Posts Tagged ‘maburaho’

I really have to say, this whole partnership with Kadokawa thing that Crunchyroll has… it’s working for them.

In a press release sent out today, Crunchyroll announced the addition of three harem comedies to the site today, one of which is getting resurrected from the old ADV graveyard. Joining the other comedies that fans are already enjoying are Good Luck Ninomiya kun, H20 Footprints in the Sand and Maburaho (this one is the zombie) . The first three episodes of the first two series are already available for all access users while four episodes are available of Maburaho. Additional episodes will be added weekly while premium members have access to the series in their entirety.

For regions, Good Luck Ninomiya-kun and H2O Footprints in the Sand will be available in: North America, South America, United Kingdom, Ireland, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Middle East and Africa. Maburaho has almost the same coverage being available in: North America, South America, United Kingdom, Ireland, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Netherlands, Portugal, Middle East and Africa.

Now, ready for the rundown?

I’m starting with Maburaho simply because this is the only one out of the three I am glad to see brought back (not only do I own this entire series but I own it in singles). The JC Staff produced borderline ecchi comedy premiered in 2003 takes place in a world where everyone uses magic. High school student, Kazuki, is one of the worst and weakest magicians but thanks to his lineage is destined to father one of the most powerful magic users ever. When this gets out, every girl in school is literally trying for the chance to birth that kid. Yes, the series is as ridiculous as I just made it sound but for a harem series, this is one of the bright spots of the epic 2005 DVD peak.

Second up is ZEXCS produced eroge adaptation, H20 Footprints in the Sand. Originally premiering in 2008, this is the first of the two getting North American debuts. In this series the lead is the mysteriously blind and emotionally scarred Takuma. After moving to a more rural area with his uncle, he enrolls in a new junior high and gets to know various girls. Oddly, as he gets the know them his vision gradually starts to heal.

Finally, produced by AIC Spirits and premiering in 2007, Good Luck Ninomiya kun is based off the light novel series featuring Shungo, a high school student who is usually home alone due to his sister being on mercenary missions. One day Shungo finds out that his sister has sent two siblings, Mayu and her older brother Mikihiro, to live with him to cure Mayu of her fear of men. And just for giggles she’s also blackmailed the student council president into being their maid.

I admit to this much… a small part of me wants to push everything aside and watch all three of these series. Not a big enough part that I’m actually going to do that but the temptation is there.

Full press release below the cut

Read the rest of this entry »

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.

Intro

            Alright I lied, it is possible for this series to end in a way that I wasn’t wild about.

The Story

            Well, Kazuki is one step away from regaining his body but unfortunately that one thing is Rin. Normally this would be a great thing but after Rin finds out an ugly truth about what will happen to Kazuki after he regains his body, she finds herself hesitating. After all of the girls find out though, they are all faced with a difficult decision: keep Kazuki as a ghost but with all of his memories or give him back his body and face him forgetting them completely.

The Good And The Bad

            With yet another plot twist, this series was really gearing up for something special with its ending. With volume six delivering the new plot hook of Kazuki’s memories, I was very curious to see how they were going to play it out in the end.

            The writing on this volume was strong throughout. The ending was strong but not overly predictable. The epilogue had some very cute moments but I thought the final gag with Kazuki was a little silly (yes I’m aware of how ironic that statement is) but still mostly satisfying.

            I really expected a lot more in terms of emotional impact though with the final episode. With most series that I enjoy, it’s usually a very safe bet that the ending is going to hit me emotionally and I’m going to react much more strongly to what I am seeing. In this case though, I was left with a satisfied yet empty feeling. The plot hooks were all resolved but it still felt like there was so much more story to tell with Kazuki and the continued pursuits from his four admirers.

            I think the only real plot hook left unresolved was with Shino. While it was developed a volume earlier how she felt about Kazuki, as one of the chief antagonists of the series, it felt a little off for her to just drop her pursuit of Kazuki and have no real defeat. To see her just back off at the end there is no real resolution for her story and she just becomes another admirer in the background.

            I did like how the story of her and dorm manager all ended up playing out though. Out of all the characters that had yet to be developed, she was the one that I was most curious about so it was great to hear her story and how she was related to Shino.

