Divine Gate Review

Divine Gate Review

Warning: The following review may contain spoilers of the show Divine Gate. If you wish not to know some plot details, or simply don't wish to find out what happens in the series, please exit the tab, and join me once you've watched the show. Or you know, you can continue to read, since you don't care about spoilers.

Anyways, with that said, thank you, and onto the review:

Like I mentioned before in my Winter season wrap-up, this was the first show that I became apparent of that was airing that season. I was immediately intrigued by it, mainly because the main characters were users of elements. I really like seeing this in show and books because I think the idea has a lot of potential, and it's something I'm pretty familiar with (W.I.T.C.H. comes to mind).

Let's just say my excitement for this series was pretty high. Though this series wasn't getting the best reviews when it started airing, I was still hoping for an entertaining watch and one that would linger in my mind as a great anime series. Also, I was really looking forward to a particular character.

So after pushing it back for a bit, I got into watching this show. It even went faster thanks to some downtime during preparation for my school's spring musical, since I worked backstage for it. So, how it'd go?

Well........

If that didn't show enough to you, here's a GIF to further explain it:

Wizard Barristers also used the elements too. Oh, and even though a lot of reviewers weren't really found of that show, I actually ended up really liking it.

This show on the other hand...... *slow exhale* Oh, where do I even begin?

Despite having some really nice animation, a solid score, and some promise of good elements hinted throughout, Divine Gate let me down, and it let me down HARD. The story and the characters as a whole were an absolute mess, and much like Dance with Devils, they were the main targets as to why this show fell apart.

Add this with the annoying narrator who adds such lovely unneeded poetry to this series, the writers trying to make this show as dark and edgy as it possibly could, and some really bad drama that could rival Prince of Stride and Uta Pri, except it's done WAY worse.

I swear, 80% of the reason why I ended up finishing this was because of Loki alone. I mean, seriously, he was so interesting! GAH! I LOVED HIM!

*huggles*

The other 20% was for plot reasons, seeing as I really wanted to see where the story would go (I'd typically drop this show, but like I said, hype). And that went swell, as you can see.

Fasten your seatbelts, guys. This is going to be a bumpy ride.

Let's digest this horses**t of a story, shall we?

Story

Some time ago, a gate was opened that is now referred to as the Divine Gate. After it was opened, the worlds of the living, the heavens, and the underworld were all connected, which threw the world into a barrage of chaos. When the World Council was formed, peace and order began to return, while the Divine Gate lurks in the background, becoming an urban legend that some kids believe, and others don't. Everyone has seemed to live in harmony.

It's been about a good decade since the Gate was opened, and the world is at the state it once was. An academy was opened, helping to harness the element based abilities of kids known as Adapters. One in particular, named Aoto, defeats a man who held part of a train hostage, and gains the attention of Akane and Midori, two other Adapters with the abilities of fire and air. But that's not all. He seems to have also gotten the attention of the academy's principal named Arthur, who's been wanting Aoto to attend the academy for some time now, along with a mysterious spirit boy named K, who seems to know Aoto's feelings inside and out. 

After some convincing (and mind you, it doesn't take long at all), Aoto decides to attend the academy. It also doesn't begin to take long when our 3 leads' pasts are brought up to us. All of them seem to have a wish they want to grant, and what better way to do that than go to the Gate? After all, going to the Divine Gate will allow one person's wish to be granted (or is it everyone who reaches the Gate? It seems to flip back and forth). Or that's what the rumors say.

But it turns out Arthur is interested to go to the Gate as well so he can destroy it and bring peace upon the world. His servants, called the Knights of Round, join up too, along with the other 3 Adapter students named Ginji, Hikari, and Yukari. Let's not forget Loki and Oz from the sidelines!

Akane's wish is to see if his father is really alive or not, Midori's wish is to see if her old friend, Elena, is still alive so that they can repair their old friendship, and Aoto's wish is to reconnect with his brother Ariton, who went rouge one day after killing their parents and seems to be called Aoto as well. One thing's for sure, this isn't going to be a pleasant ride. Will the trio have their wishes granted? And what other plots are cooking up under the surface?

I feel like whenever I think of this anime's plot, my brain becomes this:

To say this story is cluttered is an understatement. This story is an absolute hot mess. It's bathed in super glue at every corner, constantly trapping various plot threads that go unanswered, are brushed off, or are just simply forgotten. It's like Dance with Devils, but if you dropped the reverse harem aspect and you replaced it with sci fi. But I think this storytelling is worse, considering that it affects the entire series.

First off, this story flat out fails at trying to make itself feel deep and symbolic. Of course, that isn't really helped by the narrator.

Oh good lord.

In case you haven't heard about it, there's a narrator who gives further explanation to characters, their motives, events that are going to go down or have happened, or just plain random stuff that really doesn't fit into this story at all. It's also written in this incredibly dramatic tone that makes you "feel" things aside from trying to be A Separate Peace in how serious you need to take things.

The narrator is quite hilarious. No, wait, scratch that, that's a understatement. They are downright hysterical. How many times the narrator tried to make me feel anything regarding this show either had me doing this:

Or this:

It's either super funny or just VERY AGGRAVATING!  Like, pick one please?

Here are some character examples:

I'll go into some detail later about how these 3 characters are significant in the story (which, spoiler alert, they're absolutely not). But if you want a way to give some background to a character, or perhaps hint at their unexplained backstory, this is perhaps the worst place to do it. I don't care if we haven't gotten a proper introduction beforehand, but why don't you just do it when they are first introduced?

And now, some event narration:

Mhmm, good to know. That's super important to the plot right now. No, screw it. Why should I care about this again?

So basically, the narrator really plays no impact on the show, and is better to have probably been scrapped out entirely. It's like Togainu no Chi with its narrator at the beginning of every episode I didn't care about (funny thing is the person on series composition for TNC also was on that for this show. I wasn't particularly happy when I found that out). But at least there, it wasn't as problematic.

And then there's the actual show itself. It's at various points during this series where it seems like the writers are basically trying to scream in your face the sorrow that is supposed to be conveyed by a particular scene, despite the fact that me (and probably others) couldn't feel it.

Look! Aoto's brother killed his parents in cold blood and disappeared before completing various other crimes. Doesn't that make you feel scared about what he's going to do next?

Hey! There was this Defier girl that Akane met that had to be killed. Doesn't that make you weep? That even though we only knew her for 10 minutes how she can play that big of a role in the plot?

OMG! All of Arthur's comrades of the Knights of Round were killed by the Scandinavian gods (all expect one) while trying to get to the Divine Gate. Doesn't that horrify you, with how much we knew about them and their loyalty to Arthur?

