Anime: Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!!

I never thought of Seriously Fall in Love with Me as a good show. But it's only looking back that I realise quite how bad it was. If you've been following my reviews you'll know I have a lot of sympathy for harem shows. I can forgive a formulaic setup and I actively appreciate fanservice. But Majikoi is a mess. From the unrelated-to-everything-else first episode, to the character backstories that go nowhere, to the bolted-on excuse for an overarching plot.

Some of this can be explained, though not excused, as a poorly executed game adaptation. A number of plots have evidently been greatly compressed to fit into the twelve-episode space, by a director unwilling to risk upsetting any particular segment of the game fanbase. So the first episode gives us an overview of the school combat system that was no doubt vitally important to the original plot. Male lead Yamato's struggle to gain his father's acceptance by making his country worthwhile is surely more coherent in the source material. But it's the treatment of the girls that's truly unforgivable. Each becomes a pathetic, fawning creature, defined solely by their desire for Yamato. Even as wish-fulfilment this is too much (and indeed, the extent of their devotion is sometimes played for comedy, when they'll e.g. fight over who takes him to hospital rather than doing it). Future Diary shows what happens when this sort of character trait is followed through on, but of course Majikoi lacks the bravery for anything of that sort; each girl is as ridiculously devoted as that series' Yuno, but manages to live a normal life with nothing else to show for it.

One or two characters do show signs of life. Fencer Chris manages a coherent backstory that actually fits with most of her behaviour. Yamato himself has a gimmick that's put to good use: he's a tactician, and no good at fighting in his own right, although vital to the group's combat success. But most of the girls blend into each other in a featureless pile of want-Yamato - personality wise, that is. Character designs are actually quite appealing, if not enormously complex, and the animation is consistent throughout, using a bright, saturated palette that makes the whole world look impossibly but pleasantly clean. Fight scenes, while not outstanding, at least maintain the visual quality through quite a lot of action. I'm reminded of Infinite Stratos, although that was a far better series in almost every respect (which is possibly the most damning verdict on Majikoi). I should mention also that there's quite a lot of nudity, covered with icons (something I actually prefer to bright light or ridiculous steam-physics) in the broadcast version.

Voices are good, each character being clear and distinct, and such emotion as the series manages is conveyed effectively. However, music is somewhat lacking, with an ending that descends into the downright irritating (made more so by the extremely simple animation). But even perfect musical direction could never drag Majikoi off the heap. The best that can be said of this series is that it uses its animation style well, and it made me laugh a few times - that, and the fact I bothered to finish it at all. But the plot is incoherent and resolves itself in the stupidest way imaginable, the characters make something like, say, Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka look like a daring work of serious literature, and I can't even say anything for the production values. Even if you like harem shows, give this one a miss.

Seriously, there is nothing serious in this series (say that 3x fast). This is a light harem by the creators of My Noble Masters that unfortunately falls far short of their previous work. I'm not sure what's with this season but there are three different series all with the same general idea: have a bunch of cute, fighter girls that are inexplicably in love with a weak but kind-hearted protagonist. This series tries to differentiate itself by throwing in a bit of political intrigue on top of just action and ecchi scenes. But seriously, if you're looking for anything beyond ecchi, you need to look elsewhere. And if you are looking for ecchi, you're going to have to wait for the Blue Rays as the TV censoring is quite aggressive.

Animation:
The animation quality is up to current standards with crisp frames, good coloring, and decent effects. If you have a choice do grab the blue rays as the increased quality is very noticeable, especially during the fighting scenes. This series emphasizes battles quite a bit, and you'll get a good whiff of it in the first episode. In fact, there's probably two fighting scenes for every ecchi scene in the series. Battles range from hand to hand combat to the bizzare use of machine guns and rockets. I'm afraid action addicts still will be disappointed with the series though as there are sometimes episode-long lulls between battles. As for ecchi, this series is not the innocent, accidentally falling on top ecchi; this is the girls wanna expose all to win over the dude ecchi. The TV version has fairly active censoring as there are half a dozen or so random nudity scenes (I guess it's customary when your dorm has a hot springs).

As for character design, the main and supporting casts are definitely distinguishable, but there are a plethora of additional secondary characters that you'll totally forget, and end up confused when they suddenly become important to the plot (randomly). You'll see Ageha, from My Noble Masters, with her trademark "x" on her forehead. My only real qualm is that the protagonist's supposed love interest just looks like an overly-busty female punk who has an almost-constant mischievous smile (It just makes it impossible to relate to).

Sound:
The series starts with a rock-based OP that fits with the over-the-top fighting mood of the series. The ED is a bit odd, perhaps trying to sound mischievous?
The BGM is quite active, playing for the majority of the series, but doesn't have much presence. Music wise this is standard, it supports when it needs to but it isn't anything memorable.

As for VAs, expect quite a bit of fighting grunts and a LOT of completely pointlessly named moves that you will seriously forget instantaneously as they are never used again. Shizuka Itou and Yuuko Gotou are probably the most well known out of the VAs, and indeed Itou gets another tsundere role. The most interesting, though, is Hyousei, who voiced Benisu in My Noble Masters, albeit with a very different persona.

Story:
Seriously, this series falls apart here. I think it is confused with what it wants to present. There's the harem aspect, the school battle aspect, and the JSDF being abused in a political scuffle aspect; the sum of which is much less than its pieces.

For the harem aspect, there are five girls that all like Naoe, four of which are explained entirely in two episodes; so it's basically a harem on a diet. Naoe has confessed to the fifth girl twice, but being a Tsundere you can guess where this is going. I'll explain more details in the character section.

Apparently the school that everyone attends has included martial arts as a required field of study, so everyone (other than the protagonist) is a fighter. The school has also equipped everyone with standard-looking weapons that inflict pain but cannot kill. The school is chaired by a perverted old dude, who mysteriously appears whenever two people or classes decide to battle one another (the school means of resolving conflicts). None of these aspects are ever explained and are just taken for granted.

Finally, there's a political aspect where the main character is forced to question whether his nation is worth protecting or not; which is remotely tied to a corrupt prime minister who abuses the JSDF, thus causing random antagonists to appear.

Basically, there's way too much introduced for the series to even try to explain and so none of the elements are executed in enough detail. If I were using roriconfan's rating scales, this would get a 0 for plausibility.

Character:
This series is a bit unique in that all the girls, other than the one Naoe confessed to, admit their feelings early on in the series. This does result in some humorous jealousy battles/competitions in which Naoe is the only loser. However, despite all the girls having fairly interesting backgrounds, their interactions are split between competing with each other and figting; despite this being a harem you get seriously zero romance. It's all fairly crude and blunt; and Naoe's typical evasive personality, when it comes to the critical question, doesn't really help things. Basically, while interesting on the surface, there is no depth behind the characters.

As pointed out earlier, the other major issue is just character overload. There's at least two dozen characters that play a significant role at one point or another in the plot, which is just way too much for 12 episodes.

Value:
There are a few chuckles and a few "I can't believe this is televised" moments but all of the elements (action/political intrique/harem) are subpar to other series. This is an example where a fruit-salad genre approach didn't really work out. Seriously, I'd pass on this one.