Momokuri

Every anime that focuses on romance requires some sort of unexpected developments within the story and plot. It should feature sudden developments that could have a devastating effect to the characters along with the events or narrative. There should be drama, emotional moments full of dialogue, and although optional, should introduce a cast of characters that you can fantasize together for your fan fictions that nobody cares about. Lastly its’ crucial that there are characters that viewers can make a personal connection with to understand them better! Momokuri throws away the standards of the typical romance anime, and curb stomps it to the ground whilelaughing maniacally. It replaces the very essences of the romance genre with moe moe cuteness. The best thing about romances is that they'll often feature a male or female protagonist. Through his or her journey, we are able to see their mental struggle, hard work and the effort they go through in order to confess their love. The story of MomoKuri ruins the very thing that makes a romance story romantic and deep. The whole story is a cute mess. From the very beginning the two main characters are already a couple, it’s just that Momo and Yuki have difficulties expressing their love verbally. The two have a difficult time trying to approach each other and act more like lovers instead of two awkward stalker creeps. What’s worse is that a majority of times where there were tense, serious moments that could’ve been romantic, it was quickly ruined by comedy. For example, "Momo is finally about to kiss Yuki and chickens out." "At that moment, when he’s too afraid to do anything, the story tries to take a comedic turn by doing random reaction faces while he’s freaking out." It ruins the mood along with the scene. The comedic moments were not as funny as I thought they would be. In fact, most of the comedic scenarios came off as “forced.” Its’ like “ha ha ha, you laugh at this terrible turn of events right now” or “Yuki is a stalker with a loyal dogs personality” laugh right now. It was in poor taste in my opinion. Following this goo goo gaga story was like an unsatisfying road trip to a vacation destination with your friends or family. I was glad I was able to stomach the content. Otherwise I would’ve dropped it at the beginning. My biggest hope for the story was that Momo would have a rival in love. I thought that it would be interesting if another male character who loves Yuki would be introduced. That way there is some rivalry and more intense declarations of love to the female. Then I hoped that there would be a rival for Yuki, Rio. Again things just didn’t turn out in my favor. It turned me off from the story even more. The pacing is pretty straight-forward. Each episodes plot is full moe nonsense or failed attempts to try and get Yuki and Momo closer. By the time you know the episode is over and you're watching the ending credits. The plot and story doesn't seem to get any serious until it starts reaching the last few episodes. The story definitely is not something that I would consider watching this title again for. It's lacks the appeal that a standard or average romances title would have. I would say that maybe the writers were trying to be a little innovative with Momokuri however they just didn't do a good job stringing all together. The characters designs were great; most of the background settings looked pretty nice. I didn’t have many concerns with the animation. The quality of the show varied from time to time. I didn't like a majority of the animation they used outside of school. Nature background settings like trees, rain, grass looked like an animator just went into MS paint and added it into the final project. The skies and water lacked any sort of "realism" and the details of trees and grass were minimal. Now, this isn't a show that focuses on background settings as much as it does the actual characters. So its' only natural that they avoid putting much detail into make certain "environmental" elements and crap look nice. It appeared as if a majority of the focus went into making the characters as cute and appealing as possible for the fans who love overly cute or "moe" designs. You've got big detailed eyes in both males and females. Both male and female clothing are close to real life designer wear. They made sure to make those designs as cute as possible too. So if there's anything to be said about the art its' that it is satisfying to look at, it's just don't set your expectations too high. Voice actors were pretty good delivering their lines. I was most impressed with Ai Kakuma's performance. She's definitely experienced when it comes to doing cute girls. I felt that her role as Yuki can definitely be something she can brag about her next try-outs. With Nobuhiko, I think this is my 3rd favorite role he's done acting like the "tough, cool guy" personality. The soundtrack was a little weak however it does fit the tone of the show. Satoshi Motoyama is an excellent sound director. So he has the experiences and knows who to get to give the show the "life" it needs. The characters as I mentioned earlier are made to be cute... "moe." I honestly want to say that I did not like Yuki and Momo however; I did like seeing the progression the two made to finally became a full fledged couple. Rio seemed like she could've been a better candidate for Yuki however, it seemed like the director wanted to go in that direction, but later kept the two as senpai & kōhai. Respectful and kind to each other. it would've been great to see an antagonistic rival compete with Momo for Yuki's love and affection but because of the shows "moe" "fan-girly" friendly approach. It seems that the writers decided to keep with the route that worked best for them. I'll have to admit it does pay off. Perhaps the best thing about Momokuri is that you often times I find myself being guilty of rooting Momo on. As much as I try and avoid romances, especially girly girl romances, I felt that I could indulge myself a little. Like, he has a QT 3.14 girl whose loyal, kind, forgiving, and a stalker. So why doesn't he man up and sweet talk her? He has so many opportunities to make their relationship closer but he keeps letting these opportunities pass. Sure, it was annoying and bothersome at first however; I found myself starting to enjoy this. I started to see what pattern and direction the show was going in and really had a fun time watching it. Overall the show really is for those who are into "moe" characters. If you like sweet straight-forward stories with happy endings then Momokuri is totally for you. As for me, I'd probably skip on watching it again. I love shows that take on a much serious approach to romance. Shows that have a sense of realism in it. Lastly, Its' not bad to like stories that are cute. If you like it, don't let anyone judge you, enjoy while it last.