WAIT! AKANE'S FATHER AND MIDORI'S FRIEND WERE JUST KILLED IN COLD BLOOD (well, Akane's father sacrificed himself mainly) SO THAT AKANE AND MIDORI CAN FEEL THE UTMOST PITS OF DESPAIR SO THAT THEY CAN GO TO THE DIVINE GATE! THIS IS SO CRUEL! HOW CAN BE REUNITED WITH THEIR LONG LOST LOVED ONES AND THEN DIE JUST LIKE THAT?! 

................................

Yeah. you tried Divine Gate. You really tried. Instead, I'm probably going to be over here either stewing in rage or bursting out laughing so hard that my sides are probably going to start hurting.

Wait, hold on. I just thought of something!

This is basically Beyoncé's Formation in anime form! The Formation of anime if you will.

So no Divine Gate, you do not slay. I feel flattered that you would want me to come and eat at Red Lobster after some steamy times, but let's be real. I'd only go to Red Lobster if I can eat some popcorn shrimp and those iconic biscuits.

The plot also suffers from a writing standpoint beyond the godawful narration and poor dramatic content. It's clear from watching the anime that the writers were either unfamiliar with the source material or had absolutely no idea where to take the story next. Reintegrating my "hot mess" standpoint into the fold, it's the story ideas that are introduced that could be rather interesting, but instead, either suffer from being dropped entirely or for not having as much emotional impact considering that some events had really no build-up.

We also have some plot holes, the biggest one regarding the Divine Gate itself. In some episodes, it is clearly stated that only one person can be able to open the Gate to grant their wish. But in other cases, it is said that any person, even in a group, is able to open it.

So, which one is it? I honestly have no clue.

There's also the semi open ending this show deals out, and is it seriously needed? I wouldn't go and say it's as petty as that horrendous cliffhanger from Dance with Devils, but it does cut a bit close. There are so many unanswered questions that aren't even answered, and it feels like a cheap ending, complete with an anticlimactic climax in the battle to save Arthur. Which I'll be honest, I don't give two f**ks about.

In the end, Divine Gate really only has its potential and Loki to stand on. This aspect flies over mountain, meadow, and green (to quote Cinderella's Ten Minutes Ago from the musical):

While the more interesting parts to this story are thrown into an abyss, presumably to rot in a big black pit of despair:

*sighs* This story could have been so much better, like, you know, Formation.

But we can't always get what we want, can we?

The characters really aren't much better. Speaking of:

Characters

I'm going to start off by saying the backstories to our leads are essentially stereotypical Lifetime movie bait. We have Akane, with his presumably dead father. Aoto, with his psychotic little brother (who the show tries to build up to be the main villain, before switching that role to Loki instead) and taking the fall for all of his crimes because why the heck not? And then we have Midori, who used to be friends with a girl named Elena before Elena got jealous of Midori making other friends when she wanted her to be "the one and only."

All of these stories are so cringe-worthy and boring. I could probably write better backstories in my sleep given the chance, so I can actually make them interesting.

Where should I start off? Let's go with Aoto:

Mr. Emo here secludes himself from society and shuts off his emotions. When he and his twin brother, Ariton, were growing up, they didn't have the best life. Their parents were often pretty abusive (most often their dad), and typically punished Ariton by tying him to a tree, often in the pouring rain. Getting sick of this, Aoto started to take the blame for any of Ariton's wrongdoings and purposely began to flunk tests tests. After one such wrongdoing, he is boarded up inside a storage room and given less fair treatment compared to Ariton.

Ariton mistook this though, and I'm not going to go into it because I honestly think it's bulls**t and really really stupid. Back to Aoto.

Despite Aoto having some subtle love shown from his mom (considering on the night she was killed, she inched his blanket up his body while he was sleeping and told him that things would eventually get better), Ariton still kills them and goes AWOL. Because of this, and the fact that he feels guilty that his brother became hurt, Aoto takes the fall for their parents, which earns him the nickname the Parent Killer.

After entering the academy though, Aoto begins to open up a little bit. He starts expressing more emotion, and even becomes a slightly stronger character. He decides to go to the Divine Gate in order to repair his relationship with his brother. There was one pretty funny moment during Episode 5 when the 6 element users went on a training mission (before the Defiler girl showed up), and during one of the stops, Akane and Palamedes engage in a wrestling match. While Midori remarks on how the two seem to be getting along. Aoto takes off his shirt, thinking that he will participate next. It's pretty awkward, especially for Midori, but it's still super adorable.

Also, he probably gave the best example of why so many people didn't like this anime, and we appreciate him for it.

Overall, Aoto wasn't too bad. Though he was far too angsty in the beginning, and often pretty boring, he does grow throughout the show. And though it's not by much, it's enough to make him semi-memorable in the least.

Akane's turn now:

When he was young, Akane had a very deep bond toward his father, who was a research member of the World Council, and also really cared about his son and wife. One day however, members of the World Council told his mom that his father had died due to an accident during one of his experiments. Refusing the fact that he would just screw up, as Akane knew his father was one of the top members, he wished to go to the Divine Gate in order to see what really happened.

Well, his father didn't die, as it's pretty much spoiled by the ending, and he makes a few small appearances here and there in a couple of scenes in Episodes 4, 6, and 8. Loki also knows about their connection, based on a comment he made in Episode 8. When their reunion happens (outside of the play) it is not met with the best reception from Akane, who basically yells at his father for a few minutes about disappearing and not coming back home. It is then after Akane's father half sacrifices himself in an attack against Surtr where he starts to get emotional, and asks why his father had to leave, this time officially, after meeting each other again.

So yeah. Akane goes from this:

To this:

All within the span of 5 minutes. This is great writing, am I right?

Besides these mood swings, Akane is a bit of a bland character for me. He's kind of a tsundere, however he's also not. In a way, I would say that he hides some of his emotions, and doesn't admit them outwardly due to reasons. Does he develop as the show goes on? Not really. He's one of the many characters of this show that don't even bother to grow. It's like the Defier girl didn't even make an impact on him, which is weird. I thought it would at least do something.

But whatever. He's voiced by Tetsuya Kakihara (he's voicing another fire person), and he got a little manservice. So that makes up for it...kind of.

Midori's the last out of our trio to talk about:

Midori acts very bubbly and cheerful, but she's hiding more underneath the surface. And that, my friends, is grief. When she was young, she used to have a friend named Elena who she was very close with. They bonded over the fact that the both of them want to go to the Gate one day. During school one year, Midori starts making more friends outside of Elena and becomes more isolated from her. Elena starts to get jealous of these new friendships, wanting to have Midori all to herself.