Music

            The episodic music on this volume was strong and very appropriately used during the softer scenes and slower paced scenes. The fight scenes on this volume were all very well done though which was also very enjoyable and made the volume that much easier to enjoy.

Dub vs. Sub

            Jessica Boone as Yuna was absolutely incredible in this volume. I haven’t always said nice things about everyone in the dub cast of this series but by the end of this volume, this cast had become a very tightly knit and highly functional unit that provided me with a very entertaining series. Blake Shepard really showed how capable he is with each and every volume and the final volume left me with no real complaints about his performance. The acting was strong on both tracks so you won’t be disappointed.

Extras

            Just another art gallery and clean animations. I was really hoping to see a final interview clip with the cast members.

Overall

            This is definitely a series that I really wanted to see continue and I was not ready for it to end. The characters in this series have been winners since the very beginning and I’ve been a big fan of all of them since the start. Despite following the traditional formula of the harem genre, it was still a fun series that I will be looking forward to re-watching in the future and getting re-acquainted with the characters that I had grown quite attached to. It certainly wasn’t the best series of it’s year but fans of harem anime really can’t go wrong with this title for a little mindless fun.

Final Grade: 88% – B

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.

Intro

            Plugging in more gaps in the review database with a series that I never stopped enjoying, even when it was absent from my collection.  

The Story

            Things for Kazuki and the girls have gotten worse on the school trip to Kyoto. Not only has a female childhood friend of Kazuki’s shown up and tried to stake a claim on him (much to the annoyance of the ladies) but it seems that whenever the five of them are together, the girls start suffering from a strange malady causing them all to feel like they are burning up and then they all end up gravitating towards him. Even worse than that though is that Shino has appeared on the trip and she’s still convinced that she’s going to add Kazuki to her ghost collection but when some of Kazuki’s ashes get returned to him and he regains his body’s hands, the girls and he have a new mission: collect all of his ashes and return his body to what it once was.

The Good And The Bad

            It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to pick this series back up. With so much new stuff, it’s not unheard of for a series that I enjoy to get lost in the shuffle but it was such a nice treat last night to put this volume into my player and see that the series picked up right where it left off, this series continues to be entertaining on every level.

            Though even though the first episode on the volume was quite entertaining, I could have sworn that I remembered just a bit less fan service. Yes, the fan service in the first couple of volumes was rather other the top but I certainly remember a smidgen less than this volume provided. The first episode alone was enough to make me start doing some memory searching to see if I remembered Yuna being such a pervert.

            This volume was really well written though with a great opening episode that really did a great job with selling the new plot point with Kazuki and a fabulous closing episode that really showed the soft side of Kuriko that isn’t shown nearly often enough.

            I did think that it was a little odd to have a recap episode so late in the series and it was even odder that it was shown right after the new major plot point was introduced. While the recap episode did start showing the new plot point a bit, it still served no real purpose besides that.

            The final episode on this volume was also very well written with another great cliffhanger being dangled in front of Rin and the audience leaving me once again wondering how they are going to end this series. While I know that there is going to be something that at least resembles a happy ending, I’m curious to know how they are going to get there. Despite it’s label as a harem series, this series has always been very good at keeping things fresh and they’ve never let things go stale and predictable so the ending is certainly looking to be something memorable.

Music

            While the lyrics in the second episode insert song are a little silly, it is still a good song that I’ve enjoyed listening to more than once and it does play very well within the series and out of context. It’s a fun song and I was glad to hear it get played. The recap episode makes some decent use of the themes and the insert songs to keep the episode moving smoothly.

Dub vs. Sub

            I honestly have no idea how it happened but I had actually forgotten how incredibly entertaining the dub cast on this series is. Jessica Boone as Yuna, Tiffany Grant as Kuriko, Kim Prause as Rin and Luci Christian as Yamase had me absolutely rolling with laughter and Blake Shepard has shown absolutely incredible growth in this role since the first volume started. The Japanese cast is good, the American cast is better.

Extras

            This volume breaks with tradition and really lacks in extras which is really disappointing. I really wanted to see another interview segment but instead there is only an art gallery and clean animations.

