Legend of Black Heaven, The 8/10

The universe is in danger from an alien armada. The defenders are unable to stem the tide. What can save us all? A giant robot? A magical girl and her magic friends? Two giant robots? Of course not. Only one thing can save us. Only one thing can EVER save us.

ROCK AND FUCKIN' ROLL BABY!

Dating back to 1999 the 13 episodes here are pretty good for one of those early computer scanned and coloured shows. There are some awkward pans (I hate them soooo much) and a general lack of lighting effects but the show looks good overall. The backgrounds and character designs are above average though a little uneven in quality through the series. The VAs are great as usual but the main character is totally perfect for the part and stands out. Of course where this show really shines is the soundtrack, lots and lots of guitar here and it's all good. The OP is great but since variations of the same song appear again and again during the show I get a little tired of it after awhile. I don't care for the weird end theme but I REALLY like the final song in the last episode and the variant right after it as the credits roll so it all balances out.

So how exactly does the universe get saved by ROCK AND FUCKIN' ROLL? Well it all starts with a blond haired, green eyed alien girl named Layla who shows up to recruit our hero to play guitar. Our hero is Oji Tanaka. He has a wife and pre-pre-school son at home and a boring job but unlike your average salaryman he was once the lead guitar player in a band named Black Heaven that was pretty successful. Lately he's been down, his wife just threw out his last electric guitar and his kid plays frisbee with his favorite albums that he can't even play since his wife got rid of the player. Life kinda sucks.

Layla takes him to a guitar, in what he believes is some sort of night club, that he can play, but only when she calls. He quickly discovers that he's not at a nightclub at all but on an interstellar battleship and he's not playing for a crowd of fans but the spaceship control room where his guitar solos mysteriously power a super weapon to fight the aliens. The good guys are so advanced they managed to build a super weapon they're incapable of powering themselves and have no idea how it actually works. Gotta love anime.

This is show less about fighting aliens and more about Oji's problems with his work and family who constantly want him to conform. The whole space business is a secret so his wife starts to believe he's having an affair with Layla. Beyond fighting with his wife he also eventually has a falling out with Layla when he discovers that no one is really listening to his music, they just want him to power their weapon (which is becoming increasingly less effective). This becomes especially apparent when he tries a new song and the commander of the ship demands he play the same song he's been playing the whole time.

Of course he eventually gets over it and gets his old band back together to increase the power of the weapon. Also, Layla replaces their missing keyboard player and she eventually learns about the nature of music which her culture doesn't comprehend. The show culminates in a musical duel versus the aliens who've resurrected the formerly deceased Black Heaven keyboardist.

The finale of this show is truly fantastic. After the final fight the last scene plays against the end credits where Oji and Layla say goodbye. So many anime series don't portray relationships in any realistic manner and since Black Heaven does, especially in this last scene, I have to give it due props.

Along with all the music there is alot of great comedy with the 3 retarded girls from the spaceship helping out with tasks such as babysitting Oji's son and distracting his wife and generally being retarded throughout the series. It's some really funny stuff.

For being a great show on all counts I have to highly recommend it.

Kimagure Orange Road Movie: I Want to Return to That Day 9/10

Before reading this review please watch the TV series (review) as the movie won't make much sense if you haven't. This review will give away the ending of the series but if you've watched the TV series the movie doesn't really hold any surprises.

For my 50th review I present to you the KOR Movie: I Want to Return to That Day. A true classic.

In the annals of romantic and harem anime, few series have bothered to offer closure to the relationships in the series. KOR stands tall as one of the precious few to present and ending where few questions remain once the final credits roll.

This film takes the animation techniques refined in the OAV production and brings those skills fully to bear here. Beautifully drawn backgrounds and character designs complement the fantastic story with not a single complaint on my part. The music is fantastic with some great new insert songs and an end theme that tugs at the heartstrings if I may be so bold. This has to be one of the best looking theatrical releases based on an existing TV series ever produced.

It's the day Kyosuke and Madoka go to check their results for their university entrance exams. Hearing a girl who sounds very much like Hikaru the movie switches to a flashback to the previous summer about 5-6 months earlier.

Kyosuke and Madoka are feverishly studying for exams and Hikaru is auditioning for a play. Kyosuke and Madoka have been spending alot of time together and Hikaru is feeling left out since studying takes up so much of Kyosuke's time. She's been coming over to his house with snacks and one day kisses him which in the KOR world is a truly earth shattering event. Of course Madoka finds out, storms out of the cram school she and Kyosuke attend when she questions him about it and disappears.

