Nana Maru San Batsu

Quizzes and more quizzes. They could be fun if the watchers feel the same interest in both the questions and the participants. If you don't like quizzes shows, then you immediately will consider Nana Maru San Batsu (Fastest Finger First) as a total waste of time, and the only fastest finger that you will end seeing is yours when you "change" for other show.

I had been thinking how to rate this anime. Should I evaluate the questions, should I rate the quizzes modules, should I rate the characters? After a lot of thinking, I considered there is nothing to measure here.

The story is the typical ... "nerd" with his glasses and every detail (Koshiyama). The destiny gave him the possibility to talk with a group of persons and ended joining the quizzes club from the school because Mari Fukami asked him. Then the story focuses on the game meetings against other schools, where Koshiyama finds a rival (Mikuriya). The climax appears when Koshiyama can't press the button faster, the inability to answer a certain group of questions, and when he challenges Mikuriya. So they spend a couple of minutes when Koshiyama starts analyzing the problems and figures a possible answer. That's all the story, nothing more. There are some unconcluded parts, for example, Mari's brother.

The characters are the typical members of a school club with nothing special on them. They are in that club because they like it and will participate in the events because why not? The background of most of the characters they like quizzes, they study them, they need faster fingers, and ¡hey I found a rival!.

The art and the music are what I consider standard nothing impressive here and nothing to complain about it.

Finally, the characters do a little monologue when they try to figure an answer. It is the same repetition from question to question so you could end tired even if you like quizzes. Will I recommend this show to you? Maybe but you will consider it tedious.

Press the buzzer before anyone else does!

The anime has some sort of flow and predictability of what the format of the next episodes are going to be like. The anime is about Koshiyama, a first-year student who was invited and convinced by Fukami and Sasajima to join the Quiz Study Group where they participate in regular quiz competitions against other schools. The aim of the game is to press the buzzer before anyone else and answer within five seconds. You can press the buzzer at any time, even before the announcer has completed reading out the question.

Now this anime isn't for everyone. From a title ... like Fastest Finger First and this short synopsis, you are getting exactly was you expected. There's nothing special about this anime. It's exactly as how the anime is described, there are no real surprises. This means that if this sounds like an anime that you won't like, then you probably won't like it and I wouldn't recommend you go out of your way to watch it.

The slow introduction of new characters and their unique sets of attributes which are useful to be part of the quiz team is what makes this anime special. Each of the characters have the strengths and weaknesses, but when they combine their strenghts, they become a strong team that are able to help each other depending on what type of question is being asked.

The subtle hints of romance between Koshiyama and Fukami is what brings to light to this rather simple concept applied to this anime. It's done not too over dramatically which is pleasing to see.

The voice acting is quite refreshing for the characters, especially for Fukami, who is the lead female protagonist. There is some criticism for Kawashima Umika, who voices Fukami because she is not very experienced in voice acting anime characters, but I find her natural voice to be fitting in this anime as voice actors sometimes over-do it and over-dramatise scenes where they are almost unberable to watch to the point where they are cringe worthy.

The OP and ED is quite catchy which fits the mood of this quick fast paced game anime.

The animation of this anime is passable. There's nothing wrong with it and I some of the character designs are unique. There are some characters who do look the same as other anime characters from other anime but overall, the character designs aren't bad.

Overall, I am thoroughly enjoying this anime. I do see reasons why people will not like this anime but for the select few who like a change in pace in anime and see something out of the ordinary, this anime is perfect for that. This isn't necessarily a good anime, but it definitely isn't a bad one. I recommend that you check it out.

703X

Quiz Bowl for anime/manga/games aficionados out there...MONDAI?!

Which female seiyuu who played the most alien character?

Mondai?!

Name the seiyuus who recently passed away this year.

Mondai?!

... Name a movie that was based on an on-line game.

