Brandon Varnell's Blog, page 17

UFO Princess Valkyrie

UFO Princess Valkyrie, or UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie as it has also been called, was a cute anime with surprisingly adult undertones. The story is about a princess from outer space crash landing on earth, where Kazuto is desperately trying to maintain his grandfather's old bath house. Due to a set of circumstances, Kazuto ends up receiving a part of Princess Walkyrie's soul, which is a problem in and of itself. However, to make this issue even more exacerbating, due to the princess losing a piece of her soul, the soul she manages to retain has weakened, and with it, her age has regressed to that of a child.

Yeah. That's right. This story is about a big-breasted woman who transforms into a lol.


The story itself is, actually, surprisingly, good. While certainly not the best I've ever seen, it's not the worst either. That being said, you probably shouldn't take this anime very seriously. It's definitely a Rom-Com anime and therefore not something that you should think too hard about.

The pacing is surprisingly quick. Despite spanning over four seasons, which I would not have expected from an anime like this, the plot moves along at a pretty fast pace. Of course, the plot also tends to get mixed and muddled with fan service and other things, but this is an anime where a little girl transforms into a beautiful woman with large tits. Fan service is kind of expected here.


As is the case with most anime, this one is filled with a combination of slapstick comedy and ecchi humor. There are moments where what you're watching is just so stupid that you can't help but laugh, and other moments where you're laughing thinking "Oh my god. I can't believe that just happened!"


I think the most controversial part about this anime are the transformations. To start, for Princess Walkyrie to transform, Kazuto has to kiss her. Now, I'm not even going to go into how wrong it is to kiss someone who is, for all intents and purposes, a six year old little girl. The transformation itself, while reminiscent of Sailor Moon or any other Mahou Shoujo, is also different in that, unlike all the other transformations out there, this one shoes everything. Literally. There are no sparkles covering her body as she transforms. You see her boobs, including her nipples, as they grow larger and her waste as it flares out. They don't show her, um, cat, yes cat. What else could I be talking about? Anyway, they don't show that to you, but pretty much everything else is on display. Now, as a guy, I can appreciate good nippage, even if it's from a pretty 2D character, but I'm not sure I feel comfortable seeing a six year old's boobs. Which it does show. I don't. Maybe it's just me, but it just feels wrong somehow.

Despite the questionable aspects of the transformation, I will admit that Princess Walkyrie's adult form is quite gorgeous. But that's par for the course with anime girls.

I do enjoy the cast of the series as well. While most of the story centers around Kazuto and Princess Walkyrie and the shenanigans they get up to, there are a crap load of other characters, including seven other princesses, all of whom are vastly different from each other. Fans of pretty magical girls would love this anime simply because there's a type for everyone.
Now, while I enjoyed most of the anime, I will admit that after the second season, the plot really went downhill. While the first two seasons had a clear, defined story, the third and fourth seasons felt more like a series of fan service OVAs. There was no problem that needed to be solved, no real storyline, just episodes about of the Princesses as they go through their lives and get ready for, well, I won't ruin that, but they get ready for something. Of course, the ending of the third season does kind of make up for that. So it's not all bad.
On a grading scale, I think I would have to give this story a 6.5/10. It's a decent anime, the artwork is nice and the story is cute...and there's boobs. It's good if you're looking for a romantic comedy to watch, but it's not one of those memorable anime that will transcend time itself.

Rosario+Vampire Volume 2

Rosario+Vampire is the story of Tsukune Aono, a high school student so average it's almost ridiculous, who ends up enrolled in Yokai Academy, a school built solely for monsters. Overall, the manga is actually pretty good. I enjoy the storyline and have enjoyed the series as a whole.

The start of the second volume introduces us to Yukari Sendou, a witch and girl genus who skipped several grades. She is actually my least favorite character of the whole cast, not because I actually dislike her personality or the funny things she does and says, but because I'm not really comfortable with the whole 10-year old girl wants to sleep with Moka and Tsukune aspect of the story.

