The first thing I noticed about the series is the heavy influence of live-action movies.
Episode titles are parody of film titles:
1. 'Sex and the City' (2008)
2. 'Sukiyaki Western Django' (2007)
3. 'Enchanted' (2007)
4. 'Eden' (2006)
5. 'Watashi wa Kai ni Naritai' (1959/2008)
6. 'Night of the Living Dead' (1968)
7. 'Kinyuu Fushoku Rettou: Jubaku' (1999)
8. 'Million Dollar Baby' (2004)
9. 'Midnight Cowboy' (1969)
10. 'The Turning Point' (1977)
11. 'Field of Dreams' (1989)
OP is a parody of a series of famous scenes from Hollywood and Japanese films:
1. 'Sex and the City' (2008)
2. 'Star Wars' (1977~)
3. 'Singin' in the Rain' (1952)
4. 'Mary Poppins' (1964)
5. 'Emperor of the North Pole' (1973)
6. 'Onna Tobakushi' (1967)
7. 'James Bond' (1962~)
8. 'Game of Death' (1978)
9. 'The Graduate' (1967)
10. 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' (1977)
Also, major Japanese film producers and distributors were in production committee (Fuji, Toho, and Asmik Ace actually show their real opening credits in an episode)
"Josei" is a minor subcategory of "shoujo" manga and anime, targeted toward older audiences (18+). 'Kuragehime', despite being published on a josei manga magazine, lacks any mature characters or themes to really categorize it as one (and it won a manga award in shoujo rather than otona (mature/adult) category). This is clearly a shoujo anime.
'Kuragehime' is about a bunch of female otaku in Amamizukan, an apartment complex in Tokyo. These girls are severely repulsed by men and fashionable/successful people, but our heroine Tsukimi one day makes friends with fashionable cross-dresser Kuranosuke and finds out later that not only is he male, he 's also from a rich political family.
The first half of the story is mostly about Kuranosuke extending his influence over "Ama~s" ("Nun~s"), the girls in Amamizukan. It should be noted that while literal meaning of "ama" is "nun", which suits their virgin and hikikomori status in their house, it is also a derogatory slang for "women" (much like how "nun" is a slang for "prostitutes" in English). These girls are basically calling themselves "bitche~s"" and "whore~s".
The "Ama~s" consists of otaku girls with extremely bizarre hobbies. Tsukimi is into jellyfish, Ichimatsu Dolls for Chieko, 'Romance of Three Kingdoms' for Mayaya, and senile men for Jiji. The only ones with relatively common interests are Jyuon, the nocturnal fujoshi BL manga writer, and Bamba, as railfans existed way before the word "otaku" became a slang. Other than our heroine Tsukimi and acting-landlord Chieko, all the other "Ama~s" girls exist almost solely for comedy.
The second half of the story is about saving Amamizukan from a land development project. This is mostly attempted to be done by fund raising, in which the challenge for introverted girls to go out into the world and forced to interact with people is depicted, as well as Kousuke's attempt to transform Tsukimi's introvert personality by building up her confidence. Unfortunately, "Ama~s" are almost always forced to do these things they detest, and their fear of outsiders have not eased at all, freezing up in uncomfortable situations to the very end.
As expected of a shoujo anime, there is also a lot of romantic concerns for the heroine, and the typical love triangle, predicaments etc. that confuses individuals of their own feelings and prevent love confessions.
The character development between Tsukimi and Kuranosuke are rather good, though they are put into one random predicament after another, and saved in the last minute by fairytale successes, whether it's extreme makeover, profitable sales, or crowd-pleasing dress designs. Kuranosuke is practically a prince who tries to save Tsukimi from isolation and turn her into a fashionable and popular chick. Of course, she turns into a gorgeous Yamato Nadeshiko simply by taking off her glasses and putting on some makeup. The story develops into a cliché Cinderella fantasy. To make it worse, everything gets solved by predictable deus ex machina in the end.
Art quality for 'Kuragehime' is very high. Lots of variety with backgrounds, as the characters travel around Tokyo. I recognized almost every single location in Shibuya during the first episode, the staff completely animated real sites. Maybe because I'm way more familiar with Shibuya than Akibahara etc, but it seemed like they put far more attention into detail than the typical series. I can tell you that this is a very faithful reproduction of the city down to individual stores and signs. Other places like Amamizukan (actually a male-only lodge in West Waseda), parks, and streets seem to be modeled after real places as well.
Character designs deviate from the ordinary, with memorable style and traits for most characters. None of the "Ama~s" members are beautified. Fluidity is rather good, and all the characters were drawn with extremely high consistency. The comedic special effects (petrification, shock etc) were done very well.
The cast is dominated by seasoned veteran seiyuu in 30s and 40s with wide range of voices that fit characters pretty well. However, none of their voicing jobs were particularly memorable.
BGM were extremely strong, wide range of instruments playing music of different style, often setting/enhancing the mood for comedy. OP as mentioned earlier, is parody of famous scenes from movies with surprisingly good flow and audio-visual synchronization. Chatmonchy is known for their distinct rock songs, and they don't disappoint with the off-beat OP song 'Kokodake no Hanashi (Just Between Us)'. As usual of their songs, there's something about it that really moves you, and it fits the series very well with its quirkiness and optimism. And who better to sing the ED than Sambomaster, who came to popularity after their song was featured as theme song for 2005 'Densha Otoko' live-action drama, which still remains to be the most watched and arguably most influential otaku story in history? Their song "Kimi no Kirei ni Kizuite Okure (Realize How Beautiful You Are)" is a poignant rock song that really captures this anime's theme, and the ED animation comes in long shot of 1 cut. Very impressive.
With all its originality in premise, character setting, art style, and sounds, 'Kuragehime' still failed to separate itself from cliché shoujo story development.
As per typical shoujo anime, there's a lot of inner monologue explaining characters' thoughts and emotions. While this is a typical trait of shoujo manga/anime series and theoretically improve empathy and emotional attachment, I consider this to be a very poor storytelling technique as it takes away the joy of thinking and imagining their state of mind. It gets tiresome when they explain the obvious every single time, and slows down the pace of the story. The comedy was hilarious at first, but gets repetitive after a while with identical 'Olé' cover ups, shock face, petrification, girly prime minister etc. that gets predictable and tiresome after a while. Repetition can be funny, but it needs to be executed with intelligence and variety.
In addition, I found it hard to connect with the characters simply because their interests are too "maniac" (bizarre/weird), as the Japanese call it. I don't think I'll ever understand a girl's unhealthy fascination with jellyfish or creepy dolls or senile men moe... and I was completely lost when Mayaya spew out bunch of 'Romance of Three Kingdoms' references. I also had no idea why the author would portray girl otaku as nothing more than simple creepy freaks. "Ama~s" may be a group of girl otaku with uncommon interests, but they all behaved like a cookie cutter male otaku from general public's perception of otaku culture other than their androphobia, and didn't explore further into the views and motivations from girl otaku's perspective.
It is still an enjoyable show, but 'Kuragehime' could've easily been so much more. However, I am very impressed at how 'noitaminA' series continue to reject the trend in the industry with uncommon premise and low on moe/ecchi. Any series aired in this time slot continues to be a must-watch for serious anime fans.
