Yamada-kun and the 7 Witches Review
Warning: The following review may contain spoilers. If you wish not to know some events in the story, or simply don't wish to find out what happens in the series, please leave the page, since I don't want to damage a watching experience for you.
With that said, thank you, and onto the review:
This show first started off with an animated promo before an anime adaption of the manga was confirmed. I didn't really know about the show until I saw footage from it in a MEP, and was very interested in watching it. It's not every day you get to see 2 anime males kissing, so by that, this show got me hook, line, and sinker.
I did kind of mistake it for Nisekoi at one point, but this show flew out of my mind until they started confirming the cast for it, along with releasing OVA's. When I first saw the OVA key visual, I thought, "Hey, this looks familiar." So I thought back to that MEP, and realized that I might need to, you know, actually read the premise of this series to see what it was about.
The story sounded engaging and interesting. And I was looking forward to this anime. No, scratch that, I was waiting for this anime with bated breath. Did it achieve those goals?
When Episode 1 rolled around, I was immediately hooked. Not only was it super funny and just nice to watch, it was just SO FREAKING enjoyable. Than Episode 2, followed by 3, and 4, and 5, and onward proved that this was going to be a fun series. Though the pacing of this anime did get a little wonky in the second half, and some of the characters were shoved to the side, this was another very enjoyable anime, and one of my favorites from this year.
Let's begin with the story:
I did kind of mistake it for Nisekoi at one point, but this show flew out of my mind until they started confirming the cast for it, along with releasing OVA's. When I first saw the OVA key visual, I thought, "Hey, this looks familiar." So I thought back to that MEP, and realized that I might need to, you know, actually read the premise of this series to see what it was about.
The story sounded engaging and interesting. And I was looking forward to this anime. No, scratch that, I was waiting for this anime with bated breath. Did it achieve those goals?
When Episode 1 rolled around, I was immediately hooked. Not only was it super funny and just nice to watch, it was just SO FREAKING enjoyable. Than Episode 2, followed by 3, and 4, and 5, and onward proved that this was going to be a fun series. Though the pacing of this anime did get a little wonky in the second half, and some of the characters were shoved to the side, this was another very enjoyable anime, and one of my favorites from this year.
Let's begin with the story:
Story
Ryu Yamada (I will constantly refer to him in this review as just Yamada) is pretty much every single bad student in every anime ever. Not only does he have a bad temper, poor grades, and been branded as a delinquent, but he's also gotten bored of high school after only a year of it. That changes when one day, he trips on a flight on stairs and falls on top of Urara Shiraishi (will be referring her as Shiraishi), one of the smartest students in school. When he wakes up in the nurse's office, Yamada discovers that he and Shiraishi have switched bodies. After spending a day in Shiraishi's body and finding out that her life isn't the sunshine and rainbows he thought it was, they both find out that the body switching ability is triggered when the two kiss.
Oh look, here's another thing that can be triggered by a kiss. Much like the familiar contract in Kamisama Kiss. We may not be in love, but this is how it's the most convenient! Up top!
Okay, back on topic. By the suggestion of Toranosuke Miyamura, the student council vice-president who discovers about the body swap ability, they decide to reform the dead Supernatural Studies Club. Pretty soon, another member joins the club, her name being Miyabi Ito, a girl obsessed with anything supernatural. We also have one more, but let's be honest. Who think he's that memorable? I think not!
Pretty soon, girls who are called witches are found throughout the school, who each have a special power activated with a kiss. Yamada soon learns about something he can do, and The Supernatural Studies Club decides to find the rest of the witches. It's when the 7th witch is discovered that everything goes down the toilet and into the sewers of hell, and it may be only up to Yamada to fix it.
I like to dub this anime the one with all the kisses. And that's because of the power granting that each kiss has. It can either be to swap bodies, be charmed, have telepathy, see the future, see a traumatic even of someone's past, become invisible, or make others around you forget who you are. Though mainly in the first half, it's just to experiment, you know, the whole swapping bodies thing.
