The next thing I want to cover is the question: who cares about trains in Japan? Apart from otaku who focus on anime, Akihabara, and electronics, there are "Densha otaku" or "train nerds." There are currently 36 types of Densha otaku with interests ranging from walking around the station to the lunchboxes sold on the train. Another interesting fact brought up by the article is that there are female only carriages offered on the metro in many cities (keep this in mind for the review) to prevent gropers from having their way in packed trains.
I am finally going to go over what I liked and disliked about this anime. Based on what I mentioned previously, the show has so much material to make a potentially interesting story. However, it never seems to use all these materials. The author of the light novel that this anime is adapted from actually has experience with writing children books with stories revolving around trains before writing light novels for young adults. The author, Takumi Toyoda, is now currently working on an animated show called "Train Hero" and still publishing more volumes of his Rail Wars light novel series (currently there are 16 volumes). I never read the light novel series and so don't know how much of the story and ideas were lost in adaptation. After watching this show, I am still unsure what demographic the show is trying to target. The show's main character, Naoto Takayama, is a character who is already a big train fan instead of a character who becomes a train fan as the story progresses. This will make it more difficult for people who never thought much about trains to get interested in the story when it revolves on the technical aspects of the train. This also leads me to think that the show is intended for the Densha otaku since there's never any analogies or animated diagrams to help explain the technical aspects; thus leaving an audience unfamiliar with the technicality hanging. However, there is also the harem aspect of the show where the harem ecchi moments seem to always fall in the middle of the technical aspects to pull in the sexual interests of the audience; almost making it seem that it is trying to hold the attention of the non-Densha otaku audience and increase its viewership. Don't watch this show from start to end with the expectation that you will become more knowledgeable about trains without looking through information outside of the show. Also, don't expect to be constantly entertained from start to end. The harem aspects always seem to ruin the flow of the show and take up too much valuable time that can be used for character and plot development with train knowledge impartment to non-Densha otaku. In the end, the only reason why I consider this show to be good is that it made me fascinated with the Japanese Railway Transportation System and how it impacts the lives of the Japanese people in the real world. To me, the show wasn't totally a waste of time.
Outside of review, this show poses an interesting challenge of developing a good story that blends train knowledge with advancing the plot while keeping the audience interested. I think the show can still be a Harem but with the harem-moments minimized or made subtle so that it doesn't affect the flow of the show and allow for more interesting ideas to be developed. Since Aoi Sakurai (one of the harem girls) is interested in punishing sexual harassers she can have a character arc leading to an interest in the female only carriages that I mentioned previously. Mari Sassho (Naoto's childhood friend and one of the harem girls) works as a train station waitress and so can have an arc revolving around the lunchboxes sold on the train. The show shouldn't have all the female main characters fall in love with the male main protagonist but instead should have at the most two females have subtle feelings for the character that only the audience can notice. The show should diversify the functionalities of the other characters so that most of their actions can teach the audience of the technicalities of the railway system as well as its influence on the commuters. The show should also include characters that are regular commuters and have no job function in the railway system to allow for the audience to relate to the characters with their experiences of being a train passenger. Finally, Noata can still have fundamental knowledge and interest in trains and being an engineer but the story should allow these fundamentals to be developed. All of this may have been accounted for in the light novel, so I am now interested in reading it.