Ok so enough of the overrated Jeopardy game, so now that this is over I really have mixed feelings about this anime, and there were no simple ways for me to describe it, so:

Story, fair 6.

Ok so for a change studio TMS has decide to go with an anime that has some sort of quiz bee theme in it, ok it wasn't that bad, but it ain't that good either, since we all know in a Jeopardy kinda of game show it all about luck and the knowledge you have, and no matter how you do your best it all boils down to luck.

Art; Mediocre 5.

As usual, to them Japs everything looks good as long as the cast were young and in a school uniform, there is only a one time panty shot and it ain't with Fukami Mari and with Kansai girl Sasajima Jinko, rather it was some unknown girl extra who is also in Buzou High.

Sound, Poor 3.

I may not have any opinion for the opening and closing theme, but I do have a fuss about Fukami's voice, it seems that for studio TMS to choose a mature montone seiyu in Kawashima Umika, who simply doesn't have that young tone, they should have gone with Tomtsu Haruka or Itou Kanade to do Fukai's voice, now for Koshiyama's voice, his seiyu, Horie Shun sounded a bit too gay in would have been better if Sonohara Akira's seiyu, Nagatsuka Takuma would have played his character instead of voicing that cross dressing fag character.

Character, fair 6.

Ok so it was suppose to be them Buzou High students that should be the main protagonist here , but in reality it kinda looks that the suppose protagonist would go back and fort of being a protagonist to a deuteragonist to a tritagonist , here the main character Kosiyama starts out as a protagonist and in the end he was reduce to a deuteragonist the same thing with Mari, she would bounce back and fort from being a deuteragonist to a protagonist sometime Sasajima Gakuto would be a tertiary to a protagonist, but if there is one character there that ticking me off is Sonohara Akira, he is one character that I wish that the club president would have punched him in his face.

Enjoyment, Good 7.

I was good when this is one anime where you get to learn a lot of trivia.

Overall, fair 6.

You get to know a lotta trivia, but on the entertainment side it was a bit lackluster, a season 2 may break or make this , but it will all depend how good will studio TMS do it.

Mondai?!

Which seiyuu who had a cameo role in a live Japanese move "Fujoshi Kanojo?"

Mondai?!

Which Deadnote seiyuu who played the role of Katsumi Kamio in the movie "Otoko-tachi no Yamato?"

This show follow in the same line as many sports type anime, where MC comes to fall in love with a sport/hobby just from experiencing it first hand.

Don't get me wrong, im not trying knock the show down a few pegs cause of this cliche.
Stories about being passionate about what you love is all great.

I think what this show suffer from in my opinion is this feeling of slowness even during the actual quizzing (show depicting real time instead of super slow or fast). Story in the anime doesn't go into a grande tournament only just few matches here and there and competition between ... school in a form of a "meet-up".

I only would recommend this anime to those who want to kill some time, interested in quiz bowl or game show style question in anime form.

Engaging. Entertaining. Elevating.

I've had a falling out with anime over the past year. Nothing was interesting. Nothing was new. This show isn't necessarily either, but it gives a new dimension to the hackneyed shounen dynamic of an underdog undertaking a new challenge in his life as a matter of circumstance which he found he
is surprisingly apt at dealing with.

But this show isn't just finding itself going through the 12 banal steps of the hero's journey like Bleach or Naruto. Such series become trite with repetition. Powers become bigger and larger and we lose the intimacy associated with smaller scale story-telling which ends ... up having larger bearings on audiences. This is perhaps why hero stories like Fate-Zero work so well, which expresses character intent, feelings and reasoning through all their past and present experiences. As a sports anime, this show wouldn't be good if it didn't use repetition as a tool to propel itself into our interest by staying one step ahead of what we're able to keep up with. Slightly more on that later.