Momokuri Art/Characters: When first seeing this art, I was a little hesitant, but overall it looked pretty cute and the characters seemed to be interesting, so I gave it a go. I was not disappointed after watching just one or two episodes. The colors are really bright and cute and the animation is fluid and easy to follow. Overall I felt that this show was really easy on the eyes. One of the other things that I really appreciated about this art style is how crisp the characters look. The surroundings are the same way, and because of this, it didn’t look like the characters weresuperimposed on top of a background that was clearly a different style than the rest. As for the characters themselves, I felt that Kurihara’s character really stood out to me as a rather obsessive character, but it was just obsessive enough without getting to creepy and that made it really funny and cute to watch. As for Momo, the other lead, he was just a bit to oblivious for my liking, but he still gave off a vibe of someone who wanted to be in love and wanted to make sure things always work out. The opening did a really good job of showcasing the different personality traits of each character and that is always a plus that we hardly ever see. Music/Sound: While this show had pretty generic music, I still really liked it. The opening song was one that I just could never skip because of how catchy it was. Normally when I come across a great opening song, it is a good indication of how much I will enjoy a show, and this was no exception. Not only the opening but the music that accompanies the scenes gives the show depth in places where it seems to lack, and this is highlighted really well in the latter half of the series. As for the sound there is a little bit of dip in the quality of this show, I am not too surprised, seeing as it was an Original Net Animation rather than a full-fledged production, but it wasn’t something that I can speak too negatively about. The music more than compensated for this, and that isn’t to say there wasn’t any sound, it was just very much overshadowed by the background music. Story: Kurihara Yuki is a high school 2nd year who is just trying to make it along in her life, but Momotsuki Shinya, a first year at the same school, is the focus of all of her time. She spends a lot of time admiring him from afar; taking pictures, collecting his trash, and generally obsessing over him, all without Momo’s knowledge. But after Kurihara, with some help from her best friend Mizuyama, musters up the courage to confess her feelings to Momo, he agrees to start going out with her. Even though they start to date, Kurihara can’t seem to stop her collecting behaviors. The plot progresses as these two explore dating and friendships within their groups. There are twists and turns that really make the show easy to follow and fun to watch. Personal Reflection: I really enjoyed seeing this show in the list of Summer Anime, I knew nothing about it but the art style was cute and the first episode was hilarious that I couldn’t stay away. I really loved how Kurihara wasn’t that creepy. An example of an over the line creepy character would be Kaho’s brother in Hatsukoi Monster (I go into more depth on that review), but there is just something about Kurihara that makes her less creepy and easier to pass off, even when the behavior isn’t much different. The problems that Momo faces when it comes to Kurihara are very real and not to out-of-character for someone who has never had a girlfriend before. There are times when Him and Kurihara have disagreements, or even outright fights, and rather than going back to normal in an instant (which would be extremely out of character for him, he grows and moves on from the problem after learning from it. Momokuri is a show of first-times, confusion, a hint of crazy, and a whole lot of funny; if that seems like something you are into, check it out! Overall Score: 8/10

I normally love short romance anime's because it normally packs in all the cute stuff and it's just really enjoyable to watch! But Momokuri just rubbed me the wrong way.. Story 5/10: Okay so the story isn't terrible and it's not amazing.. It's a short and sweet romance story and that's all there is to it. It's nothing spectacular but it will never be bad simply because of how the plot is.. I mostly skipped through this anime due to the fact I started hating it pretty early on and I found it close to unbearable to watch, although I pulled through I wouldn't say hate..But I strongly dislike it. Plot was made for a romance anime and that's all it was. Art 8/10: Now the art is fairly decent, I don't believe I've watched any anime's that's close to this kind of animation style but it was really enjoyable and it really made for that cutesy feeling type. Sound 7/10: Sound was also fairly decent and when it came to sad/angry moments you could feel the suspense and you knew something was wrong. Nothing really stood out apart from that but nothing really felt out of place either. Character 5/10: Okay.. here we go! So Momo... Momo was actually fairly decent and he seemed like a decent MC for a romance story. Nothing I could say that I really hated him for because he made sense in my eyes apart from being abit dense at sometimes he seemed perfect for the role and fitted in fairly well. His personality was good and it seemed like he has emotions in check. His jealously moments were the best for me even though he'd end up not following through almost every time I still really liked him. So now Kuri.. I absolutely hate this character... For an obsessed girl who's madly in love with the guy she had zero emotions apart from him being cute when girls around him were flirting with him. I completely understand that she's love blind for him but atleast have some sense of direction about this entire thing. I'm completely with Momo, her jealously annoyed the hell out of me. The only thing I liked about her character is that she played the stalker part pretty well. She's dense and way to hyper. She's border like a pervert and if someone stepped into their circle would be like "Holy s*** this b**** crazy!" All I can say is that she's love blind and doesn't care what happens as long as Momo notices her... Side characters were fairly decent and played a decent role in to some of it. Enjoyment 4/10: I don't recommend this to anyone who likes to get involved with the anime... By this I mean like looking at it in a serious and realistic point of view. Because that's what I did.. :P

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