Temple

I previously read some of the manga, so watching the anime was an enjoyable enough experience. I think I still enjoy the manga more because the art is just so good, while the anime doesn't excel much visually besides a couple scenes. One thing the anime did do better is make me like all of the girls much more. While reading the manga I was strongly on team Mia, but the anime endeared me more to everyone. The voice acting was a big part of that, and speaking of it does take a little bit to get used to VA for Akagami because it's much ... deeper than you'd expect, but the actual quality is unquestionable.

I don't think the last episode's push for an emotional ending really worked or was earned at all because pretty much all the exposition for it was in the final episode. Even in episode 11 the tone was still pretty silly and upbeat, but then we're supposed to take everything super seriously in episode 12 and I just couldn't. The final episode tries to recontextualize Yuzuki as putting on "fake smiles" and a "brave face" but you really get no indication of that from the rest of the series so it doesn't feel earned.

I still enjoyed this as fun and it was a fine enough adaptation, but nothing particularly special.

I don't know why this doesn't match the synopsis I read.
There are many anime whose plot initially looks promising but doesn't go forward, just like this anime.
After growing up, MC knew that his father's actions were wrong and MC decided to improve himself. Yes that was the initial plot but what happened? Why are you trapped in a temple full of girls? How stupid is the MC in this anime? Or if you don't know why not look for another temple, that's something you should do if you really want to repent.

Basically this is just empty talk from the MC, and as long as I ... watched until the end, the MC had absolutely no intention of improving himself and wanting to become a monk as the synopsis said.
And the thing I don't like isn't just this bullshit, But I'm also tired of the MC always getting caught up in perverted things. Yes, this is an echi genre anime, but the problem is that there are good ones and bad ones.

For you, the score is a reflection of the anime itself, if you don't like MCs who just talk nonsense like this, I suggest not watching.

Here is my review of this anime in 2023!

Story (7)
The story is about a man who's bearing his father's burden. His father left behind a bad burden which made Him to pay a lot of money. In the middle journey, He's gonna bumps into a girl and the temple. That's where their journey begins.

Art (7)
The art of this anime is good. I like how they make the ecchi and comedy scenes. But I think they need to make it more animated.

Sound (8)
All the sounds that they used were very good and adjusted to the animation.
...
Character (8)
The main character is very memorable along with the supporter.

Enjoyment (7)
It's enjoyable to watch this movie in 2023.

Overall (7)
Recommended to those who love slice-of-life, comedy, and ecchi anime.

I don't usually watch the harem or ecchi genres, but this one caught my eye simply due to the animation, which is the first thing I consider when starting an anime. Studio Gekkou outdid itself with this anime. The character designs in this anime are truly exceptional. If you are someone who enjoys appreciating good animation then I suggest you watch Temple. Overall, Temple isn't great, but it isn't terrible either. Obviously, there are several sexual themes, dirty jokes, and misunderstandings. I feel that this anime does all of these right. It's actually funny and not just, "Hey, look! Boobs!" However, the plot is lacking, ... which isn't surprising since it's harem/ecchi, so if you're watching for a good story, don't be too hopeful.

Story: 3/10
Animation: 9/10
Comedy: 8/10
Overal: 6/10

A Love Hina-like ecchi, rom-com harem that's not that bad? From the illustrator of one of AniManga's most celebrated works? I highly question my doubts.

Yes, you heard me right. From the illustrator of mangaka Kenji Inoue's high-octane, no-holds-barred comedy fest that is Grand Blue (which everyone celebrated both the ongoing manga and anime, and the Summer 2018 anime is certainly one of the best literal Summer sensations of the 2010s) comes Kimitake Yoshioka branching out in September 2018 with his own series: Temple a.k.a TenPuru: No One Can Live on Loneliness, a shameless clone/carbon copy of the harem trend that has been set since famed ... mangaka Ken Akamatsu's Love Hina's release in October 1998, a full 25 years since. But true to its contemporaries, is it REALLY as bad as the majority panned it out to be?

It's clear that what mangaka Ken Akamatsu had going for was revolutionary for its time, serving as the inspiration for other series like Summer 2005's Amaenaide yo!! a.k.a Ah My Buddha!! (which is the exact same showing as Temple, only 18 years prior), Summer 2018's Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san a.k.a Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs (which retains the harem but in a hot spring setting), and the more recent Summer 2021's Megami-ryou no Ryoubo-kun. a.k.a Mother of the Goddess' Dormitory (which retains the harem setting but with MC being a Shotacon in a dorm setting), and next year's upcoming Amagami-san Chi no Enmusubi a.k.a Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister (which I hope will air next Summer for the unbroken Summer harem streak). Which, come to think of it, Ecchi and harem (anime) series REALLY LOVE the Summer season (which Grand Blue is no exception and despite Love Hina's original run ending in Summer 2000), and Temple follows the exact same tropes that have been laid out since then, thinking that it will be the new, modern, resuscitiation effort to bring the old "2000s new millenia" age of the harem genre back to life 20+ years later. In my opinion, it didn't.

