Gakusen Toshi Asterisk

Gakusen Toshi Asterisk is a series which starts off as one of the most uninspiring anime I've ever seen throughout its first few episodes, but past a certain point it starts improving quite rapidly. Granted that doesn't really say very much given how mediocre the opening is, but despite the lackluster start it manages to make a quite impressive comeback and eventually become a pretty enjoyable anime.

First things first though, episodes 1-4 of Asterisk didn't exactly give me a very good first impression because they are *painfully* generic. Like if you've seen any typical action/fantasy/ecchi/harem magic academy anime before, you should know roughly what clichés ... to expect, and I'll just say that initially Asterisk has effectively all of them. Our protagonist Ayato transfers into a new school and walks in on the tsundere female lead Julis in her underwear within 3 minutes of the first episode and 'accidentally' grabs her breasts, he meets his new classmates and immediately becomes surrounded by a bunch of girls who fall in love with him for whatever reason, he's given a powerful magic sword which he just so happened to be the 'chosen one' to wield and thus becomes super overpowered... you get the idea. Basically it's all been done countless times before and I'm really getting sick of it at this point. As a side note there's also this one scene which blatantly rips off the light sabers from Star Wars for some reason, even the sound effects were completely the same... well whatever.

Anyway, then starting from episode 5 (what I presume is the beginning of the second volume of the light novel), something happens to this anime which slowly but surely turns it into something different. And it comes with the introduction of a girl named Kirin; a very shy and nervous girl, yet also the top-ranked student in the school in terms of fighting prowess. The story starts putting a surprising amount of focus on her character and backstory, and in the process it downright sneakily goes *away* from the abundance of overused clichés it had in the first few episodes. Suddenly the amount of fanservice and romcom shenanigans is severely toned down, and instead we actually get some real depth and character development. Sure, it only really involves Kirin herself and our protagonist Ayato, but it was still a breath of fresh air compared to just having content I've already seen a hundred times before in other anime. And plot progression aside, I personally found Kirin to be by far and wide the most likeable girl in Asterisk's character cast anyway so I guess it was a win-win scenario in that sense.

Now I haven't read the light novels of Asterisk, but based on the contents of the anime I'm presuming it's covering every volume in 4 episodes each. And thus I was a bit worried that it'd start to get worse again after the anime had finished up on the contents of volume 2 which seemed to be the Kirin-focused one. Fortunately however that didn't turn out to be the case, as starting with episode 9 we finally get into what I guess can be called the 'main' story of this series. Introducing the Festa: a grand series of tournaments where the students of the six different magic academies in the city of Asterisk fight each other to showcase their talent and technological development. The price they're all fighting for is the opportunity to have any one wish of theirs granted. Naturally, Ayato and the girls are competing as well. Normally I'm not a fan of action in ecchi anime since it tends to end up rather incompatible with its own fanservice, but Asterisk does a respectable job at keeping the two sides separate from one another. As a result, the duels in the Festa are actually not that bad, and A-1 Pictures' are not exactly newbies when it comes to creating fancy special effects in shounen battles, so the visuals are pretty decent too.

When Gakusen Toshi Asterisk started airing, I considered it one of my least favorite shows of the season. Not that it's finished however; I'd say it's a perfectly acceptable show. Not anything amazing by any means of course, but if you just want an easily enjoyable way to spend 20 minutes every weekend... then this anime pulls it off very well. Discounting the generic and unimpressive opening, it has pretty decent fight scenes and production value, as well as good characterization for at least part of its cast. Oh and for you pervs out there who are just intending to watch this for the ecchi tag, I'd recommend you to look somewhere else; Asterisk really doesn't have very much of that at all.

I cannot make a proper evaluation of the story as a whole though for the simple reason that... well this is a split-cour. At the time of writing this we've still only gotten to see half of what the anime has to offer, with the second season airing in Spring 2016. However the Festa is a huge event, and there's plenty of action left to showcase on that front, so the second cour might very well be even better than the first. Fingers crossed.

Well, here is my honest opinion about Gaskusen Toshi Asterisk. It's to short for it's own good. It tries to give a good and a little complicated story and plot, but because of it's short run time (will change when the new season comes out in april 2016 hopefully) the goal of the plot becomes unknow. I mean sure, so far its about a group of magical warriors who fight in a tag team fight tournament and the winner(s? not sure) can make their/his or her wish come true if it is in the power of the current world to fulfilll.