However, I'm not saying Nana Maru San Batsu comes close to anything of a caliber which I just described. But its niche really shines by incorporating it into an academic-decathlon style that explores the real reason of interest to watch it:
rhetoric, syntax and diction. These three things and more all lead into the way language influences our understanding of others when they communicate with us. Therefore, especially being about a quiz bowl, this show addresses how we respond to questions and interpret them. This becomes the main driver of our interest, making us reflect on what we say and how we verbally express ourselves and are consequently interpreted.

Think of the sentence "I walked into a bar with that son of a bitch." Then, stress each word in the sentence differently each time you say it to yourself. The meaning will be different each time. This show explores that nuance in speech and interpretation. As a result, the audience becomes more aware of conversational stresses in words. We become more sensitive to character speech patterns and the way they interact with each other when they communicate, or attempt to.

If you're not interested in rhetoric, language, etymology, syntax or diction, then you are going to have a bad time. An even worse time if you don't know what most of the things I just mentioned are. This show is essentially a game of words=a decathlon called a Quiz Bowl, and characters have to answer questions faster than anyone else. But it takes it to a whole nother level where things start to get a little mindfreaky, and characters have to play a guessing game of what questions might be in full if the buzzers are to be rung before they finish in full. It stays one step ahead of itself, like any good show should do. Examples: Death Note, One Outs, etc.

Please consider this anime. It's worth the time imo.

Hi, in this review i will give you readers my honest opinion about Nana Maru San Batsu (7O3X as I will mention from now on) and why you should or shouldn't watch this anime.

703X features a unique story theme, which is about competitive quizz bowl. If you think that this is similar to the Buzz games or that sort of games (like I did) you're wrong, this is a really fast competitive quizz game.
Still it is a fairly paced story but since this is only 12 episodes long, some matches and development of the characters look a little bit rushed. Yet it is a ... simplistic story so you are most likely to watch it without forcing yourself to much.

The art for 703X fits perfectly, simple and clean is the words that come to my mind. The characters are well designed, every character is different in some way which helps you distinguish them, but still is not a art that standout.

And this being a "simple" anime, soundtracks and background music are simple, it fits the anime well but isn't something that is memorable or you will listen in the future, except the opening which I think is "catchy" but still not above average.
And something that i never complain are voice actors/seiyuu, but this was the first anime that broke that. The voice actor for Fumaki Mari, Umika Kawashina, is totally off character. The voice is not bad and it suits the character, but fails so bad in expressing the feelings of the character, like she is happy but the voice looks like she is bored, a total turnoff for this character. But the other voice actors were good.

About the characters there isn't much to talk, the main focus of this anime is about the quizzes so the characters background stories are not as polish as it should be, leaving the feeling of them being "bland". The main protagonist can sometimes give you the idea that he has "main protagonist power", so some of the viewers can get a little upset with this.

This anime is quite an interesting take on something new which is competitive quizz, and can be a little bit fun since it's like a sport anime (kind of).
I watched all the episodes as a marathon and i didn't force myself to watch, and it had it's funny and interesting moments so I enjoyed watching it. Still it's not a anime for all, since it can be a little boring at some points between matches.
I recommend watching it if you are bored and with nothing to do.

Fastest finger first is obviously trying something new. something fresh to the sports genre. However, it just doesn't work. With so little variables in the actual sport of quizzes it's hard to enjoy that aspect of it. Who can push the button first and how to predict the question. Those are the only two things that really effect the quiz. The key to a good sports anime is to have lots of variables, making it unpredictable. This show just can't do that and it's obvious from the start. With only two things making the sport, the fastest finger and prediction, its hard to really get ... excited.

The characters don't feel very connectable or interesting either. Especially with the over exaggeration of common tropes.

- hidden talent main character
- dude with the glasses always making those poses and pushing up his glasses
- overpowered rival, seemingly undefeatable
- over analysing simple things to make the situation more entertaining

I feel like i cant really get across these tropes very well but believe me they are present. I am not usually effected by common tropes but the characters feel like they had zero effort into creating them.