As a whole, this anime really impressed me. I like finding unique stories in anime, and this one is no exception. Having abilities that can be exchanged between 2 people is quite interesting, and each one is interesting to find out about. Thank our trusty guinea pigs!
The only thing that does hinder the story a bit is the pacing. Now, I don't find it as much of an issue than others, but I will agree that it does feel a little rushed. This mainly goes for the show's second half, but it's mainly apparent in the 12th episode. Everything seems to move at a lighting speed, and I felt a little odd when we got to the half point. I'm like, "Well, that escalated quickly."
When you also look back on the show, you can see the staff adapted about 90 chapters. I remember hearing about it, and then looking it up since I was curious:
Then I saw that people were right about it, and I thought, "Now I can see why some people are mad about it." To adapt this amount of chapters in a little extreme, but I think they handled the Toranosuke and Yamada in Shiraishi's body confrontation much better in the anime. The scenario when they visited Shiraishi's house in the manga also worked better in Episode 3 IMO.
My favorite moment in the series is when Nene, a witch who has the ability to charm people, accidentally flashes her undergarments on 2 separate occasions. Oops.
There are a couple more entertaining moments from this series that may pop up in here, so keep your eyes out. This is just my favorite. ;)
All in all though, the story for this anime is quite good, besides the issues with pacing.
Let's meet our cast of characters now!
Oh look, here's another thing that can be triggered by a kiss. Much like the familiar contract in Kamisama Kiss. We may not be in love, but this is how it's the most convenient! Up top!
Okay, back on topic. By the suggestion of Toranosuke Miyamura, the student council vice-president who discovers about the body swap ability, they decide to reform the dead Supernatural Studies Club. Pretty soon, another member joins the club, her name being Miyabi Ito, a girl obsessed with anything supernatural. We also have one more, but let's be honest. Who think he's that memorable? I think not!
Pretty soon, girls who are called witches are found throughout the school, who each have a special power activated with a kiss. Yamada soon learns about something he can do, and The Supernatural Studies Club decides to find the rest of the witches. It's when the 7th witch is discovered that everything goes down the toilet and into the sewers of hell, and it may be only up to Yamada to fix it.
I like to dub this anime the one with all the kisses. And that's because of the power granting that each kiss has. It can either be to swap bodies, be charmed, have telepathy, see the future, see a traumatic even of someone's past, become invisible, or make others around you forget who you are. Though mainly in the first half, it's just to experiment, you know, the whole swapping bodies thing.
As a whole, this anime really impressed me. I like finding unique stories in anime, and this one is no exception. Having abilities that can be exchanged between 2 people is quite interesting, and each one is interesting to find out about. Thank our trusty guinea pigs!
The only thing that does hinder the story a bit is the pacing. Now, I don't find it as much of an issue than others, but I will agree that it does feel a little rushed. This mainly goes for the show's second half, but it's mainly apparent in the 12th episode. Everything seems to move at a lighting speed, and I felt a little odd when we got to the half point. I'm like, "Well, that escalated quickly."
When you also look back on the show, you can see the staff adapted about 90 chapters. I remember hearing about it, and then looking it up since I was curious:
Then I saw that people were right about it, and I thought, "Now I can see why some people are mad about it." To adapt this amount of chapters in a little extreme, but I think they handled the Toranosuke and Yamada in Shiraishi's body confrontation much better in the anime. The scenario when they visited Shiraishi's house in the manga also worked better in Episode 3 IMO.
My favorite moment in the series is when Nene, a witch who has the ability to charm people, accidentally flashes her undergarments on 2 separate occasions. Oops.
There are a couple more entertaining moments from this series that may pop up in here, so keep your eyes out. This is just my favorite. ;)
All in all though, the story for this anime is quite good, besides the issues with pacing.
Let's meet our cast of characters now!
