardless of all of the flaws, Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de was a rather enjoyable show to watch. There was still a lot of nice parts about it that I enjoyed. There were nice tension moments between the characters that you don't ordinarily see in a lot of anime.

Did I like this anime?

There were a lot of nice parts about the anime that made it a lot better than I expected. There were a lot of moments in the anime that featured some really good character tension which was a huge plus in the series. In addition, they put a little bit of realism of the pros and cons of having superpowers, which gave a lot more depth to the idea and had characters cope with their newfound abilities, thus giving them more depth.

What didn't I like about the anime?

The anime still at the bottom line, played out as a generic harem, which is something I personally would like to not see considering that harems that don't follow the generic harem formula tend to be more better quality than the ones that do. In addition, the explanation for why the powers exist (Aka the great fairy war) makes basically no sense because it wasn't explored beyond maybe one episode and you don't really understand fully as to why things are the way they are. The audience follows the lives of the five main characters, it doesn't follow the makings of whatever the hell is going on behind the scenes, which is a major flaw for the series because it introduces an idea to the audience, while holding back because we as the audience, know jack about what is going on by the end of it.

Would I recommend this show?

There are some flaws to the series, some very, very major ones. But overall, the series isn't too belittled by its mistakes. It still manages to be a very enjoyable show, and while the characters aren't too insanely well developed, they still do have a decent amount of depth to them that make them interesting to a degree. If you want to watch a show that takes a different take on the idea of superpower genre, as well as a decently above average harem show, then this is worth the watch.

Overall Score: 7.30/10

Studio Trigger, the group who brought us Kill La Kill and Inferno Cop return with a more lighthearted comedy, Inou Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de, or When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace. (A mouthful, so I'm going to call it Inou Battle or WSBBC for short for the remainder of this review.)

This show, while maybe billed as harem, is a fun little Slice of Life (SOL) comedy effort, which is an adaptation of the light novel series by the same name. This adaptation is a first for Trigger, who has previously produced originals, however, this show retains their signature feel for incredible comedic timing and ... adds their personal touch to the source material without bending the story.

If you were expecting Kill La Kill 2 given the name "Supernatural Battles" and the Trigger logo slapped on this little prize, you're barking up the wrong tree. That said, let their reputation not be a hindrance to the enjoyability of this show, it is a quality product.

Story: 7
A group of high school kids, along with their elementary school friend discover one day that they have superpowers..but little do they know that they are a smaller part of a much larger scene. The powers don't take the center stage so much as the lives of the characters, and their relationships. This story focuses on their lives: as friends, club members, having crushes, love pentangles, and comedic antics. Inou Battle is SOL through and through, and it hits the mark just fine on that count.
*There are a couple of unresolved plot points by the end, but I attribute that to being left open to a new season/OVA

Art: 8
The show is well animated, and character design is good and fairly consistent. I found the show to be very crisp looking, and it's fairly vibrant, color wise. The humorous asides (characters butting in onscreen, giant angry heads, embarrassment shown in the form of a humorous death gag) are very Trigger, and accentuate the comedy.

Sound: 7
Nothing special here. BGM is a playful tune, or some light piano. Voice acting is competent, and sells the characters well. *a highlight is an impressive rant one of the characters goes on late in the series*

Characters: 8
Enter the Literature Club, Andou, Tomoyo, Hatoko, Sayumi, and honorary member, 4th grader Chifuyu.

Andou, who is hopelessly afflicted by Chuunibyou, (term for middle school syndrome, pretending one has a mystical power, with a personality to go with it) is our MC, and is a goofy, but caring person, and typically serves up a lot of comic relief with his Chuuni antics. Andou sometimes has moments of lucidity, where he gives insightful and introspective advice to his friends, and shows that he actually is a real person underneath his Chuuni persona. This being a romance/comedy, he's also the object of the affections of his female Literature Club members.

Tomoyo, our first girl, is of the tsundere persuasion. She has her insecurities, and among them is a hilarious flashback scene from her middle school past, a highlight for her of the show. She's a typically serious character who's a bit prone to overreacting and being self conscious.

