Basically, Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata is a story about an otaku named Aki, Tomoya who managed to convince 4 girls to join his doujin circle and create a dating sim. It's not completely unique, but it has promise. If the ecchi tag does carry on to the series, then it will lose a lot of it's potential, but for now, I'll presume it's not going to be that excessive. The fan service of this episode wasn't utter trash though. Seeing as how that's what they were going for, the fan service was certainly pleasing to the eyes.
As a whole, it might not be as light-hearted as this prologue depicts it to be, which would definitely make it more interesting. I'm not saying it's light-hearted atmosphere is bad though. The comedy was indeed pleasant. I'm a sucker for parodies, so I found the characters' comments about the anime industry to be hilarious.
In short, the plot isn't crazy unique and interesting, but it's enough to hold my attention. As for the episode, I had a good time. I know they wanted as much fan service as possible, so I took it for what it was and enjoyed it rather than bashing on the abundance of it. Also it's self aware comedy was humorous and the romantic hints served as a nice way to show how big romance is going to be in the show.
The art has its moments where there's a drop in quality, but besides that, the art is stunning. The character designs are neat, the backgrounds are beautiful, and minor things such as laptops are detailed.
The opening and ending are good. I like the voices too. The only problem with the sound that I see people having, is the voice of the protagonist. It's minuscule, but I know many people are tired of hearing Kirito's voice. His voice is basically the same for most of his roles, so I could see people being rather annoyed. I doubt his voice would have a big effect on how you feel about the show though. I just felt the need to point it out.
The characters are a hit or miss. Personally, I didn't mind them, but you might. We have your typical harem protagonist, the cool beauty, the tsundere childhood friend, the tomboy, and the shy girl. As you can see, they're pretty standard. I think you'll either like them or feel indifferent. Yeah, they don't really offer anything new, but as of right now, I don't think any of them are annoying enough to make you not want to watch the rest of the series. Who knows? One of them just might become one of your favorite characters.
All in all, this was a good prologue. We know now the plot has its merits, both, the art and sound are good, and the characters don't entirely rub you in the wrong way. There was a ton of fan service, but the real series might just have little to no fan service and it was delightful considering that the episode is again, a parody. As for the self aware and parody aspect of the show, it's something I hope to see more of.
I'd just like to say one last time that please don't let the events of this episode take total control of your decision to watch to this show. I doubt the actual thing will be as ecchi as this. Just please think about the story, the art, the sound, & the characters, and disregard the fan service.