Overall

            Always funny, always over the top, always clever and always with the cute characters, this is a harem series that breaks all the traditional molds and does something fun and unexpected. It has been a gem of a series since the beginning and while it’s not going to amuse everyone, those who do enjoy it are going to love it. Another series where it’s going to be very hard to screw up the ending in a way that makes me dislike the series 

Final Grade: 85% – B

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.
 
Intro
 
        Picking up where we left off, I’d still give up plenty to be in Kazuki’s shoes… well, not so much now… oh just read the review!
 
The Story
 
        In the next four episodes of this series, things take a very odd turn. In the first three episodes, the girls spend all their time trying to find a way to increase Kazuki’s spell count which currently sits at three. The first attempt has Kuriko taking Kazuki up to a legendary hot spring in a remote location because rumor has it that if someone takes a bath in it’s waters, their spell count will be increased exponentially. Unfortunately for Yuna and Rin, Kuriko says that she’ll only take him up there if she gets to do it alone. That doesn’t last long however as the girls follow and they soon find out that the legend isn’t true unless they happen to beat a bunch of spirits in a baseball game.
 
        The second episode has the girls doing more research and Kazuki becoming distracted after he hears the spirit of a girl who is trapped inside a tree at the school and while this may sound like it’s of little consequence to the main plot, in truth it’s actually much more important than you may think.
 
        The third episode is when things start to take a new turn as Yuna opens a package from her father that she believes is for her and will cure Kazuki but she gets it wrong and actually unleashes a genie in a bottle that becomes her evil twin that has nothing on her mind but killing Kazuki. All of the girls come to his defense but in the end, it’s Kazuki who must defend himself.
 
         In the final episode of the volume, humor is placed aside for the most part as the plot goes deadly serious. Yuna has contracted a special retro magic virus that is rapidly seeping away her magical power and her life. There is no cure and there is no hope for her survival unless the greatest magician in the world tries to save her and even the there’s no guarantee of anything happening. Kazuki takes it upon himself even though he only has two spells left before he disappears into ash and we’re left with the series taking a whole new turn.
       
The Good And The Bad
 
        I’ve been in love with this series ever since I saw the first two volumes and I’ve really been in a rush to see more but the next volume just hasn’t come up in my queue until now but now I think that I am going to be rushing to see the next volumes right away.
 
        As usual the same great features that I loved about the first two volumes are still here. The beautiful animation is still vibrant and strong with the perfect use of colors, the character design is fabulous (for my money, Yuna has to be one of the best designed characters I’ve seen in a very long time) and the writing is once again great.
 
        Tiffany Grant really goes all out in the writing for this series as it does have quite a bit of suggestive fan service (which isn’t surprising being that the main females are only after the item between Kazuki’s legs) but even though that’s the underlying theme of this series, there is still a lot of heart to be found and when you’re walking on a line that’s as thin as that, it’s very easy to accidentally cross over to either too sexy or too bland. The writing in the original version of this series has really walked that line well without going into either side and Tiffany Grant proves that she is also up for that challenge by walking that line just as well, if not better than the original.
 
        One of the big things for this series that really wins me over though is the effective use of such a small cast. There are only four main characters (quite small for a harem series) which means a lot of screen time for all of them and a lot of time for them to be fleshed out as individuals which is something that I love. Never once in this series are you going to see someone come on screen and find yourself confused about which one they are or what their personality.
 
Music
 
        The music in this series is always something that I am going to enjoy and in this case they really went all out with it and it sounds absolutely fabulous. In particular you’re going to want to listen for an orchestral version of the closing theme during the final episode of the volume (you won’t have to listen very closely as it is something that actually binds the entire episode together so it’s very prominent).
 
Dub vs. Sub
 
        The dub and sub casts are both excellent but I have to admit that the ladies of ADV have won me over once again with their performances. Jessica Boone as Yuna, Tiffany Grant as Kuriko and Kim Prause as Rin are the glue that holds this show together and they make for a very entertaining evening.
 
        Unfortunately not everyone is perfect as I can’t say that I was 100% satisfied with newcomer Blake Shepard shows his inexperience again on this volume. Even though it’s volume 3 and it’s very obvious that he came along way since episode 1 of this series, it’s still quite evident that this is his first lead role. He’s quite good though and I expect great things from him in the future but for now, he still hasn’t managed to grasp that spark that turns a good performance into a great performance.
 
