Anime Reviews: Mangirl!, Yurumates 3D, Encouragement of Climb, Cosplay Complex

A quadruple batch of mini-reviews of odds and ends.

Anime Review: Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru

Years and years ago I remember being an extremely hardcore Tenchi Muyo! fan, specifically the original OVA. At the time, I was busy admiring the suave Kagato, digging the funky trees-in-space sci-fi, or feeling so badass because I saw the uncut version where you could see their titties (hey, man, I was pretty young). The fact that it was a harem anime went mostly over my head — I mean, it had so much else to focus on.

These days, your typical eroge-turned-harem-anime are a dime a dozen and, in most cases, predictable, unoriginal, and above all bland. Some clueless d-bag, usually in high school, who over the course of several episodes manages to snag several wildly different cliché girls all without noticing or trying. Beyond the fact that the writers aren’t even usually trying to come up with anything new, the whole charade is just silly and embarrassing. The harem genre is obvious wish-fulfillment and its knee-jerk doinkiness leaves me feeling ashamed to be an anime fan.

But every now and then you get a show that, while exhibiting harem qualities, manages to go beyond the tropes. It offers an actual story, likable characters, or other things like action and mystery. Like Tenchi Muyo!, the harem part becomes so much a minor quality next to all the rest it has to offer. These shows prove to me that harem animes aren’t inherently dumb or despicable, that they can be good, great even, rising above the rubbish.