Etotama

Every 60 years, the heavens conduct a sacred ritual called ETM12. This custom involves selecting worthy Eto-musume—celestial beings representing different animals—to become one of the members of the Chinese zodiac, or Eto-shin. However, since the first ETM12 two thousand years ago, the original batch of Eto-shin reigns with no one being able to replace them.

Nyaa-tan is a cat Eto-musume who aspires to become a member of the zodiac in the ongoing ETM12. Fulfilling her ambition requires her to secure 12 seals, one for each Eto-shin. To that end, she must win various types of battles using Sol/Lull—divine energy created by people's positive emotions. This task is not easy however, as her powers as an Eto-musume are far below the abilities of a single Eto-shin. As such, she needs a constant source of energy.

But in a chance encounter, Nyaa-tan meets Takeru Amato, a man who has just transferred to the apartment where she is secretly staying. To Nyaa-tan's delight, Takeru discovers that he gives out high quality Sol/Lull—something that sets him apart from most people. With this, the story of Takeru and Nyaa-tan begins. As Takeru supports Nyaa-tan in her dreams, he meets the Eto-shin and begins to uncover a mysterious past.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Nyaa-tan Main

Murakawa, Rie Japanese

Uri-tan Main

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Amato, Takeru Main

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Moo-tan Supporting

Matsui, Eriko Japanese

Piyo-tan Supporting

Sasaki, Mikoi Japanese

Mei-tan Supporting

Fuchigami, Mai Japanese

Chuu-tan Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Shaa-tan Supporting

Nabatame, Hitomi Japanese

Inu-tan Supporting

Honda, Mariko Japanese

Dora-tan Supporting

Uchida, Maaya Japanese

Kinoshita, Tetsuya Producer

Oizaki, Fumitoshi Director, Sound Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Hirakawa, Takamitsu Director

Suzuki, Kaoru Episode Director, Assistant Director

Reviews

Jul 29, 2015

summerlights

Recommended

Etotama is fun, then its gets cool and it left me speechless of how good it is.

The only reason i'm placing such a high rating on what looks like some
shallow fanservice like anime is that... for me - its not like that at all.

Most people complicate things on how anime must have "this or that" level of animation, sound, blah blah blah for it to be good.

My only basis is solely
"did this anime teach me something important and did it well?"

... For me, Etotama delivered - it taught me how to have fun.

Story wise, its simple and easy to comprehend,
I actually appreciate how the show just keep pulling jabs left and right, especially with the moments that just makes you go WTF.

Animation is good, it just fits well especially when they do those "fun and stupid" things.
Although, the battle animation of this anime is on an entirely different level.

This thought just keeps popping on my head every episode:
"How can a moe anime have one of the best battle choreograhpy/animation ever made."


Sound, is well played.
The opening somehow got me hooked listening the first 10 seconds cause its catchy. ( i like the classical reference. )
The ending song, for me works, since its soothing and somehow appropriate on how this crazy show ends its episodes.
The Voice actors just delivered.
The BGM is appropriate.


Of course, alot of people have different opinions and even I would agree that this review is mostly biased.
But rather than looking at the "flaws" of an anime,
I'd rather point out what it did well.

Etotama is fun - and i'd recommend it to anyone who'd like to have a few laughs and enjoy the ride.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Oct 9, 2015

1stSlash

Mixed Feelings

I'll kick this review off by saying my final verdict of this show, if you happen to be intrigued as to why I wrote what I did, you can read further below to see my first, short analysis of an anime.

Etotama can be judged and brushed off as a regular harem series with very few intellectually advanced points, and to be honest, that is not very far from the truth. However, it is not often that we see a harem with such drive for its story (instead of dismissing it for fan service), as well as original elements like the 3D battles given in ... this anime.

Story (7/10):

The story was good, nothing ground-breaking or even great, but just satisfying. Each episode was certainly somewhat entertaining, even for a battle-of-the-day type of anime. Those types can get boring, but Etotama does it by sprinkling some comedy and downtime here and there. The battles themselves were great. Even though the outcome for each one is obvious, the variety of 'em is refreshing, going from standard brawls to shogi to races.

For the cons, the comedy is not for everyone: most people won't laugh out loud, a chuckle from time to time perhaps. It's not horrible, but it's not nearly good as it should be for a show qualified as a comedy above all else. Another thing, this one robbing the story some points, is the transition between comedy and the more serious moments. The show is ridiculous, it's meant to be that way... but it is hard to take the moments of conflict and hardships seriously with the atmosphere Etotama builds.