Extras
 
        Besides the art gallery and clean animation we have another commentary track on this volume that features Tiffany Grant and Sandra Krause talking about the series and some of the behind the scenes stories that we don’t usually get to hear. I always like to hear these commentaries and Tiffany is always fun to hear in a commentary.
 
Overall
 
        This is easily one of the better series of the year. I’m not completely committed to the saying that it’s going to end up on my top 10 list for 2005 but in a year where we saw more than a few harem series come out, this one sticks out for it’s great use of a small cast and willingness to let the characters shine more than the fan service. The plot is original, the characters are cute and fun and the writing is crisp and funny. This is definitely a winning series and while I am a little concerned about where it’s headed with the next volume, I can’t imagine that it’s going to do anything so drastic as to turn me off from the series completely.
 
        If you enjoy romance and comedy, this one is going to be right up your alley. Very recommended.
 
Final Grade: 98% – A
 
 
 

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.
 
Intro
 
        Another great, albeit short, volume of this winning series casts it’s spell on me… get it? They’re magic users? Cast it’s spell?… fine, I thought it was funny.
 
The Story       
 
        Well, Kazuki is dead. Well, sort of. He’s used up all his magic and has effectively died but he’s a ghost now. He’s still completely visible and everyone can see and talk to him, but he can’t touch anything without serious concentration. You can imagine that this leaves him pretty depressed. This becomes the least of his problems though as he meets a woman named Shino who happens to collect ghosts… and she wants to add Kazuki to her collection.
 
        Shino is persistent though and she continues to try to get Kazuki into her collection. This is definitely not something that makes Yuna, Kuriko or Rin very happy… Yuna especially since she constantly thinks that Kazuki is cheating on her with this ghost collector. Shino will even go so far as to trap Yuna, Kuriko and Elizabeth above a pit of bubbling acid that will kill them if Kazuki doesn’t agree to becoming part of her collection.
 
        After escaping from that trap though, the problems keep surfacing as Shino reveals that she is now going to be working at their school as an assistant in the nurse’s office. That problem will have to wait though as Rin is going through a rather rough time. Her martial arts master has been launching very rough training attacks on her, even in her dreams because the head family has decided that they want Rin to become the master of the dojo but she doesn’t want to and to get out of it, she tells her master that her and Kazuki are engaged. Even though he’s a ghost and just the mention of it makes Yuna explode with anger. Her master isn’t satisfied with this though and insists on testing both of them by giving them a week to prepare for a fight against him.
 
The Good And The Bad
 
        The new intro sequence that starts each episode is going to grab you right away as different. It’s certainly not better or worse than the previous intro and unfortunately Blake Shepard still overacts a bit in it, but it’s different none the less.
 
        That’s not what is important though. What is important is all the wonderful things that are in this volume. Now that Kazuki is a ghost, it’s definitely an incredibly new plot angle that no one saw coming (no one that I’ve talked to at least) and while many reviewers were expressing a serious distrust of this plot device, it seems that I was the only one who was anxiously awaiting the next volume to see what happened next with Kazuki and his harem.
 
        I was not disappointed with this volume at all. The writing and stories are still just as good as they always have been. The characters are still cute and very fun (I can’t get enough of Yuna!) and this plot device hasn’t slowed down the series at all.
 
        The biggest complaint I have about this volume is that there are only three episodes on the volume and one of those is just a filler episode. Even though the filler episode was still well done and not something that I disliked at all, I still think that only three volumes was way too small of a number when you’re entering the second half of the series and starting an important new plot device… at least not if you’re still paying full price for the DVD. 
 
Music
 
        I still really like the music in this series. The opening and ending themes are not growing old in the least and are actually getting better each time I hear them (they are, and have been for quite sometime, on a quite regular rotation in my iPOD). The background music is also very well done and something that I am quite enjoying.
 
Dub vs. Sub
 
        There are just so many great performances in this volume that it’s so hard to even narrow it down… Sasha Payslinger as Elizabeth, Jessica Boone as Yuna, Tiffany Grant as Kuriko, Kim Prause as Rin, Monica Rial as Shino. I could probably go on from there but those are the best performances of the volume and all of these ladies are deserving of the stand out performance but in the end I have to go with Jessica Boone as Yuna who is just so cute and wonderful.
 