In the end of the ... season they teaser that something might have happend to the protagonist his sister and that we might know the villian. I am looking forward to the second season to find out what will happen, but thats also the problem. The first season doesn't make much sense without the storyline yet to come and thats why i can only give it a 6 for now (might review this season again after next season has aired)

Story: 4/10

Story focuses on students who are wielders of some kind of Light Sabers thanks to some kind of super powers they posses (they didn't explained them at all). Eventually they take part in big tournament where they fight 2 vs 2 with other students. They dreams may come true as a prize cause everyone have some kind of desire.

In reality it's another, typical harem with story focused on grand tournament where our MC's have to win! There's nothing special, the romance is bad, ecchi is bad, harem ain't good at all..

Characters: 3/10

Well.. It's even worse than story. Our Protagonist-Kun is typical, boring MC who ... doesn't have "eggs" at all. Literally, hot girl invites him to stay a night and he refuses.. Other than him we have mentioned by me Princess-kun who is tsundere and is also typical harem character. We also have little, no booby childhood friend who lacks expressions and is jealous of booby-one girl our Protagonist-Kun met during his school time.

For real I enjoyed side characters way more.. even If they air time is like 10 minutes in total.

Music: 5/10

It's nothing special but it's not that bad. Voice acting is just okay, altho i don't like Princess-kun voice. Sounds are meh, BGM is meh. Techno-like music during fight is okay. Overall music is just decent, okay?

Art: 6/10

Basically this is the strongest part of the show.. Animations and fights are good.. of course i've seen way better animations but I'm gonna let it be. Art is pretty standard, nothing special. Character design is not good, standard harem set. I liked side characters design more, for instance our Vampire.

Enjoyment: 6/10

The score is high because i like that kind of shows when I am kinda bored and some fight and story of Vampire is quite good for me but that's just my opinion.

Overall: 5/10

Tl;Dr:

It's standard harem story with bad romances and nothing special in it. Literally everything is just okay and nothing more. It's decent anime which you can try when you are bored or you're really out of other titles.

Early impression after 5 episodes.

Story - bland story about the typical underrated protagonist starting at a new school with underlying hidden power waiting to be unleashed. He forms an early friendship with a new student who happens to be highly rated, with minor romantic elements. The setting however is interesting and is similar to Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei with a mix of technology powering somewhat magical powers (note that the director is the same as Mahouka - Manobu Ono)

Art - The character design is par for the course for 2015. I did enjoy the few fight scenes.

Sound - I think the OP and ED sequences ... are done well but the soundtrack doesnt stick in my mind.

Character/Enjoyment - after 5 episodes the series is at a crossroads in my mind. For the current season, it is being compared heavily with Rakudai Kishi no Calvary, since both started in similar fashion. However currently Gakusen is falling behind the former in that development is slow and the absence of significant 'hooks' in the story, either comedy, romance or tension is quite noticeable, compared to Rakudai which after episode 3 is really powering on.

Overall - I will probably keep going for at least 2 more episodes and will post an update. The story is run of the mill, but the show has good production values and an interesting setting so I'm hoping that they do something with it. Above all, there needs to be some sort of viewer involvement in the story, so I'm hoping they at least advance either romance, more twists or some character development. I'm still hoping they can salvage this series which seemed interesting in the first 2 episodes.

Someone out there is passionate about this show. But it's not me. Recommended for anyone looking for a show to indifferently binge on and go to sleep to, honestly.

Uninspired settings, trope-y characters, heavy CG reliance. You get all that in one show, a show that is probably contributing to the slow death of anime in the modern era, really.

That all said, the fight scenes are pretty all right. None of them truly stand out for me now that it's been weeks since I've seen the show, but the fight scenes are quite decent; I just don't remember any if someone were to ask.

Visually, ... the show is saved by being so new. It doesn't have Fate/Zero levels of budget to be sure, but manages to look okay. Second and third-rate anime from ca. 2010 and beyond generally look good and clean.

And yes, I will watch the second season.

First look
That anime is just a ordinary harem with some mix of romantic.You can see nothing interesting,cause there are lots of cliches in anime . Fanservice realization is shitty,ecci elements are presented too bad at all.After several of watched episodes, relations between Ayato and girls ,who are always surrounding him, are becoming too boring to you.Major time of that anime(75-80%) you can see only THESE simple romantic relations.It is a copy of other anime with similar genre.