Tsukune and Moka also end up dealing with ishigami, an art teacher who is, like most monsters they face, kind of psycho. And the third chapter even has some major character development for Kurumu, which I felt was necessary because in the first volume she doesn't appear to be anything more than a large-breasted fanservice girl. This volume actually gives her some depth.

Overall, I enjoyed volume two. It has a good deal of character development and even introduces us to the character who will later on become one of the early main antagonists of the series.

Book Cover Rough Sketch

Heyo everybody! I just wanted to show you all the rough sketch for the book cover to my next book, Part II of the American Kitsune series, A Fox's Tail. I would once again like to thank Kirsten Moody for creating such amazing artwork, and I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

So, having watched this anime for the third time in, well, a few years I guess, I can say in all honesty that Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood is definitely one of the best anime I have ever watched. It's the story about Edward and Alphonse Elric, who seek to regain their original bodies after breaking the taboo by trying to transmute a human. Along their journey, they meet dozens of interesting characters, go through phenomenal personal growth and get caught up in an evil plot that has been in the works for well over a hundred years. This story has everything: an excellent plot, an epic story, solid character development, amazing artwork, incredible animations and of course, this:



What's not to like?
So, let's start with the first part of any anime: the story. The story behind FMA seems simple at first. After breaking the taboo of all alchemists by trying to bring their mom back to life, Edward and Alphonse end up losing their original bodies (or part of their body in Ed's case) and are trying to get them back. Simple. However, as the story progresses and we learn more about the world they live in and the things happening in it, we begin to realize that there is far more at work than what we initially see. The storyline becomes incredibly complex, yet somehow manages to bring all the story elements together in an epic 65 episode package. The pacing is smooth, the story awesome, and unlike a good deal of anime, this one manages to tie up all their lose ends rather nicely.


Now for the second aspect I loved about this story: character development. One of the things that most anime skimp out on is the development of their characters. This is understandable, since most anime don't have more than a single 12 episode season. FMA is lucky in that it has 65 episode with which to develop their characters.
I think what makes the character development in FMA so great is that all of their characters get a good deal of it, from the two heroes Edward and Alphonse, to many of the supporting cast. Hell, even the anti-hero and the villains get some major development. How often do you see that? Of course, the personal growth of Edward Elric, iconic figure of FMA is definitely the greatest. He and his brother face incredible moral dilemmas throughout the entire series, forcing them to come to terms with things like killing, what it means to be a dog of the military and a whole host of other issues that make for some serious drama.

FMA is also one of the few anime that have ever given me a really bad case of The Feels. Seriously. There are times when something happens in that anime, and I just start bawling my eyes out. There's some really serious issues in here, along with a lot of tragic events that force the characters to reevaluate everything they thought they knew about themselves and others. If you're looking for an anime that will really make you think and feel, this one should be at the top of your to watch list.


Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood is one of the few anime that will ever get a perfect 10/10 rating from me. If any of you have not seen this anime, I suggest you drop whatever you're doing and watch it, NOW. This story is epic and not something you should miss out on.

RWBY

I have decided to change things up a bit here by doing a review on RWBY.

To start things off, I think everyone should know that RWBY is NOT anime. It is produced by Rooster Teeth, a production studio located in Austin Texas, thereby making it impossible for RWBY to be considered anime. It's like how Nickelodeon produced Avatar the Last Airbender.

That being said, I've decided to review this because RWBY has become fairly popular as of recently after having been produced only around a year or so ago.

RWBY takes place in the world of Remnant. A fictional world filled with supernatural monsters known as the Creatures of Grimm. Humanity once fought a battle for their very survival against the Creatures of Grimm, until the discovery of Dust, a mysterious element that grants the people using it special powers. With Dust in hand, they were able to fight back. Those people who use Dust to fight against these powerful monsters are called Hunstmen and Huntresses.