After an argument, Elena decides to go to the Divine Gate on her own during the town's annual summer festival. Midori decides to go after her, but doesn't seem to find her on the edge of town. Because she feels guilty for how the friendship fell apart, she wants to find Elena again (who has now been granted with powers of a Scandinavian God, and is referred to as Dorothy by Oz) so that she can repair their friendship.

Out of the leads, Midori is definitely the most bland. She never really seems to change as a character, less so than Akane. I felt that she never really got a chance to shine other than in her focused episode and bits here and there, and because of that, her character was really flat for me.

Now it's time to talk about the other 3 Adapters that make an appearance in the series: Ginji, who has a normal ability (the boy who loves nothingness), Hikari, who has the power of light, and Yukari, who has the power of darkness. Considering that they are on both key visuals for this series, you'd think they'd be featured a lot more and have set roles in the show's story. Like I said earlier, they really don't. While the writers try to give them more personality and depth, it ends up coming across as a lazy attempt to try and do so. Ginji is "the voice of reason" out of the 3, who thinks it's better to go to the World Council to see if they can help solve the mystery of Arthur disappearing (which they won't, because Loki is convincing enough) rather than go to the Gate. And as for Hikari and Yukari, well........

Both of them are basically just sock puppets, composed of one personality trait and one only. They really need all of the hands they can get (baa dum tss), and Ginji can supply that. And their "development" is also pretty yawn-inducing. Ginji is apparently the only human who can enter the Gate (probably without the Key of course), and Hikari and Yukari are apparently queens of Celestia and Hellista (Heaven and Hell symbolically). 

Yeah, should I remind this show that I basically don't give a s**t about most of these developments?

Let's move on from this pit of boredom and go to a more rage-inducing character. That's right, Arthur:

Arthur is the chairman of the academy where the Adapters attend, and has a keen interest in Aoto due to his abilities. He leads the group called The Knights of Round, and he is very well respected. However, he had a very bad childhood (we're only told this in the beginning of Episode 6) where he was lonely, OH SO LONELY! He was thrown into the Sky World at a very young age, and was found by Santa Clause, who became his very first friend and trusted comrade. Because of this, he wishes to destroy the Divine Gate once he gets to it so that Santa Clause's wishes can be spread throughout the worlds, and make the citizens happy.

Of course, this plan doesn't get accomplished, because he gets brainwashed by a sword that Loki brings to him, and is trapped in a tower until Santa is able to get to it and tries to rescue him, However, Arthur gives up on his plan for the time being. For what reason? Beats me, but let's just say he'll still be Loki's pawn for who knows how long?

Yeah, I was really hoping Arthur was going to be the villain of this series. Every single time he appears, he always has this big fat smirk on his face, and I felt like I need to punch it out because he always seems to be in deep planning mode. And once he is under Loki's control, he seems kind of invested in finding a way out. But then he gives up. And at this point, I'm rolling my eyes and shaking my head because apparently, I thought Arthur was supposed to be written as a badass who knew everything and was responsible in finding a problem to solutions. But nope! Guess not. Too bad, so sad. Must really suck for a character who thinks he's on the level of king (name puns!)

Can we move on to a better character, please?

YAY! We're good, guys! Because here is a reason why this show was better than it was. And that my friends, is Loki.

Loki is the Norse God of Mischief (much like the Loki from Kamigami no Asobi in a way), and is dressed quite flamboyantly and clown-like. He could be Amber from Next Top Doll's cousin with how he looks (considering they both have clown designs to them, though only part of Loki's face is clown-like, since he wears that half mask). He's a part of the World Council alongside with Arthur, and seems to be pretty supportive in some of Arthur's wishes. However, his true motives are always sketchy, and the God of Mischief title sure comes into play there.

Throughout the series, Loki seems to like interfering with various things, such as summoning Droids to cause chaos, or to quite simply, be a complete troll. While he wants Arthur to become ruler of the post Divine Gate world, he wants it under his conditions, and thus starts to arrange plans on how to mess with our main trio.

Loki is such a calculating bastard, and I couldn't help but adore every single minute with him. Sure, in another anime series, he'd be loads better than what he's portrayed as here, but he's still probably the most badass character out of the entire series because of how intriguing he is. He knows what he wants, goes to lengths to get it, and knows just when to make the best comments out of the entire series.

So besides my fulling love for Loki, did the other characters fit the bill? Well, not really. But I did like a few of them.

Other characters include the Knights of Round (some of them could be scrapped, and the show would lose nothing), Boy K, a mysterious boy who helps lead people who have felt enough despair to the Divine Gate, the 3 spirits (Ifrit, Undine, and Sylph) who are the guardians to the trio, Metabon, the mascot character, Santa Clause, the operation system throughout the city, Oz, a wizard who Arthur asks to watch over his journey, the Scandinavian Gods (who also could have some of them scrapped and lost nothing), William Shakespeare (no, I'm not joking), Akane's father Pavlov, Aoto's brother Ariton, Aoto's parents, Schrodinger, a scientist guy (who I like to call Silence of the Lambs), and the Defier girl.

There's a couple of characters that I skipped over entirely, but they don't really add anything to the plot, so let's just move on!

Animation

The animation for this series was produced by Pierrot, who are also known for their work on series such as Tokyo Ghoul, Bleach, and Tokyo Mew Mew.

Some reviewers haven't really liked this animation, due to the fact that it, again, makes the show look more edgy than it should be, and comes across as forced. However, I actually didn't mind the animation for this series. I thought it looked pretty nice, the settings were all well done, and I liked how the colors on some of the characters managed to pop out from dull or bland scenery. I do think they could have gone without the dark edging that seemed to be around all the characters, but it didn't over power any of them.

Also, there's some CGI used, and it isn't too terrible. They don't try and make every fight scene in this series have it, though one in particular does (Episode 2). However, the fight scenes do drop a bit in some places in terms of animation, but that's mainly towards the end of the series. Other than that, they were pretty decent.

I wouldn't say it was as nice as Dance with Devils' animation was, but I still thought this show had some pretty solid work on it. I just hope they put an actual wound in Tristan's chest in Episode 7, because she just started bleeding out of nowhere.

Sound

The score for this series was composed by Takumi Ozawa, whose is also known for his work on series such as Aria the Scarlet Ammo (which I've been interested in watching for quite a while), and Okamikakushi - Masque of the Wolf.

Overall, the score for this anime was slightly forgettable, however it was pretty nice during some moments. I think the more melancholy tracks were the ones I remembered the most, especially one of them that reminded me of a piece from Umineko called Discolor (which is a very lovely piece in itself). It had a similar feel to it, and my mood improved when it would show up in the episode I was watching. Especially if it was really bad.

