Joukamachi no Dandelion

All the daughters and sons of the king
Were one day forced into competing
To see who'll take the crown
And inherit the town
It's a tough job for every sibling

So the lot of them started campaigning
With the hope of some supporters gaining
Since the people would choose
Not only who would lose
But also the next king to be reigning

They were all being watched at all hours
Everywhere except maybe the showers
They were shown on TV
For the townsfolk to see
As they exercised their super powers

Oh yes, one of the siblings could fly
And another one could multiply
One could summon a chair
As if out of thin air
If her bank account doesn't run dry

And thus each and every single scion
Sought to be someone you could rely on
But life will find a way
It's just another day
In the Castle Town called Dandelion


Joukamachi no Dandelion is a rare series in the sense that it is effectively the anime equivalent of a celebrity variety show. Originally a 4-koma manga, the story follows the royal Sakurada family, consisting of the king and queen as well as their nine children. However despite the tiny country seemingly being a monarchy, the actual decision on which one of the princes and princesses will become the next heir to the throne is done by an entirely democratic process. They have to go campaigning in the streets and make political speeches in order to attract voters and then hopefully win the upcoming election and thus become the next king. To aid this, there is a total of 200 security cameras distributed throughout the town which follow the Sakuradas’ every move and broadcast it immediately on national TV for the population to see. So it’s basically a sitcom in that sense.

To add to that already quite erratic premise, all the Sakurada children also have their own individual super powers for whatever reason, including gravity control, instant learning, teleportation, object creation, mathematical future prediction, self-cloning, manipulation of biological growth, superhuman strength, as well as communication with animals and even inanimate objects. In short, there’s a lot of variety in this anime and it does a surprisingly good job at giving each of the Sakurada siblings a respectable amount of screen time and characterization.

Because of its 4-koma origins, the anime consists of many smaller parts and most of the episodes are divided into two, sometimes even three short stories instead of a single one spanning the entire episode. Despite this however, it still manages to progress the overall election process fairly well throughout the anime. The shorter segments also mean that the large number of main characters still all get a decent amount of storytelling dedicated to them individually, which helps a lot.

I don’t think you can really call anyone a protagonist in this story, but the one who gets the most screen time is Akane. She’s a very typical HanaKana moeblob who is pretty much the spitting image of Onodera Kosaki to me. I have a bit of a problem with her in the sense that she’s so unbelievably shy that sometimes when she gets embarrassed even I’m starting to feel awkward just by watching her, which ticks me off a bit. But either way there are a ton of characters in Dandelion so I’m pretty sure everyone will find at least someone amongst them which they can grow fond of.

Overall, Joukamachi no Dandelion is hardly a masterpiece by any means, but it manages to stand out a bit from your typical slice of life comedy due to its unusually hectic premise and story. If nothing else, I have almost nothing straight-up bad to say about it, which is more than I can say for most anime.

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Joukamachi no Dandelion;in English, Castle Town Dandelion, is an incredibly enjoying and fun anime to watch. Despite the story being simple, the show manages to bring out elements of development throughout the entire series, which many animes have failed to do so.

The Story is simple. Even though the Super Power Genre has been added into the series, it was used very differently compared to other animes, the story does not revolve around the super power, but instead on the daily lives of the 9 characters. Hence, the 'Slice of Life' Genre.

The sound used in the anime befits the anime a lot, the OST are cheerful, and fun, or perhaps at times calming. These OST are used properly at the right time, the OST had never felt or sounded weird to me even once, so it's definitely a Plus to the anime. The Opening and Ending are really catchy as well, I've never skipped it even once, hopefully many of you will think so too.

The Art is just... magnificent LOL. The art is incredibly consistent and bright, it's incredibly pleasant to look at, and it also brings out the Moe of the character to it's best. If you're looking for an anime with really good art, this anime certainly wouldn't fail to reach your expectations.

Now for the main factor which led to me giving a high score to this anime... the Characters.
The Characters are simply unique, even though their types might be common and seen all about in the anime industry, their personalities differ from these types, and their added sense of duty and responsibility also further shines upon their character.
Each character are different from the rest, there is never a character whom I found boring, from the Benevolent Shiori, to the Shy Akane. Personally, Shu is one of my favorites in this show, his character varies a lot, he's not Denser than the periodic table like the majority of the cohort in anime, nor is he one dimensional. In fact, he consistently displays a unique approach towards dealing with things, which aren't easily seen in many animes nowadays.
And Most importantly, all the characters develop throughout the series from experiencing things, so they're never constantly displaying the same attitude nor behavior throughout the series, which is a Major Plus for me, as I tend to determine a Show's true worth through it's characters and their Development.

In Conclusion, I'd Highly recommend this anime to anyone who enjoys Slice of Life, or wants a peace of mind from their stressful lives.
Ciaos, I hope you will make the decision to watch the anime after reading my review. :D

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~Joukamachi no Dandelion~

- Story - 6 - [Supernatural is not for Action it's quite Unique]
It's a two story in one episode, but it was executed well.
The story is very Simple, but the Lessons you can get are the Hidden Message of this Anime. It's very good, the execution is well done and the plot is not all over the place.
The story is very predictable, but the characters aren't, they've changed a lot.
In terms of Adaptation over Originality, the Anime is way better, and the pacing is good.
It's an anime that focuses on Character Development and Supernatural Slice of Life, but the Hidden element of this story is the best, Being a Fun Royalty.
So far they've used Flashbacks, First-person Narration and Magical realism as their literary techniques.
The Ending was Epic, It was one of the Best! The last episode have shown Principles and Dignity, and the best Conclusion to close the Anime, Overall it's the Best Slice of Life you can get this Year. I love Anime that can bring up their Specific genre, and to make an Unexpected Events, and this one was able to Check that Box, The box of Unpredictable Events, Anime with Sense, Nice comedy and not exaggerated, One of the Best Light Series This Year. If this is a dark anime, this is Par on Fate/Zero, which the Dark Version of this one.

