This anime did has some problems with the characters animations, that’s for sure.
Today, Nodame Cantabile will be challenged by Gosyusho-sama Ninomiya-kun, the third anime in this current wave of end-of-month anime reviews. Significantly shorter than the first two at 12 episodes, will this harem anime that I suspect is an adaptation of yet another dating simulation game (I’m lazy to check) be victorious, or will it join Hayate no Gotoku and Mobile Suit Gundam 00 together at that mountain of victims that Noda Megumi had slain? Read on to find out!
Story:-
Ninomiya Shungo, a normal high-school student that knows a little-bit of martial arts has to play doctor because he has been tasked to cure Tsukimura Mayu, a beautiful and well-endowed naïve girl of her fear of men or androphobia. This series consists of him struggling to control himself from doing ‘this’ or ‘that’ on her while fending off the advances of a couple of other girls from his high-school.
Frankly speaking, the essence of the story is surprisingly good, but it was ruined by bad presentation. The director (I will put my criticism of the director here instead of the relevant section below) just about managed to mangle the story which were haphazardly presented. Disjointed plots, rough switches between scenes and inability to stitch the chunks of the story into one coherent piece are just some of the weaknesses that this anime’s presentation has. This weakness is amplified at the ending, which under any other random director would have been good, but instead the last episode failed to invoke the feelings that were supposed to be there as the storyline wanted it.
What a waste of a good and decent story, if you ask me.
One of the good things about this anime is the fan-service, being gratuitous and not overly-excessive at the same time. Characters development is done very well too despite the episode low count, probably what the only good thing the director has done. There are no outstanding or powerful characters here, which is understandable considering the content of the episodes this anime has.
Character Design:-
Coming straight out of a typical dating simulation game or even a hentai movie. All the stereotypes you can think off exist here; big eyes, humongous breasts, impossible body shapes, hair colours that is not black etc. and all the male characters looks like the unassuming types that you can only see from those games/movies. But make no mistake, unlike other titles that does this kind of designs that are reviewed here, this anime actually does this very well if the context of this anime is taken into account. Definitely a positive point of this anime.
Voice acting:-
The voice acting here is pretty decent, with that blue-haired girl with split personality being the best. Well, nothing more to be said here.
Music:-
This anime has good OST but none of the OP/ED themes makes the cut.
Animation/Direction:-
It is hard to judge the quality of the animation in this anime. If I were to ignore every other factor applicable here, the animation is not exactly fluid and stuttered in some certain scenes, especially in the latter episodes in this series. But I think that this problem is caused by the fansub [m.3.3.w] encoder who did not do their job properly. Choreography of the action scenes is mixed; some of them are good while others is simply meh. My view of the directing has already been expressed above, but I should say that the directing is not as bad as the one in Armitage III.
Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. The woeful directing cost this anime at least 2 points. I am still deciding whether to watch Kaiji or Clannad next, but anyway you will know which one will come next when the review comes up. Ah, and one last thing I want you to know, at the end of this wave I will finish it with Myself, Yourself. Really need to get that out of my way as soon as possible for the peace of my mind.
Parody of some certain famous anime/manga titles here.
