This series was certainly an interesting watch. From the synopsis alone you may be forgiven for assuming this could turn into another raunchy high school love comedy, but nothing could be further from the truth. This series is dark and twisted, and a brilliant watch because of it. The main character is a thoroughly unlikeable, cowardly (and pretentious) wimp, which may sound like a turn-off for watching the series, but stick with it, because the series basically revolves around him being tormented by the messed up girl, Nakamura.
What I really liked was that this series took scenarios that, in other series, would be played for comedy, only here they're not funny and cause a great deal of angst and torment for all involved.
Another thing that sets this series aside from most other anime is the style of animation which uses rotoscoping. This style sadly was enough to make a lot of snobs turn their noses up at the series without ever giving it a chance. Personally I have no problem with the animation style and in fact wish more series would do this. (Trapeze is the only other example I can think of off the top of my head http://trakt.tv/show/trapeze)
It's a shame that the series hasn't done too well in sales because that means we probably won't get a second season. This really is unfortunate, because whilst stuff definitely does happen in this series, by the end you are definitely left with the impression that things are only going to get more twisted and messed up and that we've only started down the path of depravity (and in fact, the last episode makes this very clear). This series is adapted from a Manga though, so if you do really like what you see you can read that to find out what happens next.
Much as I wish I could rate the series higher, there are a few things stopping me from giving it a better score. The animation quality is sadly somewhat lacking. There are lots of crowd shots where nobody is moving at all, which is all the more frustrating because if anything, it should be easier to animate crowds in this style. Some scenes were drawn out a big too long to the point where you just want something to happen already (a good example would be the walk home after the infamous "classroom" scene. Yes building atmosphere is fine and everything but 5+ minutes of just walking? Come on...). And even though there's a lot of schadenfreude to be had from watching Kasuga suffer at the hands of Nakamura, he is still pretty insufferable and cringeworthy to watch at times.
In spite of all it's flaws however, this is still a very interesting and different show that I would definitely recommend. Just be aware that if you want to know what happens next, you'll probably have to read the manga.
Review by ManiacBVIP OG 12BlockedParent2014-02-07T01:58:04Z
This series was certainly an interesting watch. From the synopsis alone you may be forgiven for assuming this could turn into another raunchy high school love comedy, but nothing could be further from the truth. This series is dark and twisted, and a brilliant watch because of it. The main character is a thoroughly unlikeable, cowardly (and pretentious) wimp, which may sound like a turn-off for watching the series, but stick with it, because the series basically revolves around him being tormented by the messed up girl, Nakamura.
What I really liked was that this series took scenarios that, in other series, would be played for comedy, only here they're not funny and cause a great deal of angst and torment for all involved.
Another thing that sets this series aside from most other anime is the style of animation which uses rotoscoping. This style sadly was enough to make a lot of snobs turn their noses up at the series without ever giving it a chance. Personally I have no problem with the animation style and in fact wish more series would do this. (Trapeze is the only other example I can think of off the top of my head http://trakt.tv/show/trapeze)
It's a shame that the series hasn't done too well in sales because that means we probably won't get a second season. This really is unfortunate, because whilst stuff definitely does happen in this series, by the end you are definitely left with the impression that things are only going to get more twisted and messed up and that we've only started down the path of depravity (and in fact, the last episode makes this very clear). This series is adapted from a Manga though, so if you do really like what you see you can read that to find out what happens next.
Much as I wish I could rate the series higher, there are a few things stopping me from giving it a better score. The animation quality is sadly somewhat lacking. There are lots of crowd shots where nobody is moving at all, which is all the more frustrating because if anything, it should be easier to animate crowds in this style. Some scenes were drawn out a big too long to the point where you just want something to happen already (a good example would be the walk home after the infamous "classroom" scene. Yes building atmosphere is fine and everything but 5+ minutes of just walking? Come on...). And even though there's a lot of schadenfreude to be had from watching Kasuga suffer at the hands of Nakamura, he is still pretty insufferable and cringeworthy to watch at times.
In spite of all it's flaws however, this is still a very interesting and different show that I would definitely recommend. Just be aware that if you want to know what happens next, you'll probably have to read the manga.