The story had its highs and lows. Its highs were average, and its lows were really bad – catch my drift? Most of the time it was almost unbearable to watch, and there were episodes that almost got me (Just the ones with Rin and Yamase in it) but still came up short. In a word, disappointing. It was bad execution all over again – the concept was almost acceptable, but the concept was disappeared along the series to who knows where (Specially during the second half of the show). The realm of bad execution, maybe. It ended up to be a set of really shallow topics. Speaking of end, that was a really bad last episode. It was surprising, sure. No one expected it would end up that way, but the last episode made you go “What the f*ck was that? Where did you get that idea?”
Huge cast of characters? Yeah right. Most of the characters that were shown in the opening theme, roughly 80-85%, didn’t even have a speaking role. They had distinct looks, but I never got their name. What was the name of the girl with the glasses, or the guy wearing the Simon Cowell tank top who was flexing? No one will ever know. If the characters didn’t speak, they were either useless (like that manager/caretaker person looking all goth-like) or irritating – specially Yuuna, who did nothing but be jealous and stupid. That Nakamaru guy was equally irritating. He was just insecure and jealous – of Kazuki, a loser with an irritating voice (By the way, I wanna take note of the bad voice acting. It’s just bad, and nothing more can be said about it.) and is just as insecure of himself.
The drawing style was good, but something is wrong with it. Can’t point out what exactly, but I think there was nothing exciting or new about it. I did notice that the characters heads were bigger than their bodies. Although this is acceptable in anime, I prefer it that the anime characters I watch have proportions that are at least a little close to reality. Everything was just blown out of proportion, specially Kuriko’s boobs.
Music was ok, but still sub par. Most of the time, I found myself recognizing similarities of Maburaho’s music with other series, or other songs in general. For example, the opening song sounds a lot like the third opening of Yakitate!! Japan – in fact, my brother noticed this too. Then there was this BGM that sounded a lot like lady marmalade. It was used more in the second half of the series, usually in the scenes with Kuriko in it.
And now for the part that I hated the most – the fan service. It was just too all out – literally, thanks to Kuriko and the other girls unnecessary showing of skin. Maybe I didn’t like it too much because I’m a girl, but really. Are guys willing to overlook the lack of substance to the stories just so they can ogle at genitals – lacking bodies? Men..
I can’t believe J.C. Staff is responsible for something like this. I’ll give them an A for effort though, since on the surface, it does look like it’s nice. Beneath the surface, definitely a different story – literally.