For starters, I don't know what Kimitake Yoshioka was trying to aim for here, but if anything, he absolutely nailed the throwback aesthetic of the 2000s, of a MC who's at the mercy of girls being at their beck and call, someone who was first humoured and taken advantage of by the girls to be tasked to kick the MC out from the place of residence for sort, until circumstances show that he's ready to stay and be everyone's support, leading them to have an affection for the protagonist. It's no different for the MC: red-haired Akemitsu Akagami, being told from his father that "No One Can Live on Loneliness", and then proceeding to betray that promise by becoming a womaniser himself, much to his chagrin. Determined to change his ways of perversion, Akagami enrols as a monk and joins the male-only Mikazuki Temple, where, on the way, he meets a girl whom he fancies, and the girl herself coincidentally resides in the same temple that he's heading to. The irony, however, is not realising that the supposedly male-only Mikazuki Temple is more like a women-only nunnery for priestesses and that it's in a very rough and decrepit, run-down state, because Akagami's father was the sole reason that he loaned a huge amount of money off from the temple. Since Akagami has no way to pay up the 20 million yen debt, he is forced to live in the temple as a dogsbody a.k.a lowly worker, until the debt is fully repaid. What an ironic sequence of events that the son has to go through treatment this bad from all of its female residents for a supposed crime that, no thanks to the Akagami family name, leaves his name tarnished until the deed is done.

Alas, this journey of becoming a pure monk has its ups and downs. Akagami looks like a young man in his late 10s or early 20s, but why did they give the central role to the 31-year-old amateur VA Masayuki Akasaka is beyond me; there seems to be a disconnect in the vocal range, which makes Akagami sound like the usual pervertic old man...which if that's what the casting crew had in mind for him to sound like Keitaro Urashima if he's old, then yeah, probably not the wisest choice ever. That said, amongst all of the idiosyncracies that you would expect to see in a harem series, Akagami is one purely good guy who wants to write off his estranged father's wrongdoings and turn Mikazuki Temple for the better. And that I can certainly get past for a guy in a nunnery who only wants to impress the supposed head mistress of the nunnery.

That leads us to the various girls, in what seems to be the usual "5 girls cast":
- 19-year-old Yuzuki Aoba, the eldest of the three Aoba sisters, is laden with the task of becoming Mikazuki Temple's next head priestess, because the price to pay if she doesn't become one, is that the tenants residing there will be thrown out, and the temple will be closed and disbanded for good. The girl that Akagami had laid his pure-not-pervertic eyes on, she is the most mature of the tenants and does decent on her archery skills, and in my eyes, most certainly the ideal girl for the red-haired. Along with the middle sister Tsukuyo and the youngest of Kurage, the former also practices archery, just like Yuzuki, and always finds herself on the misunderstanding side of things as she endlessly teases Akagami and gets overconfident about Akagami making his moves on her, which, of course, didn't turn out to be so. Kurage, on the other hand, develops fantasies while developing herself to be the adult that Akagami can pounce on her in the future, though she always maintains the "innocent, not guilty" act.
- The other tenants of Mia Christoph and Kagura Baldwin are an interesting bunch of girls. Like in Masamune-kun no Revenge, Mia and Kagura have a master-servant relationship where the former is the master and the latter is the servant, though for the same familial reasons as Akagami, Mia's escape to Japan along with her only friend Kagura is 20/20 hindsight. In most instances, Mia is the girl whom Akagami is most attached to, be it being innocently led into sexual situations or being forced to commit to sexual relations, for which her family holds a strong no-holds-barred policy, and for which Kagura wants to exploit her to become the sex queen of her family to get rid of Akagami. This is the typical love triangle where Mia is hopelessly in love with Akagami, yet he only has eyes for Yuzuki, and all three people are trained by the nunnery's temporary caretaker, Kiki, to become priests to save Mikazuki Temple, which I thought was a nice mini redemption arc, if there ever was one.

This is newbie studio Gekkou's 2nd anime series, and the last time they did with last season's Isekai One Turn Kill Neesan a.k.a My One-Hit Kill Sister, it was alright for a fledgling new production studio's first try. With Temple, it honestly doesn't look all that different from the former, and if they are trying to just gloss it over with the production, it's once again fine and serviceable. The music aspect, with the OST being sung by the VAs of the Aoba sisters, Mia and Kagura, is also alright and nothing special.

If you asked me this question: "Do you want to be taken back to the time of fledgling 2000s harem series?", I would probably say no, because that was a time where anime only made waves from those in the know, and anime was at a stage of experimentation of what would be best localised to the world. Though in the case of Temple, I would argue that while it's nothing special as a rom-com or harem gimmick of a series, it does have heart on its sleeve, and I respect the MC Akagami for the change that is absolutely needed in the nunnery.

If you decide to watch Temple, to enjoy it, you would have to take it with a grain of salt and think of it as a low-budget Grand Blue of sorts. Take this as my only recommendation if you wish to watch this like an old weeb living in the early 2000s, but I wouldn't hedge my bets on this being a game changer.

So... I went into this one with so much hope but i really am disappointed...

I really enjoy the 00's vibe on this but it's not "clicking" for me. After 3 eps the comedy seems pretty generic, the characters are nothing special, and the story is quite boring, if i'm being honest.
You'll probably enjoy this show if you are just getting into the genre but for someone that has watched a few of theses shows, it doesn't bring anything new to the table. Same characters, same jokes, similar storyline.
Also the voice actor of the MC just doesn't fit I don't know why, call me picky or ... whatever but it sounds weird on this, i'm sorry.
I really enjoy the art style since it reminds me of the mid 00's, early 10's so props to that since i really appreciate the decision of taking that step.
If you enjoy your harems and just want relax a bit watching some nonsense this is totally for you. But if you are looking into something fresh in this genre just look away since this show is not what you looking for.