"Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!!" Anime Review

 Note: I wrote this review before playing the Visual Novel that it was biased off of
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***This is a spoiler free review***

Never in my life would I expect myself to say, “Man I wish this anime would of stayed a typical stale harem story.” Well brace yourselves because Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!! biggest flaw is its attempt to combine harem, ecchi, and terrorist plot elements into a twelve episode season.

Story: 2/10
So the first two episodes of this anime actually lead the show on a promising path. Initially I thought this anime was going to be a school life/slice of life/harem type anime which even though as been done to death is sometimes good to go back to and just enjoy. The first episode showcased a class war while the second puts the characters on an odd job to find a lost dog. The flow between the characters seemed to be done very well but as soon as the third episode hits, they introduce a terrorist plot to the anime that completely…kills it (in a bad way). The anime tries to become super serious and add backstory to some of the characters but unfortunately it just fails. It’s a shame because I was really looking forward to a nice laid back anime.

Animation: 8.2/10
The animation on the other hand came out pretty good. I was lucky enough to get to watch this season on my friends BD copy in 1920x1080 resolution and I have to say…ecchi. There are a lot of scenes where there are some suggested sexual content but nothing that pushes the bar too much. In terms of overall quality of the scenes, it is kind of a mixed bag. The scenes where not a lot is going on is filled with some impressive visuals, however I noticed that the action scenes are filled with some artifacting (which shouldn't happen on a BD copy of the anime...) and some loss of quality. Overall it’s a great looking anime so props for that.

Sound: 6/10
The soundtrack leaves much to be desired but the voice acting is recorded fairly well and also has pretty good actors to back them up. Each character has a unique and well done vocal track. The only issue that really bothers me about the sound in this anime is that the overall soundtrack is just bland and uninspiring.

Characters: 6.5/10

In terms of my overall enjoyment with the characters of this anime I have to say that I did love some of the characters. The ones that stood out to me the most was the sex crazy Shina, the main character Naoe, and the shy Mayuzumi who uses a keychain to communicate with others (thinking that it is a god). Everyone else however comes off as generic and, “Oh I remember someone like her from like five other anime.” Generic doesn’t always mean “bad” but for this anime it just seems like they didn’t try to push the character development enough to get these said generic characters out of the typical cookie cutter descriptions.

Overall: 5.7/10
Overall I really, really, really wanted to enjoy this anime because the initial episode really gave me hope and had me hooked. It turns out however that a weird and unneeded plot device can and will run an anime with subpar character development and average sound. It’s hard to recommend this to anyone but hey if you need to kill some time at least it’s not horrible.
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Its a decent anime...but go play the VN instead :D