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Title Info
- seen: 1-12 of 12
- type: TV
- grade: watchable
- people: Katsura
- made: 1994
- Review created: Recently, but I didn't record the date.
- mod: none
What a charming, attractive and humorous piece of ecchi...and if that sentence bothers you then you'll know how I felt throughout this series. This is based on the work of Masakazu Katsura (Video Girl Ai) who has a real talent at drawing attractive young girls. However like all powers one must resist the calling of the dark side.
Also be warned that some pages call this a 15 episode series. Instead it is 12 TV episodes and 3 OAV episodes. These share the same numbering but are very different in flavor and quality (The OAV's are bad) which makes it no favor to join them as one series. I also have a review of the OAV series for your perusal.
The story concerns a young schoolboy who has become the target of a traveller from the future, the first of many attractive young girls in this series. This young man has an allergy to females (ever seen humorous vomiting in an anime before?) which is a great shame because the opening makes it seem like he's got a chance to become the `ladies man' he's always dreamed of being. The traveller from the future, Karin, knows that this is a dream to fear, as he could easily become the `mega-playboy' who single handedly creates the first wave of a population explosion. Genetic surgery is called for, but the results are certainly not what she expects. It looks like she might have to get personally involved in restricting the actions, and awakening, of this potential sexual dynamo.
And that is the relatively spoiler free description. What it really means is that the lead male is alternately normal (female allergic) and occasionally a living babe magnet. This includes a visual transformation and the addition of the anime `glitter' of charisma. Thus the plot largely revolves down to an excuse for him getting romantically involved with a wide selection of attractive young girls, some of whom seem quite willing to physically express their attraction as soon as possible. Some of the relations are more complex, including his childhood friend, and his own love for the woman from the future, but there really is an awful lot of fan service. The anime is extended by Karins continued interference, and she also plays the role of voyeur allowing us to peek in on the `action' through her various spy toys.
Thus how you take this anime really depends on the viewer. There is a lot of humor, romantic situations and reasonable character work which are quite enjoyable. On the other hand there is no doubt that the sexual references and fan service are a powerful driver for the series. Does the fact that it is a cheerful, charming, light-hearted character piece excuse this fascination with fan-service? I've no idea, and leave you to make your own mind up.
Regardless of your decision it cannot be denied that there are some very attractive girls in this series, that there are some really cool romantic hi-jinks and that the general production level is quite high. The character design is interesting, the females are sensitively rendered, the male is actually represented as a romantic and the dialogue is quite well done. The story and plot are relatively simple, but not terribly offensive. There are some memorable scenes and watching the characters interact is generally good fun. It would also be possible to see an element of parody in the `mega-playboy' persona, and the corny lines, but this is reduced by the fact that the lines work so well.
The conclusion features a `monster' to add a sense of danger and threat to the ending. This is actually relatively scary and fairly dark which can be a reasonably unsettling change from the early atmosphere, especially given that the conclusion does feel a little rushed. This change is enhanced by there being quite a lot of combat, of a fairly serious nature. Still, this does allow for all outstanding issues to be concluded and provides a fitting end to the series. Major negative points for the corny DNA premise (and lines) throughout this series which is really very flimsy.
Not many good reviews around, perhaps reflecting the relatively nebulous qualities of the story. The best one, albeit a bit unreflective, is this review from THEM.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:17 WST 2009