Presentation: On the surface, Acchi Kocchi has a bright, chibi quirk about it that lured me in from pictures online. It LOOKS fun, bouncy, and promising from a distance but this show affirms the notion you should NEVER judge a book by the cover.
Story: There is none. None whatsoever. The premise of Acchi Kocchi is that of a tsundere, cat-child hybrid who episode after episode fails to confess her lingering feelings for the object of her affections. Each episode is basically a gag reel of how main characters Tsumiki, Mayoi, Hime, Sakaki, and Io experience daily life in and out of school.
Characters: I have never met a cast so atrocious since Infinite Stratos and Love Hina. With FIVE characters at the shows disposal to develop and experiment with, they instead decided to mold each one of them to a cheap and bland Japanese stereotype. Tsumiki is the female tsundere, Io the cool charmer, Sakaki the class clown, Mayoi the instigator, and Hime the self conscious and shy girl. The stereotypes would almost be fine in MODERATION but what Acchi Kocchi does is EXAGGERATE each characters personalities (if you can even call them that) and takes them to the farthest extreme possible. The show by itself is already miserable enough, but when the lack of story and plot progression is compounded by weak and bland characters, it's insufferable.
Art: Decent at best but mediocre if I'm being honest. The colors are bright but the character designs look like carbon cutouts from any other anime of this awful genre. Even close ups aren't spectacular which other anime typically capitalize on the most to show off the quality of the art style. The backgrounds are forgettable and even scenes which are supposed to be beautiful don't strike any real impression. The art is just as bland and soulless as the characters.
Voices: This was almost the worst part. In conjunction with their awful personalities, the characters' VOICES detracted from any enjoyment I could possibly draw from Acchi Kocchi. Tsumiki, the neko-tsundere hybrid, had one of the most annoying and ridiculous voices I have ever heard, and this was in the Japanese version. Her voice, quiet and CONSTANTLY mumbling, managed to make itself EVEN WORSE by the "Nya~"s she screamed every other frame. Mayoi's voice was NO BETTER in that by trying to sound so cute (to masquerade the ill-intent of her character) made me resent her more than anyone else in the pitiful program. Sakaki sounded like a bad version of Sunohara from Clannad and Io's voice actor had to put forth such little effort to produce his voice it was barely noticeable and unmemorable. Hime WOULD HAVE had a normal voice if the actress weren't trying so hard to portray her as a overbearingly weak and sensitive baby girl.
Comedy: This show tried so hard to be funny and that is ultimately what killed it. With every second a girls' nose exploding, it was almost as if they were experiencing their period busting out of their heads. Mayoi's antics were not entertaining nor were they cute. Had she performed one of her infamous gags and died in a terrible accident, THAT would have been more comedic than ANYTHING else this buttstain of a "comedy" tried to do. Sakaki was no better. His only point of interest was the neglect and abuse he received from characters around him who, to be quite honest, deserved to be subjected to the same cruel and unusual punishment as him. This show was not funny and the harder it tried to be, the more painful it became to sit through.
Overall: This show is a piece of shit. It's garbage. Maybe my problem is I came in looking for plot, story, character development, complex interpersonal relationships, and perplexing things of the like. I came for something that would challenge me, but even judging by the surface I shouldn't have expected that. This was a huge waste of my gotdamn time and I almost regret it. I'd pray for this memory to be erased from my mind but I don't even want the possibility of me trying to watch this show again in another life.
Do not watch this anime if you value yourself at all. ANY anime is better than this rubbish.