After the kiss Kyosuke is pretty much more fucked than he's ever been. Madoka is uber-pissed and won't return his calls and Hikaru is getting alot more lovey dovey than usual. The delicate balance of their relationships is shattered and something must be done.

Kyosuke to his credit doesn't behave like the Kyosuke of old. He doesn't rush over to Madoka's house full of excuses, he doesn't make a ass of himself, and he surprisingly keeps seeing Hikaru. Madoka later has Hikaru over to help her out with a scarf she's knitting. Madoka finds out the scarf is for Kyosuke and this revelation is the last straw.

During the series we've seen Madoka mainly angry and aloof. She never displays or verbalizes her true feelings for Kyosuke, instead playing the saxophone whenever depressed or sad about their situation. At this point she finally breaks down and makes a tearful call to Kyosuke to get him back. This call confirms what we've always suspected, that Madoka isn't completely the tough girl we've known but is lonely, insecure, and much more in love with Kyosuke than she's let on. He rushes over to her house and he finally gets the OK from her to do what she's been somewhat preventing him from doing for so long. No not THAT you perverts! Dear Hikaru, welcome to Dumpville. Population YOU!

He calls her out to meet, breaks the news and she takes it pretty hard. An interesting relevation here is that Hikaru says that she's known all along Kyosuke loves Madoka but she's been trying to win him over. This is interesting and really makes her out to be more devious than she's been letting on. All those interruptions of moments between Kyosuke and Madoka can now be looked at in a new light. That BITCH!

The rest of the movie passes pretty quickly with Hikaru refusing to give up on Kyosuke and continuing to call and visit him. By the end he stops talking to her when she calls and in the final few scenes ignoring her as he walks past her.

The last few minutes of this movie are very sad with the end theme playing over the last few moments. Even if you hate Hikaru you have to feel sorry for her since she takes her dumping so hard. Madoka and Kyosuke loose a good friend and Hikaru is left on her own. Kyosuke, to his credit isn't a bastard in the finale here, but he finally has made his decision and he even has second thoughts right up to the end.

This movie is easy to recommend since it's so great but only for anime romance fans. The comedy of the series is here but only in the first half.

Kimagure Orange Road OAVs 5/10

How do you follow up a successful TV series? (review here) With a batch of somewhat repetitive OAVs with no fanservice to speak of. No wait! That's not right...is it?

The 8 KOR OAVs released from 1989 to 1991 are a bit of a mixed bag. The first 2 (White Lovers & Hawaiian Suspense) look like episodes from the TV series. While Hawaiian Suspense has a bit better visuals neither is any different from a standard episode from the 3rd season. Same OP, same ED with a different font on the credits and no real new content to speak of. While I like the style as a TV series I can't help but feel sorry for Japanese fans that got fleeced. I'm almost tempted to think that these episodes were simply not aired for whatever reason.

The remaining episodes are MUCH better visually with slightly different character designs and alot more detail overall. The new OP and 2 new EDs are pretty good and fit with the rest of the main themes used throughout the TV series. These episodes also have quite a few new songs within them that are also OK but too many insert songs kinda make them loose their impact.

As far as the stories in the 8 episodes go they're difficult to really give great scores for since they don't have any fanservice, don't advance the story, and are difficult to place in the chronology of the series.

The first two seem to take place sometime in the 3rd season but before the last 2 episodes.

In "White Lovers" the gang goes to a ski resort where Kyosuke and Madoka get trapped by a ghost who hates couples because of a past betrayal. This episode comes too soon after the TV series episode where they get stuck in a gondola at a ski resort. I've also seen this episode done a million times.

In "Hawaiian Suspense" Kyosuke, Madoka, and Hikaru go to Hawaii for a little vacation and Hikaru gets kidnapped in a case of mistaken identity. Of course instead of calling the police, Kyosuke and Madoka rescue her on their own. I thought at least Madoka was smarter than that.

The remaining 6 episodes are a mix of good and awful. Of the good side we now no longer see Yuusaku in the KOR world. I like to think he committed suicide after one too many dumpings by Hikaru. Yay! These episodes also seem to take place in the Kyosuke's final summer vacation in high school, 2-1/2 years after the end of the TV series but Madoka seems to be unaware of Kyosuke's powers. This could be because the manga timeline differs from the anime, I don't know but it explains the scooter Kyosuke rides and all the drinking that goes on.

