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Sep 28, 2012
Short version: While not well executed, this series has a unique approach to its story, which is why I do recommend you to watch it despite its low rating. I can't say whether you'll enjoy it or not, but it's worth to see nevertheless.
One can easily list multiple stories, novels, movies, which portray how elections work (or more precisely, not work). Most of them ironically portray an incompetent, money-driven candidate who running his unfair and corrupted campaign.
Love, Election, Chocolate! portrays Ojima Yuki, a member of the Food Research (a.k.a. Eating) Club, which, of course, gets school funds for its activities. However, the elections for Student
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Council president are approaching, and the popular candidate wishes to disband clubs that don't deserve their funds, including Yuki's. Not knowing anything about politics and PR, Yuki decides to run against her.
Then what's the difference, then, between Love, Election, Chocolate! and all the other works you mentioned above? Once again we have an incompetent candidate who's running for president for money!
Unlike other similar political shows or novels, there's no irony in LEC! Instead, Yuki is the person who is about to lose the club, which is the place at school he really belongs to, and simply tries to protect it. We are also shown interesting personal dramas of the other members of the Food Club and the opposing candidates, political (and not only) intrigues by the people who currently have power, and much more.
For this unique approach I give the story 8/10 (which is good, coming from me), despite the filler and supposedly comical silly scenes.
The art, however, I didn't like. While its quality is good, I care a lot more about character designs than the quality of the art. And them didn't like: strange hairs, big boobs, and a face which looks like a mask. Thus I give 3/10 for the art.
The music was OK. I liked the opening and ending a lot, and the the soundtracks were good and appropriate.
As well as the character designs, the characters themselves also draw the show back. While appropriate (for example, we have Yuki's opponent, the perfect, honest, fair candidate; we have two comical relief characters), they are nothing special or original.
Characters which are "nothing special", bad art, fuller scenes, manages, in my case, to "compensate" for the unique approach to the story, and thus I give 5 for enjoyment. Nevertheless, I do recommend you to give a try to this series.
PS: Could you send me some feedback if you find thid unhelpful?
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 31, 2012
First, I would like to mention that a score of five on my scale means 'average' and not 'awful - don't watch ever!!!'.
Many comedies rely on characters' stupidity or misfortunes, raised to absurd levels, to produce the comic effect. Since I don't like these approaches, and don't find those things funny, I tend to stay away from comedies. Since SA characters were supposed to be extra smart, extra fast, extra strong, etc, I hoped this show would have a different approach to comedy - otherwise why the hell make the characters like that.
It turned out that the only reason the characters are like that is
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to explain the rivalry between Kei and Hikari. True, this rivalry is important, however, considering the characters are only supposed to be smart, but their actions are generally stupid, except Yahiro and maybe Takishima's, the rivalry point also falls apart somehow. I have to admit, the characters are as strong as (actually, a lot stronger than) they are supposed to be, but this is also overused.
So while they are presented as extraordinary, most of the characters are typical and their actions are more or less clichéd. They have their good moments, though, so I would class them as average (5)
This paragraph will mention a little about the romance. It will include some spoilers. To mask them, so that you wouldn't accidentally read them, I will put them in {brackers} and insert some letters 'u' randomly. I have to say, the story is worse than typical {tuhue cuhuauraucutueurs fuaull in luouvue, tuhuueuy stubbornly duouunuuu't cuouunuufueusuus tuhueuir feueuluiunugus until tuhue uvueuruy ueunudu, aunud tuhuis cuauuusueus puruoubulueumus bueutuwueueun them; what's more, this happens nuout ounuluy fuour ounue, but fuour tuwuo of the cuouuupulueus in the show}. For a typical romance story to be good, you need good characters. Since in our case they are average, the story would be average at best. Unfortunately, this story is worse than typical, and with average characters driving it, I have to rate it below average - at most 4. It's execution was funny enough to deserve a 4, though.
I won't comment the art and sound much, as I don't usually pay them special attention. They weren't annoying and did a good job setting the mood, which I find a good enough achievement to rate at least 7, but never impressed me, so not good enough for an 8.
Overall, this is an average show - enjoyable if you have nothing better to do and not dull enough to drop, but nothing more than that. I wouldn't advice you against watching it if you like romantic comedies, but I wouldn't recommend it either.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 12, 2012
Updated after episode 15.
1) Score updates (note that I score with 5 things I find average, so 6 means I find something above average):
Story: 6 -> 7
Art: 10 -> 10
Sound: 8 -> 7
Characters: 6 -> 7
Enjoyment: 6 -> 7
Overall: 6 -> 7
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2) Story and characters
There are two kinds of episodes in Hyouka. First, you have silly eps. There the mystery is no really mystery (eg. "Why did I get angry? I never get angry!"), the characters don't really develop, and the focus is mainly on comedy which I personally find dull. Second, there are arcs composed of several episodes in which something interesting is going on. The mystery is not the typical murder case, but also something casual, however it is not silly. The characters are being developed. The comedy is still there, of course.
Fortunately, while the show started with a lot of the first kind of eps, since episode 9 there has only been one of them, and it was actually a special (11.5). And, for those who want some diversity amongst the characters, two new characters have appeared in the last two arcs (one per arc) who, while not main, seem to be more important than 'just classmates' and Irisu is still having some screen time after the arc she appeared in is finished.
Furthermore, while it seems the arcs seem to be finished, they have some loose ends untied. While I wouldn't like to spoil, I can say that they are not important and leaving them as is won't ruin the show, I feel like the show could win a lot for closing them.
The characters are believable for the most part and I enjoy watching them.
3) Art and sound: I don't usually pay special attention to the art and sound. In this case, however, the art has made me pay attention to it - in the good sense - so It gets a 10. The sound is good - never annoying, but nothing spectacular - so 7.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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