RWBY follows the story of four girls who go to Beacon Academy in the city of Vale and end up forming a team called, yes, you guessed it, RWBY. There are a lot of good aspects about this animation, but also a number of poor aspects that detract from the overall story.

While a number of people disliked the very simple art-style used, I actually enjoyed the basic cell-shaded style. It gives it a sort of anime-ish feel to it, and it's not like the models were terrible. Just simple and very basic. That being said, there is a bit of a problem with the art sometimes, like when they try to give Ruby Rose, the main character, Swirly eyes. They just don't look as good here as they would in an actual anime because everything is modeled in 3D. So sometimes the art appears tacky and aesthetically lacking. That being said, I still enjoyed the style.
The muscial composition was also pretty decent. I enjoyed the rock music they use for the intro and fight scenes. I don't know who made the composition, but it's not bad.

The storyline for RWBY is very, VERY simplistic. This can be both good and bad. While it makes the story easy to follow, it also makes it easier to fall into cliche's. There is a lot about this story that is completely lacking in originality, and while there is a saying that says all stories are just variations of each other. That being said, the general lack of original plot made it incredibly predictable. I was literally able to predict what would happen within the first thirty seconds of each episode, which made it not as enjoyable to watch.

One problem I had with the story was the absolutely cheesy dialogue. Sometimes I felt like every scene was nothing more than corny one-liners and ridiculous punch-lines. And while there is nothing wrong with corny one-liners or ridiculous punch-lines, there is when an entire scene is almost nothing BUT one-liners and punch-lines.

The animation in RWBY is both good and bad. The good part of the animation is, of course, the super awesome fight scenes. All of the fighting is beautifully choreographed and simply incredible to watch. Unfortunately, it sometimes feels like they spent so much time working on the fight scenes that they forgot about everything else. A lot of the animations outside of the fighting are not only simple, but also lacking and makes me almost wonder if they even tried when making them.
My biggest issue was character development. There isn't a lot of it going on here. Surprisingly, the person who seems to get the most character development is actually Jaune Arc, a support character of all things. Blake, one of the four girls that form team RWBY also gets some development near the end, but not enough for me to really become invested in her as a character. I think it would have been better if they focused more on the four main characters and their development rather than side characters. There were a number of times where they could have spent more time and effort developing Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang through the use of conflicting morals and personality differences, but didn't, which detracts from the overall story.
The overall flow and pace of the story was alright. I think they might have done better if each episode was the standard 24-minutes long, but considering they were on a low-budget and this is a web show, I think we can excuse them for this.
Overall, I think RWBY is a nice animation with good potential and something fans of fighting will enjoy watching. I give it a general rating of 7.5/10 and recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind the corniness of the dialogue and discontinuity between fight scenes and every other scene.
And now I present to you: The Most Awesome Food Fight Ever!

Ashikabi no Shinobi, Chapter 36 Q&A

Hazon: Hello, 

Just wanted to ask... So was Miya already activated by Takehito? I'm not exactly sure how that relationship works and why Miya is heating up.

Perhaps you might be explaining it in the next chapter, but that seems to be like your next 'plotbunny' or arc that you are going into.