"I Was a Cat, I Was a Fish" is about how Kyosuke switches souls with a goldfish, then Jingoro the cat with a magic rope his Granpa brings over. He ends up at Madoka's house and saves her from a gas leak.

In "Hurricane! Akane the Shapechanging Girl" we meet Kyosuke's cousin Akane. She's his age and has the ability to make people see and hear her as someone else. She also quickly develops a thing for Madoka and hilarity ensues. This is one of the only 2 good episodes in the lot.

"Stage of Love = Heart on Fire! Spring is for Idols" is the first of a two parter where Kyosuke switches souls with a famous idol singer and meets his old girlfriend while the idol puts the moves on Madoka. While it has a nice ending the show is more insert song than plot which bugged me a bit.

"Stage of Love = Heart on Fire! Birth of a Star" is the second half where Madoka performs in the Battle of the Bands and Kyosuke worries about his powers being revealed by the idol singer. Again, more insert song than plot here.

"An Unexpected Situation" is the best of the bunch. Akane gets Kyosuke to pretend to be her boyfriend to impress a couple of her girlfriends who think she's a dyke. Done to death before but still funny in this incarnation.

Lastly in "Message In Rouge", Madoka thinks her dad is having an affair, runs away from home and ends up chez Kyosuke. This episode was OK, it was interesting seeing Madoka over at Kyosuke's house for once.

As I said earlier, these episodes are a mixed bag and not great overall. Only recommended if you've seen the TV series.

Kimagure Orange Road TV 9/10

This is the best show you've never seen. If you've seen it then you agree with me. This is the best romantic anime ever and it's told from the guy's point of view no less.

Dating back to 1987, the 48 episodes of KOR are on par with Maison Ikkoku as anime TV series of that time that stand above all others. Hand drawn with great art the backgrounds of KOR are colourful and detailed. The character designs are among my all time favorites (being the old-school whore that I am) with the VAs being nothing short of spectacular. A wide range of characters portrayed by VAs that are absolutely perfect. This should explain why no english dub exists for this series, no-one could do it justice.

The most amazing technical part if this series is the music, from the background instrumentals, to Madoka's saxophone playing, to the staggering number of insert songs that capture the mood perfectly, to the OP and ED themes you can't skip while watching, this show has it all. For the record the first ED theme is my all time favorite from any anime and rest of the OPs and EDs are all in my top 30. Keep in mind that that's out of about 1000 songs. Not bad KOR.

Of course what good is technical excellence if the story blows goats? Luckily KOR has a story that's fine like cherry wine.

Enter Kasuga Kyosuke. He's just moved into town with his dad and two little sisters. Having to move again and again isn't unusual for him since his family has psychic powers and must re-locate once the locals start to suspect. He can teleport, can perform telekinesis, has dreams that foretell the future and can hypnotize himself. One day not long after moving he has an encounter with a red straw hat that changes his life.

Enter Madoka Ayukawa. Beautiful and mysterious, Kyosuke saves her hat and has an argument with her about the number of stairs near his house. 99 or 100? He says they should settle for 99.5 and she laughs. For him it's love at first sight but he doesn't catch her name as she disappears down the stairs.

Kyosuke begins school at his new junior high and meets his soon to be sidekicks Komatsu and Hatta, two perverts to the nth degree who appear throughout the series. Kyosuke and his 2 younger twin sisters, Kurumi and Manami, must now attend school and hide their powers or risk having to move again. He soon meets the 3rd and last main character in the story.

Enter Hikaru Hiyama. More cute than beautiful she accidentally kisses Kyosuke and becomes determined to make him hers with as much shrill, hyper activity as possible. Kyosuke's inability to tell her he's not interested begins the main plot thread of the series.

You see Hikaru is childhood friends with Madoka and while she's cheerful and friendly, Madoka is cold and withdrawn. Madoka, known more around school for her truancy and associating with delinquents, has few close friends and because of this has to outwardly support Hikaru. This leads to a love triangle that causes Kyosuke (and Madoka) nothing but problems.

Hikaru loves him, chases him, feeds him, jumps on him and shrieks in delight. Kyosuke LIKES her but loves Madoka. Of course he's VERY indecisive and isn't helped by Madoka's capricious nature. One minute she's all smiles and chocolate, the next she's goosestepping down his Champs Elysées. This brings us to Madoka. Beyond all reason she loves Kyosuke back as much,if not more than he loves her but she's torn between that and a) loyalty to her friend Hikaru b) general distrust of others.

