Harukanaru Toki no Naka de: Hachiyou Shou

Harukanaru's plot--or rather, lack thereof--bothered me. Aside from the premise, which has to be taken with a grain of salt due to its inherent cliche nature [teenage girl is transported to magical era: see Twelve Kingdoms, Inuyasha, Fushigi Yuugi--all published before Harukanaru, firmly establishing the genre], the plot is badly constructed, forcing the story along at a jerky pace. The revelations were utterly predictable, and the only thing that was surprising was the lack of ingenuity and bewildering logic of some of the so-called "twists." I was never actually clear on the basic motivations of good and evil, because they were never actually stated. It'sclear what the characters are doing--finding the Hachiyou, finding seals, causing angst/consternation--but they never say why. The strongest thing this series has going for it is the characters, which, as it's based on an otome game, isn't terribly surprising. The main male characters are all at least a little engaging, despite how easily they are pigeon-holed into stereotypes; I found myself having sympathy for them anyway, increasingly over the course of the series as they each got a bit of backstory to bolster them. Akane, however, inspired nothing in me. As she is supposed to be the player-character in the game, I'm supposed to identify with her and feel her pain and cheer for her success. I found myself cheering for the Hachiyou because I actually liked them. Akane is erratic and nonsensical, blushing and worrying over the Hachiyou one minute, and then obsessing over her completely unexplained, irrational love for Akuram the next. She says she wants to go home, but she never says why--she never even gives an indication that she misses her family or her classmates [...does she actually have a family? or, like. friends?], and so at the end when she claims she wants to go back "to the world with the people I care about most," that should be Kyou, where she has at least eight utterly devoted men who would die for her and live to make her happy. But no, that world is apparently her version of Earth, with Shimon, Tenma, and Ran all dragged back with her, despite the fact that they all had purposes and futures in Kyou that frankly seemed more interesting than going to high school. It would make more sense if Tenma had persevered in trying to get them all home, as he seemed determined to do for a few early episodes. The animation isn't bad. It has its wonky moments, but the fight sequences at least are nicely executed. The character designs are also interesting, especially to someone like me who is facinated with Heian designs--Tomomasa's sokutai in particular is very lovely. The one thing that pushed it too far was how the designs made it too easy to pick out special characters. Like how if a male character has a wildly unnatural hair color--green, blue, purple, bright red--then he is a member of the Hachiyou, thus making things a bit too obvious. The voice acting is another strong point in this series. With actors like Tomakazu Seki, Kouki Miyata, Akira Ishida, Souichirou Houshi, Shinichirou Miki, and Kazuhiko Inoue, it's wildly impressive on paper, let alone actually on-screen, and they all naturally do a bang-up job. The music, composed by Yoshihisa Hirano, is also very strong; it has Hirano's trademark drama, and its simple melodies add much to the action. Overall: this could have been so much stronger. The series has a lot going for it, but the plot and character development get tangled up in each other and it falls on its face. I personally think it would have been a totally awesome series if Akane actually used her supposed huge amount of power, spent time learning to control it, and her useless bodyguards against demon attacks were actually redundant and they had to protect her from herself instead, despite the fact that she's more powerful than they are. It would have been much more interesting than 26 episodes of Akane alternately plastering a smile on her face and crying.

Harukanaru Toki takes place in a capital called Kyou - it is of another dimension and 3 teenagers from the present are summoned there. One of them is a girl named Akane who is the dragon priestess and basically the storyline focuses on her fighting the demons with the aid of the Hachiyou - 8 sworn protectors of the priestess - to save the world. I have to admit, I started watching this because I loved Saiunkoku Monogatari and someone said that this one was similar. At first, the story wasn\'t that engaging and seemed to be a hodgepodge of different anime stories, charactersand plots. However, the music is absolutely amazing so I kept on watching and AM I GLAD THAT I DID. As the story progresses and characters are discovered, it becomes absolutely engaging. The initial efforts to discover the Hachiyou was good but the development of the Hachiyou - heaven and earth of the four divinations - is super fantastic. The anime slowly and surely builds up momentum. If you can hold yourself through the first couple episodes, it will definitely be worth it!!

-INTRODUCTION- The very first time I encountered the world of HaruToki was when I saw the live performance of one of Akuram's character songs (Nisshoku no Kagiana), performed by his seiyuu Okiayu Ryôtarô. I became curious and researched Akuram, but sadly could not find any pictures of him without the mask. After many days of searching, I finally found a scan that showed his face, and was awed to say the least. That eventually led me to become even more interested in the anime, and even though I only heard rather bad things about it, I will never regret that I watched it and I'll makesure to watch it again. -STORY- 7/10 "No matter how beautiful or kind, you must never let a demon into your heart." This is definitely not the most original plotline. A normal high school girl gets pulled into a different world, and has to fight the evil while being surrounded by a male harem... at first, sounds very familiar to many other plots. The reason is that HaruToki is based on a dating game, and this fact cannot be disregarded when judging the anime. Personally, I don't think I can name more than a couple romantic simulators with a strong plot. In fact, a romantic simulator has no need for a deep plot. Because its true strength lies in a different category -- the characters. -CHARACTERS- 10/10 Romantic simulators (and anything based on them) are all about characters; if it doesn't get full marks in this category, it immediately fails in this genre. However, HaruToki does not fail, in fact it passes with flying colors. It is a collection of many unique individuals, each with their own inner troubles, dreams, reasons, and weaknesses. Each of the Hachiyou get an episode or two to themselves, to let the viewer look a little deeper into their past and their hearts, to understand them better. Not only the eight guardians. The Oni leader Akuram with his eternal hatred toward humans, as well as his loyal subordinates; the seemingly strong yet vulnerable princess Fuji; the proud little Tengu of the North Mountains... There is not a single dull personality in this anime; if there is anything I enjoyed the most while watching it, then it definitely is the variety of characters. -ART/ANIMATION- 9/10 The original characters designs are amazing, all of them. You might have expected the creators to focus mostly on the eight guardiands, HaruToki being a dating game for girls and all, but this is not the case. Each design is unique and beautiful, for both main and minor characters. The clothes designs are especially lovely. The transition into anime was good too, but somehow did not deliver that same feeling of being completely in awe before something truly beautiful. It's understandable that the anime version had to be modified and maybe simplified to an extent, but I still believe that there is room for improvement. However, that does not change the fact that the anime adaptation was nontheless great, and some of the scenes were truly stunning. -SOUND- 10/10 My personal opinion is that HaruToki has one of the best soundtracks ever. There is probably not a single scene in this series that is not accompanied by music. Not just any music, but beautiful music that greatly increases the emotional level of the overall situation. Even while listening to the soundtrack separately, it's impossible not to recall the events that went with it. Aside from the instrumental pieces, there are also many character songs -- songs performed from the characters' point of view by their respective seiyuu. Usually, these are released outside of the anime as separate singles or albums. In the case of HaruToki, however, those songs were a moderate part of the story. They appeared during the most crucial moments of the anime to intensify the atmosphere, and most of them talked about the characters' inner thoughts and feelings that would have been left unspoken otherwise. --- This is the kind of anime that you must really judge as something individual. If you plan to compare and contrast HaruToki with other reverse harem series, then I suggest you walk away from it right now -- chances are, you simply won't enjoy it.

Surprisingly daring anime, considering that even at the beginning it copies horribly Fushigi Yuugi. The girl is naïve and stupid. The story is predictable andboring. And to top it all off every single man in the anime seems to be in love with the “heroine”. All in all, something that will probably only make you angry as you watch it. Better not then…

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