Angel Tales 7/10

We've all read my Sister Princess review where I ranted and raved about how not to do a harem anime with 12 female characters right? Here's the show THAT GETS IT RIGHT!

These 12 episodes dating back to 2001 look pretty good. Lots of colour and pretty decent backgrounds. The music is alright in the series but I got a little tired of the million different versions if the harmonica song. I liked the OP and ED even if the ED is...a version of the damn harmonica song (with lyrics mind you). Where this show deserves some credit is in the 12 character designs and voices for the girls. Instead of dressing them in crazy outfits (like a certain show did) they simply have different coloured and styled hair to identify them. It helps that they range in age from little girls to fully grown women but they almost all wear school uniforms that are just different styles and colours. That wasn't so hard was it SISTER PRINCESS!?

I really have to appreciate the distinct VAs that each character has as I mentioned earlier. A few of the girls have accents but most of the actresses are good enough to make themselves distinctive without going nuts. They also almost all refer to the main character using the same term for "master" unlike the 13 versions of "brother" a certain dumbass show came up with.

This show has a pretty original premise to explain all these girls. The main character, Goro is a bit of a loser (as all harem anime male leads are). He doesn't have too much in the way of job prospects, he's got no girl, and no real direction in his life. He meets a fortune teller one day who tells him his luck is going to change and it does. He ends up with 3 new female roommates who turn out to be his guardian angels and reincarnations of his former pets who died under tragic circumstances. At first there's a goldfish, a hamster, and a parakeet. This is quickly followed by a cat, a dog, a frog, a raccoon, a fox, a snake, a monkey, a turtle, and a rabbit. Because he was so kind to all animals and never forgot any of them he gets granted all these angels as a form of blessing to help him out in his life.

The show starts out just introducing everyone and moves on to various episodes focusing on the various girls. There is a plot here about some animal guys that represent 4 gods who want their powers and are keen to steal away some of the girls. This feels tacked on at the end but does add some concern that at least some of the girls will be taken away.

The best part of this show is simply how the girls get along. They're all really nice but being as they were originally animals there tends to be some friction between the more traditional animal rivals. They are all also constantly fighting for Goro's attention which tends to get pretty funny since he's so clueless. I figure I liked the little dog girl the best since she behaves exactly like a little dog with the whole wanting to go for a walk and running around like an idiot.

This show isn't everyone's cup of tea. It's pretty tame as far as fan-service goes and there's no real conflict. It's more of a warm comedy and I suppose it all depends if you find the turtle girl fighting with the rabbit girl amusing. I recommend it and I'm usually right.