Kyosuke's thoughts are conveyed to the viewer throughout the series with really great freeze frames where he explains things so there are no secrets there.

Hikaru isn't all that bright so we know what she's about (at least on the surface), behind her nauseating cuteness lies a badass that tries to be tough like Madoka.

Madoka on the other hand is more difficult to understand, I look at her this way. She was a tomboy most of her early girlhood, when she grew up she became a knockout but her tomboyishness has made her a fighter and she's gained a reputation as "Madoka the Pick". Being unusually good looking for a sukeban (delinquent schoolgirl) she doesn't deal with the attention well, distrusting most people since she thinks they only pay her any attention because of how she looks, so she treats most people coldly. This is exhibited by the types of friends she had in her life before meeting Kyosuke. She doesn't care what most people think of her because of this but when she finally encounters someone that she desperately wants to think well of her she has a very hard time getting past that.

Most of the episodes revolve around various characters having various misunderstandings about various other characters. Hilarity ensues. There are also alot of nice moments between Kyosuke and Madoka as he slowly learns more about her and she slowly changes from beautiful sukeban to regular girl (she still can kick ass but not as often).

This is a romance first and foremost with characters more realistic than in most other series. No one is perfect, the psychic powers Kyosuke and his family possess only add to the comedy and don't really detract from the main story, and we get more insight into the minds of the main characters that results in making them more human that is usually possible in anime. A great show and extremely highly recommended. SEE THIS SHOW!

I also must add that the ending of the series is one of the nicest ever and you'll have to look out for my KOR movie review as the story isn't complete without it.

Genshiken 7/10

I watch alot of anime but the guys in this show really crank it up a notch. BLAM!

From 2004 this 12 episode TV series has all the current technical refinements. Detailed backgrounds that are reused since the cast doesn't go too far from their club room. Good character designs that suffer at times from inconsistent quality (which is funny because the guys in the show complain about this regarding anime they watch). Some good VAs and music and a pretty catchy opening theme.

The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture. In Japanese it's shortened to Genshiken. Where your average Japanese university has a manga club and an anime club the particular school in this show has Genshiken as well. Basically it's a club where the members watch anime instead of making it, read manga instead of drawing it, play videogames, cosplay, attend comic shows and make models. All the otaku pastimes without any creativity.

The story starts as a new student discovers Genshiken and joins up. We quickly meet the various otaku members and the show basically follows their lives outside of class time. Since they are major otakus this means that they don't have much in the way of lives outside of going to class but the show is better than the premise indicates.

Enter Saki. She's no otaku but a sucker for a pretty face so she joins Genshiken in order to be close to Makoto the club pretty boy she's taken a fancy to. The show mainly focuses on her hilarious reactions to the various otaku activities and we're treated to some pretty funny attempts on her part to get Makoto to notice her more though she REFUSES to do cosplay (the one thing that WOULD get his attention).

The show is pretty entertaining overall. We learn a bit about each of the club members and their otaku areas of expertise but Saki is the only one who shows any type of character growth here. She doesn't suddenly become an otaku or anything but does eventually sotra become friends with the club members and begins to understand how their minds work. She's pretty nasty to most of them but shows flashes of kindness and tolerance nearer the end of the series. She ALSO gets roped into some otaku activities and it's pretty damned funny how mad she gets.

There's apparently a second season on the way with at least one new female character so I'm looking forward to more. Recommended if you like watching fish-out-of-water type shows or want to feel better about your own level of geekiness.

Ninja Scroll 8/10

This movie has one of the coolest scenes ever. Giant stone guy is fighting this ninja. Picks him up and rips off both his arms. Proceeds to drink the blood from one of the arms while chuckling evilly. I love that part. +1 for that.

Theatrical anime is typically hit and miss story wise (more often miss) but always produced with high production standards. Ninja Scroll dates back to 1993 so no computer anything in this film. The art is fantastic with the backgrounds being full of detail and the characters being well animated with tons of frames. The music is old style Japanese which suits the movie's historical time frame and I've always liked the end theme. The one thing I DIDN'T like was how most of the characters have giant chins, especially the main kunoichi Kagero. On guys it looks OK but on the ladies....

