Number of Episodes: 12
What Wikipaedia says: "The Maison de Ayakashi, better known as the Ayakashikan, is a high security apartment building where humans with demon ancestors, or yōkai, reside, each guarded by their own Secret Service bodyguard. A yōkai girl named Ririchiyo Shirakiin moves into the Ayakashikan hoping for some peace and quiet. Instead, she finds herself with the service of the Secret Service agent, Soushi Miketsukami."
tTPO says: This show was what it was. It set out to be a romantic non-harem series with some side characters and ended up being exactly that. It was not plot heavy and kept its focus sensibly, for a short series, on the characters and the place they lived.
The main characters certainly (and the side characters to a variable extent) have some background and depth giving motivation to their actions, though it would wrong to say there were not some characters present there for comic relief and to just stir the pot. Not that this is a bad thing - if it was good enough for Shakespeare to have a jester or 2 then it's difficult to criticise it in anime.
Problems? Putting aside the seven year difference between the 22 year old male protagonist and the (nearly) 15 year old female protagonist (and no there was nothing even resembling a hint of sex at any stage, despite no shortage of fan service with some of the side characters) there is little in here to offend anyone. Also the supernatural backgrounds of the main characters don't get much exploration, and all things considered there is not much serious drama or tension. It all seems just a little easy at times. Is that good enough?
How About the Music?: The OP ("Nirvana" by MUCC) is a proficient bit of J-rock though erring on the generic side. Has a bit more get up and go in the live format though. I'm not sure the image of the band (now I've seen them) matches with the anime. I'm guessing it was all about the music.
There were a few too many EDs to talk about.
So How Does it End? (Spoiler Free): The show ended well, with a good reveal in the second to last episode which tied up some loose ends, leaving things to wind down nicely in the last episode. Satisfying.
Overall Grade: C. It set its aim low, and easily cleared the bar. However, there are more compelling shows you should probably be watching.
(NB: When reading up to write this review I see that there are dramatic events that occur in the manga not long subsequent to the end of where the anime ceases. So much so that the events of the anime are considered a prologue to what comes later. I didn't see that coming. If the anime had gone down that road though things may have been rated very differently.)
No comments:
Post a Comment