Hourou Musuko Half Season Review [Completed]

Long-term incest?

Eh.

This just wasn’t engaging.

Sure, the characterization was pretty good (no, not really, I still can’t sympathize with most of these kids, and many of them just seem like watered-down tropers), the art was relaxing, but… it went too slow, and too fast, and I just couldn’t get into the show.

I honestly didn’t care about anything.

Besides this, does it say something when there are three pictures in here with Chiba as the title

Let’s break this down.

I’m sure the manga was a lot better, but firstly, this was waay too fast.

The producers obviously had to cram many, many chapters into just 12 episodes. I’m sure that if this were 24 episodes long, it would be more engaging – though probably less interesting as well.

The side effects of this are obvious from the start – episode 1 was a shitfest of ‘wait, who’s that girl again?’, and many things aren’t revealed until much later. Doi’s introduction was stupidly abrupt, things are put together that shouldn’t be put together, and Anna x Shuuichi was similarly sudden.

As I believe it from some brief research, a full ~60-70 chapters are covered, in twelve episodes. This just shouldn’t happen.

But it did, and here are the repercussions.

As far as I’m concerned, the only flaw in this is in the adaptation – the original manga sounds really good (and seeing as how I doubt this anime will get a sequel, I suppose I can go read that now). Though the adaptation seems to have done as good a job as it could – the thing is, the manga was probably just too slow-paced to make it a 1:1, or even a 3:1 chapter:anime ratio. There are some manga that you can do that with, (i.e. with fillers/anime originals, Beelzebub’s probably a 1:1), and some that you can’t. This is one that you can’t.

Yet, there are no unnecessary things in the anime. There’s no unnecessary flashbacks, or idle moements (is that a misspelling? yes) – every moment of time is used. Efficiently. Things that seem like a waste of time will probably completely change the mood if you watch the show without them.

Anyways, that’s the main flaw, and that’s a big flaw – because as soon as pacing is ruined, everything else is, too.

EXCEPT FOR SAORIN.

Why is she awesome?

SHE HAS THE SAME CELL PHONE MODEL AS ME. ALSO THE SAME ACCESS OF TECHNOLOGY (barring my use of the computer). SEE IF YOU CAN FIND WHAT THAT MODEL IS

And Kanabu~n. It’s obvious they’re related because they look exactly the same and the two most awesome characters of any show must be related (e.g. in Beelzebub, Lamia and that doctor are obviously related, somehow; in Gosick, Grevil and his mommy; in YOU ARE UMASOU, those… little dinosaurs… in the background…). Also, is it not obvious? It seems like the show’s trying to build a harem around Shuuichi at first, what with Yoshino, Saorin, and Anna, but YOU’RE SADLY MISTAKEN.

THIS ENTIRE SERIES REVOLVES AROUND SASA.

Yes. Notice how SHE’S ALWAYS THERE, how EVERYONE LIKES HER, and how SHUUICHI EVEN VISITS HER WHEN SHE’S SICK (that was probably Yoshino but the lighting made her hair brownish and her voice, so it was Kanabun). Besides, ‘Sasa Kanako’ means ‘佐佐木加奈子’ in Chinese, and THAT MEANS SOMETHING.

She actually has two points, but that’s beside the fact.

Some question-asking; why does Anna have purple irises. Is that like the worst colour choice or what. What kind of decent minded person would get PURPLE irises. The only people who would want to have purple irises are stupid idiots who think about the picture below every day, though I’m not sure how purple connects with all of that. It’s obvious that REAL MEN have orange irises because that’s the colour NOT MANY MUSHROOMS take on.

Also, why is Saorin such an emo bitch? Sure, be kuudere, but everyone knows you’re (rying inside. What, that’s not how you use it? Go away.

On that note, drama. There’s way too much. There’s no way middle schoolers can be this drama. How old are they? Grade six at the beginning of this anime? Normal sixth-graders are learning how 2 typ prolly on t3h interwebz lololol roflcopter rofl lol u a fagggt soo stuid gett a lief u nrds i maed a accunt just 2 tell u nrds u r nrds lolol fags, and these people are like, what? How many child models does Japan have? No wonder the US thinks they’re all a bunch of lolicon perverts.

Then again, you can’t really have drama and… crossdressing at a higher age, so I guess this was the best they could do.

Realism? This is real slife of lice (wait a minute) – not necessarily interesting, not necessarily boring, not necessarily comedic, not necessarily dramatic (WHOOPS NEVER MIND I TAKE THAT BACK). Though it makes me wonder what HORRIBLE EXPERIENCES the mangaka had to go through, his/her end result is really kind of neat.

On another note I’ve not covered yet, the art and music is just fantastic. I’ve never seen an anime that was so… fluid before. The faded lens effect (i.e. whiter and more pastel-y outside the frame) was just… amazing. What’s more, it managed to go through the entire show like that, without it seeming constricting – most anime would only use said effect for flashbacks with an extremely narrow field of view.

Nice try, Nitori

In a season; no, a year, full of action, plot, tragedies, comedies, and horrible pieces of horrible, Hourou Musuko stands out as a story with too much of nothing (well, except drama, but dayum I just ruined my dramatic sentence there).

But note: story, not anime. The key falling point of it all was through the horrible, horrible rate of story.

Really, I’m overjudging this, but my ratings are awkwardly skewed towards good presentation and engagement.

And really, this wasn’t engaging.

What do I give this?

I’m not sure; on the matter, I think I’ll stay…

Overall Rating: 3/10 (Neutral)

“No, you don’t, I’m telling you there are two stalkers behind us”