Ojou to Banken-kun

I was pretty excited for this anime since there’s not much romance going on for fall season 2023, but sometimes this anime gives me the “ick” vibes. If the origin of the story wasn’t about a guardian falling in love with the KID he’s been watching since she was 6 years old, I think the plot would’ve been better.

As I’m watching this, I try to ignore the fact that this is what’s truly happening, and tell myself Keiya is in high school too since he looks like it, but they throw in weird dialogue like, “I was just thinking you’ve grown into the body ... type I like.” Excuse me, what?!

The animation itself is pretty low budget looking. Keiya is drawn like he is 1D, which makes him look expressionless. It does have the stereotypical elements that Shojo has though.

If you can ignore the pedophilia and incest vibes this show gives off, then it’s a pretty average Shojo to watch if you don’t have any other romance going on. Nothing to write home about because it is slow moving and touches some anime taboos.

Ok so, the big controversy about this anime is the age gap. Everyone is making a big fuss about it, but I won't get into any of that in this review. I am personally ok with such age gaps and rather enjoy them even; if you're not and are absolutely convinced that it is not ok, just skip over this anime.

Alright, starting this review, I have been excited about this anime since last year and I couldn't really wait to see it because I felt like ugh, finally a classic, typical, shoujo plot. We've been missing those for a really long while now. After having ... finished this anime, I am gonna say that just for the concept and plot, I would've normally given it a 7/10. Regrettably, the poor execution, direction and animation made me downgrade it to a 5. The animation was barely anything professional.

I am cutting this anime some slack while being hard on it at the same time. That is because we don't normally get anime series with such plots and I would very much like to encourage it. I can also imagine that not a lot of money was put into it, which made the overall quality of the anime just about acceptable. There are some animation mistakes, but I am trying to give them a break because of what I've mentioned above.

The ultimate reason it became a 5, is because it seriously could have been much better, and because it didn't live up to its full potential. That affected the enjoyment part of it a bit. HOWEVER, speaking from a shoujo enjoyer perspective, it hit some really nice marks for it. It won't disappoint in terms of romance events and scenes. If you're craving some physical romance instead of the common innocent love that's usually presented in other anime, I would recommend this anime for you.

tl;dr > romance scenes are nice, but production quality falls short. Nonetheless, still enjoyable.

This anime is an ephebophile grooming nightmare. If you're into that kind of thing: This anime is for you! If you aren't, but you're morbidly curious enough to watch it anyway, here's what you can enjoy about it:

1.) Umehara, Yuuichirou's voice (i.e. Keiya's VA).
That's admittedly a very subjective reason, but as a huge Umehara fan, this is what mainly drove me to keep watching until the end.

2.) Isaku's friends and the hostess.
Those three female side characters were surprisingly likeable! Because of Keiya and Isaku's huge lack of communication skills, the happy ending (provided you see it as such, considering the controversial nature of the relationship) ... literally couldn't have come to pass without those three! It was only through their support that Keiya and Isaku could sort out their feelings and solve their issues. Other shows might have made the hostess a love rival to Isaku, but this anime utilised her much better, namely as an older, more experienced source of advice.

3.) Animation/continuity/editing fails.
There are numerous of those, and whenever they show up, you can be sure to laugh your ass off. They range from characters moving awkwardly/unnaturally, over characters talking when their mouths aren't moving and vice versa, to characters changing positions or even clothes (!) in between shots. There are also a couple of still shots during which dialogue is played, which first makes you think your screen has frozen. It's absolutely hilarious!

4.) OP+ ED song.
Musical tastes vary, but chances are you'll find the OP song very catchy and the ED visually pleasing (the song is also quite nice, but less so than the OP imo).

To round off this review, I'd like to mention the two things that would have fixed this anime, the only two things that would need to be different for this to be a decent romance anime (at least in my humble opinion):

Make Keiya 18, and let him have a character arc.

Or make him 17, if you wanna go for a fully non-controversial anime, but that's all. That's all that would need to be changed, and you'd have an anime with basically the same outline, but without all the controversial stuff. If you're interested, please let me elaborate:

5-year-old Isaku moves to her grandfather's place after her parents died. To keep her company, her grandfather organises her a friend, Keiya (here he'd be some yakuza's relative, not a yakuza himself). Isaku and Keiya spend all their time together, even go to the same elementary and middle school. They are each other's only friend, which makes them highly emotionally dependent on each other. Keiya is extremely possessive and protective of Isaku, while Isaku is extremely reliant on him. When Isaku turns 15, she decides not to go to the same high school as Keiya because she wants to get over what she thinks is an unrequited love for him. With the help of Isaku's grandpa and some bribery, Keiya gets into the same class as Isaku and things pan out as in the original anime (also the fight scenes because this young Keiya took combat training to be able to protect Isaku whom he is so protective over). Unlike the original version, however, Keiya actually takes Isaku's protest against his behaviour to heart, sees the error of his ways, and develops into proper boyfriend material by the end.