Hatoko, lady number two is our lovably well meaning airhead. She doesn't always get the joke, and part of the fun for us are the misconceptions and awkward situations that arise therefrom.

Sayumi, who is the Literature Club President and resident Judo blackbelt is our tough, take-no-crap protagonist. Andou's chuuni antics typically invoke a "cut it out or I'll knock you out" death glare from Sayumi, and on several critical occasions, her scary serious side comes out to save the day. Suffice to say, the silent, strong type.

Lastly, we come to little Chifuyu. Chifuyu arguably has the most ridiculously overpowered ability of the group, and is absolutely the most unassuming. A 4th grader, she gets involved with the other kids because her aunt, a teacher of the other's, is too lazy to take her home, so she stays to play at the school. Chifuyu is keenly aware of Andou's Chuunibyou, and takes every opportunity to mercilessly chastise him about it.

Enjoyment: 9
This show brought back some nostalgic feelings about middle school/early high school romance, which really made the humor resonate with me. I laughed at a lot of the romance awkwardness, as it reminded me so much of my own life in days past.

Overall: 8
The title of the show is a great tongue in cheek reference to the story within. There are Supernatural Battles Within the Everyday (or Usual Daze), but the focus is less on on the battles and powers, and more on the everyday, SOL element. It's a bit of a jab at the magical girl trope, while still fulfilling what it set out to be. It's not pretentious, and it doesn't pretend to be what it isn't.

Wouldn't it be cool just to get superpowers one day? Think of the endless fun you'll be having when you can spew out black flames out of your hands or freeze time. While Inou-Battle certainly gave us ideas to how we could potentially use powers, I'm almost certain half of earths population would die in a matter of days thinking all of us could become Goku. With that said, the show was not what I expected it to be. I listed it off as a shounen with fights around every corner, but what do I get instead? I get a surprisingly laid back almost ... slice of life, if you disregard the powers, show with some interesting points.

Story(7/10): When the English translation of Inou-Battle was "When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace," I immediately became readied for a lot of fighting scenes. The show delivered about two to three which lasted about five minutes... After watching more episodes I dropped the idea of constant fighting and completely did a reset on my mindset of the show. The story is laid back and isn't really focusing about them having superpowers. It's more like I said, a slice of life where their everyday things as teenagers affect them like friendship and romance. The story doesn't pick up the pace about them having powers until near the end where the purpose of their powers are revealed. I'm going to give the story a bit of leniency because it has the potential to grow. The first season is almost like the introduction, where not much is happening, but a great deal is being made to explain what's going to happen.

Characters(6/10): The characters were an interesting bunch, even though at the start of the first episode you automatically knew all of them would fall for the Main Character. That's also where the show shows off the little drama it possesses. When a number of female leads fall for the main character, it usually doesn't start off well. There's going to be some that deny it, and some would explicitly state that they love him. While that could potentially lead to jealousy and broken friendships, they handle it out maturely. Now on to the Main Character, Andou. He's typically not what you'd expect from a high school student that still has chuunibyou. He's cunning, tactical, and mature when it counts. He calmly assessed their situation when they first got their powers, and ultimately kept everyone from losing their heads. While in a chuuni standpoint, he'd want to use his powers as much as possible, but he doesn't let fiction and reality affect him. He knows that there are boundaries which they should never tread on and that's the biggest surprise for me in this show. Characters like Tomoyo, Hatoko, Chifuyu, and Sayumi are just there to be in Andou's harem. They aren't given a really important role to the story other than they have powers. You could call them useful because they're the reason why Andou is level headed about their situation and they're the reason how Andou is as a character, but that's about it. Other characters such as their potential enemies in the future aren't really given much screen time, so saying something about them while blind isn't really much help.

Art/Sound(8/10): The art is really charming, it wouldn't work if the anime was going to be a fight fest between characters. It works as it is because how laid back the show really is. The colors are vibrant and cheer, which makes sense due to the shows true nature. Truthfully, I don't remember the sound much at all. It either blended in too well with the voice acting, or nothing really made an impression. However, even when I didn't notice it, the show wasn't handicapped by it. The overall steady pace the show was going didn't really need an amazing OST to leave an impression.