The plot(can contain spoilers)
Beginning is looking like: "main hero accidentally running into girl and see her without any clothes.Then she is suggesting him to take ... part in duel,cause she wanna revenge for that accident.Of course,Ayato accepts it and wins.And relations between Ayato and Julis begin..."And so on...So typical for harems.
The plot is predictable and very simple. IT IS A GREAT CHELLENGE TO END WATCHING OF ALL EPISODES OF SUCH ANIME!

In conclusion i would like to say that anime is boring and simple.I don't recommend you to watch it.

Gakusen Toshi Asterisk is your typical anime to watch to kill boredom. Not quite special, not too good and not too bad either. Future-themed anime with one overpowered main character that is surrounded by multiple girls that vary in boob sizes and the basic "anime girl" characters at the most. Of course this piece of work has it's brighter sides. Seems like there is an interesting romantic character development bewteen the two of the main characters which kind of kept me watching until the end of this season. There are two more characters, Saya and Kirin, which I think deserved a bit more attention in ... this season. Sometimes it felt like they were being excluded on purpose so the main storyline could develop more but that, in my opinion, didn't really work out as the end, or rather the "point" of the end was disappointing in some ways. To be honest I didn't hop into watching this anime with any expectations at all, all I can say is that it definitely could be better. Fair piece of work, strong 6/10 in my case.

As I have just finished the final episode today, this is a quick review of the first season

There is spoilers ahead so you have been warned

Genres - action, comedy, ecchi, harem, fantasy, romance, sci-fi, school, supernatural

What I Liked about the show -
1 - Some of the Action/fighting scenes in the show were quite good
2 - I loved watching the Post credit scenes with Claudia at the end of every episode

... Dislike -
1 - Too clichéd with all of the other action/harem animes (everything from the story to the characters involved)
2 - the ending seemed a bit anti climatic to me, now wondering if season 2 will help make up for the ending of Season 1

Favourite Character - My favourite character from this show is Claudia, this is because that she is the only one who is not annoying and is enjoyable

Overall - 6/10

When you look at the genre tags, it’s poster and watch the PV’s for Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, the first thing that may come in your mind is “Wait, didn’t I already watch this already”. Yes, yes you have, and this anime is nothing special. Hell, there is another anime this season that has a similar premise and presentation. Yet it is able to entertain, even with its “seen this before” premise and its generic tropes used. Though a flawed anime, it’s guilty pleasure anime may please some, though it may disinterest others too. Nevertheless, its high production values are sure to pull in some viewers ... in.

~{Story}~
The plot focuses on Amagiri Ayato and how he transfers to Seidoukan Academy to find his missing sister, or it was supposed to focus on that. The anime quickly crosses out that storyline for the sake of focusing on Ayato teaming with with Julis, a rapier-wielding love interest for the protagonist, and together they compete in the Phoenix Festa. Along the way, Ayato meets other competitors such as Saya and Kirin, who are all just here to be added in Ayato’s harem list. And… that’s it! It’s as generic as it sounds. As obvious as it is, Gakusen Toshi Asterisk’s story isn’t its strong points. It would have been a lot better if the story focused on Ayato’s lost sister rather than the festival, as the festival storyline is filled with “seen this, done that” type of stuff. However it’s not terrible, as it still works. However this is just the first half of what they will present to us, so hopefully its second half ends up breaking its generic storyline in half.
Story: 4/10

~{Presentation}~
As a fantasy action, ecchi, harem, school anime, it does exactly what it’s supposed to do. Main characters competes with skilled opponents, proves he’s the stronger one, gets all the ladies, and rinse and repeat. A-1 Pictures probably didn’t have an issue doing this anime as they have done things like these before. However, as expected from A-1 Pictures, the production value for this anime is splendid. And this anime doesn’t seem like it wants to escape from its generic tropes as its having a fine time standing out because of its quality production values. Those who are fans of the genres this tackles will have a fine time with Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, but those who aren’t aren’t going think differently about these types of anime after watching this; it might just make it worse.
Presentation: 4/10