Much like in a lot of anime I see, the voice acting was pretty good. The Japanese cast has a couple of seiyuus that haven't been in a lot of shows I've seen, but most of them do a great job with what little their character has to offer. The series also gave me the grand return of Kanae Ito, who I have not heard in an show for a while now (The Ambition of Oda Nobuna was the last time I heard her, which was about a year and a half ago).

And the English dub that FUNimation produced for its Broadcast Dub lineup last anime season has some of the most spot-on casting I've seen in a FUNimation dub in the past few months. I've got to hand it to Clifford Chapin (who also is in the dub himself as Ariton), because this cast is very promising. I watched a bit of the first episode along with the second (just to see Loki because I have a problem XD), and though the dub does sound a little awkward at points, and Lancelot's lines (played by Ricco Fajardo) had a lower quality compared to the rest of the cast, it was still pretty solid. I'm not really planning on watching any more of it though, because the show isn't that good, but I'm glad I at least heard Loki though. Chuck Huber brings some great theatricality into his voice.

Highlights in the original Japanese are Tetsuya Kakihara, Soma Saito, Kanae Ito, Ayana Taketatsu, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Yuichi Nakamura, Ami Koshimizu, Kana Asumi, Mai Fuchigami, Rie Kugimiya, Kosuke Toriumi, Natsue Sasamoto, Ayumu Murase, Kenn, Yusuke Shirai (only as Percival), Azusa Tadokoro (as Bedivere and young Arthur), Arisa Kiyoto, Rie Suegara, Koji Yusa (best performance of the show, period), Akira Ishida, Natsuki Hanae, Aoi Yuki, Tomoyuki Shimura, Takahiro Sakurai, Inori Minase, Yukana, and Manami Tanaka.

Verdict

Oh boy, was I disappointed in this anime. It did have some good factors to it, but much like Dance with Devils, the story and the characters easily weakened this show to the point where there was no saving it.

But at least compared to Dance with Devils, this show doesn't anger me as much. Was it better though? Not really. It's on the same level, and I wish I wasn't as underwhelmed with this show. But what can you do with a confusing story, the show itself trying to be deep and symbolic while at the same time making it as cheesy and melodramatic as some kids shows are nowadays, and with really weak characters?

However, at least there's Loki.

I WILL MISS YOU MY DARLING! Though I still wish you were in a different show.

So much like Dance with Devils, I'm not going to recommend this show to anyone. It'll probably just disappoint you.

Score: 5.5/10

Positives:

Promising aspects to the main setup.

A few characters aren't that bad (especially Loki).

Animation is good (unexpected nice CGI as well).

Score is decent.

Voice acting is great.

Negatives:

Story is a mess.

When the show tries to be dramatic, it fails miserably.

The narrator.

Half open ending isn't needed.

Characters are all underdeveloped; if you removed some, you would lose nothing.

Wasted potential.

One Punch Man Review (Collab)

One Punch Man Review (Collab)

Warning: The following review may contain spoilers of the (most likely) first season of One Punch Man. If you wish not to know some plot details, or simply don't wish to find out what happens in the series, please exit the tab, and join me once you've watched the show. Or you know, you can continue to read, since you don't care about spoilers.

Anyways, with that said, thank you, and onto the review:

It's been a while, but I'm ready for another collab review with Luke! In August, we tackled the 3rd season of Uta no Prince Sama, and in November, the first season of Snow White with the Red Hair (the second season we finished recently). Now, it's time to talk about the most hyped show in the Fall 2015 season. To combat the fact that Luke's favorite character from the series was Genos, his text will be dark yellow. So Luke, whenever you're ready.

.................................

Ummm, hello? Anyone there?

Need I ask what the sparkly aura is for? I get that you REALLY liked this anime, but let's try to wait until the end of the prologue to tease that, alright?

What do you mean, 'wait until the end of the prologue'? Let's talk about this show right now, okay? IT WAS GREAT! IT WAS PHENOMENAL! IT WAS FUNNY! GENOS HAD GREAT HAIR AND HE WAS BEAUTIFUL AND EVERYTHING....

-_-

Alright, fine. Way to ruin the party mood *blows raspberry*.

Sometimes our fangirl sides need to be kept in check. Both of us first heard about this show in the early months of last year, and were pretty interested in watching it. I mean, a comedic turn on a hero defeating villains with just a single punch? This could be pretty fun. Also, I felt like watching it now instead of later since it's already proving to be a mega-train filled with hopes and dreams, with lots of people raving about it, and the manga doing fairly well here.

As I've mentioned twice now, Luke loved this show. I wasn't as big of a fan in the fun, but I still ended up really liking it. The main characters were pretty funny, and some of the foes are wonderfully stupid. It's great to have incompetent villains to poke fun at in a parody series. Though I feel like some of the jokes run stale (especially the main one) and had WAY too many side characters to keep track of, I still had fun with what this show had to offer.

Luke's going to start off with the story, so we're moving on to that now.

Story

*dramatic narrator voice* THIS IS CITY Z, home to the world's greatest hero. He's a man who can defeat the scariest of foes all in just one punch. *clears throat* However, this strength is in fact the man's worst enemy. He wants to find a worthy opponent that he can beat with more than one punch.

Because of this, Saitama finds that fighting monsters that plan to take over the world is getting REALLY tedious. One day, he meets Genos, a cyborg with some pretty cool powers, who is fighting against Mosquito Girl, a hybrid from the House of Evolution (our first stopping point in this series, which was rather odd, but still nice that that problem was taken care of). When Saitama manages to step in later and defeats her, Genos is so impressed by this that he resolves to become Saitama's disciple. At first, Saitama isn't too keen on the idea, but he changes his mind when Genos offers to pay some of the rent where he lives.

Eventually, Saitama realizes that he isn't getting recognized since he's not an "official" hero, as he is, plain and simple, a hero for fun. He and Genos later decide to take the Hero Association exam, so that they can be classified as heroes and officially fight evil. While Genos does perfectly on both the written and strength parts of the exam, getting automatically into Class S, Saitama struggles with the written portion, but trumps records in the strength exam. Because of this, he is ranked into Class C, the lowest class system in the rankings.

However, despite defeating monsters that even Rank S heroes can't defeat, Saitama still isn't able to get the credit he deserves. The citizens of the cities (besides just City Z) mainly find him to be a cheat, only going up the ranks because he seems to take all the credit for himself, though other heroes manage to fight before him. Of course, Saitama doesn't care. He's a professional hero now! PARTY!

