Feb 8, 2015
Directed by: Kamei Kanta; VA Cast: Matsuoka Yoshitsugu, Yasuno Kiyono, Oonishi Saori, Kayano Ai
Synopsis:
Male otaku Tomoya Aki, who works part-time to earn money to buy anime, meets a beautiful girl one day during spring vacation. A month later, he finds out that the girl is his classmate, Megumi, who is hardly noticed by the other classmates. Tomoya, who also has no special skills or abilities, goes to Eriri Spencer Sawamura, a well-known member of the Art Club, to provide the art for a game the club is developing, and to Utaha Kasumigoaka to write the game scenario. The three subsequently form Blessing Software, which they plan to sell at the next Comiket.
Impressions: Andoy Benefits
Saekano is another harem-like entry to the Winter season lineup. It hides under the guise of your typical high school otaku club with a project/goal. When you look at it, the series romanticizes the likes of Genshiken and, to some extent, Bakuman. It dilutes the stress of being in an otaku club and the pressures of having a deadline to a goal (for this one, a doujin project). Instead, Saekano puts together totally attractive main characters together with a regular high school guy (Tomo), to which in real world terms happens never.
Unlike the other harem anime showing this season, Saekano brutalizes the ecchi scenes by having the female characters deliberately set up the flags for Tomo. There’s no subtlety involved in an effort to make Saekano stand out among other harem series. The redemption, however, comes from developing Katou (the somewhat invisible girl and the straight man/woman of the group) into the perfect heroine model for their game. Her deadpan, devil-may-care attitude makes the main plot of Saekano all the more interesting. Despite her background participation in the first episode, she’s reason enough to warrant Saekano attention. It would be best to wait out a few episodes to check out how Katou (and Tomo to some extent) fits in the group before sinking your teeth completely in it.
VERDICT: WAIT
Impressions: Chylle
Without knowing much from this series, at first it presents itself as the run of the mill romcom light novel adaptation; but this airs in the Noitamina timeslot so it can’t be just your average romcom light novel show, right? Jumping back to the narrative, just as the main characters described, the initial episode feels like a pilot episode with them nonchalantly showing the setting and introducing the characters and their characteristics in a convenient manner via conversation and interaction somewhere far along the story – which as subsequent episodes show – they’ll do a timeskip back in time to when it all started. The show, despite having close demographic target to the otaku community, is deceptively mainstream with its subject matter and themes with attaining and working hard on your dreams and such.
The show literally tackles on character development as the protagonist aims to make a main heroine out of his classmate. This should also come secondary with the other girls in his doujin circle as they too will have to change along the course of the show. Despite that everything else lacks appeal. Visuals and imagery are rather plain, music is empty and forgettable, but sometimes this lends itself as a great springboard for its comedic moments as the cast can get very animated and loud. Nevertheless, it is a show worth checking out and looking forward to as it’s easy to absorb without thinking too hard as a slice of life romcom show. Did I also mention that this show has probably the greatest thigh and leg shots this season?
VERDICT: WATCH
