Sunday, June 20, 2010

First Review of Spring 2010: Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao

So, with just a couple weeks until the summer anime season starts, I'm reviewing all the anime I've kept up with this past season.  First up is Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao.  The genre for the anime in question is without a doubt harem.  There are 5 girls yet the anime is surprisingly not romance focused.
Since this is the first review, I will be explaining my setup for all of my reviews.  They will start with an intro stating the genre and some interesting qualities that make the anime stand out, if it does.  Next will be a super brief synopsis with as few spoilers as possible, in case you actually do choose to watch the anime in question.  After that will be a bit about my impressions in relation to other anime and a section on the OP/ED if they're notable.  I will end with a section on music if I thought it was good and give the final overall score in relation to the anime as a whole and in relation to other animes in its genre, at least in my opinion.  If I found any pictures of particular interest, they'll be placed at the end.  With that, I will begin this review for real.
Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao is a harem manga whose main character is Sai Akuto.  He wants to be a priest, or something to that effect and so enrolls in a magic academy in wherever this anime takes place.  He comes to class and is immediately labeled "demon lord" and the entire school erupts into chaos.  Blah blah blah, he meets girl after girl as they somehow fall in love with him and there is a climactic battle at the end of the anime.
While most harem animes end up as trash, eg. Sekirei (manga is better in my opinion), To-Love-Ru (manga is better in my opinion again), along with a whole host of others, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao does stand out in its genre.  For one, the main character isn't a complete wimp which is always a plus.  On the other hand, I felt that the ending was seriously rushed and that the anime should have deserved a full 24-26 episode term.  The beginning was definitely much better than the end as the anime tried to shove a lot of plot into the last 4 episodes which caused a lot of confusion, at least on my part.  However, there are other pluses, namely the main character gets a kickass dragon in the middle of the anime who he ends up riding into battle with at the end of the anime.  Special note, the three characters that are part of the student council minus the president are totally ripoffs from the anime/manga Princess Resurrection, if you've seen that.
As far as the OP/ED go, they are pretty solid but not great, much like the actual anime.  While not amazing, it's really hard to say that the anime was terrible either so here are my final scores, maybe I will go more in depth next season.  In the end, you could do much much worse although it is important to note that the anime does have a lot of fanservice with panty shots and the sort.  Expect more pictures next season since I just started this and was not expecting to do post season reviews.  Next up is a mid-anime review of Kaicho wa Maid Sama.  Expect it in a few days along with a WD sometime soon before or after.

Overall: 5.5/10
Amongst Harem Animes: 8/10
*Note: You can stream this anime legally from crunchyroll.com (has some weird censoring but it's legal)

--CsMiREK

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