Number of episodes: 12 + OVA
What Wikipedia says: Not much in the way of a decent synopsis, but myanimelist.net says "The story revolves around a highschool boy named Niwa Makoto. He lives with his aunt’s family since his parents are away on business. It is there where he meets his mysterious cousin of the same age Touwa Erio — who happens to tie a futon mattress around her upper body and is a self-proclaimed alien. Her staple food is pizza. Erio had been missing for half a year and was found floating in the sea. She doesn't remember anything about what happened during that period of time, but she began to think that it was the act of an alien and wanders the neighbourhood wrapped in the futon."
What tTPO says: This is an extraordinarily kawaii (cute) looking and feeling series, as well as being gorgeously rendered. The series opens with the setup above and this, along with the extra moe feel, hooked me and Mrs tTPO in quite quickly. With Makoto being the usual transfer student we soon get to meet with new characters at the school and in the neighbourhood. In tune with the overall kawaii-ness there is nary a bad bone in any of these character's bodies and while this may sound like it makes for flat characterisations, all the main & secondary characters have their own story to tell. This keeps the hooks in, especially with Meme, Erio's mother and Makoto's aunt, who turns out to have a surprising amount of depth. And breasts. Did I mention there was a bit of fan service here? All pretty harmless though. The girls all have a soft spot for Makoto but not much drama is made over this making it very much a 'light' harem series and not the focus of the story. Unfortunately the basic premise of the series slips away as it progresses, leaving us more with a slice-of-life feeling rather than plot driven series. This is only emphasised by the introduction of a new female character in the latter part of the series who just ends up posing more questions about the extra-terrestrial nature of the series.
How about the music?: The music in this show is evil. When I first heard the OP I was in awe of the atonality of the singing. A few listens later though and I could not get it out of my head and now I just love it. The ED is too cute for it's own good (up there but not quite as good as the Dango song from Clannad) but is just as catchy and appropriate for the show.
So how does it end? (Spoiler Free): Bizarrely, the major plotline introduced in the beginning of the series is completely left hanging, as are a few sideplots. What does get finished are some mini-arcs along the way, one of which is very neatly plotted, which just shows they could have done it if they wanted to. Frustrating.
Overall Grade: Grade B (Near miss). Truth be told this is not too near a miss but I liked the music, characters, the setup, and the outrageously moe animation enough that somehow it rates a bit better than a C. If only there was some resolution to the original mystery, then godammit, this would have been an excellent series!
NB: There is an extra DVD only episode coming out December 21st. I am not getting my hopes up too high for some resolution.
What Wikipedia says: Not much in the way of a decent synopsis, but myanimelist.net says "The story revolves around a highschool boy named Niwa Makoto. He lives with his aunt’s family since his parents are away on business. It is there where he meets his mysterious cousin of the same age Touwa Erio — who happens to tie a futon mattress around her upper body and is a self-proclaimed alien. Her staple food is pizza. Erio had been missing for half a year and was found floating in the sea. She doesn't remember anything about what happened during that period of time, but she began to think that it was the act of an alien and wanders the neighbourhood wrapped in the futon."
What tTPO says: This is an extraordinarily kawaii (cute) looking and feeling series, as well as being gorgeously rendered. The series opens with the setup above and this, along with the extra moe feel, hooked me and Mrs tTPO in quite quickly. With Makoto being the usual transfer student we soon get to meet with new characters at the school and in the neighbourhood. In tune with the overall kawaii-ness there is nary a bad bone in any of these character's bodies and while this may sound like it makes for flat characterisations, all the main & secondary characters have their own story to tell. This keeps the hooks in, especially with Meme, Erio's mother and Makoto's aunt, who turns out to have a surprising amount of depth. And breasts. Did I mention there was a bit of fan service here? All pretty harmless though. The girls all have a soft spot for Makoto but not much drama is made over this making it very much a 'light' harem series and not the focus of the story. Unfortunately the basic premise of the series slips away as it progresses, leaving us more with a slice-of-life feeling rather than plot driven series. This is only emphasised by the introduction of a new female character in the latter part of the series who just ends up posing more questions about the extra-terrestrial nature of the series.
How about the music?: The music in this show is evil. When I first heard the OP I was in awe of the atonality of the singing. A few listens later though and I could not get it out of my head and now I just love it. The ED is too cute for it's own good (up there but not quite as good as the Dango song from Clannad) but is just as catchy and appropriate for the show.
So how does it end? (Spoiler Free): Bizarrely, the major plotline introduced in the beginning of the series is completely left hanging, as are a few sideplots. What does get finished are some mini-arcs along the way, one of which is very neatly plotted, which just shows they could have done it if they wanted to. Frustrating.
Overall Grade: Grade B (Near miss). Truth be told this is not too near a miss but I liked the music, characters, the setup, and the outrageously moe animation enough that somehow it rates a bit better than a C. If only there was some resolution to the original mystery, then godammit, this would have been an excellent series!
NB: There is an extra DVD only episode coming out December 21st. I am not getting my hopes up too high for some resolution.
ADDENDUM: Having watched the OVA now my love for this show comes flooding back. It does not provide complete plot resolution (though it does tidy up the final baseball mini-arc) and indeed adds some more questions to the original mystery (which was not forgotten after all!). But goddamit it does provide a degree of emotional resolution (for the viewer at tleast, though not Niwa-kun) to the series that was sorely lacking from episode 12. It remains the most kawaii moe-packed show of recent memory, and is gagging for a second series. Maybe still not quite an A but the OVA certainly improved things: Grade B (plus).
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