Akahori Gedou Hour Rabuge

This review should be read in conjunction with the review of Zettai Seigi Love Pheromone as both shows are part of Akahori Gedou Hour Rabuge

It's fairly well known by now that I'm a fan of oddball comedies and shows that parody existing stereotypes. Soreyuke! Gedou Otome Tai (or just Gedou Otome Tai), meets both criteria, as does it's sister show Zettai Seigi Love Pheromone.

The story in Gedou Otome Tai is very straightforward. The five Hokke sisters (from eldest to youngest - Otone, Maika, Yoku, Kanashi and Utano), come from a long line of evil minions. Yes, you heard me, evil minions. On their father's ... deathbed they promised him that they would bcome "excellent evil" and, with the help of the imp Akumako, they set out to do just that.

The only problem is that the girls are generally quite nice, kind and caring, so evil doesn't come naturally to them.

The art and animation in the show are nothing unique. The animation quality is generally good throughout the show (with some noticeable glitches), and the character designs focus on humour rather than realism. The character transformations are clearly a parody of shows like Sailor Moon and Tokyo Mew Mew.

The sound and music in the show is again quite reasonable. The OP and ED are okay at best, but the usage can become repetitive over the course of the show. There isn't any real overall musical theme to this half of Akahori Gedou Hour Rabuge though, so the music can sometimes be inconsistent with the story.

The characters in the show are actually okay, given that this is supposed to be a parody. Although all five sisters and Akumako get virtually no development, they do come across as kind and caring individuals. Their constant attempts to commit evil are actually funnier because they are so clearly not evil in any way.

As I said previously, I actually found that I enjoyed the show as a whole. The characters weren't overly annoying, and the fact that the entire show consists of one half Love Pheromone and the other Gedou Otome Tai meant there was enough variation during the half hour to keep me interested. To further compound matters both Love Pheromone and Gedou Otome Tai live in the same town, and Kaoruko works at a part time job with Otone Hokke, the eldest sister of Gedou Otome Tai.

The best thing about the show is that it is effectively a role reversal for both Love Pheromone and Gedou Otome Tai. Gedou Otome Tai are attempting to become Excellent Evil and fulfill their father's dying wish, when in actuality all they achieve is love and peace.

Akahori Gedou Hour Rabuge is a good show to watch if you have half an hour to waste and fancy something odd. The stories of Love Pheromone and Gedou Otome Tai eventually intertwine with each other at the end of the show, which gives it a nice sense of closure, and the fact that it is a parody of the mahou shoujo genre (with a twist) means that many people will actually understand the humour.

Okay, now that you're done with this half of the review, check out the other half for Zettai Seigi Love Pheromone.

This was an unexpected hidden gem! A blend of parody comedy with some heartwarming moments, it's not a standout classic but definitely enjoyable for fans of parody anime.

Akahori Gedou Hour Rabuge is sometimes billed as an anthology series, but that's not quite correct. It's really more of a parallel dual POV story, following two sets of characters.

Aimi and Kaoruko are an aspiring manzai duo, who happen to have secret identities as sentai "heroes" Love Pheromone, though they cause more destruction than they prevent. The five Hokke sisters are the focus of the other half of each episode. They're the daughters of sentai-style minions ... who are determined to follow in their parents' footsteps as examples of excellent evil.

The series blends the silliness of Aimi and Kaoruko's struggles with the heartwarming story of the Hokke sisters. The blend of humor and poignancy does make the Hokke sisters' story better; I might have liked to see an independent series following them. Otone working to support her family is compelling as are the interactions among the sisters, though Aimi and Kaoruko have their own warmth from time to time. They are definitely the comic relief here. The show excels on absurdity, parody, and situational humor. The formula might have gotten old with a longer show but in 1 cour it doesn't wear out its welcome.

The series does require a tolerance of a certain level of fanservice and some sleaze particularly Kaoruko's shotacon tendencies. The character designs are cute, the voice acting is good. This seems like a labor of love, or at least that the staff and cast are having fun.