~{Character}~
Gakusen Toshi Asterisk consists of one main male character and a near-handful of female characters, because it’s a harem, what did you expect! Ayato is your typical fantasy-harem protagonist. He’s an underrated competitor and most of the girls go gaga over him. He is particularly that interesting as he doesn’t stand out much compared to other protagonists of similar series. The main female character, Julis, is also quite typical, cliché-driven too. They try to add a backstory for her to make her seem like a developed character, but it ends up ineffective. There are other female characters such as Claudia (I have no idea why she’s so interested in Ayato) who is your typical “horny-for-protagonist” type of character, Saya, who is your typical emotionless girl who believe she deserved to be with Ayato because she knows hime more, and Kirin is your typical deredere kohai who gained self-esteem and confidence from the protagonist. As I probably mention before repeatedly, the characters feel very typical and their interactions between one another is nothing special considering it is an ecchi-harem. However, since the female characters are attractive, fun-enough, and cute, they end up being likeable, even if there characters you’ve seen before.
Character: 6/10

~{Art}~,
A-1 Pictures doesn’t disappoint again as the art is beautiful in Gakusen Toshi Asterisk. The colors are vivid and a treat to the eye. The backgrounds are well detailed and it’s just gorgeous to look at. The character design is also really good, and they help the characters be a little more interesting than they actually are. However, even the art style is very typical. It’s the same type of art you would expect in a fantasy-school anime, but it works well. The character designs, though great, are still “seen this already” type of character looks. Never has this anime made me think that they could have made the art better here.
Art: 7/10

~{Animation}~
Animation quality is also fantastic. The style is the same as every other fantasy school anime, but it works very well. Everything is very smooth and it looks gorgeous. Fight scenes were also animated really well. Although some fights were cut short in length, that’s not a fault for the animation. A-1 Pictures tends to give all their best when it comes to animating anime and Gakusen Toshi Asterisk is no exception. Production values are top-notch and it’s one of the bigger redeeming points of the anime. If you’re not a fan of these types of anime, at least try it out for the animation quality.
Animation: 7/10

~{Voice Acting}~
The voice acting is good in this anime, though really nothing special. Ayato is voiced by Tamaru Atsushi and he gets the job done. He’s nothing too special, and he isn’t than well know either. Interestingly, he voice acts another ecchi-harem protagonist this season; Kimito from Shomin Sample. Kakuma Ai voices Julis and she does a decent job with the character. For most of the time, she gives a masculine tone to Julis which is nice to see, and is able to make Julis have a deredere tone is a quick second. Claudia is voice acted by Touyama Nao, who happens to be one of the more well-known seiyuu of the cast, does a really good job making Claudia sensual and lusty. Izawa Shiori does Saya, and she also does a very good job being emotionless (it doesn’t really require much skills, does it?). Ozawa Ari does a great job of being cute adorable for Kirin. Overall it’s a decent job from the cast, even if it’s them following tropes to fill in for their characters. Some characters were teased at the end for the second season, so I’m hoping I’ll find some characters I really care about.
Voice Acting: 5/10

~{Music}~
The anime’s opening is pretty good and it built up on me more and more every time I watched it. It’s got some pretty catchy beats, however it’s the type of anime that will be in every other fantasy, school, harem anime. The ending is also really good. Actually, I like it better than the OP. It’s solemn and beautiful. However, it totally doesn’t match the anime much. The background music is okay, nothing too great. The techno beats used during fights are mediocre, nothing that will boost your adrenaline. That is prettt disappointing, considering most of A-1 Pictures anime consists of good OST, especially ones that are similar to Gakusen Toshi Asterisk. Not to mention than A-1 Pictures didn’t do the greatest with Subete ga F ni Naru’s OST either.
Music: 5.5/10

~{Enjoyment}~
The anime is enjoyable at times, but mostly it gets irritating as it feels like as if I’m already seen this before. The cliché-driven presentation, the story being unfocused at time, and characters being rehashes of what we’ve seen before make me disinterested about this anime. However it’s high production value pull me back in. And even if it’s typical, it’s typical for a reason; because people still find these entertaining. Luckily it was well paced, even with some episodes there just do waste time.
Enjoyment: 5/10

Overall, Gakusen Toshi Asterisk is a decent anime that gets to be entertaining enough, even with its rehashed presentation because of its production values and animation quality. However, we only got to see half of what Gakusen Toshi Asterisk has to offer, we’ll get the rest on spring. And hopefully it will be better, more enjoyable and will make this season look like more of a buildup of what it has to offer.

+ Fantastic production values
+ Gorgeous art and animations
+ Though cliché-driven, it’s still somewhat enjoyable due to a cute cast.
+ The OP and ED are great.
- Plot is really nothing special at all, and it doesn’t focus on its main plot at all.
- The characters are very typical and generic, even if they look good.