Answer: By "activated" do you mean winged? Because if so, then the answer is no, Miya was not winged by Takehito. Takehito was not an Ashikabi, and therefore incapable of winging Miya. She just fell in love with him anyway. I suppose you could say their relationship was unique in that Miya loved Takehito despite him not even being an Ashikabi, much less her Ashikabi.
yuyuyre: You need lemons.
Answer: You know what? You are absolutely right, my friend. I need more lemons. Someone get me lemons! In all seriousness, the next few chapters are going to be lemon oriented so don't worry. ^_^
harlequin320: great chapter as always, very interesting making Miya so conflicted, a lot of stories on here have her join up with the protagonist rather easily, if not during a long process, but from everything we know about Miya it is very believable that she would be so conflicted, keep up the good work, update soon
Answer: Yeah. I've never liked stories like that, where Naruto just gets every women he sets his eyes on without a single ounce of trouble. In my mind, nothing worth gaining is ever gained easily. It's boring when characters don't have to fight and struggle to acquire that which they desire most. I like it when people in stories actually have to overcome something before getting that happy ending. Which is why I'm making Miya and Naruto struggle more than most people do. I also think it's more in line with her character. Miya's not some floozy who would betray her husband at the drop of a hat just because she's reacting. I think most people tend to forget that.
Dansama92: Hey so just out of curiosity how many chapters are we looking at total for this story? And I also liked the way this chapter went and genuinely laughed a couple times.
Answer: I am hoping to end this story somewhere between 45-48 chapters. Maybe even less, depending on the length of each chapter.
A Stray Owl: I'm glad you're not going to drag on, considering that the entire story was about Naruto's healing, not about the cannon plot line. I think you're the best guy to ever get his hands on Miya. You've given so much more deaph, humor, and charm to her character. And even if "The Ninth Sekirei Pillair" is my favorite Naruto/Sekire X-over, this comes into a very close second.Have a nice day.

Asnwer: Le gasp! An understander! You have officially made my day. I'm so pleased to see someone who has realized that my entire story revolved around "Naruto healing from the scars of being immortal" and not "Naruto comes to Tokyo and gets caught up in the Sekirei Plan." Most people haven't gotten that yet. But yeah. I don't plan on dragging this story out for much longer. I'll be giving a few fanservicy chapters where everyone reading finally gets their reward, aka, they get to see Naruto do sexy things to his Sekirei, and then the last two chapters will just be me tying up lose ends.
FredFredNineNine: It's really almost over? Dang, I thought that this was only halfway done with the way the plot was progressing. :(
Answer: The story isn't about Naruto getting caught up in the Sekirei Plan, it's about Naruto healing. Well, Naruto is now on the mend. He's accepting his Sekirei and actively working to build bonds again. That means the climax of this story has already passed. The rest is just the closing chapters. I wanna give you all something to enjoy after reading 30+ chapters of emo angst, and then I need to close all of the plots and bring the story to an end.
FireKing500: How are you going to answer Naruto's immortality to his Sekirei's mortality? Are you going to say because they are bonded, they get his immortality or maybe with the Jinki that can make him mortal? Sad to hear the story is coming to a close because this is one of the best sekirei stories I have read, or are you going to create another story and maybe have funny scenes like pranks with Uzume, Naruto getting wasted with Kazehana, Matsu acting out Icha Icha Paradise scenes with Naruto? Cant wait until the next update.
Answer: Without giving anything away, know that I have a plan to deal with Naruto's immortality. Well, two plans, actually, but that's neither here nor there. Just know that I do have a plan.
Musubi Kazesaru: I'm pretty surprised the story is already finishing up. Sure you've worked through almost all of Sekirei, but I dunno it just feels that Naruto as a whole never faced any real opposition or anyone truly strong enough to serve as a real antagonist but I suppose that's the nature of the story given what Naruto is and this is more of a healing story for him. I mean this story is already so long but it feels like it could keep going, but it'd also be nice for you to write new things or work more on the DxD crossover I recently tried. This chapter felt a little shorter than usual but I'm pretty sure it's because everything I've read today has averaged around 20k words per chapter hahaha. Anyways keep up the great work
Answer: There is a reason Naruto hasn't faced anybody who is strong enough to serve as an antagonist. Two, in fact. First: there is no one who is strong enough to match Naruto. When I wrote about how Naruto is pretty much a God on earth, I meant it. Naruto is like a living God. He is so overpowered it's not even funny. Second: Naruto's antagonist in this story has always been himself. I'm sure you've noticed, but Naruto has a lot of angst in this story. A LOT of angst. In fact, 75% of this story is him angsting and whining. That's because he is his own worst enemy. This isn't a story of man vs. man or man vs. alien babe or even man vs. nature. This is a story of man vs. himself.
cmcwiki: Coming to a close? But how? This story feels like its only halfway done to me. Are you going to make a book two? Because just killing minaka off to end the game seems really anticlimactic as there are so many unresolved issues, Musubi's grudgematch with karasuba, the jinki, the sekirei's mortality, etc...
Answer: Read the review for both Musubi Kazesaru and A Stray Owl.

