Don't let the name of the anime "HENTAI Ouji to Warawanai Neko." fool you, this anime is much more than a typical ecchi anime...it's a sincere and thoughtful ecchi romcom!.
If Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko. has anything going for it, it is it's characters and their sincerity they outright display mainly form our main protagonist Youto Yokodera voiced by Yuki Kaji the resident pervert of the series. The other hook is that the plot is also kinda interesting to what surmounts to one of those typical "trickster genie" plotlines in the form of the cat god statues with various effects on the wisher.
Since this is kinda a character focused narrative, LA will move onto characters. LA already talked about Youto Yokodera but LA will go into a bit more depth with him. He is one of the major forces driving the plot forward, if not he's one of the causes of many of the wishes gone wrong and he wants to protect everyone or befriend them in order to help with both his own problems as well as others. He is a slightly unusual main protagonist in the sense but still has one of the trappings of "wants to protect everyone schtick to him, though once again his sincerity and dedication can easily make up for his pervertedness and especially his trappings that irked LA by the halfway point. Next are the harem members...Tsukiko Tsutsukakushi voiced by Yui Ogura, one of the main female protagonist in which she wished to express less emotions thus can't express ANY emotions, she is for the most part was a supporting character though her character development does arise from her issues of wanting to express herself but can't, that and her connection to Youto before the start of the anime also helps her to get away from her supporting character status and becomes important in certain plotlines. She was one of LA's favourite characters in the series because of her interesting dilemma and driving force of the anime. Next is Azusa Azuki voiced by Kaori Ishihara, the ojou of the series or so it would seem and adds to Youto's love triangle in a sense. Her character development arc was probably what sold LA in this series as it was more or less visceral on how it went. She later on has more importance later on but her introductory arc definitely added the impact to the anime really was going for and what it would become and like Tsukiko is an important character to the plot outright. Next is Tsukushi Tsutsukakushi, Tsukiko's older and much brasher sister voiced by Yukari Tamura and is the one that gave Youto the title of "Hentai Ouji", she is at best a comedic character what with her naivete and her brutishly powerful strength that makes for pretty slapstick comedy when with Youto, but because she's Tsukiko's older sister yes...she has a bit of importance to the plot as well but going any deeper would be spoiler territory and she also with her younger sister were LA's favourite characters in the anime, Azusa story-wise however had the better plotlines and impact to the anime (sans the finale arc which had more to do with Youto and Tsukiko which would make sense). Finally we have Emanuela Pollarola voiced by Aimi Terakawa, a mysterious young girl who knows Youto and her importance has some ties to Azusa but again spoilers.
Why LA dived into the characters is that these characters do have some certain themes, the typical "just be yourself" is there and accounted for, but also "be careful what you wish for" added in and executed VERY well allowing these character to flourish in a sense and really make these characters with flaws such "perverted and completely open minded about it, expressing too much, being different to being selfish and clingy" really really likable and "human" and what allows the anime to be different from those typical romcom animes. LA also especially liked how Tsukiko, Azusa and Emanuela's animal theming coincided with the harem dynamic of the cat, dog and rabbit respectively.
There is fanservice in this anime, there's no mistake in that but it's just not to the focus of the anime. The fanservice in the anime does mainly consist of the harem members going through many fanservicey outfits and certain ass shots but other than that it's pretty vanilla nonetheless.
Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko.'s plot elements has the typical stylings of a harem but it also has a bit of mystery mainly with it's wishmaking scenario's it has with it's characters. The mystery usually revolves around "who is the wishmaker" and "how to make them revert it" because of this insight it allows us to develop the wishmaker in question and drives the intrigue of the plot forward with Youto developing relationships or solving it.
In terms of animation done by JC Staff, the character designs were polished and moe and LA really loved the designs, the backgrounds also had to give a bit of mention as the anime does go into some "weird territory" what with the wishmaking scenario and does emphasis the bizarre nature of the anime at times and all to the polished state similar to the character designs. JC Staff nonetheless did a really good job in the animation department in Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko.
