I'm not someone who usually writes reviews. This is my first one, and it might show. But Inou-Battle is a show whose flaws need to be pointed out direly.
This anime is a Comedy Slice of Life Harem. Don't confuse it with an action one based on the "Supernatual" tag.
When I first heard about the show, I was intruiged. A group of high-schoolers suddenly getting superpowers! Neat, right? Yeah, it would be neat, if anyone actually used their powers.
If I recall correctly there were two, maybe three memorable instances throughout the entire anime where the main characters used their powers.
Which would be fine -- if anything else that happened actually was interesting.
The anime presents itself with a sense of urgency and grandeur at the start, but doesn't actually deliver any of it.
Instead it focuses itself on exploring the connectiosn between the main characters, with random "literature club" activities sprinkles throughout.
This works well at first, but simply ends up with every single female character, unsurprisingly, falling in love with the main character.
In a later episode, something resembling a plot appears. Additional characters, a kind of explanation, something that actually has to do with the titular Inou battles!!
... However, even this "plot" doesn't last long. The romance takes over again, and is only once more interrupted by anything resembling a supernatural battle.
And then it ends, with the main characters having accomplished nothing (except Andou accidentally assembling a harem) and more questions being asked than have been answered.
For a while I was hoping for a second season to clear some of these questions up, and possibly give more room to the plot behind the show. But as it seems now, the continuation will only remain as a visual novel.
That is why I am personally annoyed with this anime. It felt like a show that "settled" for being a Slice of Life Romance. There are elements here that have potential, but they are not used, in favour of making something much more cookie-cutter.
Thank you for reading.