Nurarihyon: Rise of the Yokai Clan

Nurarihyon: Rise of the Yokai Clan or Nurarihyon no Mago is probably one of my favorite anime to come out in recent years. While there are some aspects of this story that I don't like, I feel it is one of the few anime where the good entirely outweighs the bad.


The main story behind this anime is as follows: Rikuou Nura is the grandson of a powerful Yokai, the Supreme Commander, Nurarihyon, who also goes by the title of The Lord of Pandemonium. As the grandson of this great and powerful Yokai, Rikuou will one day become the head of the Nura clan and will eventually gain his own Night Parade of 100 Demons and become the next Lord of Pandemonium. Unfortunately, Rikuou doesn't want to be the Lord of Pandemonium. He wants to be a normal human. Thus begins our story.



With two seasons, each one containing about twenty-six episodes, Nurarihyon is an anime that has a slow start. While some people might not like this, I actually enjoyed how slow the pace was. It gave us time to really take in the characters and the setting. We learn about the main character, Rikuou, a young 12-year old boy who is only one-fourth Yokai and three-fourths human, and how he doesn't want to be a Yokai. Or at least his human side does not wish to become the Lord of Pandemonium.

Most of the entire first season centers around this conflict of Rikuou not wanting to become the third head of the Nura clan. There's a lot of character development and you get to really see how Rikuou interacts with his friends, as well as the Yokai who live at his house. Of course, there are also some badass fight scenes, as expected of a Shonen anime dealing with supernatural forces such as Yokai.


I think what I enjoyed the most about Nurarihyon, aside from the story and action, was the character development. While most anime tend to skim over the personal development of their characters, this anime does not. You get to really see all of the different characters: how they act, how they grow and develop. Each character is actually pretty unique, using a combination of archetypes and tropes as opposed to sticking characters into a single archetype. A perfect example is Rikuou himself. He wants to live a normal human life, but during the night, Rikuou's Yokai form takes over and is determined to become the next head of the Nura Clan. His human form is kind and caring and compassionate, while his Yokai form is strong and confident and inspires "fear" among his allies, which lead many to join him and become a part of his Night Parade of 100 Demons.

I actually find Rikuou's character refreshing. Unlike most Shonen heroes, who are either Punks that are always looking for a fight (Yusuke and Ichigo), or dumber than a box of rocks (Son Goku, Luffy, and Naruto), Rikuou is almost normal. He goes to school, spends time with his friends and just does what every middle schooler does. You can really relate to him as a person, especially with the problem that he faces in the first series of trying to decide whether he wants to shoulder the burden of being the third Head to a clan of Yokai, or remain a normal human and watch as the entire system falls apart without you. His struggle is something that I think all people can relate to, if on a slightly smaller scale.


Another aspect that I find fascinating about this anime is the power that Yokai wield. It's called Osore, a term that denotes the unique skills and traits of each Yokai. It refers to the fear of the unknown, an emotional reaction produced when Yokai represent themselves as monsters. It is especially important for leaders who wish to draw together gangs of Yokai. There are many different types of fear depending on the type of Yokai. A Yuki-Onna's fear, for example, is power over ice. Fear also plays an important role in battles between Yokai, in which they must inspire fear in one another to gain the upper-hand. It's an interesting concept, and one of the more unique powers among Shonen manga.


Aside from the story and the character development, I also love the artwork. Nurarihyon has some of the most beautiful artwork I've seen. The characters look unique, which is difficult among an art-style where all characters are defined by large eyes and small noses. The music composition is also nice. Not as good as some of the anime I've watched, but certainly not bad, and let's be honest here, chance are, if you're watching this anime, it's not for the music, but the fight scenes, which are impressive.

