Akanesasu Shoujo

To be honest, LA picked up Akanesasu Shoujo because Nao Touyama was in it. But even so, is Akanesasu Shoujo any good?..well...

Akanesasu Shoujo has a quirky premise to it, that of the Crystal Radio Club that Asuka Tsuchimiya viced by Tomoyo Kurosawa started. They do a ritual every now and again of chanting some gibberish with a cassette player and random frequencies and expect things to happen, however one time they do and they are transported to a parallel world but is plagued by yellow bunnies...that bite. From then on, Asuka and the Radio Club becomes intrigued and goes to other parallel worlds where a ... bigger plot lies, that of the King of Twilight that destroys worlds using those yellow bunnies or Noizies and humanoid version known as "Clutter".

Now Akanesasu Shoujo for the better part of half the anime, Akanesasu Shoujo follows a character focused arc as it were with the members of the Radio Club. Like Nana Nanase voiced by Ami Koshimizu and her dilemma and problems with her stepfather and what that does to her as a person, Mia Silverstone voiced by Nao Touyama, wanting to have the courage and be a hero but she's always been painted as a shy girl that can't do action because of her surface-level personality barring her, Chloe Morisu voiced by Marina Inoue known for being a loner and thinking that's her most efficient yet actually longs for friends once Chloe came into contact with Asuka and finally Yuu Tounaka voiced by Lynn who puts on a facade and yet one of her alternate self is anything but that. Oh yeah there's alternative versions of the characters, being an anime setting with parallels worlds it's to be expected. There are only two however due to this, Sexy Yuu and Seriousuka based on an alternative Asuka who's able to fight the Twilight.

Each of the character arcs follows with their character development but it always ends in the character focused in the arc in question to fight and defeat a Clutter that is plaguing their alternative worlds before that Clutter swallows that world in Twilight rinse and repeat...it's formulaic but it makes sense as each of the main cast and their dilemma's in the real world taken a different form in an alternative world and once they awaken their "Twilight Selves" they not only get superpowers that reflect their problems but they also self-improve as a result due to how the Clutter links with the character in question's dilemma and thus the character in question defeating the Clutter has a narrative meaning. LA's favourite character however did become Mia by default, however LA did have a bit of relatablity with Chloe by the end of the series, while Asuka probably gotten the longest and most development of all the main cast but that is both because of her screentime and being the main protagonist.

The bigger plot of Akanesasu Shoujo hits near the final 3 episodes and changes from it's usual character focused arcs (in a ways) and really digs deep into some plot twists and spoilers of what and who the King of Twilight is and how this links to both Asuka as well as Asuka's lost brother to all this and it gets crazy yet sane in a ways, yes sure alternative worlds, alternative selves and whatnot but it still makes sense by the end of it. Overall the plot is decent, slightly formulaic but the character development helps ALOT to all this to the bigger picture of Akanesasu Shoujo.

In terms of animation by DandeLion Animation Studio and Jumonji. See DandeLion Animation Studio are the one sin charge of the 3D CGI, YUP , this anime implements it in, mostly when the girls transform into their twilight selves and it's janky yet fluid. Janky through how clashing to the background the 3DCGI is, BUT the action and fighting is oddly fluid, it's a weird balance but it kinda works. The character designs and backgrounding for the anime was actually pretty decent, both DandeLion and Jumonoji were in the animation for this and being a joint venture...well it worked out. Overall, the animation of Akanesasu Shoujo was decent enough if you can stomach the 3DCGI, it'll grow on you...

Now the voice acting, well we have a good cast if anything and no it's not just because of Nao Touyama. Tomoyo Kurosawa shows her extremely wide range of cadences as different alternative version of Asuka, this also applies to Lynn with her alternative Yuu's as well. Ami Koshimzu, Nao Touyama and Marina Inoue also does well even if they don't have their alternative selves, as their character focused arcs helps with their voice work in that respect. If anything the voice casting for Akanesasu Shoujo was good.

The finale at the very least resolves Asuka's situation with her missing brother. How the final episode itself takes itself with an introspective look at Asuka as a character and her journey through multiple Fragments and meeting the "King of Twilight" and how this entity links to both Asuka and her little brother is resolved though felt like the resolution was done too quickly, trying to cram in Asuka's development all into one episode but to it's defense, we do get most of Asuka's development helped by the rest of the main cast's arcs as well so the "rushed" flaw becomes only slightly detrimented. The finale was nonetheless all Asuka but nicely tied itself together, giving us hints as to other characters' fate as well.

So was Akanesasu Shoujo good?...well Akanesasu Shoujo is a decent venture with some interesting and in-depth character development from the majority of the cast while Asuka herself being a bigger link to the bigger plot of Akanesasu Shoujo tying things together. Sure the plot is pretty formulaic for the bulk of the anime but many of the plot twists were actually pretty unexpected BUT the 3DCGI was altogether meh to balance things out. Akanesasu Shoujo's strengths and weaknesses all and all just made Akanesasu Shoujo and what LA watched as LA experienced it was that it was "ok", nothing too great but nothing too awful either...it goes right down the middle and that is completely fine as middling as it was...it was a fun and decent experience in all it's quirkiness.