Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka is an anime that hurts itself by raising expectations and failing to meet them like clockwork. It goes out of its way to repeatedly build from mediocrity only to plunge itself back down to the point where you wonder why you even gave it much of a chance. It's someone jumping out of a 3 story building and landing on concrete, only to climb back up and jump over and over again. Until the person's bones are mush and the series limps to its god-awful ending.
As a series in general, Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka (from here on, Akasaka) is passable, I
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would go as far to say it's decent and occasionally enjoyable. Its gaping flaws are grossly magnified, rightly, by its constant, flagrant disappointment of its viewers. Basically Akasaka is not pure bad (far from it) but the parts that are actually good makes the parts that are bad look really bad.
Akasaka is based off Feng's visual novel released back in 2007. The plot revolves around a boy by the name of Jun'ichi Nagase, who attends a prestigious high school and seems to bear some kind of tough reputation from middle school. Think typical harem school comedy male protagonist. There, I just developed the character to the same degree 12 episodes of Akasaka did. Anyhow, a naive aloof rich girl, Katagiri Yuuhi (CV: Kugimiya Rie), transfers to Jun'ichi's school and Jun'ichi, out of some act of divine inspiration kisses her, causing unspeakable chaos. Then, to close out a rather promising first episode and establish a quite original premise, it turns out that Yuuhi is Junichi's fiancee due to an arranged marriage.
Akasaka's female cast is chock full eye-catching and potentially interesting characters. Expectations: high. The series proceeds to do nothing with all but two of the girls. Expectations: failed.
Like many similar anime, Akasaka's plot (the plot is essentially just the premise) takes a back seat episodes 3-10 for some good unrelated episodes of fun. That's fine! It's a structure that has worked countless times. And by all means it can work here. But instead, Akasaka is filled extremely cliche situations solved in extremely cliche ways. For example, Jun'ichi's sister Minato (CV: Hirano Aya) takes Yuuhi shopping in a supermarket to make dinner. Six minutes of pointless dialogue about how amazed Yuuhi is of instant curry follows. We get it after the first few lines! Yuuhi talks about how she eats at home as Kugimiya Rie butchers French Japanese transliteration. She's rich, naive, aloof, we get that. Is it supposed to be funny that Yuuhi doesn't know about instant curry and thinks that her cooks and servants don't either? How overblown does the reaction and enlightenment need to be? There are lots of girls in this anime, some who look pretty interesting. Are we going to get episodes about them? With curry? That actually would be pretty awesome...
Watching anime should never be physically painful, but that's what I felt as this series slowly killed itself. It's the pain you feel a promising show wastes all the good things it had going for it and falls into mediocrity. Akasaka occasionally strikes silver (no gold in this show, sorry) with a few lines of interesting dialogue and good animation, but after every good or decent episode or plot development the series feels as if it has some obligation to make up for it by spewing crap at our face. It's like you're at an amusement park and every time you have some fun, a burly security guard has to give you a swift punch in the gut. The ending begins suddenly in the last 3 episodes and was likewise promising. Too bad the conclusion of the series was so predictable that I might as well have drawn the storyboards myself and the things that you didn't predict either have no relevance to the plot or are so cheesy and/or wrong you're better off not predicting it.
I'm a little harsh on this series because it really is a shame. Akasaka goes to show you how bad writing can absolutely destroy a series with everything else going for it. The art is good, the characters and landscapes are well drawn and fun to look at. Akasaka has a voice acting cast that would remind you of the New York Yankees, with the resulting mediocrity to match. When we have Kugimiya Rie (Shana, Louise, Taiga), Inoue Marina (Chiri from Zetsubou Sensei, Yoko from TTGL), Aya Hirano (Haruhi, Konata, Misa from Death Note) and Tanaka Rie (Chi from Chobits, Sugintou) in the same anime, we're going to be excited. I had my eye on this series ever since voice actors were announced and some art was available.
In the end, the voice acting was pretty good but by itself it cannot save a series. The music (besides the terrible OP) is good. It better be good when you have five voice actors with best selling seiyuu albums on your staff. Should there be an OVA about the supporting characters I would most likely flock to it with expectations held high. I've heard that the game this is based off was really cool. Too bad I can't say the same for the anime adaptation.
Alternative Titles
Synonyms: Akasaka, Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka
Japanese: あかね色に染まる坂
More titlesInformation
Type:
TV
Episodes:
12
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Oct 3, 2008 to Dec 19, 2008
Premiered:
Fall 2008
Broadcast:
Unknown
Licensors:
Sentai Filmworks
Studios:
TNK
Source:
Visual novel
Duration:
25 min. per ep.
