Maburaho

Maburaho, Story: The story, it's good, mostly like your regular harem but has a type of hidden charm that you just can't put your finger on. Art: Art is good, nothing outstanding like Madhouse or Bones production, but who cares? It is good animation for the type of genre it is. You wouldn't want to see Death Note drawn like Maburaho and Maburaho like Death Note would you? It would completely ruin the atmosphere. Sound: The soundtrack is good, nothing outstanding but short of great. Character voices are good as usual, fits the characters perfect.Character: What can I say, I'm a sucker for a person with hidden powers, and when the time comes completely owns. The main character is great, another loser with hidden powers is always a plus. All the girls are like any other harem anime, all different personality's, oh look... There's another girl with a sword... Why did I like this anime? The story wasn't great, but the feeling and the characters themselves make up for it. It is a good breather type anime between series. Hidden power guys surrounded by beautiful girls has it's charms. Anyways this anime gives off a good feeling and that makes up for all it's cons. Why all the characters in the op song but not in the anime? Because the production crew only wanted to focus on the relationship between the main character and all the girls, if you want more substance go read the manga.

Thank God it wasn’t longer than 24 episodes. It was just bad. I don’t even know why it was in AnimeNfo’s top 194. The story had its highs and lows. Its highs were average, and its lows were really bad – catch my drift? Most of the time it was almost unbearable to watch, and there were episodes that almost got me (Just the ones with Rin and Yamase in it) but still came up short. In a word, disappointing. It was bad execution all over again – the concept was almost acceptable, but the concept was disappeared along the series to who knows where(Specially during the second half of the show). The realm of bad execution, maybe. It ended up to be a set of really shallow topics. Speaking of end, that was a really bad last episode. It was surprising, sure. No one expected it would end up that way, but the last episode made you go “What the f*ck was that? Where did you get that idea?” Huge cast of characters? Yeah right. Most of the characters that were shown in the opening theme, roughly 80-85%, didn’t even have a speaking role. They had distinct looks, but I never got their name. What was the name of the girl with the glasses, or the guy wearing the Simon Cowell tank top who was flexing? No one will ever know. If the characters didn’t speak, they were either useless (like that manager/caretaker person looking all goth-like) or irritating – specially Yuuna, who did nothing but be jealous and stupid. That Nakamaru guy was equally irritating. He was just insecure and jealous – of Kazuki, a loser with an irritating voice (By the way, I wanna take note of the bad voice acting. It’s just bad, and nothing more can be said about it.) and is just as insecure of himself. The drawing style was good, but something is wrong with it. Can’t point out what exactly, but I think there was nothing exciting or new about it. I did notice that the characters heads were bigger than their bodies. Although this is acceptable in anime, I prefer it that the anime characters I watch have proportions that are at least a little close to reality. Everything was just blown out of proportion, specially Kuriko’s boobs. Music was ok, but still sub par. Most of the time, I found myself recognizing similarities of Maburaho’s music with other series, or other songs in general. For example, the opening song sounds a lot like the third opening of Yakitate!! Japan – in fact, my brother noticed this too. Then there was this BGM that sounded a lot like lady marmalade. It was used more in the second half of the series, usually in the scenes with Kuriko in it. And now for the part that I hated the most – the fan service. It was just too all out – literally, thanks to Kuriko and the other girls unnecessary showing of skin. Maybe I didn’t like it too much because I’m a girl, but really. Are guys willing to overlook the lack of substance to the stories just so they can ogle at genitals – lacking bodies? Men.. I can’t believe J.C. Staff is responsible for something like this. I’ll give them an A for effort though, since on the surface, it does look like it’s nice. Beneath the surface, definitely a different story – literally.

Well after reading the above info on this title, you probably have a good idea as to what this series is about. Yep, its an"ecchi harem anime". It stays basic, but is still enjoyable. Story: 6/10 Well there really isn’t an actual plot going on per-say, it simply revolves around this boy named Kazuki, who has magic that is far beyond anyone else’s. (yeah, its a place where everyone knows magic) Only problem is--he can only use it a limited amount of times. (8 to be precise) So upon hearing this, three female students hear about this and decide to make him their lover, for the solreason of having his genes. Well technically not all of them, but a majority of them do. A girl named Yuna however, is the exception. It turns out the this young man made a promise to a female friend of his at a young age, and guess who that little girl is? Hehehe, yup its Yuna. Now I know at this point your probably saying to yourself: Wow, I have seen this before a million times! And in all honesty you would be correct, Maburaho is nothing new at all to the whole "harem" franchise. As the whole story is really not going anywhere with a particular goal in mind, its simply set to see which one of the girls will walk away as Kazuki’s wife. Surprisingly though there are a few plot surprises that take place, as well as new characters that are introduced past the half way point. One thing I found odd though, is that they show a ton of characters at the opening of the anime, yet you never even get to know 75% of them. Heck some are there for only an episode or two. But since this is in fact a echhi harem title, you aren’t technically watching this for any kind involving story. The ending to this is pretty good--though a bit on the weird side. I won’t say what it is so as not to spoil it, but it just seemed a bit odd to me. Still, given the act that many anime titles out there NEVER really conclude, its nice to have one that at least tried. My only other gripe with the storyline was, it tended to drag on a bit towards the end. Artwork: 7/10 Maburaho is a pretty darn colorful title, it has some nice character design, even if it is a wee bit basic as far as style goes. The backgrounds though (especially in the foliage areas) seemed to be a bit bland and not very well detailed as the characters. The girls cast magic spells that can be pretty fund to look at. But Maburaho’s greatest asset in this area is its colorful artwork! Soundtrack: 6/10 The opening to this anime is so fun to listen to that I downloaded it for my ipod, the ending is also nice, its much more suttle than the high pitched opening, but does add good variety to the mix. I watched both the sub and dub to this, and must say that the dub is awesome, I think ADV really went out to find the appropriate voice actor. With the exception of Kazuki, his voice sounded a bit to old for his character. Either form is pleasant to watch it in. Characters: 8/10 The characters were probably the best part of the anime, while some came off more as a cliche depending on your view point. I couldn’t find one that I didn’t like. I especially loved Yuna, she was so sweet and caring--yet definitely had a jealous streak as well! Nobody as comes off as annoying and just seem to mix well with the title. Plus their personalities are quite varied, so you never have to worry about seeing a character’s persona that is recycled. Bottom Line: 7/10 Had Maburaho actually done something different with its "harem" formula, I probably would have given it a higher score, as it did tend to start dragging on near the end. Perhaps if this anime would have only been half as long, would it have been more memorable. Still, Maburaho is a good choice if you like harem titles, just so long as you keep in mind that its formula stays pretty basic throughout. Yet still remains fun to watch regardless.

I can sum everything up in but a few words - Why did you not just end this at twelve episodes J.C. Staff? The story was partially decent leading up to the first arc if you want to call it such; then comes episode thirteen onwards... just a highway disaster. It would have been a rather touching anime worth at least a 6 or 7 overall if they had left it to end at the mid point. Kazuki went out of his way to gain some manly points with how carefree he sacrificed his limited amount of magical usage on the 4 girls he cared for and loved. Time forhe characters themselves with Kazuki proving to be, at the start of the series, the kind of male protagonist that is a stable point for any harem anime. Kind, dense and easily agitated by situations which might not be to his liking. Moving onto the female cast relies purely on how you prefer your stereotypes; all I can state here. There is nothing to say about the audio as nothing much appealed to me here or even left me with a, "Oh, this is unique?" feeling at all. The series itself with the conclusion of the 24th episode earns it: 3/10.

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