Don't bring out the glasses just yet. Dazz. There's a bigger danger than Saitama's critics: aliens planning on taking over the world (just like every villain in this series, LOL)! When the S Class heroes are called in for a meeting at the Hero Association building in City A, Saitama comes with Genos and just sits in on the discussion about the aliens without partaking in any comments (however, he does ask to go to the bathroom). However, when the aliens attack the headquarters, Saitama is off and ready to fight the leader of these abnormal beasts, who might actually be competent enough to be defeated without one punch.

Overall, One Punch Man easily excels at its parody elements. The show pokes so many holes in the shonen genre and does so for laughs. One of them being the typical overpowered lead, who has so much power that would be absolutely impossible according to the world they live in, but my favorite are the incompetent villains. Sometimes, these types of characters can get really irritating (Karneval had 2 characters that did just that), but One Punch Man makes them absolutely amusing. They announce their plans in broad daylight, but it's like they don't give 2 f**ks. It's so hilarious.

And while the show also parodies other things, these 2 are the most commonly used. I don't have a lot of qualms with the incompetent villains in each episode, because each one was humorous in their own right. But the stereotypical lead trope is used so often, that it doesn't become as laugh out loud as it did before. Especially when the show just keeps on adding new characters and delaying fights just for the sole purpose of Saitama swooping in, and having all that struggle be for absolute not. It's dull, tedious, and can really make them tiring.

Come on Dazz, the fights weren't THAT bad. I really liked seeing all the heroes showcase their moves before Saitama would swoop in and save that day. It was those little bits that gave development to them so it wasn't entirely focused on our hero who can end things swiftly in one punch. Sure, the viewer will get bored waiting, but they'll also be entertained and maybe even start rooting for our side characters.

I'm glad to see you still really liked the battles even with the repetition of the main joke, because they lost their sparkle. Also, the final fight stretched on for God knows how long, and that was annoying.

Whatever *rolls eyes*.

An recurring joke me and Luke had throughout the show was when the Cities kept on getting destroyed. Everything single time, we would go: "Oh shoot, there goes more of our budget! Who has the money we need to rebuild these cities? Who has the money we need to dig all these graves?" It was always humorous.

Let's move on to the character section:

Characters

Before we officially start this, do you mind if we just talk about Saitama and Genos, Luke? I think we can both agree that we really liked both of them, and some of the other characters seemed rather pointless.

True, although I wouldn't say the other characters were pointless. I do agree that Genos and Saitama are very likable characters (especially Genos, MY BABY!) and that they're more important to the story than the others. Plus, there's plenty to talk about with both of them (including how amazing and beautiful they are).

Again, I agree with you. So let's say we get this show on the road, staring with:

I'm pretty sure Saitama needs no introduction whatsoever. He's very powerful, a hero just for fun, and has the most iconic facial expressions known to the anime world. I could link thousands of them, but I think I already did the job in my Fall season wrap-up, so we're good on that front.

Saitama was an unemployed salesman who was barely hanging by until he stumbled upon a crab monster who was looking for a two-chined boy who drew nipples on him. After finding the boy and doing the best he could he could to get him out of danger, he decided to become a hero so he could save the world from evil. He then developed a routine: 100 sit-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 squats, and a 10 kilometer run, which he did every day over the span of 3 years. This explains his hair loss.

Despite his overwhelming strength, Saitama ends up in the C class for failing the written part of the Hero Association exam, which held more weight. But after stopping an asteroid from colliding with Earth and defeat the Deep Sea King, he was promoted to the B class. Some members of the Hero Association and normal citizens find wrong with this, mainly because of Saitama's played up attitude, and the fact that he seems to take credit away from heroes who fought a particular villain before he showed up. As I mentioned earlier, he doesn't care whatsoever on what the public thinks about him, as he's still defeating evil.

In my opinion, Saitama's a great protagonist. Not only is he very effective at getting the job done (even though we do wait a while in some things), but he's also classically funny and pretty much a deadpan pro. He holds the weight of this show's comedy from his dialogue, whether it'd be sarcastic remarks, or just simply realizing when the next sale at the supermarket is, like in Episode 3's fight at the House of Evolution. I also like how some of the heroes trust him due to his strength, even though most don't give him a second glance due to him being in Class C (later Class B).

I completely agree with Dazz about Saitama. He provides much of the deadpan humor for this show and keeps us on our toes constantly. He can be pretty epic in fight scenes and yet still somehow be so casual during them that it can get comical. This just makes Saitama a super ridiculous and fun character, and I really enjoyed him being our protagonist.

Luke's going to head Genos's section:

This is Genos. ISN'T HE GORGEOUS ^_^?

*coughs* I should probably get serious. There'll be more fangirling to come after I sum up Genos as a whole. He was originally a human whose village was attacked when he was 15 by an evil cyborg, killing his family and leaving him alive if barely hanging on. A doctor named Professor Kuseno stumbled onto the boy, who asked if he could become a cyborg himself. Now, Genos is on the lookout for that same robot that demolished his town, but he gets caught up in a fight with a woman/mosquito hybrid in the process. Saitama easily defeats her, which causes Genos to immediately ask if he could become Saitama's disciple. 

After joining Saitama, Genos immediately wishes to be as powerful as him and hates when the civilians and other heroes immediately discredit him. However, once he joins the Hero Association, Genos quickly gains the notoriety and fame that he believes Saitama deserves, becoming a favorite among young girls and immediately being put in S Class after the exams.  He knows that Saitama is more deserving of it than him, but strangely enough, Saitama doesn't care. He'd rather be kicking butt than be worried what other people think of him, and Genos is both surprised and admiring of this fact.

Genos is definitely my favorite out of the show because I love his seriousness and his somewhat creepy if kind of adorable devotion to Saitama (IT MAKES YOU WANNA SHIP THEM!). A review I watched of this show called him the normal superhero show protagonist, and I actually kind of agree with that because his story of success is what we'd expect. However, since Saitama's our star, a different picture is painted and we have to see our One Punch Man work to get to the top. This contrast is incredibly interesting and definitely worth watching to find out more about.

Also, one last time, I <3 GENOS!!!!!!

Though Genos isn't my favorite out of the show (it's personally Saitama) I still found him to be pretty enjoyable. I like his loyalty to Saitama, even though it's basically an over-dramatization of the sort, and I thought his design was pretty cool. There were also several times where he did manage to kick ass, so applause to that.

Glad to see you back up your strength.

And now for a moment of silence to the fact that he did absolutely jack squat in the final battle besides commentary on certain heroes.