        Blake Shepard still continues to show how much he’s grown since volume one but he’s still not quite up to par with the rest of the cast.
 
        If you’re a dub fan, you really can’t go wrong with this cast and if you’re not a dub fan, at least listen to one episode. This series just might change your mind and open it at the same time.
 
Extras
 
        Pretty standard extras with the art gallery and clean animations but the great extra is the commentary track with Monica Rial (Shino) and Jessica Boone (Yuna). I love both of these VA’s and so to hear them speak is always a treat! I was a little bummed that it wasn’t a video commentary like on volume 1 but I’ll settle for what I’m given.
 
Overall
 
        This volume is just too short for me to say that it’s worth paying full price for and so while I do highly recommend that this one get added to your collection, make sure that you’re only paying a sale price for it.
 
        I seriously can’t wait to see the next volume of this series. I’ve already heard some tidbits about what happens in it and I am now very confident that the second half is going to be just as good as the first.
 
Final Grade: 89% – B

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.
 
Intro
 
        Another three episodes of this magically delicious series.
 
The Story               
 
        In the first episode, Kuriko has been very busy lately. She’s been ignoring all her school responsibilities and has been sneaking off in secret to the worry of everyone. Everyone decides to follow her to figure out what she’s doing when they discover her meeting a mysterious guy and accepting money from him. Worried that she has lost her morals, they follow her all day to figure out what the real story is. Soon they find out that she’s been seeing a man and she plans on getting married but all her friends figure out that he is not who he seems.
 
        In the second episode, Nakamaru finds out that he too has the genes to produce the greatest magician in the world making him the new object of desire for every girl in the school… except for Yuna, Rin and Kuriko who are concerned for Kazuki who is getting much more depressed about being a ghost. After getting some advice from Elizabeth and his dorm manager, Kazuki figures out why he is still a ghost while Nakamura figures out that being king isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
 
        In the final episode of the volume, everyone in Kazuki’s class takes a trip to Kyoto and a new character is introduced in the form of a dark haired student named Sayumi Morisaki who keeps getting attacked by temple guards because her family are the mortal enemies of the owners of the temple… which happens to be Rin’s family. When word gets out about this though the profiting minds of the other students in Kazuki’s class attempt to arrange a death battle between Rin and Sayumi… making a huge profit for themselves in the process naturally. The episode ends on a cliffhanger though as at the end of the episode all the girls around Kazuki start to writhe in pain and are gravitated towards him for an unknown reason.
       
The Good And The Bad
 
        Ever since the beginning I love how this series has not been afraid to be funny and make fun of itself at times and there is another prime example of this in the first episode of the volume with Kuriko listening to opening theme at music store and there is even the music video for the song playing on monitors. Very clever in show gag I thought and it made me smile a bit. 
 
        The next gag that I really got a kick out of were the southern accents in the previews of episodes 18 and 19. It was really nice to hear southern accents that didn’t sound so forced like in other animes (I’m sure that everyone who reads this can come up with at least one example off the top of their head, I know that I certainly can) and so this was a really welcome treat for me.
 
        At first I was kind of disappointed with only three episodes being shown on this volume but at the end of the third volume and seeing how it ended on yet another cliffhanger I understood the reasoning behind it. Doesn’t mean that I liked it anymore but I did understand it.
 
        The writing in this series continues to really impress me. With all the breast jokes and panty shots that this series likes to deliver it’s really easy to dismiss this series as just another fan service filled harem series with no real substance but if you’ve stuck with it this long you’ve probably long since discovered that this is a series that really has a lot of heart to it.
 
        What continually impresses me the most about the writing in this series is how much emphasis is placed on the theme of trust and devotion with the characters. With Yuna, Rin and Kuriko you have a very wide range of feminine personalities and yet no matter how different they are, the one thing that they all have had in common since the beginning is that they truly care about Kazuki and while it’s possible that a couple of them were only interested in him for his genes to start with, the relationships have progressed much further than that and it’s turned into a very sweet romance that has depth.
 