Ninja Scroll is a story about Jubei, a wandering ninja who gets tricked by an old man into helping him investigate the circumstances behind the wiping out of a feudal Japanese village. The story is that it was plague but no no, it's the bad guys who poisoned the village well and are planning to take off with a bunch of gold to fund a revolution. A bunch of ninjas sent by a small clan also investigate but are wiped out so Jubei also acquires the only survivor as a traveling companion as well, a kunoichi named Kagero.

As our heroes get closer and closer to the evildoers and the gold they are stealing various freaky bad guys are sent to kill them. These fights are really the highlights of the movie. Each villain has some freaky power so the battles are varied and interesting, not to mention bloody. Blood showers all over and sprays the Japanese landscape so if that's what you like this movie has got it. The violence isn't very graphic though, a lot of blood but no intestines or eyeballs flying hither and yon which may disappoint some. There is also quite a bit of sexuality in this film with various naked women getting violated in various ways including with a snake. Keep an eye out for that scene. I figure this is mainly why this movie is as popular as it is as lots of movies have violence, so few have snake/woman coitus.

Once the various pawn enemies are dealt with there's a final fight an the movie ends. It does have some emotion nearing the finale so the movie has a bit of a heart even though most of the time its hack this, disembowel that. It's easy to recommend this since I've never met anyone who didn't like it. That stone guy needs his own movie though. Here's hoping.

Bottle Fairy 5/10

I can handle a series about the adventures of little fairy girls once every year. The last one was Risky Safety, the year before was Sugar, and the year before that was AMG Mini-Goddesses. Now this year's offering is Bottle Fairy. Does the saccharine sweetness of Bottle Fairy stand up to it's predecessors? Read on.

Being a new show (2003) it's got all the bells and whistles one has come to expect from anime these days. Scanned and computer coloured art, consistent animation, nice backgrounds, and pretty standard music throughout the 13, 15 min. episodes. The VA's are pretty much standard as well except for the the annoying girl next door who's voice makes my neighbours' dog howl. The only thing that really stands out in this show is the kinda catchy OP theme and the artwork during the end credits that changes with each episode. As for the style of the show I liked it OK but I'm not a fan of the eyes without pupils. Other shows usually reserve that look for characters that have died so I sometimes see one of the fairies and wonder if the creators wish their creations were dead. Probably not.

This series is about 4 little fairies that came from/live in bottles with this dude they call Senseisan (Mr. Teacher). The show doesn't really setup the situation much but the deal is that the fairies are there to learn about being human and living in the human world. This is unlike traditional European fairy stories where fairies capture humans that stumble into rings of toadstools and eat/have sex with them. Not necessarily in that order. The show is split into 13, 12 minute episodes, one for each month and a final episode where the story finishes up.

The episodes tend to follow roughly the same format; Senseisan goes off to do something human and appropriate for the month the episode is occurring in, the fairies misunderstand what it is he's doing or get an insane explanation from the little girl next store, they act out or do whatever Senseisan has gone off to do in their own way with mildly humorous results. The fairies are kinda dim with them following some standard stereotypes. There's an excitable one, a tomboy one, a stupid one, and a cultured one. They don't fight with each other but they each have a different take on whatever it is they're doing because of their differing personalities. It reminds me a little of Muppet Babies with their vivid imaginations.

I didn't mind this show but it's not as funny as I would normally like. However I DID like the final episode which has a bit of a twist and is funnier than the rest. This show IS rather informative though since it teaches the viewer about Japanese culture and annual traditions in a unique way. Recommended if you want somewhat a silly presentation of information about Japanese culture or like little fairies.

Samurai Champloo 8/10

Since I'm not a fan of samurai anime, today I bring you a review of a samurai anime. Who'd have imagined? Well, with all the hype I HAD to see Samurai Champloo. Did it live up the hype? Is it as good as Cowboy Bebop? Will I bother to figure out what the hell Champloo means?

This show has a pretty great look as far as the backgrounds are concerned. Lots of detail and colour but I didn't like the character designs as much in these 26 episodes from 2004. I found the designs used for alot of the background characters to be borderline unpleasant to look at. Ugly faces, drab or insane outfits, strange movements. I did like the designs for the main characters, especially Jugen and Fuu which is a good thing. Jugen was well served with a rather stooped, scruffy, and scrawny look which matches his crazy fighting style quite well. Fuu is one of the few "cute" designs in the show which lends some credibility to her childish behaviour at times. The music had some real highlights with some of the end credit themes being very good and the music in the first half of episode 14 being especially great. I felt the show didn't need the weird hop-hop vibe it had at times since it really seemed like something thrown in after the fact.