Characters
The characters in Yamada-kun are an entertaining bunch. Sadly, some are not as featured as much as say Shiraishi and Yamada. This goes into play with the witches beyond Shiriashi and Nene, who are like rubber band catapults. The majority of them are forgettable in some aspects, and are mostly just in 1 episode before popping up in the last few. Thank you pacing!
Not to say this is bad all the time. But my favorite witches, Meiko and Noa, each have 1 episode where they get developed until they magically disappear. The other witches have more stage presence (SPARKLES!), but one technically doesn't have her powers.
Our leading man shall be up first!
Yamada starts off as one of those main male delinquent characters who are very similar to each other. Bad temper, horrible grades, doesn't care about s**t, and doesn't have any friends. As the series goes on though, he does start to change. I feel like Yamada does become more invested in finding the witches, but where he shines is in the final arc of this show. He wants to be able to get his friends' memories back, even though he doesn't know how to at first.
If you're curious about why Yamada was able to swap bodies with Shiraishi and later get the other powers the witches have, it's because he has a copy ability. This means that Yamada is able to copy whatever ability it is if he kisses a witch. Though, he mainly has feelings for Shiraishi, which he confesses by the end.
I do think Yamada evolves throughout the series, unlike other main characters I know. He may still have some of those traits inside of him that he had in the beginning, but I do think he changed for the better in the end. And I respect that.
Also, any moment that he spends in Shirashi's body gets a laugh out of me every single time. Bonus points!
Our lovely leading lady is up next:
Shiraishi is first introduced to us as one of the top students in the school. as she holds the highest grades in her class. She doesn't really have any friends, and her "friends" often picked fun at her for her perfect grades, until Yamada scares them away when he's in her body.
When the two discover that they can swap bodies, they are able to fix the other's problems they are currently having. And from this, Shiraishi actually manages to make friends. She also at first wasn't planning on attending college, until Yamada convinced her otherwise. So as you can see, from these adorable moments, you automatically want to press the Ship button right away. Because I just saw the sparks right away!
What I like about Shiraishi is that she rarely loses her temper. She's always kind, and will often help Yamada on some background information. She also reveals to him about his copy ability and can be pretty useful. Also, whenever she's just simply studying when something's going down is pretty quirky. It's like staying calm in scary situations, with her schoolwork being her cure. Me, I would think of very funny things that I love. Oh, and if I had a book with me, I'd totally read it too! Look, we're practically twins.
Okay, let me swallow first. I'm pretty sure my drool's going to get all on the floor if I don't because, well..... *bats eyelashes* it's time to talk about Toranosuke:
*clears throat* My bad guys. I just got a little distracted. But with good reason though. You got to love those anime characters that catch our eye whenever you first see them or when they first talk. Am I right? :)
Anyways, Toranosuke is one of the student council vice presidents (this only gets mentioned in the anime once, if I recall. I just rediscovered this information, besides the fact that he was planning to run for student council president). He's one of those characters who probably has fangirls just lined up down the block since he looks so gorgeous. He discovers the switching body ability after spying on Yamada in Shiraishi's body, and then later confronts him about it. Later, Toranosuke convinces them to revive the Supernatural Studies Club and to also use it as a place where Shiraishi and Yamada can switch bodies. The place will later also get used as a hang-out place and for investigating.
Toranosuke has a very cheerful yet slightly perverted personality, and constantly will be one of our guinea pigs to test out the witch powers. Of course, he does get curious himself, especially in the first episode, where he has absolutely no issues with swapping bodies with Yamada
Why can't we have more characters like this? No, really?
Beyond that note, Toranosuke's pervertedness comes into play on various occasions. This includes the gang investigating Shiraishi's room, cleaning up Maria's room, trying to find any solid evidence on where Miyabi is when she possess Yamada's body, and when Yamada, while in Shiraishi's body at the beach, has the upper half of Shiraishi's swimsuit floats away. In some cases, Toranosuke is able to be quite humorous when this happens, because it doesn't happen every episode, and when it does, it's hilarious as hell. I wish the same could go for Issei I'm afraid, but his moments of lewdness happen too much.
