For starters, it feels like none of the characters were made to be precisely that: characters. It feels as if their entire personality and appearance was made, with the sole purpose of being as marketable as possible to the otaku audience since none of the characters are unique in terms of design nor personality.
Mai is the one with the big tits and she is also a potential 'love interest' for our main male protagonist. That's it. Reina is the girl who likes to swallow things whole (rather like Kirby). That's it. Koito is the reserved, cool one. That's it. Kurumi is the loli character. Guess what? That's it. Finally, we have our main character, Haruhiko, the bland self-insert who finds himself surrounded by a bunch of women, likes books and has a vast amount of knowledge to deal with any situation. Literally, every situation. It feels as if Haruhiko's only role in this show is to provide exposition and facts to the other characters in order to conveniently seize a victory against the phantom they are fighting. As a result of this, there is no tension or intrigue in any of these phantom encounters (with the exception of the last) since Haruhiko always has some kind of knowledge hidden away in order to conveniently defeat the enemy.
While on the topic of exposition, there are many episodes which start off with Haruhiko talking to the audience about what the plot of the episode is going to be while telling us every idea and theme that will be related to the proceeding episode. This was not only a boring way to start off an episode as we had to sit through dull exposition but it also makes the proceeding content pointless. If we already know the plot of an episode and what themes and messages they're going to use in said episode BEFORE even watching the show, why should we care? Don't you think it would be more interesting if the audience can interpret stuff ourselves instead of having a character spell out all the plot for us as if we're damn idiots and can't think for ourselves.
The plot is very straightforward opting for a phantom of the week structure, which would be fine if I found any of these encounters to be interesting in the slightest. Most of the phantoms they come across are unique in design but overall don't really do much or pose much a threat and instead seem to be designed with the sole purpose of revealing as much female skin as possible. Such examples include an ape-type phantom, in which they try to seduce him by painting Mai's ass red, or a phantom that changes everyone into a cat or a phantom that places censor bars over the outfits of people to make it seem as if they're wearing nothing at all. It's clearly trying to appeal to every fetish and demographics to try and rake in more viewers and make a few more extra expensive blu-ray sales.
It could be argued that this is all for fun and that the show is trying to be a tongue in check ecchi comedy of some sorts which I could understand if it were not for the fact that everything is so boring and just too stupid for me to even consider this notion. Most situations and story arcs were not created with the purpose of developing characters but instead were made just to appeal to as large as a group as possible. Most of the introductory episodes for the characters at least attempt to develop the characters in some way and try to give the character more depth but there is not nearly enough time devoted to each one to feel as if they have changed at all. The only time a hint of intrigue makes itself apparent in the show is near the end, which actually does a decent job at developing Haruhiko's character while also developing the relationship between the two nicely. Unfortunately, by this point, it was too little too late and the show doesn't allow enough time for all too much development past its surface level.
While the characters and the narrative both suck, the music and the animation are the only two salvageable things out of this entire production. The music kicks ass from the opening credits to the ending and does do a good job at invoking a sense of excitement during the more action-heavy scenes. The animation is very consistent and flows very well from shot to shot with great composition and visual flow combining that with flashy colours and good fight choreography makes for a great visual experience. While the characters are speaking you can also see subtle changes in their facial expressions mid-conversation which shows the talent from both a directing standpoint and a technical standpoint too. The anime, from a technical standpoint, looks great which is why it pains me to see such great animation wasted on a mediocre cast and narrative. In my eyes, this is one of the worst anime Kyoto Ani has made and I wouldn't recommend it, even if you're looking for an ecchi show as there are better ones out there. At least Hibike Euphonium 2 is repairing the damage done to the reputation to this studio...