Rating:
R+ - Mild Nudity
Statistics
Ranked:
#79102
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#1626
Members:
155,417
Favorites:
258
Available AtResources | Reviews
Filtered Results: 21 / 72
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Your Feelings Categories Dec 29, 2008
Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka is an anime that hurts itself by raising expectations and failing to meet them like clockwork. It goes out of its way to repeatedly build from mediocrity only to plunge itself back down to the point where you wonder why you even gave it much of a chance. It's someone jumping out of a 3 story building and landing on concrete, only to climb back up and jump over and over again. Until the person's bones are mush and the series limps to its god-awful ending.
As a series in general, Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka (from here on, Akasaka) is passable, I ... May 26, 2009
There are some shows that really have no business being bad. Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka is one of those. When you look at the talent gathered for this series it practically reads as a who’s who of seiyuu talent. Unfortunately it is that talent that is one of the few bright spots in what is otherwise a pretty dismal series.
The story unfolds as your standard harem anime. I always find some of the ridiculous situations these writers come up with quite hilarious. A spoiled rich girl ends up living with a pair of siblings (not related by blood of course, ... Nov 23, 2008
Watching Akane-iro is akin to dating the hot blond in class, only to find out that the most exciting conversation they can field is who Britanny Spears will date next.
Akane-iro certainly had potential. Attractive character designs, famous voice actors, a decent sound track. Sure, like the desire to go out with blond bombshell, the story of a girl forced to move into the house of his future fiancee... who *happens* to be a your average anime guy who just also* happens* to have a hot sister is not exactly original. But you think "Hey, the voice actors and animations are good, and such stories, no matter ... Dec 20, 2008
Well... honestly, I don't know why I enjoyed watching Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka like I did, but here I am. I didn't take it seriously, though, for it was impossible to take it seriously. While I was watching it I was really just making fun of it most of the time. Why, you might ask? Well… it was just so darn stupid. Clichéd. Annoying. You get the picture.
The story centers around a seemingly normal guy named Junichi, who rescues a tempered girl named Yuuhi (what is up with that girl’s hair?) from some guys who were trying to pick her up (oh wow, an example ... Dec 29, 2008
Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka is pretty much your basic "harem anime, " and I have to say that it stays pretty tried and true with its formula.
It starts off with Junichi (main male lead) meeting this mysterious rich female transfer student (Yuuhi) who has been forced to marry him by her dad. This happens early on and you would expect the rest of the anime to have them slowly grow close to each other, but oddly enough it doesn’t really do that, even though they are the main couple of the title. For most of the anime it seems to have Junichi and his friends ... Oct 23, 2011
“Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka” is one of those Anime that draws you in with the first episode. At the beginning of the series, you end up forming high expectations of the Anime because it in the long run is different from the cliché, only to have these expectations dashed at the end of the Anime because the storyline just couldn't hold itself together. Because of this, it is going to be very hard to leave out spoilers in my review.
The Anime starts off with the protagonist finding out that he has a fiance and the two of them living together. This particular plot device is ... Aug 9, 2010
Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka at first seems like a cliche romance and all. Accidentally meeting in an awkward way and ending up together. Thle story would've fit like that especially since the two main protagonists were giving hints of their feelings for each other. but that wasn't the case, it didn't happen.
I gave the story a 5/10 because I personally hated how the story ended. I wanted it to be a bit more cliched cos if it was it would have been more fun to enjoy since you get those butterflies in the end when you see that the two main characters end up ... May 29, 2014
I try my best not to be piss. but oh well, here it goes
Story 4/10 - It started good, I actually enjoy it the first few episodes. So this story went by a guy name Nagase saved a girl name Yuuhi who apparently is his future wife. - she moved in to Nagase's sibling house becos she cant accept the planning marriage and wanna learn more about junichi - At first he 'is interested' in her. / as she was also try hard to like him at first - Then doubtful of his own feeling. / she know that she love him - Finally realized that he love his sister ... Oct 24, 2009
Nothing really preliminary to discuss; it's harem, cute girls, etc. Let's get right to the blunt review:
Story: 6 Not original. Guy lives with girls; one girl was set up to be his fiance; which leads to many, many emotions. However, the grade is above average because they put a teeny twist on it. I try to write spoiler-free reviews and this one is no different. If you want to enjoy some love triangle romance without too much (hardly any) deep thinking/thought, this one does an above average job at it. Art: 8 Very good. Not disappointing at all. Sound: 6 Well, the girls sound like girls and the boys ... Jun 19, 2015
THIS LITTLE REVIEW CONTAINS A BIG SPOILERS
. . . . . . I can't deny that i really enjoyed and laughed a lot while watching the Anime at the first episodes, and it's really nice that we have a boy loves a girl.. but it's so fuckin stupid for me to find out that the boy turned to loving his sister in a romantic way, ruined my mood! So DON'T WATCH THIS SHIT! ... Oct 11, 2012
The main reason I thought this anime was entertaining is because, the main character(male lead) doesn't pick the obvious choice(tsundere gir).