Now that Luke's massive fangirling is all done, let's talk a bit about the side characters of this anime. This anime has a similar problem with Gangsta with its supporting cast. BlazBlue Alter Memory and Gakusen Toshi Asterisk did a good job at establishing who was a lead and who was a supporting in terms of characters. Gangsta and One Punch Man struggle with this. Who cares about the Hero Association members that we meet if most of them are uninteresting? Though I have to say my favorite was Tornado of Terror. She has some awesome superpowers and is quite the hoot.

Dazz, don't give the supporting cast so much crap. Although they don't make as much of an impact as our leads, the background characters are a colorful mix of traditional heroes and some ones that could be found in the loony bin. For example, we have a guy with lightning bolt hair and electricity powers representing our normal people and a sparkling homosexual who rips off his jail uniform a la magical girl style and calls himself "PuriPuri Prisoner" for our weirdos. If that doesn't sound entertaining, I don't know what is. Surely we can expect viewers of the show to pick their favorites, right?

I'm going to be honest; I need a scan to confirm my philosophy:

One Punch Man: The 4 Characters that Really Matter

Animation

The animation for this series was done by Madhouse, most known for Paradise Kiss, Death Parade (LOVE!), and No Game No Life (all of which Dazz has talked about, so go check out those reviews in this shameless plug). I think this category is easily the strongest of the show, most notably because there's a lot of quality. There are no obvious errors, no lazy covering up, and no loss of quality. Instead, we have great facial expressions, nice and intense animation, and absolutely beautiful and fluid fight scenes. Plus, we have a really nice color scheme with both light and dark colors ^_^.

Hey! I'm the only person who gets to make shameless plugs of my reviews here.

But aside from that, I agree with Luke. The animation of this series is very well done. Some people were discussing this show as being very high budget even though it was middle of the road. Fights look great, the characters do a great job with standing out from some bland environments, and some awesome Saitama faces. Basically, this anime could be worth its weight in gold based off of Saitama's faces alone.

I do wish at some points that the animation was slightly stronger, but I think we got the best possible animation for this series. Madhouse is still proving to be an animation powerhouse with some of their animation, and I hope they will continue to do that for many years to come like they have been.

Sound

The score for this series was composed by Makoto Miyazaki, who's also known for working on the scores for Dragon Crisis!, and Triage X. He's also got some opening composition under his belt, for series like Maken-ki! and Hyoka.

If there's one word to describe the OST from this series, it's boring. It's very similar to Snow White with the Red Hair with the fact that it all starts to blend together that I can hardly remember it, outside of a few pieces. There was one dubstep one that I really liked, along with some small ones here and there. But overall, it's probably one of the flattest music scores I've had the pleasure of listening to in an anime.

I agree with Dazz on this one. I personally don't remember any song except for the aforementioned dubstep track that actually had a little guitar in it, and much like Snow White with the Red Hair, the music easily blends into the background. However, after rewatching some of Snow White with the Red Hair, the tracks have stuck out a lot more and can be pretty at parts. But with One Punch Man, nothing really stuck out, and it was kind of disappointing, especially with a show as fun as this.

Now, let's move onto the voice acting. For me, this is definitely one of the strongest parts of the series. The majority of the side characters who appear play their parts well (most very comically), and the more "important" characters have some pretty good voices. But easily Makoto Furukawa and Kaito Ishikawa were the shining stars of this series. Both of them played their parts spectacularly, and Makoto Furukawa also plays up Saitama's range to comical levels at various points, mainly when he starts yelling. Best guest character goes to Miyuki Sawashiro as Mosquito Girl.

I also really enjoyed Makoto Furukawa and Kaito Ishikawa's performances as Saitama and Genos. Furukawa's Saitama is beautifully deadpan and full of dry humor that crackles every time he speaks, but I also loved the moments when he got into a fight. He was not always serious most of the time, but I didn't mind it because Saitama really doesn't take a lot of things seriously. Meanwhile, Ishikawa's performance captures the dedication of Genos perfectly while still being earnest and just so darn lovable. You buy into his praise of Saitama, and although he doesn't have nearly as much dry humor as his sensei, he's a lot more serious during fights and it makes you pumped up and excited. The ensemble cast is also very fun, comprised of both veteran actors and some people that I haven't heard before. Personalities are captured with flair and color, and there's a lot of versatility from a young aspiring boy lord to a guy wearing a polar bear suit that seems not to care about anything.

As for the potential for an English dub, I have no doubt that Viz Media is planning a dub and will release it sometime later this year or in 2017. Expect a California based cast either from Bang Zoom or Studiopolis, but I honestly have no predictions of who will play who. Part of me aspires to be Genos, but I'd probably need more experience first XD.

There's always fandubs, Luke. When you get a better mic. :P

Highlights go to Makoto Furukawa, Kaito Ishikawa, Aoi Yuki, Kenjiro Tsuda, Minami Takayama, Katsuyuki Konishi, Masaya Onosaka, Mamoru Miyano, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Saori Hayami (cameo appearance in one episode), Yuichi Nakamura, Wataru Takagi, Yuki Kaji, Takuma Suzuki, Shinya Hamazoe, Rikiya Koyama, Miyuki Sawashiro, Shota Yamamoto, Koki Uchiyama, Toshiyuki Morikawa, and Kimiko Saito.

Verdict

Since Luke liked this show more than I did, I'm going to give my verdict first. The show may not be as good as people may be hyping it, but I still thought it was a very good anime. If the last few episodes weren't as dragged out, if the humor wasn't as stale at points, if some of the characters were more memorable/important, and if the score wasn't as boring, this would have been an awesome anime.

I am slightly curious to seeing some of the OVA's in the future though, as some sound good for development of characters we didn't get a lot from. But I'd definitely recommend this anime for fans of shonen manga and anime, as this is definitely directed towards that market.

I will agree that most of the humor in One Punch Man is mostly one punch line repeated over and over again. However, there's something undeniably clever and exciting about the show. From its story mocking the superhero genre, to the memorable and varied cast, to the daring and sometimes crazily action packed animation, and lastly, the great voice acting, there's a lot of fun to be had with this show and definitely things to be enjoyed by everyone. Hopefully you find a fan in Saitama and Genos and their partnership, ridiculous and over the top battles, and, of course, the versatile group of superheros.

Score: 7.5/10

Positives:

Story is great at being comical.

Some parody elements work very well.

Main characters (mainly Saitama and Genos) are hysterical in the best way.

Great animation.

Fantastic incompetent villains.

Good voice acting,

Negatives:

Episodes start to drag in last half.

Comedy begins to fall a little flat.

Some characters feel like they don't really belong or matter.

Score is very boring.

