Story: Poor pacing, too focused on comedy and the plot is often unnecessarily stretched (4/10)
The student Akira loves to get through his school day relaxed. But fate already has other plans for him. The fact that his classmate Aya teases him with lectures and uses him as a bodyguard for a night-time visit to the school is rather harmless. However, with the arrival of Shirogane-sama, his life suddenly becomes more turbulent. The balance between light and shadow seems to be out of whack. The lower beings from the shadow realm (Kokuchi) increasingly threaten the people. So a small group gathers around the two protagonists and takes on the fight against the shadows. Unfortunately, the deviations from the original are not very beneficial for the anime. The first episodes are exciting and even the ending can be called satisfactory. But the entire middle section, roughly 16-17 episodes, is quite boring due to predictability, and even some good and subtle jokes and comedy can't mitigate that. The plot and the anime as a whole lacks a good balance. The comedy almost comes across as self-deprecating due to its preponderance and the plot only manages to build up tension as a counterpoint at the beginning and towards the end. The manga is passably average and for fans perhaps a little more. The anime adaptation, on the other hand, is simply badly written, as it takes over and even reinforces negative aspects of the manga, especially plot holes. In addition, a lot of time is wasted on superfluous things and as a result the characters' portrayals suffer. As is so often the case, the end is a matter of opinion. There are arguments that call it both appropriate and unsatisfactory. However, the latter tends to prevail in the context of the overall impression.
Characters: Good at first, but lacking background & substance given the number of episodes (4/10).
The cast is more extensive than in the original. Since the story was changed, something had to be added. The characters are typical of the genre and basically not bad, but the villains in particular lack the depth one might expect from 24 episodes.
Nikaido Akira:
Actually a gifted teenager but he prefers to relax on what he thinks is a boring day at school. Therefore, he takes every opportunity to play hooky and avoids getting involved in anything whenever possible. His cool "it's none of my business" mentality, however, is severely disrupted when a mysterious man enters his life.
Shirogane-sama:
Cool character somewhat mysterious, eloquent and likeable. The little exchanges with Akira, when Shirogane-sama teases the young man eloquently, refreshingly direct and yet charming, are an entertaining and successful part of the comedy. Since it stays with allusions, it is basically too little to classify as "yaoi" or "shounen-ai", it remains more funny than serious. However, this part of the comedy is sure to put off many viewers.
Suzuno Aya:
She is the head of the school disciplinary committee and tends to use a kendo sword to emphasise her sense of justice. She is believable with the katana, but her character portrayal and development suffers because her role is overloaded with comedy elements.
Asamura Kengo:
Kengo's story has been revised. In the manga, he had a background and a twist that made him interesting. In the anime, however, he's sadly degraded to the usual comedy goof.
Wagatsuma Shūichi (Master):
The "Still Bar" (or "Aging Bar" for the manga readers) is the realm of the Master. Shūichi is the bartender and a very pleasant character (appearance and behaviour are very reminiscent of Sasakura Ryuu from the anime Bartender). He is friendly, helpful and his special abilities make him the healer of the small group. Unfortunately, his background is poorly sketched in the adaptation, so the manga is preferable in this regard as well.
Kujō Haruka:
Haruka was added for the realisation of the anime adaptation. His character is not a complete disappointment and fits well into the changed plot. Regardless, anyone familiar with the manga is right to wonder why the story was changed and this character added.
Nanaya:
Not the most colourful Shin, but not bad at all as a villain!
LuLu:
Cute but a bit colourless.
Homurabi:
A villain with style, unfortunately with too little screen time.
Visuals: Art is okay, the animation is not, so overall not good enough to improve the rating (6/10)
The drawing style of mangaka Sorano Kaili was well adopted by Suga Shigeyuki in the character design of the anime. However, due to the changes in the plot, some visual changes have been made. An example of this is the character design of Shirogane. His appearance and especially the facial features have been made slimmer and more feminine through various accents. This added beauty and attractiveness, also combined with the character's behaviour, certainly appeals to a larger female audience, but causes resentment like "shounen-ai or yaoi" among other parts of the fan base. The overall design of the characters is good and nice to look at, although I personally prefer the design in the manga.
However, the animation by Studio A.C.G.T does not impress me. The animation is not bad in principle, the colour palette and the light and shadow effects are good for an anime from 2008, but several aspects lower the overall rating. On the one hand, the blurring as a frequently used technique is disturbing, especially in the action sequences. On the other hand, the constant super-deformation is distracting because it is simply used too often. Personally, I found the fights somewhat monotonous overall.
Sound: BGM & OP are good, but the EDs are not, so overall only average (5/10)
The background music was composed by Abo Takeshi and is well adapted to the plot. Unfortunately, this is precisely why the music is hardly perceived positively and therefore cannot improve the overall rating despite a good performance.
The OP "Metamorphosis" by the indie metal band Asriel is a cool musical arrangement, the first bars calm and then continue with great rock sound and the beautiful voice of KOKOMI. This track was the breakthrough for the band, consisting of composer Kurose Keisuke and singer KOKOMI. The track is accompanied by a decent animation, matching the music! Unfortunately, the only bright spot.
"Awake - my everything" by the seiyū Ono Daisuke & Kamiya Hiroshi is used as ED in episodes 1-12 and 24. The animation is well done in black and white, but the sound is just too "easy listening music" and doesn't impress me at all.
The second ED in episodes 13 to 23 is "Kakusei - Light and Dark", sung by the other two Seiyū Suwabe Junichi & Konishi Katsuyuki and is overall no better than the first ED.
As always, I would like to conclude the sound section by talking a little about the seiyū, especially the second row. Among the male voice actors, I noticed Okiayu, Ryoutarou, who voices Homurabi. He has a great versatile voice, which he has already shown impressively in many anime. As an example, the role of Akio Furukawa in the anime Clannad immediately comes to mind.
Among the female dubbing actors, I particularly enjoyed the voice of the charakter Aya Suzuno, who is spoken by Asano Masumi. She has a clear and direct pronunciation that suits the role well, and yet you don't miss the feminine charm. All in all, a very good performance.
The anime has its moments, but the many plot holes lead to confusion. Furthermore, the content shown is simply dragged out too much by a multitude of fillers and superfluous chibi comedy. If you are looking for good or at least passable entertainment, you will surely be disappointed by this anime. Nevertheless, if you like the idea and the character design, I would recommend the manga, which is not excellent but better than the anime.
As always, thanks for reading.