Enjoyment(7/10): While at first I had a different mindset when coming in to watch Inou-Battle, I ultimately learned I had to be flexible with the show and use the term "Don't judge a book by it's cover." I mostly enjoyed how Andou solves everything and acts as a balance for the rest of the main cast. It also could be funny at times seeing as how Andou can still use his chunni ways to solve problems, but they're well thought out for something that is suppose to be fictional.

Overall(7/10): The title could mislead a lot of people who want to try this show. They could be coming in with a totally different mindset and end up getting disappointed. My advice is to be flexible with the show. Unless you're really craving something that requires heavy fighting with lots of battles, then don't even touch this. If not, then I suggest you give this show a chance. It's a good way to bend a slice of life to where it's not so serious, but it still gives off that feeling when handling everyday life.

“Kanzaki Tomoyo, can you swear with certainty to God that superpowers don’t exist in our world?” So asks Andou Jurai of his friend Tomoyo, after she chastises him for pretending that superpowers actually exist. As Andou continues ranting about probabilities, another character sighs that there’s nothing worse than a defiant chuuni. Moments later, everyone watches in shock as a bright light appears in the room, and black flames erupt from Andou’s right hand.

This opening scene sets the table for the rest of Inou-Battle, a supernatural harem comedy adapted from Kota Nozumi’s light novel series. The mysterious light leaves each of the five main ... characters with a different superpower. The four girls, who also fill common harem archetypes, get the sort of powers schoolkids at recess always dream of having. The tsundere can slow or stop time, the team mom can heal and restore things, the childhood friend can manipulate the elements, and the loli can create matter out of nothing.

Then there’s Andou, whose power looks flashy and cool but is completely useless. His “Dark and Dark” flames (as he names them) aren’t even hot enough to burn anything, but he loves them anyway just because it means his dream of having superpowers has come true. Andou is the heart and soul of the series, a character whose goofy enthusiasm and defiant chuuni attitude carry Inou-Battle through many of its best and funniest moments. Refreshingly, he is also a rare male harem lead who pays attention to the thoughts and feelings of his female friends and isn’t a pervert. He’s also a good listener and surprisingly insightful sometimes.

The dual nature of Andou, his flashy but useless power and the goofiness that masks his best qualities, really sums up the whole series. Most of the time, Inou-Battle is smart and fun. Despite the setup, one of the running jokes is that the cast rarely need to use their powers for anything besides goofing off, because there’s nothing for them to fight. So for most of the series the “battle” part is pushed off to the side, while superpower-enhanced slice-of-life and harem comedy hijinks take center stage. The comedy can be very clever, and many common genre tropes, from loli fetishes to mistaken love confessions, are lampshaded and parodied to the hilt. Novice anime fans may not get all the jokes, but veterans will smile and laugh knowingly.

One of the things that makes Inou-Battle slightly frustrating, though, is that there are times when it teases greatness, going beyond the bounds of the harem comedy (or mocking it), to give us scenes that actually have something important to say. Unfortunately none of those scenes are followed up or explored further in any meaningful way, and each time things soon go back to the status quo. It seems like the writers, like their main character, are afraid of saying too much; they keep getting spooked and retreating back to safe ground again, like Andou retreating back to the chuuni persona that he’s most comfortable using to express his feelings.

As for the “battle” part itself, there actually is a larger world out there where other people have powers and really are fighting battles; unfortunately these scenes mostly come late in the series and get crammed in at odd moments, disrupting the flow of the narrative. So what could have been an interesting parallel background story if it had been better integrated from the start of the series ends up being little more than an unwelcome distraction instead.

Visually, Inou-Battle is decent. Although this is a Trigger series, their signature visual style is downplayed quite a bit in favor of a more standard-looking comedy show. It's not unpleasant to watch by any means, but compared to the best animation that came out this season, it's pretty ordinary. The OST is fairly anonymous, but the opening and ending songs are both catchy enough that I've found myself humming them occasionally. The voice cast, on the other hand, is very good; my favorites were Nobuhiko Okamoto as Andou, Haruka Yamazaki as Tomoyo, and especially Saori Hayami as Hatoko; the latter has one signature scene in particular that will be remembered for a long time.