Rating: ****1/2

Highly recommended/required watching

Sukisho Review

Sukisho Review

Warning: The following review may contain spoilers of the show Sukisho. If you wish not to know some plot details, or simply don't wish to find out what happens in the series, please exit the tab, and join me once you've watched the show. Or you know, you can continue to read, since you don't care about spoilers.

Anyways, with that said, thank you, and onto the review:

Well Sukisho, looks like you and I have finally encountered each other after we first crossed paths via an AMV on Youtube 3 years ago. Yeah, I know it took a while to watch you, but I had many anime series to watch over you, so I decided to wait a while.

But good news is that when I was wanting to have 2 series to watch in February, it was between you and Hyperdimension Neptunia to watch alongside Togainu no Chi (we know how that went). In the end, you won because I feel like I've known you slightly longer. Also, I put both Sora and Sunao in ANTM 1 cycle apart. So, you know, I guess you can call it a twist of fate.

Hey Hyperdimension Neptunia, don't fret. You're up next anyways. ;)

Okay, back to Sukisho. I've seen plenty of AMV's of this series and a couple of clips off from Youtube. Much like DRAMAtical Murder and Togainu no Chi, this anime is based off of a BL game. And I think much like those 2 games, there seems to be multiple routes (or multiple people to bang). Though let's be real, we all know who the main ship is anyways.

Despite it taking a while to watch the show, how did it turn out? Was it as good as I hoped it would be? Or did it leave me wanting more?

For the most part, I did really like this series. I thought the story was pretty good, some of the characters were either funny or nice, and the animation wasn't too bad in most places (though it wasn't really amazing either). But the show still managed to stumble at various points, especially towards the end. The last 2 episodes have some illogical plot twists that don't really make sense with the story, and the voice acting isn't really anything worthy of a gold star, as it is painfully average (minus a few seiyuus).

Let's start off with the show's story:

Story

Sora Hashiba has just been released from the hospital after falling out of a window on the fourth floor of his school. His first night back at the dormitory is quite eventful. He wakes up to find a mysterious boy trying to seduce him in his sleep, who keeps on calling him Yoru. This person is Ran, who claims to be Sora's new roommate. In the morning however, the strange boy is revealed to be Sunao, one of Sora's childhood friends. The problem is that Sora doesn't seem to remember him. In fact, his memory's been pretty sketchy since he fell out of that window in the first place. But why is that?

Sora later finds out that Yoru is in fact his alternate personality after he is drawn out during a ploy designed for that purpose. Sunao also has one too, and both of them are lovers. Yeah, it gets pretty awkward when these 2 barely get along or are forced into situations during the day, but at night, they exhibit passion. Of course, the 2 do get closer as the series goes on, but Yoru and Ran kind of put a damper on things. :P

But, these alternate personalities could serve as an important connection to connecting the links of Sora's lost memories. Add this with antics from their other childhood best friend, Matsuri, participating in the school group "The Do-It-All Team" (some parts against Sora's will), along with various characters that could be causing some trouble, and you've got yourself some chaos.

After Matsuri plans an activity that forces Sora and Sunao back together after Sunao begins to act distant (is he involved in something?), it seems like Sora is ready to explore why he fell out the window, and the moments that he can't remember about in the past. Especially one important one that might as well solve everything, including the parts when Sunao got distant.

Overall, the story for this anime isn't terrible. At the beginning, I was smiling often at the school comedy aspects of this series and wasn't annoyed by them. At the halfway point though, I was wondering where the supernatural parts were going to pop up, seeing as the only times where they popped up to that point where through some flashbacks/memories popping up, and Yoru and Ran themselves.

But it's unfortunately where the supernatural elements make their full impact that things start to unravel. It starts after the activity to get Sora and Sunao back together, where Sora wants to see the window where he fell out off in order to remember what happens. After he does, he confesses his feelings for Sunao, and they end up having sex in front of said window (which I may add, has light flooding behind it, which basically makes it shiny. OMG THEY DIDSH IT UN FUNT OF ZE SHUNY WINDUH)

Jokes aside, Sunao completely disappears after this. It is then when Shinichiro is asked to come to Soushi's apartment (a lawyer who first appears in Episode 8 who likes to flirt with Nanami specifically to annoy Shinichiro) where Sunao basically explains the reason why he left. We've been getting brief glimpses at this, since at this point, he's had a couple of conversations with Nagase, the school's chemistry professor, related to Sora. Apparently, this was a revenge scheme to get Sora to return to Aizawa, the main antagonist of this series.

You see, Sora and Sunao were taken to a laboratory as kids after Matsuri moved away, where they were tested on, which developed the alternate personalites. When Shinichiro and Nanami helped them escape (since this whole dilemma seems to be linked to Nanami in the first place. Poor him), Sunao had to be left behind. At first, we thought it was a little too late. But in actuality, Sora had tried to take Sunao with him, but let go of his hand at the last second due to Aizawa somehow controlling his mind to do so. This honestly complicated things for me, since I thought back to the flashbacks upon seeing that and realized that an error was made in terms of continuity.

As a whole, the whole balance of the story turns into a see-saw. On one side, we have the cute moments where the boys just experience some high school hijinks and it being super cute:

And on the other, we have the supernatural elements that are mixed in that end up becoming really messy and managed to lose me on several occasions:

So overall, this story isn't too bad until the last 3 episodes. There, it starts turning into a confusing mess which feels like it should evoke emotions from me, but I'm left feeling underwhelmed.

What about the characters?

Characters

Eh is all I really have to say. As a whole, this character cast is pretty weak in terms of actual development. Basically, I feel like I could remove half the side characters from this anime and still feel like I would lose absolutely nothing. Some of them are either too boring in terms of design, personality, or substance. and others don't really appear or even do anything until past halfway through the series.

To be honest, the characters I liked the best were Yoru and Matsui. I'll go over why later. But Yoru's going right now, considering that he and Sora are the same person. Let's do this, shall we?

Besides being the character that people seem to REALLY want a hair cut for, Sora isn't too bad of a lead character. He's pretty headstrong, knows what he wants, and eventually faces the danger he gets into with a brave face (it does kind of come out of nowhere, but still, go him I guess). He can get annoyed easily, and at some points is dense, but I can see why he would make the perfect love interest, though he can be kind of grating at points.

Yoru interests me much more as a whole though. When Yoru awakens, Sora's left eye changes colors to a yellow. As the dominant male in his and Ran's relationship (the seme), he can be pretty flirtatious, especially towards Ran. And besides showing signs of protecting him, since you know, they're lovers, he also has the need of protecting Sora as well.

