I think I can forge together some reviews again and I may even throw out a free request on Discord.
Wataru has failed to get into high school and while moping about trying to rediscover himself, he ends up in a place called Welcome House, home to 12 girls who all call him big brother and all shower him with unconditional love.
This is likely where the little sister fetish originated not helped by the origins of this franchise being routed in dating simulations. It's nothing like Happy Lesson where the lead can often draw from a well of mixed emotions, our lead instead is bland, boring and spineless.
But not all harem leads are interesting so what are our 12 girls like? After all it's the girls who are meant to attract the attention of the audience.
Well I can only really see two that stand out, Aria and Haruka, both of which stand out in a crowd of very cookie cutter female characters and even then they can barely hold my attention.
Half the reason harems are kept in single digit figures is to avoid personality overlap where the same traits appear in more than one character, in Sister Princess, the fact that they all display this diabetes inducing love for Wataru makes none of the characters standout, this not helped by the Anime lacking sexual tension which is what brings out the characters best traits in a harem; On their own, the sisters could pass for a side character in any other anime, here they are just the same character but playing a different person like a typecasted actress.
Speaking of which, despite a cast of good talent the dub is really bad.
The story isn't any better as the whole scenario feels convoluted.
Final Verdict: Sister Princess barely passes for fetish fuel, it doesn't excel in anything and fails to grab my attention.
I am now on Discord, so expect me to appear in the chats whenever I'm available.
I go by G-Chan the Sage, a name I use at anime conventions and will be using this picture.
Feel free to ask me anything
I'm revisiting this list for a couple of extra entries as two recent ones showed a couple of fun Cinderellas.
This list will only show animations that have used the Cinderella story to some degree in universe, all entries must have the three crucial scenes of the Godmother, the Ball and the Glass Slipper.
So without further delay lets begin.
12. Alvin and the Chipmunks
This version is obviously told through the Chipettes as Brittany refuses to do chores and not surprising doesn't get to go anywhere, so cue the Cinderella dream sequence with all the bells and whistles you can expect from the story. Simon's role as Fairy Godmunk is particularly hilarious to watch.
11. Hamtaro
Lead human Laura gets picked for the title role but the slipper goes missing during the play so it's up to the Ham-Hams to get it back to her. Like I said in my review of Hamtaro last year, it's the ultimate in super safe anime.
10. Betty Boop
Cartoon's first femme fatale is the oldest entry on this list with all the classic sing song and slapstick of cartoons of that era, she also has red hair which is quite unique as her hair is normally black.
9. Science Fell In Love So I Tried To Prove It
The Science type Cinderella is hilariously off the wall as our two leads try and make sense of the story through Scientific eyes yet still playing the roles themselves.
8. Keroro Gunso
One of only two genderswap entries in this list. Giroro wants to declare his love for Natsumi at the ball she's going to, so using a device borrowed from Kululu, he makes himself human and dances with her, you know it's only a short but you can't help but hope for a happy ending.
7. Pink Panther
The Pink Panther cartoon has always been an interesting one as each short is done with just music and sound effects and no dialogue. In this version the Pink Panther finds a witch's wand and helps out a girl in need of some luck and love which the Panther is more than happy to help with, what makes this more interesting is the fight he has with the witch.
6. Strawberry Shortcake
The only Cinderella story I know to feature stepsisters who apologize mid insult. It's even better in the German Dub.
5. Family Guy
One of the rare moments where Meg Griffin is allowed to get her own back a bit, it's surprisingly well done for a relatively new episode as it's in the same season as that other episode that killed Brian off.
4. New Fruits Basket
The miscasting of all the roles with Tohru being a step sister, Kyo being the Prince, Yuki being the Godmother...okay not all miscast and finally Goth Girl Saki as Cinderella who only went to the ball for Yakiniku. My niece expected food at the ball as well, I'm glad there's a Cinderella who agrees.
3. Cardcaptor Sakura
The other genderswap version and boy is it hilarious as Toya pulls off the manliest looking Cinderella ever. Brooding males seem to work as princesses, who knew?