        It’s just become too terribly easy for harem animes to fall into the trap of only vaguely glossing over the idea of romance and leaving the romance feeling too shallow to the point that you don’t care about the relationship anymore. I’m glad that this series has managed to jump over that hurdle.
 
Music
 
        Lately I’ve been going through a period where I just haven’t been interested in listening to Japanese music as much for some reason and because of that I forgot how great the music is in this series. As soon as I put the DVD in the player and started the first volume I heard the opening theme and was instantly reminded of just how great the music is and how much I’ve missed hearing it.
 
        The episodic music is just as great with a fabulous example of this being the gorgeous solo piano music during first episode that caught the sad mood of Elizabeth absolutely perfectly and really made you feel for her even more.
 
Dub vs. Sub
 
        I watched both the dub and sub performances on this volume and even though it has been awhile since I’ve seen a volume of this series I really still expected to go in and feel roughly the same about both tracks but by the end of the volume I realized just how much I love the dub cast in this series.
 
        Monica Rial is very cute as Shino Akai and Sasha Payslinger turns in another great performance as Elizabeth. There’s even a good performance by newcomer Kaytha Coker as Sayumi. Blake Shepard continues to improve his performance with each and every volume. On the first volume there were certainly parts where it showed that he was still getting used to the booth but now you could hardly tell that he isn’t already a veteran with how much he has improved since then.
 
        Despite all the great performances I heard on this volume though there are two performances that stood out among all others as the very best of the volume and that’s Tiffany Grant as Rin and Jessica Boone as Yuna.
 
Extras
 
        There are a couple of standard extras on this volume including clean animations and an art gallery but the interesting extra comes in the form of an interview with the US Graphic Designer for this series, Fumiko Chino. In it she talks about her start in art, the artwork for the series that she’s created and how she got into ADV.
 
Overall
 
        This has been a great series from the very beginning and the momentum continues to push it into a series that is really something special. Every so often a series will come along that makes you think it’s going to be one way but then the story, the writing and the characters just really prove to you that it’s more than just a one trick pony. This series has proven that and with only two volumes left to go I can tell that this is going to a series that is going to be hard for me to let go when it’s over.
 
Final Grade: 89% – B
 
 
 

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.
 
Intro
 
The second volume of this series has character development popping up everywhere! It’s like magic! (get it? Magic??…. Geez you people you have no sense of humor)
 
The Story
 
Well, the crowd has died down and now Kazuki has only three girls really going after him. The beautiful Yuna who is still convinced that she’s his wife (even if it’s just symbolic), the beautiful blonde Kuriko who is perfectly happy to just have a romp in the sack with him to get his genes and then pass whatever is leftover onto whomever else wants him and Rin, the girl who doesn’t actually want him but her family needs a strong magic user to regain their power and status and so she’d be perfectly happy to just kill him and call it a day.
 
In this volume we see four quite wonderful episodes that moved at such a fast pace that I actually had to take notes this time!
 
In the first episode it’s Rin turn first to have her character developed. In this episode she reveals that she has a very small crush on the president of the biology club and wishes to give him a box lunch as a gift because he is transferring schools but the problem is that not only does she have no idea how to cook but she also has no idea how to be feminine and so everyone gathers in the wee hours of the night to help her out including Kazuki who has to help her out in a much more substantial way.
 
In the second episode, everyone gets a bit of a chance to shine but it’s Yuna who shines the most. In this episode, Kazuki finds out that his parents are coming for a visit which sends all the girls in a flurry of activity as they all want to make a good impression on his parents and prove that they are worthy of being their son’s girlfriend/wife/mother of his children. Everyone prepares in their own way with Rin being the most hilarious as she locks herself away with a video tape teaching proper manners and greetings (watching her practice her smile had me rolling) while Kuriko and Yuna have to deal with trying to come up with a proper eel recipe to serve to Kazuki’s parents.
 
The third episode of the volume is actually one with a bit of a sad touch to it. In this episode, we are introduced to one of Kazuki’s childhood friends which happens to be a girl named Yamasae who happens to be in a rival class. With a festival fast approaching, she is coming to him to act as a liaison to his class and get them to agree to do a joint play. Unfortunately his class has a really stupid inferiority complex and things go wrong with Kazuki having to come to the rescue at the end. I won’t give away the end of the episode but make sure you have a tissue on stand by. It’s kind of a downer.
 