Also, the main female character in the show has a horrible voice actress, or at least a bad choice of actress. The voice doesn't suite the character at all. It becomes very off putting very quickly, especially because of how much screen time she gets. It sounds unprofessional, which just adds to the list of things wrong with the show.

Overall, it's good that they tried something new, but it just doesn't work. The show is quite boring and just doesn't work as a sports anime. The characters are weak and had little to no effort put into them as of episode 6. But I don't see them improving at this point. The soundtrack is present, neither good nor bad. Animation is good. I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone.

This is a show where we watch kids take quizzes. I don't know if that sounds like a good thing or not. our main character is a nerd that loves reading and when the popular girl notices him and realizes how smart he is she drags him into the world of competitive quizzing. the plot is meh and the writers know it due to the unneeded fan service they use to keep your attention. there is only so much you can do by having people being asked halved finished questions.

the art isn't the most modern thing you will see but when you put that ... aside it's fine. the issue again is that this is a quiz show and because of that there isn't need for much animation which again the writers notice and are trying to make up for it, again with needless fan service and active backgrounds. by having striking and vivid colors in the background people won't notice anything much happening. they also use chibi or something close to it to try to liven things up a bit. as much crap as I'm giving it I'm happy they did because it does do what they set out to do or else more people won't drop except for the nerds only interested in the questions.

the music is a little old school for me so I don't really care about it and kinda tune it out. it like watching a show from the 90s and I'm not sure I want that anymore. shows with music and art like this today need to have amazing stories that make you want more like Tiger Mask W (but that has better music regardless) but this show is kinda meh with it all.

the characters aren't all that special. basic character tropes if you ask me. it's at the point I don't care to learn their names because I'm not immersed in them. the character development all though it's there isn't important to the story. the main girl has friends that she forced into the quiz life which is nice to know but the depth it adds doesn't matter and the main character is just another nerdy beta. but at least his parent have some input here however small (really small)

overall the show is meh. it tries, I give it that but its a show I forget about every week until I look at my mal list and notice that "o yeah that's a thing". i'll be a little generous and give it a six but it not something ill recommend you watch unless you're someone trying to broaden your knowledge

The main thing this show has going for it is its premise. That's it, really. Quiz Bowl is a unique sport that has never been tackled quite so directly as it is here, and thus it earns intrigue from that uniqueness alone.

The story is nothing to write home about. It's a classic underdog tale of a young boy overcoming the odds. It's not done particularly badly here, but it's nothing special either. The animation is passable. The characters are much the same. The OST of this show, however, is surprisingly enjoyable. It fits the show quite well, especially during the actual quiz bowls themselves. The ... sound effects are on-point as well. The voice actors do their job, not particularly well nor particularly bad.

There's... not much else to say. From what relatively little I've seen of this anime and my general knowledge of the sports anime genre, I can tell it won't be going uphill in quality much, if at all. There are many sports anime that do nearly everything this show does much better. If the show were about anything other than quiz bowl, there'd be nothing making it a worthwhile watching. My verdict is this: if you like quiz bowl and/or are interested in watching an anime about it, this show is for you.

This review comes with no prior knowledge of the series as a manga.

Nana Maru San Batsu, Fastest Finger First, is a series about quizzes which, in itself, already makes it sound boring to start. Although it does do a decent job of making the subject slightly more interesting by emphasis of quizzes through Quiz Bowl competition, there still feel to be areas that are just lacking.

Story: 6
The premise is a bit bland but not something I have seen before, give a little praise where due. The story is a bit scattered for my liking with it feeling more like a slice of life that just ... happens to involve quizzing than a seinen title. The one strong suite is that the actual competitions are a actually quite interesting however, that could actually largely be attributed to character.

Art: 7
The art has no outstandingly low points but also few real high points. The characters themselves are fairly average. They aren't displeasing to look at and do have some nice emotion at times. The highest point for the art of the series though is the backgrounds. They're nothing groundbreaking or surreal but the backgrounds themselves are actually very consistent and well drawn. They often go unnoticed but that's not because they are bad by any means, they just feel natural and have good color balancing.