- Art - 7 - [expressions sometimes leads into incest feeling if you're watching]
The art is clean, it meets the expected standard of an anime.
The art was able to express the fitting mood, especially the characters expression. And it fits in the Story.
They didn't mixed any CGI or Live Action Clip, mostly 2d with few 3d art styles.
The animation is really smooth, especially when the characters Power Up
The art style is very clean from the start, and the Background and the fits the anime, especially for the beautiful scenes.
The Character Design is the Best Art in this Anime, they fit so much that it will make you smile when you see them.
The Character Design is unique, and none of them are repetitive, or based on other works, they've even showed the genealogy of each character, which makes me smile.

- Sound - 6 - [it lacks in many moments, but was able to enter important scenes]
The Characters have the Best Voice Actors/Actresses, they fit so much that it will make you happy.
The seiyuus doesn't need to adapt, and they were able to play them perfectly
And I think, the seiyuus enjoyed this short anime.
I wanna see them playing their role outside the anime studio or during it's record.
The background music always fits the mood, it always catch my attention
But I wasn't able to found any uploaded OSTs which I plan to use if I will read slice of life manga,
The opening and the ending song are really Light, they promote Happiness.
Though it's not catchy for me, because I love Dark and Metal Songs.

- Character - 8 - [the greatest piece in this anime which is absent in many animes]
The characters here are the best, They have their own personality with Strength and Weaknesses, and most of the time, they will make you smile.
The characters always react in realistic way in normal circumstance, but as I said, it's a supernatural anime, but they've used their power in the realistic way.
The characters are relatable, they have shown their strength, but not their powers, but on how they use them. And they've shown their weaknesses when they are in trouble in life. Lastly, they've always helped each other
And the Best in this Anime, is the Character Development. They've developed so much more than what I expected. They've conquered their own weaknesses and was able to changed for better. And they were able to show their Dependable side to people.
The main characters always stands out, but the background people was able to bring the best role for their scene like: Surprised Reaction
Though I didn't see any antagonist in this anime, the siblings fight for Royal Candidacy, but they fight Fair and Just. But there's no Psychological and Action in this anime, just plain Supernatural Slice of Life.
The Supporting Characters can par against the Main Characters in terms of Role Playing. They were able to produce the best fitting Supporting Characters needed for some occasions or scenes for each Main Character in this anime.
They've have used First Person Narration: the Main Characters are ones who narrates the story.
The Characters are very Likable, you will love them because of their Values, each of them have developed in the story, better than I expected.
I will remember the characters in the story, but not as an individual, but as a Happy Family with Values to Learn [Super Royal Family]

- Enjoyment - 9 - [one of the best relaxing animes]
The people who loves Comedy, Seinen (Philosophical), Slice of Life, Super Power will love this.
I think this one fits for Teen Newbies, or non anime fan.
This is really good if you want to watch some scenes, or to re-watched the whole anime.
And I think it is still enjoyable to re-watched this anime even it is predictable.
This is an Anime that should be stored/remembered as a Relaxing/Happy/Light Anime.
The Values(Philosophies) of this anime is the bests that marked my mind/heart. But I think I might forget this anime, but not the character's principles and the Family. I've just watched this to kill time and stored this for comedy relief if I will read/watch Dark and Intense Manga/Anime.

- Overall - 8 - Fair and Fine [this is par on many great animes, just go to my profile]
How it was DONE. IT did the Best Thing it can Do. this is already a Good Score in my Rating Style. It was able to bring out its Potential in this Manga. Art meets the mood, sometimes it can create a misunderstanding like "Twincest" which is not really true, and the sound was able to enter its scene especially in the Romantic Scene of Shuu. the story is nothing special but it's relaxing, but the Character Development is something that should be present in Many Animes and Mangas. It has Philosophical Values and was able to simplify it for general audiences.

- Worth - 5 - Philosophical Hierarchy [doesn't abused their authority and always gets along with the commoners] [simple creative]
This anime is worth for its Philosophical Aspects that are not present in many animes. It was Able to turn almost all characters in 180 degrees. It's an example of Characters>Story/Art/Sound, so I really Enjoyed this Show. This is a Recommendable Anime. just go to my account if you're Curious about my Rating Style.

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Last day I entered in my typic watch-anime-online-free-with-tons-of-publicity webpage and saw that the last episode of this series had been shown. I got pretty interested on a slice-of-life of princes so I started watching it.

I finish it and I am very surprised in really different ways. Firstly for the character development. Even being really simple, pretty normal, it was really amazing. But not one for one, but all together. Those clichés characters all together makes the show really funny and interesting to watch. For me. This is the best thing of the anime so far.

Secondly, for a simple reason: This is the type of series I like saying it can't be a masterpiece or an horrible show because it hasn't got actually any hide pontetial or truly weakness. The story is pretty simple. 12 episodes does not do magic, and this is the perfect example. If someone is looking for a truly amazing plot on a comedy/slice-of-life/romance series. This won't be yours.

Art and sound didn't surprised actually. The drawing was good but the soundtrack was really bad. I don't remember any song and opening and ending didn't surprised me either.

An anime with highs and lows that I wouldn't actually recommend you if you haven't still watched other better previous shows.

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