In terms of voice acting, the voice acting was actually pretty spot on for the entire cast. Though Yuki Kaji is typecasted as the lovable pervert in this anime (*cough* Highschool DxD *cough*), he is still a standout in this anime nonetheless and able to flex his harem drama vocals. Now LA had been annoyed by Yui Ogura to a certain extent a couple of times on LA's reviews but LA will be straight with you here, Yui Ogura is a GREAT voice actor (see her roles as Athena from Campione!, Yuzurina Houshou from Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru!, Hanbee Takenaka from Oda Nobuna no Yabou, Rinne Berlinetta from ViVid Strike! and Toki Onjouji from Saki Achiga-hen: Episode of Side-A..all coincidentally all have deadpan or loli tones in them in some sense) but Yui Ogura can sometimes be a caricature of her own roles and that easily spills into her vocals of the typical genki loli vocals, however her role as Tsukiko is one of her better roles to date for LA, sure her vocals are that of a deadpan loli but even then she has "range" to it utilizing both her loli and deadpan in the best mix possible and absolutely avoiding the annoying tone in her vocals at all for her role as Tsukiko and LA LOVED her performance because of it...she still wasn't LA's favourite voice actor in this anime though...that goes to Yukari Tamura AND Kaori Ishihara, Yukari Tamura because...it's Yukari Tamura voicing a brutish tsundere! and Kaori Ishihara for her voicing Azusa and her RANGE was more or less amazing in this anime. Even though this anime's voice cast has certain annoyingly squeaky voice actors, this voice cast managed to divert that COMPLETELY. LA just loved this voice cast...what else can LA say?.
The finale arc as LA mentioned above looked at Youto and Tsukiko's rather mysteriously missing backstory of their first meeting which surprisingly Youto seemed to have forgotten, this finale arc brought some loose plot threads as well reverting the focus back to Tsukiko proper (as Emanuela, Tsukushi and Azusa took her limelight for a while with their development respectively) something LA was kinda wanting ever since Azusa's introductory arc and finally bringing Tsukiko out of the "supporting comedic role". This finale did get rather serious with some "family issues" as one of it's biggest crutch to the finale and executed well as the conflict was visceral (or took the turn for the dramatic...though Azuki's arc was like this too) in a sense, nonetheless LA liked the change in atmosphere while still balancing it's more comedic antics in check when it is needed. The only thing this finale had though if you paid attention to the plot is that the entire "missing backstory of Youto" is predictable in the sense that if you connected all the dots and took all the subtle hints...it became obvious what this finale arc was leading too, but still even if this ending was predictable, LA still liked this ending for developing not only Youto's missing backstory but Tsukiko and Tsukushi by an extent and giving a "happy" ending with a self-sacrificing result from Youto in the process but still a "happy" ending either way.
LA really has to talk about flaws in this anime and it'll be more ironic that LA will in this review as LA already said that Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko.'s themes of just being yourself even with your flaws but nonetheless the flaws needs to be addressed and LA did see some flaws in this anime as a whole. As much as Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko. is a refreshing take on the ecchi romcom anime, it still has most of it's cliches accounted for from the typical harem setting and MANY of the misunderstandings drives the plot forward in a way (mainly from Tsukiko from comedic reasoning, Azuki from the plot), but as a defense to this LA will say that even though they use the typical harem romcom cliches, it's the underlining interesting plotlines with it's even more interesting characters that keeps it away from being stereotypical of it's genre even with it's cliches. The only other thing that might irk some people about Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko. is Youto himself and his open-minded pervertedness and sometimes his white lying does kinda cross the line for the sake of comedy at times...some might see him as endearing...some might see him as another typically annoying Yuki Kaji genki pervert...take your pick...LA was in both camps for that.
We all have flaws that we know or people point out that might make us a better person, but if ridding these flaws makes you a better person, it'll strip your individuality and being "perfect" is nothing but a flaw in itself and Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko. projects this in it's characters and what makes Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko. something refreshingly different in it's genre. LA will say this again, Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko.'s characters and their flaws are the defining trait and strength of this anime and just it's sincerity and charm it has to it all coming from a white lying pervert and an emotionless girl as our main leads is anything to go by.