Sound: 4
Annnnnd here comes one of the bigger issues in the show. The OP/ED for me are forgettable. Not a huge issue but good soundtracks always bring in a bit more of that special something to a series, even if the series sucked the music sticks. The biggest issue though is the character voice acting. As many have noted the voice of Fukami, Mari was definitely annoying at first and took getting used to but that alone can't warrant a score of 4. The issue is simply that the characters don't really feel all that alive at all. The VA is just good enough to portray some excitement and emotion when needed but it still feels forced. (This could partly be due to the slightly lackluster character illustrations as I noted before but I found it more of a sound issue altogether.)

Character: 6
The characters in the show are simply only moderately interesting. Aside from our MC Koshiyama, the others are interesting enough to keep things interesting but not delve further into them as individuals. The tropes that they fit into are actually perfectly average for what the show wants to accomplish and I see no fault in that. Koshiyama himself is the most interesting character, not as an individual but for his thought process during questions. Originally very straightforward and narrow minded in his approach he is quick to learn, adapting along the way and, thus, becoming more interesting. Him being the reason I mentioned that competitions are actually one of the strong suites of the series. Yet again though there are some glaring negatives. The show is about competitive quizzes but only a few characters really seem to realize or accept this. They also play around with what feels like obvious attempts at romance between Fukami and Koshiyama only to make things awkward, uninteresting and, altogether, annoying. Don't get me wrong I love me some romance but if it's not in your tags at all and is executed this poorly that just makes one cringe.

Enjoyment: 7
Despite the apparent flaws in the series there is still something in it I find endearing so I put it on the positive side of things. It is by no means a standout series for the season, although for this season that isn't saying much either way, but it does do a decent enough job of just being entertaining. There are some definite moments where you actually feel invested in the series and want to see more. You feel happy for the fun they have with their newfound friends and some nice little comedic bits do come in now and then. (As well as one of the most solid feeling second hand shame moments I have experienced in an anime thus far as well.) All in all it doesn't stand out above others but it can pass the time and be enjoying to simply watch.

The only thing that really truly bugs me about the series as a whole though: Is the feeling that it is just a poorly done Chihayafuru. It already had that feel for me from just the first few episodes and the way that her sheet was marked to count question measures by syllable. It only got worse when the anime itself kind of touched on competitive karuta. I do know that it is an entirely different activity but the way that it was all set up and the skillsets needed for both just made the comparison all too blatant for me and if you ever have to compare a series to Chihayafuru that is already a tough series to stand up to.

Overall: 6
The series is relatively average as a whole with a few beacons of hope that are all but too short to warrant a higher score, thus far. I don't see a way nor find it likely that the show does a 180 and becomes super interesting from the progression of things but if the little things are done right more consistently it could be a solid 7-7.5 by the end of the season.

Was this anime good? Not really. It’s one of many sports anime out there and I frankly don’t think it’d have much appeal if you’re not already interested in quiz bowl. The plot is paper-thin and the characterization is minimal. But! If you played quiz bowl in high school like I did, you will recognize yourself in this show and its characters. Major recommendation for my fellow trivia nerds. Everyone else…I guess I’d you want to learn what quiz bowl is like, this’ll teach you!

This show really captures what it’s like to be a small group of nerds who are dedicated to quiz bowl. The ... weird pathways to answering a question right, Slumdog Millionaire style; the panic when you buzz in early and aren’t sure whether they want the title or author of a novel; the ad hoc replacements for buzzers at practice; the overall lack of women. You can tell this was written by and for (former) quizzers. The art and animation is not very high-quality, the plot is just moving from quiz event to quiz event with occasional interactions in between, and there are about four characters with anything resembling a personality - but it’s clearly held together by a love of quizzing. That’s good enough for me.