And that's it. Not a perfect or revolutionary story, but decently enjoyable, at least imo. Thanks if you have read this far.

I want to warn everyone just about the animation mistakes which just made me sad... like
- Dialogue that is finished but in the animation he still yapping
- Very horribly drawing hands/arms while they are the main focus of the scene
- Photo snapping sound while it looks like your episode just froze but they just didnt draw that part
- Laughing hostess girl like she was being electrocuted
- Ya main boy in the beginning but the giant in the class room but calling another mid size tall boi the basketball player 'cause he so tall'...
- Asking her to put sunglasses on while she already had it on ... in the shot and then one second later changing to the same shot?...
- Main boy tryna kiss other class rep but get caught, but boy almost tried to kiss her again def animation mistake I hope XD
- Main girl looking at crotch of second male lead or she just for real blind/cross-eyed
- Main girls clothing where she suddenly has a potato figure (if so great but it just changed for once scene..)
- Them talking about the ice cream that is a heart form which it was not...?
and these are just from the top of my head I know for sure I missing a lot. So if that aint bothering you beside the age gap, ya good to go but.... it kinda pulled me out of it... Eventhough I do like the original art style it felt with the episode it getting worse and made with less budget..

Out of all the anime that came out nearly the same time as Ojou to Banken-kun held the most high expectations and in the end, most of us fell hard...

The overall topic of the anime was good, not as informative as in the manga, with cute scenes, and inner monologes.
However, I have one question about the graphics... Whyy???
There are older animes, animes from the 20th century with more expressions, emotions and movements...
We are in the 21st century with all the possibilities, and all the sources needed to deliver the full experience to the viewer and here we are..

Even if the plot, the idea, the ... flow of the episodes or the voices were to be brilliant when you visualise it this way, the anime and everything goes down with it...

The start of the story is what you can find in many other series of the genre, and also introduces many familiar Shoujo tropes throughout. The dynamic is also a common one, being that of an overprotective male lead and a shy, introverted female protagonist. Despite this, something about them feels distinctive from other Shoujo anime, and it’s refreshing to watch. There’s a subtle undertone of forbidden love to the story, which adds a refreshing aspect to it. Also, the show is packed with wholesome interactions that make it a perfect watch for anyone looking for something cute and swoon-worthy. The plot, however, is relatively ... shallow, and you shouldn’t expect too much of a real story. I would say it’s a Nichijou Anime more than anything. It might even start to feel a bit stale after a while if you're binge-watching it. If you're looking for something new in the Shoujo genre, this show will feel too familiar and repetitive. On the other hand, for anyone seeking something comfortable and bite-sized, this series is for you!

3 words. Manga is better. Despite how much I like the series in general, the animation was just not as great as the Manga version. I didn’t want to slander the animation out of respect for the animators and also because how much I enjoyed reading the manga. However, I thought that the animated version didn’t fully capture the magic of the manga. This was the biggest flaw I noticed when watching the show. Even though it’s still a cute anime, there are excessive amounts of recap-scenes and pauses, and the animation feels pretty lazy in some scenes, despite the characteristic art style. It feels like a condensed, less detailed version of the manga. This is especially noticeable if you go in the order of Manga to Anime. If you enjoy reading manga, I would definitely recommend reading the story more than committing to the animated series. The only downside of the manga is that it’s really long, and might take a while to get to the latest volume. If you’re eager to get through the series fast and care less about the quality, go for the anime! Also, the intro and outro is really cute.

TLDR; If you’re looking for the full experience of the story, I would highly recommend reading the manga instead. However, I would recommend giving it a watch if you're looking for a comfortable watch with a familiar story and tropes.

I feel like if I was twelve or thirteen I would have loved this series. It has a few...sus themes, but generally follows the puppy love of a yakuza granddaughter. Alone, I feel like the story has some development, and the characters are... reasonably interesting. But compared to the manga, a lot of the "smooth" dokidoki lines come across unnatural and overall just do not do the manga version justice; I genuinely don't think this is a series that translates well to anime form---especially in Western culture. As you may have heard the grooming vibes and creep vibes are a bit strong; I can ignore ... it because it's fiction--- and sometimes youth hormones will do weird things, but it definitely takes thick skin to not cringe. In every possible way, all categories of art/seiyuus/direction is simply fine. I watched it because I read the source material, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it unless you're openminded going in. The closest comparison and recommendation I can compare it too is Vampire Knight. I think when I first made a MAL account I rated it a 10. Very recognizable art style, color palette, and progression of events. Good? Well... it's an anime that will make you feel something I guess. The downfall for Ojou to Banken-kun is Kaname and Zero had beautiful character design -- for Keiya? He was better left black and white. But would I absolutely avoid either series? No. But I'm not left with a I can fix him! energy most shoujos/romances offer. This series, I'd argue is not at all representative of the shoujo audience. I'll finish it though


And super random, but the wavy eyeballs piss me off, although it's pure art style.