For starters, he is reluctant to let Sora see that defining childhood memory that Sunao wants to extract vengeance. Sora seems to also call him out without knowledge of it, especially when Sunao tries to learn how to swim after a mission for the Do It All Club doesn't necessarily go as planned. Sure, he can be pretty lewd towards Ran (I mean, he does suck his neck once), but he can be sweet when he needs to be. Ideal boyfriend goals people!

The saddest part of this anime was when Sora let him go because he felt he was strong enough to go after Aizawa on his own, since Yoru seems to care a lot about him, even though he's just a created personality. He's much more engaging and memorable like I said before, and him being not needed feels like a waste, considering that Ran is dropped out without any mention. But hey, I still ship the main couple, so it's not a total loss.

Sunao/Ran time!

Sunao often acts pretty hostile around Sora at first, considering the fact that Sora doesn't even remember him. He will occasionally sucker punch Sora at the beginning of this series, saying that he hates guys like him. Though as the series goes on, he starts to fall in love with him, even though the plan that he's working on with Aizawa and Nagase is in motion.

Ran, however, is much more open and often demanding towards Yoru, being psychically obsessed with him. While Sunao's eyes are a light pink, his are a deep red. He will occasionally appear in front of Sora, sometimes talking to him about Yoru or trying to seduce him. Either way, it's often kind of funny hearing Ran say over and over again to Sora that he has a alternate personality, and Sora isn't having any of it until he believes.

As the show went on, I found it easier to like Sunao even with the dumb plan. Because even though he's a part of it and going against Sora, he still loves him even though what happens could traumatize him (I won't spoil, but it involves Shinichiro). They're pretty much shippable from Day 1, and it does grow as Sunao begins to trust him again.

Ran, on the other hand, is also pretty likable, even though he can be a bit of a pain. He's pretty clingy to Yoru, and sometimes it can be a little intolerable. His first appearance will probably rub some viewers the wrong way (after all, he does pretty much go up Sora's shirt), but I did grow on him. So we're all good there.

Last but not least, let's talk about the other childhood friend, Matsuri:

Matsuri is the dorm leader, as well as the founder and official president of the Do It All Club. He is a very upbeat person, often teasing Sora and Sunao/tricking them into doing work for the club, such as getting them to dress up in costumes, or to do things they don't want to do, such as signing up for a rowing club. He also occasionally brings along a camera and takes photos of humorous situations. He does have moments of seriousness to him as well, which I didn't expect when I first saw him.

Overall, what makes Matsuri a strong character in my eyes is the fact that he is just so upbeat about life and the things in it, as well as spreading a good name for the Do It All club across campus. He seems like the kind of person in real life that various other people would hate since he can be really annoying, but some people could get close to. Also, he sounds like the person who would totally shoot rubber bands or spitballs in class.

Other characters include Nanami, the school nurse, Shinichiro, the school's math teacher who is also Nanami's boyfriend, Gaku, who is friends with Sora and is a year younger than him. He also has a crush on the lab manager of the chemistry class, Kai Nagase, who is Aizawa's son. Sei, Ren, and Fuuta are 3 boys that are known as The Chibis who start off their run by taking some of the Do It All Club's jobs, before helping out with them on some tasks. Sei looks very strikingly similar to Sora, besides a few unkept hair strands; they are often joked about as being brothers in Sei's first appearance. Soushi Asaka, a lawyer who helps participate in some testing of Sora and Sunao (but is unneeded for the plot), Ryouya Kozuki (or otherwise known as Ayano-chan), a doctor who can do ventriloquism (who is also unneeded for the plot), Kano, Ayano's adapted child who rarely speaks, Hiromu, a boy whose spirit runs wild in Episode 5. He also has a crush on Sora. Yoshihiro, Fuuta's stepbrother and Gaku's classmate, Chris, a priest who only appears in the OVA who can be pretty humorous. And finally, Aizawa, the main antagonist.

Animation

The animation for this series was produced by Zexcs, who would later become known for Shonen Hollywood, Diabolik Lovers, and Say "I love you."

As a whole, I'd say the animation for this series is pretty average. While the colors for most of the characters' hair is pretty vibrant, the backgrounds turning a really dull green and blue when Yoru and Ran came out, and the next time preview when s**t went down (though it wasn't good s**t), nothing really stood out for me to demand my attention. There were some good qualities to it, but this came out the same year that Paradise Kiss came out, though earlier. And that had better production values than this (then again, it was Madhouse). I guess I was expecting a little more than I was.

So yeah, the animation for this series let me down a bit. I'm hoping this was one of Zexcs' first animation efforts, since a couple of their later shows do look better.

Sound

The score for this series was composed by Naoki Sato, who's also known for working on Assassination Classroom, Blood-C, and the first person behind the OST of the Pretty Cure franchise up to Fresh Pretty Cure (no, I'm not joking).

Considering I found out the Pretty Cure stuff recently, I guess it makes sense why the score sounds so upbeat 75% of the time. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but there's a couple of times where the score seem to go between the lines of sounding happy and cheap. There's also some good dramatic tracks here, but like the animation, the score doesn't really stick in my mind.

Same goes with the voice acting as well. This is the part that let me down the most, considering that in majority of the anime I watch other than a select few, the acting has always been really good. Here, it's well below average. Either some of the seiyuu's voices are too annoying (I swear, if I hear Soichiro Hoshi say Ku-chan one more time in that whiny tone, I'm finding earplugs), not memorable, or just sound really bored. It's weird, considering that DRAMAtical Murder was also based off a BL game, and that series has much better acting in general.

Highlights out of the voice cast though are Takehito Koyasu, Susumu Chiba, Akira Ishida, Shinichiro Miki (who voices Shinichiro baa dum tss), Atsushi Kisaichi, Yu Kobayashi, Toshiyuki Morikawa, and Hiro Yuuki.

Verdict

As a whole, this show was pretty good. It isn't amazing, or the best thing ever, but then again, it's not too bad. I just wish certain elements were better (especially the voice acting and how the story played out in the 2nd half), but what can you do? The OVA did help my overall feeling towards this series, and was just plain dumb fun. I'd recommend viewers to watch it once they're done with this series.

As for the rest, I'd probably recommend this show to fans of yaoi (I mean, of course), and fans who love alternate personality plotlines. Just don't expect this show to blow you out of the water though. But if you don't know the history of Valentine's Day, expect that. That was fun trivia!

Score: 7/10

Positives:

School comedy aspects at the beginning are pretty fun.

A couple of characters are good.

Pieces of animation, score, voice acting are decent.

What we see of Yoru and Ran's relationship dynamic.

Negatives:

Story becomes sloppy in latter episodes.

Supernatural elements not mixed well.

Illogical or non continual plot twists.

Some characters, animation, score, and voice acting leave something to be desired.