Overall: 5.4/10

Despite the obvious flaws of having a generic, weak, uninspiring plot and being filled with fan-service-y scenes... Not to mention it has harem...

Despite all of that, I thought the characters in Asterisk are pretty cool. They have thoughtful discussions and face their problems in a reasonable manner, unlike most other shounen anime where people collide and scream at each other for no apparent reason. The MC also isn't annoying and emotionally naive like, again, most other shounen anime's MCs. Those traits for me are a big plus.

Even if the story itself isn't interesting, I think you could give it a shot if you're prone to ... liking those alternate, cyber-ish world-settings (e.g. if you somewhat liked Mahouka).

I decided to write a review for this show because it's actually rather easy to.

This might even be the shortest review you will ever need that makes sense.

*Some spoilers ahead*

This season, two very similar anime came out namely this one and Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry. While the battle systems may be different, they are in essence almost parallel anime. Both have "overpowered" MCs, red headed princess heroines that use fire. Both are in a school setting with a battle tournament going on. Basically when you've seen one, once you see the other you feel like you're watching the same anime. Except they aren't the same ... in which one outperforms the other, namely Rakudai Kishi is better than Asterisk in every aspect. You might think Rakudai kishi will start off as another harem romance anime, but it's not. There is a clear romance between the two main characters that actually makes it refreshing to see. They fight for the promise they made to each other, and it's a pretty simple yet believable reason to, unlike in Asterisk where typically the guy makes no real love interest and flirts with everyone while being oblivious, albeit choosing to "fight" for the red-head princess heroine. No motive, not love, just "she showed me the reason to fight" kinda cheesy shit.

While the main stories of both animes might be generic or even mediocre, it's the subtle differences in their execution that really makes the difference between "I'm sick of this same old shit" and "that was actually quite nice".


TL;DR

Gakusen Toshi Asterisk is basically Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry, except Asterisk is below mediocre while the latter is better. Watch both if you have the time and like the typical harem/romance/school/overpoweredMC but otherwise watch Rakudai over Asterisk.




Plain and Simple.

Nearly typical harem anime with strong male protagonist who is clueless when it comes to girls. To be fair, the male protagonist does have to be nearly as strong as he is in order for the story to develop and move along. However, all of the main character development points and interactions with members of his harem are predictable to a "T'".

This anime reminded me a lot of Infinite Stratos except here the subplots of the MC's enemies were better done - and there were more of them with their own goals.

For those that read the light novels, the anime stays pretty true to them ... and you really don't miss much just watching the show.

Hey folks, lets talk about Gakusen Toshi Asterisk. First let me say it is a generic harem, if that is a turn off then don't bother. That being said I feel like we can break down the good and bad and give you a more concise review.

Our story starts off with the introduction of the main love interest(Julis Alexia von Riessfelt) and the the male lead(Ayato Amagiri). The viewer is thrown into a transfer student situation. We start off with Ayato walking to school and what does he do on his way? Well our fine young protagonist ... picks up a handkerchief and decides to return it to its owner by jumping up and entering its owners room through their window. Our Tsundere female lead doesn't take kindly to this as she was currently changing at the time. We get to be thrown into this new world quickly by seeing her rage spill out into magical fire and a duel. This is pretty much the start of our story and the basic information needed to begin our anime.

The story from this point forward picks up speed and somehow manages to cover the entire history of this built city, the existence of different factions, Magic, peculiar weapons and the inner workings of the school and the tournaments all in about 2 episodes. Along with the oddly quick pairing of our two leads Ayato, and Julis. This is way too quick and really is the reason this show is not very good. The term "Generic" gets thrown around a lot when it comes to Harems and IMO this isn't very fair. This show however unfortunate fits the "Generic" labeling pretty well. They had a few interesting concepts with the whole arena city, magical weapons with varying degrees of power and options..etc however they decided to blow past everything that could have made their show interesting and different.

The last 6 or so episodes begin to slow down and to try and add drama and suspense which unfortunately felt like a slap in the face because once you had gotten used to the speed you expected it to take you to its destination in a single season. However they decide to lead us through their lackluster story and leave us with a most annoying cliffhanger. Though this anime managed to receive a 6 in score, the story wasn't good enough to make me overly excited for a season two and I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way.