Inou-Battle is at its best when it’s being a harem comedy for anime fans who don’t take harem comedies too seriously. It helps that all five of the main characters are quite likeable and intelligent, and they actually know how to talk to each other when a conflict arises, like real people. I’m not normally a fan of harem shows, but I enjoyed this series. It could have been much better, especially if it hadn’t messed up the secondary plotline, but overall it’s still good, and at least worth streaming if you think it might appeal to you. If Inou-Battle ever gets a second season, I will gladly watch more of these kids and their everyday lives.

I honestly don't understand how so many people give this anime raitings like 8/10 or 9/10. The thing is, when combining multiple genres that usually don't go so well together, you either get something amazing like Mikakunin de Shinkoukei (SoL+RomCom) or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Adventure+Horror+Comedy), either you get the pile on wank that is InoBato.

Story : 3/10

As I said before, combining genres is a hard thing to do. Due to the complete failure of InoBato, the story has an enormous amount of plot holes, undeveloped characters, shitty RomCom transmissions, and Plot Armour, a lot of Plot Armour.

[Potential spoilers]
Due to the failure of the combination, at ... episode 8 you get thrown a bunch of new terms and characters, clearly showing that the show was rushed as hell. The show never explains what "F" is, or how the "Fairy Wars" started, or about the rule that when you die with a super power you just become a normal human and lose memory. See? That's the problem with combining. You have a 12 episode show that needs to develop characters, have Harem, RomCom and SoL at the same time.

The "well done" parts aren't even good too. The RomCom is cringy, even though the show clearly spent 8/12 episodes on it. [Potential spoilers] You just have characters fall in love, and you have no idea why. The only ok relationship was Tomoyo, as she was developped through out the entire show.

Art : 8/10

I like the art style quite a bit. It's not the best looking anime, but it's not bad either.

Sound : 8/10

Well, voice acting was on point, thanks to the amazing voice actors. The opening is catchy.

Character : 3/10

Alright let's see. I did make a checklist for this. Tsundere? check. Deredere? check. Loli? check. Kuudere? check. Stone Wall? check. "Hey if our show is bad might as well appeal using other ways" is most probably what the directors thought.

As I mentioned before, characters lack of development. The entire "antagonist" group, even though they are not really antagonists, but hey, I have no idea who the good guys are, were never explained. The characters are fine up until episode 6-7, but then the mark nosedives to 3/10.

Enjoyment : 1/10

The only reason I watched this show, is because I had nothing better to do on the plane. I was very close to dropping it. In all honesty, it's not good.

Overall : 3/10

The show had a good start, but thanks to all the reasons I wrote about above, it turned into shit pretty quickly. I would not recommend it.

P.S : I have noticed something. This might be a bit farfetched, but I think the show/the light novel took quite a bit of inspiration from JoJo's and Touhou. The power names, the things the powers do, all seem to familiar. Fairy Wars is not a name you can hear often, and I have no idea why that name was chosen. Also some characters resemble some Touhou characters too. Sayumi looks exactly like Utsuho Reiuji, and some other character share resemblances. Not saying this is bad thing, but just pointing it out.

The chuunibyou has become quite a popular archetype in recent years. While there are several different types of this "disorder," the most common among anime characters is the Evil Eye chuunibyou, where one believes that they have special powers or special connections to the supernatural world. While this type of character has been around for a while, their popularity has exploded over the last few years, especially with the premiere of Kyoto Animation's Love, Chuunibyou, & Other Delusions, and the possibilities for this character archetype are multiplying rapidly. For example, what would happen if the ... chuunibyou in question, as well as some of his friends, ended up getting actual superpowers?

Taking place in the standard Japanese high school setting, our story focuses on Jurai Andou and his friends in the Literature Club. On a seemingly ordinary day, Andou and the others are suddenly granted strange and fantastic superpowers. Normally this would be an automatic setup for some kind of superhero story line about saving the world, but Andou and his friends don't seem to be interested in that at all, as they'd much rather use their powers in secret to have fun amongst themselves. From there, the story unfolds with the everyday lives of these students as they interact with each other and learn more about their powers.