Art (8/10):

The strong point of Etotama. The regular art used in 80% of the episodes is fine, good I might add, not "knock-your-socks-out-10-feet" fantastic however. What does make the art an 8/10 is its use of CG battles. The animation during these is great, but more importantly, is something we rarely do see be this well done.

Sound (6/10):

Generic comedy show soundtrack. It sets the mood just fine, but no memorable tracks who could boost the score higher than the average.

Characters (5/10):

This can go one way or the other for anyone, and can turn your opinion of Etotama from: "Eh, alright" to "I want a season 2 soon". Here's why:

Main Characters: You have your female protagonist, whose personality is hit or miss. You will either love her or dismiss her as the standard hyper loli who-loves-her-friends stock character. The male protagonist is not much different, he doesn't offer anything new to the anime table, and in all honestly is just a standard wasahii-onii-chan-archetype character.

Supporting Cast: It's a harem, what do you expect? You'll have most personalities types you see in anime covered: twins, submissive, athletic, idiot, loli, glasses, pervert, crybaby, and many more.

The problem here is whether or not you will judged the characters as "already seen this before" or just take them for what they are and enjoy the show. As mentioned before, this will most likely be what sells it for you or makes it a "no no".

Personal Enjoyment (6/10):

I didn't enjoy Etotama, I didn't dislike it either. The original battles scenes intrigued me, and I think I may have had fun here and there, but that isn't enough for me to qualify it as good. I am, however, highly biased, as I entered the show with a mindset of "this is a wish-fulfillment anime for people who want to wake up one day and find a group of cute girls in their room".

Overall (6/10) and Verdict:

If you like the cast after the first couple of episodes, hey, you'll probably enjoy this one. To the others, you may want to turn tails, or just watch the "eh", with a dozen "ahhhh", for 12 episodes. In both cases -and this is my opinion- there are ALOT of better things out there to watch, and unless you're just trying to relax and unwind after whatever you might be doing, you should probably search for something with more enjoyability (is that even a word?).

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 2, 2015

OtakuVoice

Not Recommended

First of all this is how I honestly felt about the series. It could be seen as a rant however I back up the claims that I could be seen as ranting with events and why I didn't like it in the series.

Story overview:
Etotama's story is about a cat character Nyaa that wants to join the Chinese Zodiac such as the synopsis states.

Sounds like a good idea right? That's what I thought but the comedy so far just ruins the episodes. The comedy is really the same thing with them breaking down the 3rd wall with saying "between episode 1 and 2" as well as ... fan service every now and then. I don't mind them breaking down the 3rd wall if it done in a fresh comical way such as Blood Lad when he was bringing up examples of the events being something found in a shounen manga and reference to Dragon Ball Z. Etotama could have been more creative but seemed to go for low brow comedy. As I stated the ecchi between characters seemed to be way over the line to point it was coming close to the level found in Queen's Blade. I did find the comedy with the Chicken zodiac to be funny.

Animation/Art:
The downside of the animation is really the seal battles. The animation goes from "meh, not really my style" to downright "what are they thinking?" I think that the animation could have been better if the didn't drop normal animation to CGI for the fights. Of course the CGI could have worked if it was more like the CGI used in Accel World instead of really seeming to be a huge drop off.

Sound:
The sound was the only decent thing about the series. The voice acting really fits the characters and the battles had great sound effects in the background. The only issue I have with the sound is the music and sound effects seemed to be deeply buried in the background when theres speeching and I can honestly say I wish they kept things more balanced.

Characters:
The characters could have been better but it goes back to the story which is the comedy really put me off with the characters. This happened with the perverted character of School Rumble. I start to like them then all of a sudden they make a joke and it just puts me off of them. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has this happen to them if not in this series then should be in another series.

Enjoyment:
I did not enjoy this series but I had to keep watching it because new profile so I'm trying not to have more dropped than completed series. I'm not attacking anyone's tastes that loved the series I watched this series with an open mind, skipped reading reviews as the series was airing and after each episode I took time to reflect on what I just seen. I tried to find the good but more times than not I couldn't find one. I can say that this is going to be one series I'm not going to buy or re-watch. Once is more than enough for me.

Overall:
Overall I loved the overview from outline. I loved that the series had an original story and not resorting to a magical girl or someone has magic powers and have to save the world. I can say that I can praise it for the original attempts but the other sections had things that I didn't like which is why I can't really give it a good score because I take all negatives into account and it wouldn't be an honest review if I gave it an 7 or 8 out of 10 when I honestly didn't like the series.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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