This is the first of the Anilog reviews, Anilog is an official YouTube account with access to a number of anime approved for use by many Japanese anime companies, in short, you can watch free anime without the fear of it disappearing the next day, it went Global this week so let's begin.
Starting with Aware Meisaku-Kun, it's a comic style short series in which lead Meisaku aims to become a Masterpiece Literature character for fame and fortune, he's immediately met with other characters including a Momotaro style character, a robot Pinocchio, a rice ball and a Kappa. Each episode takes a subject and runs with it for five minutes often referencing the characters strange designs in relation to the subject, the best way I can describe it, it's loud and very Japanese, so for a Western audience, this doesn't have any appeal, nor would it be good for dubbing either. So not a great start for Anilog.
Final Verdict: Way too Japanese for me, after about 4-5 episodes the jokes reach a dead end.
This review will be a long one.
Keitaro once made a promise to a girl when he was younger that he would meet the girl again at Tokyo University; however Keitaro has failed the entrance exam twice and is struggling financially so he calls his Grandmother to try and stay at the Hinata Apartments; what his Grandmother failed to mention was that the Apartments are now a girl's dormitory, needless to say his first impression ends in severe pain but it gets weirder when Keitaro becomes Dorm Manager much to the residents dismay. Over time, Keitaro gets on better with the girls if he can manage to avoid hair trigger violence particularly from Naru who is aiming for the same goal as Keitaro; curious by the similar ambitions, Keitaro wonders if Naru could be the promised girl but standing in their way are rivals, curses and Naru's severe insecurities.
The anime is garbage, the anime only characters are dreadful, the episode plots make no sense, the dub acting is shit, the regular cast act out of character coming across as mean spirited and the animation is cheap and lifeless.
But I really want to give Love Hina a fair chance because the Manga is so much better for writing.
Since character writing is essential in a franchise like this, I'm going to go in depth.
Keitaro: Starts off clueless but once he has a career he can focus on, he actually matures to the point where he is in a better moral light compared to the girls.
Naru: So it makes it ironic that the girl were supposed to cheer for essentially becomes the worst character as her insecurities make her the worst possible tsundere, this plays well into the plot when Naru finally cracks and confesses.
Mutsumi: Only thanks to Mutsumi that Naru was even on that path to begin with as quite often she's more intelligent than her ditzy, sickly demeanour let on. She even fakes amnesia and threatens to marry Keitaro to push Naru into accepting her feelings for Keitaro.
Kaolla Su: Not to say other characters don't have their place as Kaolla Su being so far away from home attaches herself to other people like a little sister, this is evident when her mature side awakens revealing a girl who is very homesick.
Shinobu: Being the opposite, Shinobu closes herself off not helped by a difficult family life leaving her shy and quick to runaway, ironically Nyamo seems to be Shinobu with Kaolla's backstory.
Motoko: Motoko, who is easily my favourite character, idolized her older sister but felt that her sister's marriage took her away from the sword arts and judges men as evil as a result but learns through brutal lessons that she doesn't have to abandon being a woman for the sake of the sword and that Keitaro is a better man than she thought.
Kanako: Kanako pines on the memories of happiness spent with her brother but finds it hard to accept that other women are into Keitaro.
Haruka: Initially lets the chaos go over her head but when Seta pines for her love, Haruka is torn by the idea that she won Seta by default with her friend and Sara's mother passing away, it also suits Seta's need to find a suitable mother figure for Sara who seems to do as she pleases.
Kitsune: Happy to go along for the ride as it's fun to watch, it makes her friend happy and it's always crucial to have an audience surrogate in a harem.
Just by going through the cast properly you can tell that the writing is way better than the shit we ended up with for the anime adaption.
Final Verdict: Simple, read the Manga and Love Hina will actually be decent. The anime was a mistake.
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.