The characters are pretty "Generic" as well. This is truly an unfortunate experience. Having a definable characteristic like Tsundere is what I think people mistake for "Generic" which of course is incorrect. However this anime again goes to prove the naysayer's correct. The characters have little to no personality, and feel like vessels holding popular characteristic that would grab the attention of those who enjoy them or are new to anime. That being said this again was another chance for the anime to prove its worth. The characters all have goals and dreams and each is obtainable and makes sense. There is no Eren Jaeger here shouting about how he will kill all the Titans as he gets his ass beat. Each character has a selfish, obtainable goal which they hope to obtain through winning these tournaments and getting their wish granted. There were a few frustrating situations with a few characters as they were introduced through a forced drama series of events that didn't feel like it had a purpose other than to add in characters that were not introduced properly earlier.

I seen a few reviews telling people it was a poorly constructed political battle or regional battle and though the regional battle is technically true this doesn't seem to be about politics at all. It is basically a Twisted Metal like story, groups of people fight each other to win the greatest prize of a single wish granted as long as its obtainable on earth.

The art and sound were really well done. Art was fairly standard, nothing jumps out as bad or great. The fight scenes were bland which isn't good for an anime like this, though they seemed to try and spice it up at the end.The Music and some of the sound effects were really well done. The only negative thing here was the sound effects for the sword were like light sabers. I'm not mad at this because I like star wars but because it didn't fit the weapons.

In conclusion this anime isn't great, but it isn't terrible. The second season or the manga might be able to redeem the things this anime did poorly. It doesn't deserve the 1's but a solid 5 or 6 I think is fair game. Watch this if you a fan of Harem's. Though this is pretty low on my harem list.

In quick summary this show is another of those high school-team up-boy/girl-fight-magic-almost harem shows. It's an OK one of those, so if you like them give it a watch.

Story - 5
------------------------------
Basically, it boils down to - boy enters a school of magic fighting people, boy fights someone on his first day and doesn't lose. Everyone is slightly impressed, is forced into friendship with person he fought. Then a few more people come into the show, vying for strong boys attention. Meanwhile secret forces are at play, and know about strong boy. WOAH, surprise boy is most powerful, but at what cost... - That's the ... idea, scream if you've heard it before.

Art - 6
------------------------------
Not much to say really, its as you'd expect from shows these days. Clean lines, nice colours, and plenty of frames.

Sound - 7
------------------------------
Now the sound, I actually quite liked. Both the OP and ED are good songs, and fit the feel of the show well. So good job anime show.
The sound throughout the actual show, is nice too. Plenty of noise going on, good music triggers and nice voice acting.
Yeah, not bad at all.

Character - 5
------------------------------
Well, these characters - oh man. They're the same ones you've seen a thousand times.
Tsundere - Check
Loli - Check
Oppai Loli - Check
Pervert Girl - Check
Man Man - Check
Shy Man - Check

Enjoyment - 6
------------------------------
I liked it, at least enough to watch it week to week. So that's better than a lot of shows.
So if you're like me you'll probably like it like me. (Good sentence.)

Overall - 6
------------------------------
In summary, this show is not bad, not great... but not bad. Watch it if you like these kind of things, and if you don't like them, don't - it's not gonna change your mind.

BaiBaiBai ヾ(^_^)

I have a lot of nostalgia for this show, which I wouldn't give much credit to the show for, when it mostly is just a result of the very specific timeslot in which this show was created, and the unique, video game-ified, futuristic take on magic and fantasy, which seemed to give off a unique aura in the early to mid 2010's that reflects the internet and the culture of that time.

There's a lot to be excited about for this show.
The plot's apparent dark undertones guiding the story along, perfectly parallel with the well-crafted setting of a boisterous and commercial city, revealed to be a ... thick facade, covering up the greed-powered society void of ethics, covered in blood and tears of innocent people who've been unknowingly swept up into this big mess, some of which collide with the stories of our characters. Combat has been nailed too, giving us a grand, sumptuous-looking envisioning of the age-old ever-present-in-fantasy "mana" of this show, also excellently visualising fighting styles and sword arts.
The animation is fantastic too, having smooth fight-scenes, even using different art styles to portray the immense force behind attacks.

So why isn't the show good? Well, much in the vein of a depressing amount of anime that contain a unique idea, the execution ends up being a compliant demonstration of a lack of passion for standing out and being unique, or at least the inability to realising that passion. This leads to boring, uninteresting characters and a very notable focus on breasts and uncontrollably lusting girls, who all take romantic interest in our bland, unremarkable MC. The show ends up taking the much less interesting route of being a typical high-school romance anime, only really giving us shelter from that sad truth within the tournament arc split between the two seasons. A really interesting and clearly pretty fleshed out idea, culminating into a spineless conception, leaving me lamenting over the buried potential of said idea, knowing it'll never come into full bloom.