On a whole, I would give this anime a 9/10 rating, with the only reason it gets a 9 instead of 10 being how boring the romance was. Like all anime, this one tries to add some kind of romance between Rikuou and three of the female cast, but it really fails to deliver anything spectacular in that regard, forcing me to drop its overall rating. This is still a great anime to watch, and I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys the anime that have a slower pace and strong focus on developing unique characters.

Good News

I have good news. I just received an email from Amazon, who said that, provided all of the corrections I made are significant (which they are), they will be willing to make sure everyone who bought the kindle edition will receive the updated, corrected version of my story. Here is their email:

Hello,

We received your request to give updated content to customers who purchased your book. In order to confirm content updates, please provide details and examples of the corrections made to the book. Once we confirm you completed the improvements, we will take any appropriate action within 4 weeks.

1. If we find the changes you made to your content are critical, we'll send an e-mail to customers who own the book to notify them of the update and improvements made. These customers will be able to choose to opt in to receive the update through the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon.com (www.amazon.com/gp/digital/fiona/manage).

2. If the changes made to your content are to correct minor quality issues, we won't notify customers by e-mail, but we'll activate their ability to update the content through the Manage Your Kindle page on Amazon.com.

3. If the changes made to your content create unexpected critical issues with the book content, we'll temporarily remove your book from sale and inform you of the issues found so you can fix them.

We will only make the content updates available to your customers after we confirm you completed the improvements necessary to correct quality issues present in the earlier version.

To read more about what issues we consider critical, please visit our Help page: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A1MMQ0JHRBEINX

I hope this helps. Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

Regards,

Goutham G
Kindle Direct Publishing
http://kdp.amazon.com/
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Awesome, right?

A Thousand Pardons

Okay. So I owe everyone who went out and bought my book a super huge apology. I didn't realize it until six this morning, but the file I uploaded for A Fox's Love was the wrong file. What I put up on kindle was the raw, un-proofread version of the story. At first, I thought when people kept talking about the grammatical mistakes I made, that it was just the one or two errant mistakes you see in every book. Well, I got curious when more people kept commenting on it and decided to see for myself. Imagine my horror when I see mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake. I think I found at least six simple homophone errors that I was positive had been corrected before uploading. I went back into my H drive and soon realized that I had accidentally used the wrong file. 

Let me tell you all right now that there is nothing more embarrassing then uploading a book on Amazon, and then finding out ONE YEAR LATER that you were using the wrong file this entire time. Right now I feel like crawling into a hole and dying I'm so embarrassed. It's a rather humbling and humiliating thing to realize that you've made a huge mistake one year after the fact.

So, I would just like to sat to everyone here that I am so, so, sorry for not being more conscious of what I was doing. I hope you guys can forgive me.

Gokukoku no Brynhildr

What is there to say about Gokukoku no Brynhildr? It's a story that had some serious potential for awesome, but screwed up when the producer decided that sex was more important than plot.

The story is about Murakami who, as a child, befriended a girl he called Kuroneko (strange name, I know. Just roll with it), who believed in aliens. She insisted that aliens do indeed exist and that she met them. Naturally, no one believed her. Even Murakami was skeptical. One day, she decides to show him the aliens, but an accident occurs and Kuroneko dies while Murakami is left wounded and in the hospital.

As the years go by, Murakami becomes obsessed with finding proof of the existence of aliens, all because of a promise he made with Kuroneko. Now a student in high school, Murakami is highly intelligent and the only member of the Astonomy Club. He lives a mostly normal life, until one day, a girl who looks like an older, hotter version of Kuroneko arrives at school. Her name: Kuroha Neko...

Yeah. Unoriginal. I know.


So let's talk about the story itself. This story has some very good qualities to it that led me to watching the entire season. I think what I like most about this anime is the plot. It starts off with this great mystery story about the existence of aliens, and then adds a sort of supernatural twist to it. The plot itself has some nice twists and turns that kept me watching and I did enjoy a good deal of the series.