The final episode of the volume once again gives everyone a chance to shine. While the plot of the episode is rather meaningless, it gains significance near the end when Kazuki passes out from exhaustion. It seems that all of the times that he has had to use his magic (as of this episode, he has used his magic five times thus far bringing the total number of times left that he can use his magic before he dies down to three) the girls all have a chance to reflect on everything that he has done for them. At least once he has used his magic to help or save them with absolutely no regard for his own safety or life. As one can imagine, this makes the girls feel rather guilty as they finally realize that not only have they been doing nothing but taking from him but it’s very possible that they are starting to want more from him than just his genes.
 
The Good And The Bad
 
This was a great volume. The comedy was really brought up a notch which made it laugh out loud funny without being over the top. Plus I really loved the incredibly fast pace which the episodes moved on this volume. There were four episodes as I mentioned but I honestly felt like I had only sat through one or two episodes by the time I was done. I couldn’t believe how much time had passed from when I pushed play and when I saw the preview for volume three at the end of the DVD.
 
I really liked the animation in this volume as well. As usual the animation was really well done with some great effects being used including some water effects in the second episode and some great scenes which featured Kazuki in the foreground with a lady (usually Yuna) and all the men in the background appearing as ominous large gray figures with red evil eyes which really added a lot to the comic effect of the scenes.
 
The biggest complaint I had about this volume was actually just a technical fault that I’m not sure is to be blamed for it but on the last episode of the volume the subtitling job was absolutely terrible! I tried to watch this episode in sub form at first but after a couple of minutes of trying to figure out what was going on because lines were being cut out or mistimed so terribly that they would only appear for a second before disappearing I finally had to switch back to dub form. This is a very rare mistake for ADV (I’ve never seen it happen before actually) and so I’m not going to worry about it too much as I’m sure it was just a one time mistake. ADV is very widely known for putting out absolutely top quality products.
 
Music
 
Once again I really loved the fabulous music in this series but in particular there was a great insert song used in the third episode that I loved while the characters were preparing for the festival play. I really wish that the title of the song had been put into the credits but I’m sure that I’ll find out what it was eventually and add it to my iPOD.
 
Dub vs. Sub
 
I really felt good about all the dub performances on this volume. I know that I was pretty critical of Blake Shepard on the first volume but in this one he really stepped up and filled the role well. I think that on the first volume it may have been a case of just not knowing the character well enough yet but by the time he did these episodes he had a much better feel for what was going on with his character and who he was which really showed in his performance. I really loved all the dub performances on this volume but once again I gotta go with the sinfully sweet performance of Jessica Boone as Yuna and also the incredible veteran Luci Christian as Yamasae.
 
Extras
 
Not much here besides the usual clean animations and sketches but the extra that I absolutely loved was a video commentary with Luci and Blake. This is the first time that I’ve ever seen ADV use this form of commentary but I absolutely adored it. If you’re unfamiliar with this kind of commentary, what happens is that the episode is shown on your screen but down in the corner there is a little video of the actors (In this case, Luci and Blake) in the booth watching it as well and talking. I always like seeing the actors in their element because the actors at ADV have always presented themselves as very fun and lively individuals and so this was a great chance to see them as they talked. I seriously hope that someone at ADV sees this review and decides to take this reviewer’s words to heart: Do this more often! This was such a welcome treat!
 
Overall
 
Besides the lack of any real plot development, this really was a great volume that I am having serious problems finding any real faults in. The characters and stories that were told with them were filled with humor and heart which is something that is so rare sometimes. I really like that even though there has been a lot of fan service and teasing at nudity, it’s all done very tongue in cheek and never taken too seriously. It’s all meant in a very humorous way and it succeeds on all counts.
 
Final Grade: 92% – A
 
 

Intro
 
Harem anime is generally defined as an anime title which has a lead male character suddenly surrounded by women and while he has a main interest that is pretty obvious from the beginning, other girls are still going after him and he has to make the choice on who he wants to end up with by the end of the series.
 
Yups, that sounds about right for this series.
 
The Story
 
This is a series about a seventeen year old guy named Kazuki. Kazuki attends a very prestigious high school in a world where everyone knows how to use magic. In this world, what determines how important and powerful your family can be is how strong of magic users the members of your family are.
 