Toranosuke is my favorite character from this anime. He has a lot of presence whenever he pops up on screen, and it doesn't matter if he's just being himself or trolling Yamada with the telepathy power by chanting oppai (Japanese for boobs) over and over again, He's just so enjoyable. Plus, he looks sexy and is one of my new favorite anime male characters.
My 3rd favorite witch is up last:
Nene is also another student council vice president, and is competing with Toranosuke to be the next president when the current one graduates. Her witch power is to charm the people who she has kissed, and to make more boys do her bidding. This especially goes for Ushio, Yamada's old friend who now follows Nene like a dog wherever she goes. Though Yamada doesn't get affected by her power, he later finds out that he can no longer swap bodies with Shiraishi, nor could he with Nene in fact, and Toranosuke and Miyabi test out the ability too. This results in both of them falling for Yamada, and leads to the scene which I coin The Chopstick War. FIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHT!
Not to say this is bad all the time. But my favorite witches, Meiko and Noa, each have 1 episode where they get developed until they magically disappear. The other witches have more stage presence (SPARKLES!), but one technically doesn't have her powers.
Our leading man shall be up first!
Yamada starts off as one of those main male delinquent characters who are very similar to each other. Bad temper, horrible grades, doesn't care about s**t, and doesn't have any friends. As the series goes on though, he does start to change. I feel like Yamada does become more invested in finding the witches, but where he shines is in the final arc of this show. He wants to be able to get his friends' memories back, even though he doesn't know how to at first.
If you're curious about why Yamada was able to swap bodies with Shiraishi and later get the other powers the witches have, it's because he has a copy ability. This means that Yamada is able to copy whatever ability it is if he kisses a witch. Though, he mainly has feelings for Shiraishi, which he confesses by the end.
I do think Yamada evolves throughout the series, unlike other main characters I know. He may still have some of those traits inside of him that he had in the beginning, but I do think he changed for the better in the end. And I respect that.
Also, any moment that he spends in Shirashi's body gets a laugh out of me every single time. Bonus points!
Our lovely leading lady is up next:
Shiraishi is first introduced to us as one of the top students in the school. as she holds the highest grades in her class. She doesn't really have any friends, and her "friends" often picked fun at her for her perfect grades, until Yamada scares them away when he's in her body.
When the two discover that they can swap bodies, they are able to fix the other's problems they are currently having. And from this, Shiraishi actually manages to make friends. She also at first wasn't planning on attending college, until Yamada convinced her otherwise. So as you can see, from these adorable moments, you automatically want to press the Ship button right away. Because I just saw the sparks right away!
What I like about Shiraishi is that she rarely loses her temper. She's always kind, and will often help Yamada on some background information. She also reveals to him about his copy ability and can be pretty useful. Also, whenever she's just simply studying when something's going down is pretty quirky. It's like staying calm in scary situations, with her schoolwork being her cure. Me, I would think of very funny things that I love. Oh, and if I had a book with me, I'd totally read it too! Look, we're practically twins.
Okay, let me swallow first. I'm pretty sure my drool's going to get all on the floor if I don't because, well..... *bats eyelashes* it's time to talk about Toranosuke:
Anyways, Toranosuke is one of the student council vice presidents (this only gets mentioned in the anime once, if I recall. I just rediscovered this information, besides the fact that he was planning to run for student council president). He's one of those characters who probably has fangirls just lined up down the block since he looks so gorgeous. He discovers the switching body ability after spying on Yamada in Shiraishi's body, and then later confronts him about it. Later, Toranosuke convinces them to revive the Supernatural Studies Club and to also use it as a place where Shiraishi and Yamada can switch bodies. The place will later also get used as a hang-out place and for investigating.