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The second thing I actually enjoyed about this anime was the violence. Unlike most anime that never have more than maybe a single trail of blood running down a persons face, Gokukoku no Brynhildr is packed with blood and gore, as expected from the same person who created Elfen Lied. They don't shy away from brutality and violence. And while I generally dislike violence, in this anime, I feel that it surprisingly fits.

And of course, there are plot reasons for why this anime has so much violence. Much of the cast in this anime are witches. No. These aren't your lotions and potions kind of witch. These witches are the product of science. They were given incredible abilities, but, like all great power, theirs comes with a price. You see, in order to survive, these witches need to take a pill that keeps them from dying. If they don't take one within 24 hours, they melt, and it's pretty ugly to witness.


Now, here is where I find myself conflicted: the ecchi fanservice of a harem anime. On the one hand, harem anime have become insanely popular because, well, what hot-blooded male wouldn't want a bevy of beautiful women at his beck and call? On the other hand, I would like, just once, to see an anime with an actual romance that isn't a harem. Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of ecchi fanservices as much as the next guy, and despite how I feel the ecchiness in this anime feels disjointed and at times takes away from the plot, I did enjoy the awkward erotic moments. Unfortunately, I don't really think it worked in this anime. For one, the story starts off with this really dark and serious quality to it, as you would expect from any horror/suspense. However, as the anime goes on, the story changes from dark and serious to what feels almost like a light-hearted harem comedy. It then proceeds to randomly switch between the two, making it impossible for you to take the serious moments serious. How can you when you've got random boob groping in the middle of the anime?
I can sort of understand why this anime went harem, unlike most. Every girl in the cast is a witch with a horrible sob story, and with the constant threat of death looming over their shoulders, they would naturally want to live as normal a life as possible. This includes finding someone to love. And since Murakami is the only male who knows their secret, accepts them unconditionally, and is a generally nice guy, they all end up clinging to him.
Of course, doing this takes away from the romance, delegating what could have been amazing romantic development between Murakami and Kuroha to the backseat. But hey. Sometimes you've got to make sacrifices if you want some good T&A, right? Right.

Character development is another place where I take issue with this story. When the anime first starts out, the main character is actually kinda cool. He's smart, he's determined, he has photographic memory, and he can come up with incredibly insane plans that are surprisingly effective. However, as the story progresses, Murakami goes from potential badass to That Guy. Yes. That Guy. You know the one. He's in, like, every single harem anime on the planet. He's That Guy who is extremely caring and willing to protect at the cost of his life, but generally winds up needing to be saved by everyone else. He also gets easily embarrassed by ecchi things, which happen a lot.
The other characters don't have a whole lot going for them either. I think this is, in part, due to the anime only having twelve episodes and at least half of those episodes focusing on fanservice. The characters themselves all have the potential to be incredibly complex and dynamic people with their own back stories and personal issues, but never get the chance to really grow and develop because the producer decided that sex would sell better than good character development. It doesn't help that one of the witches became a literal Deus Ex Machina at the end of the series.
I know what you guys are thinking. Brandon, if there's so much wrong with this anime, then why do you love it so much?
Aside from the fact that I just love anime and will watch anything at least once (I even watched Kanoken, horrible show that it was), I believe this anime is one of my favorites simply because it's a Guilty Pleasure that had the potential to be something truly amazing. It has dark moments, it has light moments, it has ecchi, and...boobs. Yes, these components don't always go together, but for some reason, despite its discontinuity, I still enjoyed the series.
On average, I would probably rate this anime a 5.5/10 because despite my enjoyment of it, there were a lot of things wrong with it. It lacked any real character development, the pacing was screwy, the MC started off with potential before getting turned into a harem protagonist, and the ending had me literally facepalming. While I would give this anime my personal recommendation to people who want a little Guilty Pleasure, for people who want to really get into the story and understand the more complex plots and deeper character development, I would recommend reading the manga.