The strongest thing this series has going for it is the characters, which, as it's based on an otome game, isn't terribly surprising. The main male characters are all at least a little engaging, despite how easily they are pigeon-holed into stereotypes; I found myself having sympathy for them anyway, increasingly over the course of the series as they each got a bit of backstory to bolster them. Akane, however, inspired nothing in me. As she is supposed to be the player-character in the game, I'm supposed to identify with her and feel her pain and cheer for her success. I found myself cheering for the Hachiyou because I actually liked them. Akane is erratic and nonsensical, blushing and worrying over the Hachiyou one minute, and then obsessing over her completely unexplained, irrational love for Akuram the next. She says she wants to go home, but she never says why--she never even gives an indication that she misses her family or her classmates [...does she actually have a family? or, like. friends?], and so at the end when she claims she wants to go back "to the world with the people I care about most," that should be Kyou, where she has at least eight utterly devoted men who would die for her and live to make her happy. But no, that world is apparently her version of Earth, with Shimon, Tenma, and Ran all dragged back with her, despite the fact that they all had purposes and futures in Kyou that frankly seemed more interesting than going to high school. It would make more sense if Tenma had persevered in trying to get them all home, as he seemed determined to do for a few early episodes.
The animation isn't bad. It has its wonky moments, but the fight sequences at least are nicely executed. The character designs are also interesting, especially to someone like me who is facinated with Heian designs--Tomomasa's sokutai in particular is very lovely. The one thing that pushed it too far was how the designs made it too easy to pick out special characters. Like how if a male character has a wildly unnatural hair color--green, blue, purple, bright red--then he is a member of the Hachiyou, thus making things a bit too obvious.
The voice acting is another strong point in this series. With actors like Tomakazu Seki, Kouki Miyata, Akira Ishida, Souichirou Houshi, Shinichirou Miki, and Kazuhiko Inoue, it's wildly impressive on paper, let alone actually on-screen, and they all naturally do a bang-up job. The music, composed by Yoshihisa Hirano, is also very strong; it has Hirano's trademark drama, and its simple melodies add much to the action.
Overall: this could have been so much stronger. The series has a lot going for it, but the plot and character development get tangled up in each other and it falls on its face. I personally think it would have been a totally awesome series if Akane actually used her supposed huge amount of power, spent time learning to control it, and her useless bodyguards against demon attacks were actually redundant and they had to protect her from herself instead, despite the fact that she's more powerful than they are. It would have been much more interesting than 26 episodes of Akane alternately plastering a smile on her face and crying.