Toranosuke has a very cheerful yet slightly perverted personality, and constantly will be one of our guinea pigs to test out the witch powers. Of course, he does get curious himself, especially in the first episode, where he has absolutely no issues with swapping bodies with Yamada
Why can't we have more characters like this? No, really?
Beyond that note, Toranosuke's pervertedness comes into play on various occasions. This includes the gang investigating Shiraishi's room, cleaning up Maria's room, trying to find any solid evidence on where Miyabi is when she possess Yamada's body, and when Yamada, while in Shiraishi's body at the beach, has the upper half of Shiraishi's swimsuit floats away. In some cases, Toranosuke is able to be quite humorous when this happens, because it doesn't happen every episode, and when it does, it's hilarious as hell. I wish the same could go for Issei I'm afraid, but his moments of lewdness happen too much.
Toranosuke is my favorite character from this anime. He has a lot of presence whenever he pops up on screen, and it doesn't matter if he's just being himself or trolling Yamada with the telepathy power by chanting oppai (Japanese for boobs) over and over again, He's just so enjoyable. Plus, he looks sexy and is one of my new favorite anime male characters.
My 3rd favorite witch is up last:
Nene is also another student council vice president, and is competing with Toranosuke to be the next president when the current one graduates. Her witch power is to charm the people who she has kissed, and to make more boys do her bidding. This especially goes for Ushio, Yamada's old friend who now follows Nene like a dog wherever she goes. Though Yamada doesn't get affected by her power, he later finds out that he can no longer swap bodies with Shiraishi, nor could he with Nene in fact, and Toranosuke and Miyabi test out the ability too. This results in both of them falling for Yamada, and leads to the scene which I coin The Chopstick War. FIGHTFIGHTFIGHTFIGHT!
I think Issei would love this power very much. He wants a harem anyway!
Later on, Nene's power comes smacking her in the face, as she starts developing feelings for Yamada, and those still remain even when she tries to convince Yamada to kiss her again (he does after some convincing, but she still harbors feelings for him afterwards, though not as overblown). She later decides to help out with finding the other witches, but doesn't actually join the club and searches on her own with Ushio (funny thing is, she spends more time with the club then she does on her own activities. Oh, aren't you just a tsundere!).
I can say Nene is probably my favorite sassy anime character of all time. Not only do I think she can get hysterical, but it's nice to see her have genuine feelings for Yamada, even though they may never be answered. and to see them come out is kind of interesting. She also isn't bitter all the time, and she may have more to her beyond being sassy or in love.
Other characters that are involved with the Supernatural Studies Club are Miyabi Ito and Kentaro Tsubaki. They are on the forgettable side of things, though that's mainly with Tsubaki. He debuts in Episode 7, then he's mostly shoved off to the side.
The other witches are Meiko with her power of telepathy, Maria with her power to see into the future, Noa with her power of seeing a traumatic memory of the person she kisses, Asuka who formally had the power to become invisible. And finally to wrap things up, Rika, who has the power to manipulate people's memories regarding the witches.
And beyond that, the other characters are Ushio, Yamada's middle school friend until he is influenced by Nene's charm power. Shinichi, the so-called "Witch Killer" who can take a witch's ability and is able to use it as his own. Haruma, the student council president who knows way more than he's letting on. And finally, Leona, Toranosuke's older sister who no longer attends school after an incident when she was a former member of the Supernatural Studies Club.
Animation
The animation for this series was produced by Liden Films, who are most known for their work on Terraformars, which had a lot of complaints due to its awful censoring which include filled in black circles that covered faces.
Overall, I thought the animation for this series was pretty nice. This style was different than what I've seen from Terraformers (and no, I haven't seen it. I'm not planning too either), and it feels more optimistic and bright. There are some moments when the quality dips a bit, and there will be instances from the clips I've linked into the review. However, like many other shows, it's consistent for the most part, and looks very good.
Like seriously, I'm impressed with almost all of the series I watch. LOL XD Than again, they have really good animation, so I can't complain.