Well, this case Kazuki is lower than low as he can only use his magic eight times in his life (which compared to other students at his high school that have figures up into the six digit range is pretty low). If he uses his magic eight times then he turns to ash and dies. Because of this he’s not very popular at his school and no one ever really gives him a second look.
 
One day this all changes though when out of no where the three most beautiful girls in school all show up calling on him saying that they all want to be his wife and/or have sex with him. Naturally he is pretty confused by this until he finds out the reason why. They don’t want him at all. As it turns out, while he may not be a strong magic user his family lineage is filled with some of the most powerful magic users in the history of the world from all over the world which means that while he isn’t a strong magic user, he does possess the genes to create a fabulously strong magic user. Poor Kazuki, all these girls want from him is his genes.
 
If this weren’t bad enough (I know I know, I can’t believe I’m saying that’s a bad situation either but apparently it’s bad for him), every single guy in the school is now ready to have his head since now all of the girls in school are interested in him and having his child.
 
 
The Good And The Bad
 
I first heard about this series a couple of months ago and I had to admit that I was really intrigued when I got the newsletter from ADV announcing the release of this series. I’ve been waiting patiently to see it and now that I have seen the first volume I can’t say that I am disappointed with this release.
 
The animation in this series is crisp and clean but more importantly I’m really enjoying the story. While it’s very easy to dismiss this title by simply lumping it into the ‘harem anime’ category and assume that it’s going to be just like any other series from that category (Love Hina and Sister Princess are two that instantly spring to mind), this series manages to take that basic plot and turn it on it’s side to breathe some new life into it.
 
Easily what I like best so far though is the interesting characters that we’re seeing just seem so real. Even though it’s a series with very obvious fantasy elements in it, the characters never go over the top with it (well, besides the whole blowing up the school on a daily basis bit). The emotions that are displayed are genuine and the performances reflect that on a deep level.
 
Another great thing that I am really enjoying about this series is that it knows that it’s entertaining and so the writing never feels forced. All the jokes and gags that are used throughout the volume are kept pretty low key (except for the very big visual gags… like blowing up the school on a daily basis) and so while it’s not laugh out loud funny, it’s still amusing and funny enough to keep me entertained and amused enough to want to know about what is going on with the story and where it is going to take the characters next.
 
Music
 
The music in this series is pretty good. It’s not fabulous but I definitely didn’t feel the need to skip over the credits because of bad music. The opening and closing themes were well done and sound really great but I really have to admit that I’m digging the closing theme sung by Ichiko. I definitely plan on checking out more music from this series.
 
Dub vs. Sub
 
Once again the dub and sub tracks were well done on both ends and I can’t really complain about either one. While I do think that the sub track was a bit better because this series uses a lot of references to Japanese culture and language, the dub track was still nothing to be shying away from. I wasn’t entirely wild about the performance from Blake Shepard as Kazuki. I did absolutely love Jessica Boone as Yuna, Sasha Payslinger as Elizabeth and Tiffany Grant as Kuriko.
 
Extras
 
The extras were pretty standard. Art from the show, clean opening and closing animations and original Japanese promos. The one extra that isn’t something usual is an interview with the translator for this series, Richard Kim. Sometimes these interviews can be really boring if the translator happens to have no charisma but in this case I really enjoyed watching the interview and learning a bit about the process and while some of the questions were a little too ‘softball’ for me because I’ve already taken it upon myself to study a bit of Japanese culture and language, I know that not everyone has and so it’s not something that I’m complaining about. I do think that this was a fun segment though but I’d still like to see some more in depth questions being asked sometime but overall, a great interview that taught me a few things that I didn’t know.
 
Overall
 
This volume opened up this series in a good way. I enjoyed the characters and while the story isn’t the most original, it’s still a fun and entertaining way to spend a couple of hours. The characters were fun and while some of the fan service made me want to roll my eyes, it wasn’t gratuitous (well, not by my standards at least).
 
Overall I wasn’t laughing out loud but I definitely was amused and charmed by this opening volume. If you enjoy harem animes or want to give one a try, this series isn’t a bad way to go.
 
Final Grade: 89% – B