Either way, watching this show gives me an undeniable wave of nostalgia, and being a big music nerd, the choice of music for specifically the ending plays a big part in validating my love for- and personal attachment to this era, and the bearing this show has on that.
I'm rarely a fan of the J-pop/J-rock/EDM-blend used for 9 out of 10 anime openings from the last decade, but this opening sticks out a bit with a pretty catchy melody, although it still presents with some of the glaring flaws I see in a lot of anime openings.
The ending song however, is much more individual, giving us a warm, melancholic piano section, erupting into a rich, flashy burst of bright synths scuttering about, paired with Maaya Sakamoto's catchy vocals complimenting this unforgivingly extravagant auditory lightshow. The song also manages to perfectly exude with a vibe unfound outside of this now decade-old era of fantasy.

So, is the show worth it to watch? Not really at all, no, but circumstances have led to it being a very unique thing regardless. The show unfortunately isn't good, but the aura that pertrudes out of it is honestly somewhat remarkable.

So why watch it? The same reason you watch porn, not for the terrible over used story, the bad music or the inhumanly amount of non personality of the porn stars (in this case characters of this anime) but for the action even if you've seen this same predictable action a thousand times .

Look if you're desperate for action, watch it.
If you are all about plot and you are looking for a less painful way of self harming ,this is also for you.

But seriously the plot is porno level, actually everything about it is.

I don't know how to do reviews so...

7 Episodes is all I could stomach.

While I love a good harem anime that has a story... this one does not have a strong story at all. It's very weak.

It started out with a good premise and could have salvaged a 7 or so in my book but... the amount of Loli is too STRONG and definitely not my cup of tea.

When you find yourself rewinding the anime to make sure you remember the character who is speaking you know you're in for a bad experience.

Add to this villains who make absolutely no sense in what their motives truly are ... and this anime leaves you wondering what you're watching.

Don't bother watching this one.

"Maybe I'm imagining it"
---Ayato

Maybe I needed drugs to enjoy this. There were some undeniably good points. Very well done art, great backgrounds, very good integration of CG, bit above average characters. Well done music, and above average voice acting. It even has the MC who isn't completely useless guy.

Sadly that's about all the good points. The world is half baked. The writing is very lazy. The MC is horrendously OP but his ability to fight has been sealed. But he can break the seal when he wants for limited periods of time So he might as well have Voltron's blazing sword when he wants ... it. The other characters beside the MC are really bad.

There's
Pink Haired Tsundere that high kickcs
Busty Blond manipulator that likes to make MC nosebleed
Timid tiny sword saint who likes to take abuse.
Tiny girl with big guns who and no personality.
Angry guy that picks fights he can't win.
Third wheel guy.
Various equally generic and unmemorable villains.

The world ? Well if you can follow what's going on in this world, you're one or more up on me. Far as I can figure there was some disaster or other that destroyed the current world order, created a variety of superhumans, who attend highschool in an academic city and engage in bloodsport as mass entertainment and as a means of determining status. You have a lot of ridiculous combat. There's also a bunch of subplots related to extortion and power games between the factions. It winds up like a mystery novel where the author has deliberately left out the clues.

The story ? I suppose there was something, mostly what I saw was many many fights where I had very little doubt about the outcome. There were background threads but damned if there was any logic to them. Starving orphans ? Lost relative, crazy father, imprisoned father, it's got more of them than a season of Days of Our Lives. There's also a harem romance going on but with all the arbitrary going on I really couldn't care about how it worked out. Don't see how you are going to get caught up in 2 undeveloped 12 or 13 year olds fighting a 17 year old for the guy. Maybe one of them will win but if they do who cares. You just feel the need to shower and get clean.

I've seen worse, this might even have been worse if it was more comprehensible. As it stands it's just another really muddled anime.

This is the very first harem anime I've ever watched. This was my introduction to the "generic" harem tropes and what not. Because of this, I enjoyed the show when I watched it, and I even watched the second season, which I enjoyed even more because of the somewhat decent world building. Looking back at the show, I know it's bad. I know why it's bad, and I know why people don't really like it or even hate it.

Story and Characters

The story and characters are quite generic. The story is ok, doing some things that I found to be innovative. The second season did much ... better as far as the story goes, and the Pheonix Festa was fun to watch. The characters were the generic as hell. After seeing about two or three more anime with these tropes, I got sick of them. I would much rather see these tropes in the characters I first experienced them in.