So, who are these Jugen and Fuu people I spoke of earlier? Two of the three main characters of course! Fuu is an orphaned 15 year old girl who uses a coin toss to wrangle a couple of slacker but skilled bodyguards to accompany her in her quest to find the Samurai Who Smells Like Sunflowers. Jugen and Jin are extremely skilled with swords and have seen alot of battles in their day. Jin is the classic samurai, he's cool, collected, and honourable. Jugen on the other hand is prone to fits of rage, criminal behaviour, and fights with a crazy breakdancing style. The story mostly is about their journey across Japan, visiting various places and constantly either getting into, or out of trouble. They're always broke, the two guys take off on Fuu constantly much to her displeasure, and they seem to always get the short end of the stick.

The best part of this show is the comedy. With various gags about Fuu's lack of sexual appeal, various encounters with angry shopkeepers who want their money, the constant underlying hatred between Jin and Mugen, and Fuu's incredible ability to get kidnapped (which rivals Meg's in Burst Angel) there's alot to laugh at here.

This show also has a serious side that's hit and miss. The more serious episodes tend to be 2-3 episode arcs and really don't fit into any overall plot until the final one. The search for the elusive samurai tends to take a back seat and is only occasionally mentioned by Fuu. The ending is alright but the series didn't really build up to it thus robbing it of some of it's impact.

The point of the series is really to show how the three travellers become friends in the end but there's no real payoff. At least not a payoff I wanted to see. Only Fuu shows any emotion for the other two and it's a little bit too late in the series when it happens. I can easily recommend this show because it's very entertaining but I didn't think the ending was as good as it could have been so it doesn't get a 10. Recommended.

champloo: A word from Okinawa meaning "to blend".

Yumeria 6/10

A show about dreams. Not mine. The dreams in this show are about a guy fighting flying buildings with a bunch of girls in skimpy outfits. My dreams are more like the game Shadowman or The Suffering. Dream THOSE dreams every night and you won't wonder why I watch fluff like Yumeria.

From 2004 this show looks pretty good with some really colourful character designs and bright backgrounds. The music is quite good with the opening theme being a standout in the 12 episodes. Being somewhat of a harem anime the choice of voices for the various girls was pretty good and none of the characters' voices bugged me, just what they said. Whoever decided to have one little girl say nothing but "Mone", one little girl put "nanoda" at the end of every sentence, and have the cat yell "Nono" instead of meowing should be drug out into the street and shot. I'm not kidding.

The plot for this show is actually a little deeper then some of the more recent harem shows and hearkens back to such fare as the El Hazard OAV (barely) where there's more of a point to the story than just meeting the girls and screwing around (not literally). Tomokazu has just turned 16 and he's started having strange dreams. He's in a rather barren landscape and meets a little girl who's beside him in bed when he wakes up. This girl only says "Mone" thus that's the name she's given. He meets various other girls, a classmate he's sweet on, a little girl with a cat who puts "nanoda" at the end of every sentence, a slightly younger girl that has just moved back from abroad that he knew as a kid, and a busty older girl that looks suspiciously like his ditzy adopted caretaker but wears a helmet that hides her face.

It turns out Tomokazu has the ability to grant the girls the power to fight the buildings in the dream world but he must touch them which leads to some limited comedy. Things get a little darker near the end of the series and the overall story behind the flying buildings is revealed and various revelations are made. This is hinted at throughout the series and gives you a pretty good reason to keep watching with the hints that are dropped.

The main focus of the show though is the fan service and comedy since this is a harem anime. The fan service is thankfully pretty limited since a couple of the girls are pretty young so most of the best bits in the series are more on the comedy side. There are a lot of instances where the girls misunderstand or jump to conclusions about things Tomokazu says or does that lead them to attack him and accuse him of being a pervert. Some may figure this gets old fast but I never got tired of it.

This series also has the definitely un-haremlike distinction of having the main character actually kinda choose one of the girls by the end of the series. It's not like they get married or anything but Yumeria avoids the harem ending where everything ends up the same at the end of the series as it was at the start and the main guy never comes close to picking one of the girls.

If you don't like harem anime you won't like this but it's different enough and looks good enough to recommend anyway. Try it, you might be surprised.