The fact that they don't end up taking your standard superhero route ends up being a huge strength of the series. It almost reminds me of a more lighthearted version of the movie Chronicle. Not every kid is gonna want to immediately go out and be a superhero. Some of them might just want to mess around a bit, and that's what a good portion of the series is about. Unfortunately, the slower parts of the series were the ones where they introduced an overarching story line. There are a ton of other characters with superpowers in the background, and there's some kind of war going on, and it all gets really generic and convoluted. It's really weird how this series made five kids sitting in a club room more interesting than a looming war of supernatural powers.

That being said, the moments where it is just the main characters messing around are really enjoyable to watch. It's a big ball of fluffy, lighthearted fun with tons of laughs to be had. The humor of this series is spot on for the majority of its run time, with a lot of chuunibyou-related jokes thrown in everywhere. There are also quite a few serious moments in the show as well, and their lead-ins never feel forced or unnatural because they blend so well with the comedy, though sometimes the series is purposely jarring in tone for added effect. This brings us to episode 7, which might be one of my favorite episodes from any anime I've watched this season because it just completely shreds all of the fantastical elements surrounding the chuunibyou archetype and slams it headfirst into a wall of realism, showing us what it's like for people on the outside to try and interact with this character on an emotional level.

However, this isn't just a comedy series, as there is a very prominent "romance" label attached to this anime that soon evolves into a full-on "harem" label. While the harem elements are very light and nontraditional until the last few episodes, I would still call it a traditional harem despite the fact that there's actually very little fan service in this series. I should note as well that it's very rare for something other than a visual novel adaptation to have truly effective dramatic elements as part of its harem, and Supernatural Battles pulls off these moments surprisingly well. Unfortunately, much like other traditional harems, there is no conclusive ending yet, so I can't really give it any true praise until Andou actually makes a choice, so hopefully some additional seasons are on the horizon.

The characters initially seem very generic and standard at first. Andou is the full-on chuuni, Tomoyo is the tsundere, Hatoko is the childhood friend, Sayumi is the club president, and Chifuyu is the loli. However, as the story progresses, each of these characters has their own individual quirks and secrets that make them stand out from their usual stereotypes and turn them into much more interesting characters, with Tomoyo and Hatoko getting a rather excessive amount of focus. Unfortunately, we end up not getting as much information about how they feel about their own powers as I would have liked, so we don't really get to see how this might have changed them in some way.

The animation was produced by Studio Trigger of Kill la Kill fame, which is really odd considering that Trigger is known for purposefully breaking the mold of typical anime. The character designs are fairly generic, but still manage to be very appealing, while backdrops don't seem to do anything other than just exist. As for movement animation, Trigger's style of being purposefully low-budget can be seen practically everywhere, and I'm still not sure if this is a good thing or not. Purposefully making animation look sloppy still makes it sloppy, but they end up doing it in ways that actually works well with some of the comedic timing. As for the action and superpower scenes, they're relatively solid, but certainly nothing impressive.

There is no dub for this series yet, and I imagine it will probably stay that way, as the series is currently unlicensed. I feel that this one works better without a dub anyway, especially considering how much chuunibyou language is used throughout it.

The soundtrack was composed by Elements Garden, and I'm not gonna lie: this is probably one of the most annoying soundtracks I've heard in a while. It's not so much the fact that everything is super generic, which it is, but some of the musical cues felt very jarring and out of place. There was one particularly intense track that was unbelievably over-dramatic and kept getting worse and worse in its execution as the series went on. The opening theme "OVERLAPPERS" was performed by the four lead voice actresses of the series, while the ending theme "You Gotta Love Me!" was performed by Kato*Fuku, and both tracks provide incredible catchy J-pop tunes that are certainly worth a few listens.

Overall, while it did have quite a few elements that made it stands out from its genre peers, When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace still suffers from a few misplaced ideas and the lack of a proper soundtrack.