Fundamentally Rokudo begins with a problem. The premise is that our titular lead gains an ability to make delinquent or otherwise "bad" girls fall in love with him. It's explicitly shown early on that this is just hypnosis and the girls have no control in the matter. Rokudo hates violence, and the plot of the show is how he leads these girls into healthy, normal school lives because they will listen to him as his love slaves. This renders all character arcs pointless, as who cares what he can convince a hypnotized servant to do. There's no resistance because they're instantly subservient, and the change isn't real or meaningful because they're hypnotized. How could character development be interesting when it's all fake, unless we rely on that betrayal for drama? And while the narrative does seem to plan to eventually cover that, it's annoyingly clear the final message will be "he just found the good that was inside you all along" which is BORING and BAD WRITING.
Even if the character arcs were convincing, why would I want to watch outgoing, dynamic characters be sanded down into subservient innocents? It's just not a compelling narrative on any level, especially with the lack of nuance or creativity that this series comes with. I can only assume the creator has a love of either hypnosis or breaking women into waifus, but it seems like a mistake to assume that's a common desire. I'd much rather watch bad girls be outgoing and large characters...though not these girls. From an emotionless, mostly silent sukeban, a strong loli, a gyaru in only the most basic and debatable ways, a do good cop boot licker, a cross dresser, and more, these girls aren't desirable in any form, good or bad. This is truly a harem of the weakest written girls obsessing over a lame guy even by self insert harem standards, and his equally uninteresting friends. I complained about making dynamic characters bad by hypnosis, but it's all theoretical because these were never particularly compelling characters to begin with. And then I cannot overstate how unattractive and cheap the art is, between about five times as much eyeliner as any girl needs, ugly attempts at spiked and styled hair, and just a general list of design archetypes in anime but done worse than average. Add that the art itself is ill-proportioned and incorrect, and I can't even space out by looking at the art. It's a poorly written show with bad concepts and ugly art, truly nothing helps redeem the weaknesses of Rokudo. Coupled with Gen Satou's screaming performance feeling particularly annoying because it accompanies bad character writing, and confusion why seiyuu legend Akira Ishida is playing the comedy fat sidekick friend, the audio does no favors either. Truly just one strike after another.
Maybe it's mean to go after Rokudo. It was clearly going to be a weaker show from the initial premise and designs, I can't think of anything short of abandoning it's core pieces that would have saved it. But it still got greenlit by manga editorial staff and then picked up by an anime studio. However I can't imagine they ever will make back their initial investment on a show like this.