Animation, Sound, and Tone

The animation was nothing special. It was good, the special effects were great, but nothing stood out. It has that generic A-1 Pictures style. This said, the color palette perfectly matched the tone of the anime, and said tone was the strongest aspect of this show, in fact, I liked it quite a lot. The music was excellent. It did its job brilliantly and added to that aforementioned tone. If not for this tone, I would have dropped my overall score to 3 or 4.

Opening and Ending

While the opening did a good job introducing you to the world and tone, however, it was rather forgettable. The ending, on the other hand, is one of the best endings I have ever heard. The way that the end of an episode seamlessly flowed along into the ending really led to some memorable moments, even if said moments did not have any reason to be memorable.

I have not read the light novel, but if the story and characters of the anime are faithful to its source material. Then the biggest problem lies here. As an adaptation, A-1 Pictures did a pretty good job. All the elements that could have only been done in an anime were done quite well, and as an adaptation, I would give this show an easy 8. From what I mentioned above, I feel that the score I gave the show is pretty fair.

Bullet Summary

-Concept: 6/10
-Execution: 4/10
-Story: 4/10
-Plot Progression: 6/10

-Tone Quality: 10/10
-Viewer Interaction: 7/10
-Introduction: 5/10
-Ending: 7/10

-Characters 3/10
-Character Development 1/10
-Character Interaction 2/10
-Character Arcs 1/10

-Animation 7/10
-Color Palette 10/10
-Consistency 10/10

-Sound Effects 8/10
-Voice Acting: 8/10
-Music 9/10
-Opening 6/10
-Ending 10/10

Overall:6
Gakusen Toshi Asterisk definitely isn't a waste of your time, but that's about what I'll say for it. I might be a bit rough on it, but I was intensely underwhelmed by this anime, so I didn't feel like being nice to it either.

Story: 3
This anime is a wierd combination of tournaments, a harem, and political intrigue. Despite its attempts, however, it cannot quite manage to succeed at any of these. In order, the tournament is the most put together of the three. The tournament happens, there are fights, and the anime gets through the prelims in the first season. The anime may have done ... better if they had spent more time developing the fights, which were more like short clips of the main characters instantly whiping their opponents. Starting the tournament earlier would probably have helped, because the payoff in this season was not very strong.

The harem element of this anime was lackluster. There are 4 main members of the harem who are all individually decent, but the harem gets stuck on the oblivious protagonist throughout the season. If the characters were interesting, or trying to win him over in cute scenes, then this would be fine. Alas, this is not the case.

The political intrigue in this anime is where a lot of the actual plot comes from, which is unfortunate considering that it's a mess. The basic factions are very rudimentarily explained, but otherwise the viewer must go to incredible lengths to pick up anything useful about the interactions of these factions. The goals of each faction are a mystery, except perhaps that their leaders want to win a tournament eventually. There are vague mentions of secret services and codes of conduct, but none of these are revealed clearly.

Art: 6
The art is generic, but it's decently done. This is an easy area to succeed in in my opinion if the anime is professionally made. I was tempted to make it a 7, but the severe limitation of character expression and the ability for the art to convey emotions makes it a solid 6.

Sound: 5
The music was passable, but I never stopped to listen to it or anything. I certainly didn't feel like the ambient music improved the anime to any extraordinary extent. The voice acting wasn't terrible, but it could definitely be a lot better.

Character: 5
The characters are all archetypical cutouts of other generic characters, sometimes even without any adjustments at all. It's essentially a strong and compassionate main character who is good at fighting, a tsundere that becomes increasingly dere, an awkward quiet girl, a cute junior high girl who's physiscally mature for her age, and one assertive woman who's all over the place character wise. To make matters worse, the character motivations in this anime are essentially nonexistent and are almost totally inconsequential to the plot. Furthermore, the means by which they intend to fulfill their superficial goals is irrelevant to the goal itself (win tournament, get wish, wish for thing). In this case, this makes the motivations seem even more inconsequential and offer little to no character development opportunities.

Enjoyment: 7
I really like anime, and I was in the mood for an overpowered main character. I didn't get my fix in that regard, but it was flashing lights and terrible pronunciations of European names, so I had fun. Kirin was adorable, so I had extra fun when she was on screen, even if she is not a great character herself (probably the best in this anime though).