2. Smile Precure
The Precures go into the Cinderella world to try and save it by making sure the story finishes on a happy ending. Cure Happy is obviously Cinderella, but we got Cure Beauty as the Prince (Yuri Writers smile in delight), Cure Peace as the Godmother and Cure March & Sunny as the horses, yeah you heard me, horses.
1. Sakura Wars
But the best ones at doing Cinderella are the Imperial Floral Assault Team, as the lead goes to Sakura Shinguji as part of her character development but that's not the end of it. In a spinoff Columns puzzle game, all the girls have a go at becoming Cinderella with some surprising results particularly how well Kanna cleans up in a dress despite the fact that she almost always passes for a man, it must be the Monkey D Luffy voice.
As part of theotaku discussion I'll be reviewing three anime, a spinoff, a reboot and a sequel, this is the reboot Cutey Honey Universe.
Brace yourselves, this is the worse one. Like previous series, Cutie Honey is about a super human android girl with powers that allow her to hide her identity to get an advantage over the bad guys Panther Claw and use super strength and sword skills as the titular Cutie Honey. The Universe season made as part of the 50th Anniversary of Go Nagai's works along with Mazinger and Devilman, but this is not only the worst of the three but one of the worst anime period.
The first strike was when the iconic opening theme was removed, the second strike was the lack of colour and enthusiasm the story had but the final strike was the deeply uncomfortable sexual tensions between much of the cast.
Cutie Honey's design doesn't lend itself to being serious, the other two, Mazinger and Devilman can to some extent being more edgy than anything else but Cutie Honey can't and it's painfully obvious watching this. Not helping is Go Nagai's not quite hentai but should be mind set that just makes the whole thing even worse.
I've not heard the dub but considering who dubs it, I'd rather not hear it.
Final Verdict: A reboot that misses the point entirely of how Cutie Honey works. Deeply uncomfortable, bland and insulting.
I'm sorry these are not better examples of spinoffs, sequels and reboots but the underlying theme of all three reviews and in general is the notion of still being relevant. Tenchi in Tokyo was past it's sell by date, Boruto is a stale retread of Naruto, Cutie Honey Universe is a reboot that tries a formula it's design can't handle. Even looking at better examples, Card Captors Clear Card is the third retread of the same story, Dragonball Super is running out of Saiyan forms, Sailor Moon Crystal played it too safe and Pokemon's current season is the least inclusive of the whole franchise. What it means for Shaman King is this, they either go up the age rating or don't bother, Shaman King deserves a good anime.
As part of theotaku discussion I'll be reviewing three anime, a spinoff, a reboot and a sequel, this is the sequel to Naruto, Boruto.
Boruto is the trouble making son of Naruto attending the Ninja Academy trying to separate himself from being just the Hokage's son, in fact he has some serious daddy issues with the fact that Naruto is often too busy running the country to see his son. Having been placed on a team with Sarada the daughter of Sakura and Sasuke along with Mitsuki who has a suspicious link to Orochimaru, Boruto sets out to repeat what his father did as a kid along with the same evils along the way which is exactly what it is.
I'll break it down to elaborate. The biggest issues surrounding the show is the fact that they spend all this time recycling old story lines and doing them worse not made any easier by the introduction of technology. The enemies are boring, the offspring of the Naruto cast bar Chocho, Sarada and Himawari are boring, the new characters are also boring and most of the plots and stories are boring because it fails to evolve beyond it's roots, it feels like a worse Legend of Korra which has the same issues but it goes to show how good the original Naruto is because it's strongest elements are the Naruto cast members who have evolved as characters, this is the series that made me like Sasuke Uchiha who used to be one of the worst characters in anime. Naruto himself is a very believable father as well, he's fully aware that his position is making him distant from his children especially the older Boruto but struggles to balance his job and paternal duties mostly because he didn't have his own father to learn from.
Kishimoto can write good characters but does not fit them into the best stories and relies way too much on his protagonists always being the same.
Dubbing is the same quality as Naruto.
It's quite a dilemma Boruto finds itself in which doesn't seem to be improving anytime soon as it looks to run just as long as Naruto.
Final Verdict: I feel let down by Boruto, it showcases promise frequently only to be let down by poorly written retreads of older stories and led by a main character who may as well be Naruto 2.0.