The ending was ok, because the main character actually gets to the point and chooses who he likes in the end rather than it being a competition between the girls to get the guy.The art was mediocre. I really didn't like the opening and ending songs weren't too enticing. Regarding the characters, besides the main protagonist and his friend there wasn't anything special. I enjoyed it a little but it kind of gets a bit annoying. I have to give my respects out to ... Oct 27, 2015
Coming into this show, I wasn't sure what to expect. The characters seem like any other from a harem. You have the sometimes self-aware, but mostly dense main character, two love interests, one being the tsundere, and the other being the kind, caring one, followed by all the side characters that may or may not show romantic interests in the MC. Standard layout, so it should be fairly enjoyable, no? Not really. There are very few shows I have watched where I felt frustrated watching it, let alone having to force myself to continue through most of it. Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka was one such
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Aug 5, 2019
Akane iro ni somaru saka is an harem visual novel based anime. I like this kind of animations, but if you don't like them or you're looking for a good anime, this is not what are you looking for.
Let's see: Story (4/10): The plot is random and it's not deep at all. The side story about the protagonist's parents has no sense, it's an attempt to make deeper the plot, but is just filler. However, for an harem anime, it's ok. Art (6/10): This anime was released in 2008, the art is fine for that time. ... Jun 29, 2014
Well, to begin I'll try to make this as spoiler free as possible. Although my main problem is the ending so I'll probably mention it once. So *spoilers* you've been warned.
Story: 7/10 The story is about our stock character protaginist (for those who don't know it's means a character usually the main one who has no defining qualities) saving a girl from being mugged. Afterwords he misinterpretes said relationship as one in romantic nature which she doesn't like, causing her to go (adorable) tsundere. Later they find out their parents are actually set up an arranged marriage between them. Me being a lover of cheesy romcoms ... Mar 30, 2013
Short Reasons (I avoided hinting too much but if you want to read why I gave them low scores read at the bottom. Although I'll still be vague.)
Story : 5/10 The story is a bit cliche, but so are a lot of things. They knew how to use the their opening plot. But some things just can't keep going right..(read hint below) Art: 8/10 I'm rating this anime on the year 2013. Compared to its competitors back in the 2008, the art is quite good and consistent. Sound: 7/10 Same reasoning with Art but wasn't exactly "very" good in my opinion. ... Mar 5, 2016
this warning review may contain spoilers.
First impressions, so another anime based off a hentai game. I really need to watch something different I guess? Story, 5/10 ladies and gentlemen of all ages I welcome you to generic rom-com anime number nine thousand five hundred twenty two. The story starts out with this fish girl named yuuhi who is saved by are main character junichi from a group of teenage thugs. ... Mar 15, 2024
Honestly, I went into this anime with some pretty high hopes, but in the end, I was left feeling pretty let down. Maybe I was a bit too generous with the score I ended up giving it, but hey, that's just me.
The storyline mostly centers around the usual school life stuff, but with a few quirky twists thrown in. Things seem to be going smoothly for the male lead, who's engaged to a girl, until the final episode comes along and totally drops the ball. It felt incredibly unsatisfying, and I think that's a big part of why I wound up disappointed with the whole ... Mar 15, 2009
This anime was just another short anime about a lucky ass guy running around with cute chicks that all like him, with him getting beat to crap all the time for thinking anything perverted the creators somehow though them knocking him up all the time is comical not at all.. good drawing though i cant do it.
Oct 4, 2013
Before I start this review, from this point forward, I will be calling this anime "Akane" cause I don't want to write the full name at all. Nonetheless, let's get going!
Story: The story of Akane involves a faithful meeting between our main protagonist Junichi, and a cute girl by his words, named Yuuhi. Saving her from 2 guys who were possibly going to do some bad things to her, Junichi saves Yuuhi and that faithful encounter sparks them to know who the other person is. On another faithful encounter, the 2 meet each other again, and deciding that he should "take the ... Oct 13, 2012
I have sort of a mixed opinion on this anime. I mean I've never really liked Harems, I've always liked Reverse Harems so this was a first for me. I first watched this because the quality of the Art was outstanding. I wish the story would have moved faster though, and I was pretty upset with the ending. But all in all it was a pretty feel-good anime that gave you a lot of entertainment.
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