Like seriously, I'm impressed with almost all of the series I watch. LOL XD Than again, they have really good animation, so I can't complain.
Sound
The score for this series was composed by Masaru Yokoyama, who is also known for contributing to animes such as Queen's Blade, Freezing, and Unbreakable Machine Doll.
As I mentioned in my Freezing review, Yamada-kun and the 7 Witches' score is another one of my favorites from Masaru Yokoyama. It's more memorable like Freezing, and it mainly stays on the uplifting side of things. There are some tracks that feature some guitars, are a little more dramatic than others, but the majority of the score is relaxing enough that it doesn't become boring. And I really like that.
The voice work in this show is also great and highly entertaining. Of course, the highly entertaining part come when the characters switch bodies, and do a complete 180 of what their character's voice actually is. The most prominent example of this is Saori Hayami when Yamada is in Shiraishi's body.
Saori is mainly known for voicing characters who are very energetic and have light voices, so seeing her add a gruff quality to her voice is quite enjoyable. Also, it's fantastic when Yamada tries to act REALLY girly while he's in her body.
Highlights go to Ryota Osaka, Saori Hayami, Toshiki Masuda, Maaya Uchida, Eri Kitamura, Yui Makino, Aoi Yuki, Kana Hanazawa, Masumi Tazawa, Daisuke Ono, Shinnosuke Tachibana, Jun Fukuyama, and Miyuki Sawashiro.
The voice work in this show is also great and highly entertaining. Of course, the highly entertaining part come when the characters switch bodies, and do a complete 180 of what their character's voice actually is. The most prominent example of this is Saori Hayami when Yamada is in Shiraishi's body.
Saori is mainly known for voicing characters who are very energetic and have light voices, so seeing her add a gruff quality to her voice is quite enjoyable. Also, it's fantastic when Yamada tries to act REALLY girly while he's in her body.
Highlights go to Ryota Osaka, Saori Hayami, Toshiki Masuda, Maaya Uchida, Eri Kitamura, Yui Makino, Aoi Yuki, Kana Hanazawa, Masumi Tazawa, Daisuke Ono, Shinnosuke Tachibana, Jun Fukuyama, and Miyuki Sawashiro.
Verdict
*huggles* This is going to be another show that I'm going to miss for the next few months. I had so much fun while watching this, thanks for the fun story and characters. Though the pacing is the biggest issue against it, it's in your eyes to see how bad it is, as it wasn't that bad for me.
All in all, this show is highly recommended by me if you love comedy, or are just looking for something that'll make you smile. It could work any way. Hopefully the OVA's are just as good as the show was!
Oh, and still waiting for someone to license it over in the US. You know, so I can own it one day. I'll be waiting in the meantime, but let's hope it doesn't take long.
Score: 10/10
Positives:
Fun and interesting story.
Great main characters (still swooning over Toranosuke).
Good animation.
Relaxing score.
Very enjoyable seeing what the seiyuus sound like when a character besides their own is in their body.
Voice work is nice overall.
Laugh out loud.
Highly entertaining.
Negatives:
Pacing can sometimes work against the show, especially in the second half and final episode.
Some characters are shoved more to the side than others.
All in all, this show is highly recommended by me if you love comedy, or are just looking for something that'll make you smile. It could work any way. Hopefully the OVA's are just as good as the show was!
Oh, and still waiting for someone to license it over in the US. You know, so I can own it one day. I'll be waiting in the meantime, but let's hope it doesn't take long.
Score: 10/10
Positives:
Fun and interesting story.
Great main characters (still swooning over Toranosuke).
Good animation.
Relaxing score.
Very enjoyable seeing what the seiyuus sound like when a character besides their own is in their body.
Voice work is nice overall.
Laugh out loud.
Highly entertaining.
Negatives:
Pacing can sometimes work against the show, especially in the second half and final episode.
Some characters are shoved more to the side than others.
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