I rewatched Code Geass for the sixth time. You’d think by now I would have gotten bored with it, since I know everything that’s going to happen already. But no, it was awesome. I was jumping up and down the entire time, grinning like a lunatic.

The main thing that makes Code Geass awesome is Lelouch. Where the harem genre serves for perverts, and the fantasy genre stands for little boys, Code Geass takes its place for nerds: as the epitome of wish fulfillment. Who doesn’t want to use their brain to make the world crumble before them? And Lelouch certainly delivers: his strategies never cease to surprise us.

Another thing I hated originally, but have come to appreciate with this rewatching, is Suzaku. Suzaku is a turd. He is probably the character I despise most in all of anime, the pinnacle of hypocrisy. But he is a good character, whom I love to hate.

The side cast is equally enjoyable to watch. Diethard and Lloyd in particular get two thumbs up from me. CC is fun to watch as well.

The main thing that makes Code Geass so enjoyable, though, is just how exciting it all is. This is the only show I’ve ever seen that will leave me jumping up and down in excitement on the sixth rewatch. Lelouch looks like he’s about to lose, and then causes a mudslide, creates a tidal wave, or wipes out a city from out of nowhere. And then a flourish of his cape and his evil laugh… aaahhhh….

I will say, though, I hated the constant cliffhangers when it was airing. When you don’t have to wait for the next episode, it’s great though. This show should be on my list of favorite anime, although I neglected it when I wrote the list.

• Plot / Script – A – Exciting and full of surprises.
• Characters – A – I love Lelouch and despise Suzaku, they’re great characters.
• Production – B – Not really remarkable or anything, but solid.
• Overall – A

Recommendations – Eden of the East, Spice and Wolf, Legend of Legendary Heroes

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Rin discovers that he is the son of Satan. His foster father is murdered by Satan, and he decides to become an exorcist. He begins attending school, where his brother is a teacher.

This is straight-up shounen— fights, making friends, believing in yourself and all that jazz. But I enjoyed it. The first thing is the setting. I’m a sucker for religious motifs, even if it’s Crystal Dragon Jesus. Second is the characters. They’re all likable and have their own quirks.

The story itself isn’t much to write home about. It mostly follows the students’ school life as they train to defeat Satan. The ending seems to be unpopular, but I thought it was pretty good. It’s standard shounen, but what else would you expect?

• Plot / Script – C – Your usual shounen.
• Characters – B – Likable.
• Production – B – It’s Bones.
• Overall – C+

Recommendations – Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Nurarihyon no Mago

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Let’s not beat around the bush: most harem shows suck. There are the factors that I see as the biggest reasons why:

1. The male protagonist is an indecisive loser with no redeeming features.
2. Every female he meets inexplicably falls in love with him.
3. Said female characters are usually taken straight out of the book with a single defining feature. As a few examples, take the imouto, the nee-san, the loli, the childhood friend, the tsundere, and the swordswoman.
4. Nothing happens. The characters hang around the place they live all day (usually the same building), and the male trips on top of the females and walks in on them in the shower. He always likes all of the females equally.
5. The show is boring.

Obviously, number five has the highest weight. Only a few harems manage to rise above the pack. One is Love Hina, which gets a pass from me by virtue of being the first harem I watched. Plus the main character is a loser, but not indecisive, and progress is actually made. Another is Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?!, where #3 does not apply, and humor goes a long way in preventing boredom. The last decent harem I’ll mention (this list is non-exhaustive) is Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao, which avoids most of the problems by having a badass protagonist, an over the top story and more unique fanservice.

So how does Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari fit in? For item (1), our lead character, Kenshi, is certainly indecisive when it comes to girls. But this feels more like he isn’t interested in girls at all than indecisiveness, as he can be quite forceful in other matters. It’s unclear whether our hero has even reached puberty yet. No redeeming features? Not really, he’s ridiculously talented at everything he does to the point of absurdity.

Every female he meets (and every female he doesn’t meet) falls in love with him, so (2) certainly applies. Half the show is about Kenshi running away from hordes of girls. I would say that because the show fulfills this criteria to such an extent, it approaches parody. So it fulfills it, but not in the typical sense.

For (3), I thought that the female characters were actually fairly interesting. They may have one overriding trait (e.g., Lashara as a money grubber and Wahan as a mad scientist), but at least these aren’t the usual traits, and the characters have an existence outside of them.

Item (4) definitely does not apply to this show, as we actually have quite an interesting, albeit typical, fantasy story. The setting is creative and well-fleshed out, we have a great set of villains and allies, and a focused narrative. There are mecha, floating fortresses, armored trains and spider robots. It’s not the most original story, but the execution is solid, especially because of the extra length episodes.

As for (5), I didn’t find it boring at all, largely because of the fantasy / adventure story which made this more than just a harem. My overall feeling is, harems are fine, as long as they have more than just a harem. (Maybe that means they aren’t fine? Whatever.) Ichiban Ushiro no Daiamao and Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka have comedy to keep them afloat, and Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari has its fantasy story.

• Plot / Script – A – A fantasy story that could stand on its own (although not as strongly) without the fanservice and harem elements.
• Characters – B – Kenshi’s entertaining because he’s so good at everything and also so dumb. Lashara has a contagious evil laugh (I am quite partial to evil laughs).
• Production – B – Solid, although a bit underwhelming for a show of this format.
• Overall – B+

Recommendations – Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?!, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao

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A classy screen shot for a classy show.

This is the harem adaptation of the season. The main twist is that we have a cross-dressing butler. Except it’s completely obvious that she’s a girl. How can anyone be fooled by this? Besides, she isn’t nearly as cute as Hayate.

The other characters include a monstrous little sister, a girl obsessed with glasses, a tsundere, and an ojou-sama. The male protagonist is a spineless wuss.

The main reason I managed to finish this show is Kanade. She’s quite the ojou-sama, and at least managed to spice things up a bit. Still, it wasn’t enough to save Mayo Chiki from its own bland premise.

• Plot / Script – F – Your usual harem setup.
• Characters – D – Kanade redeems things slightly. And Usagi wasn’t bad as far as tsunderes go.
• Production – C – Nothing special.
• Overall – F

Recommendations – Hayate no Gotoku, Love Hina

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The adventures of chibi fighters with powers derived from test scores return.

Ok, so the jokes are definitely starting to get old. How many Minami flat chest jokes have we heard at this point? How many times has Himeji cooked poison? How often has Shouko blackmailed Yuuji? (ok, I still enjoy that last one) The first season was enjoyable: they should have stopped while they were ahead.

There were a few good episodes, particularly the peeking in the bath arc, the Minami episodes and that one episode on Shouko. But then everything just gets reset.

I don’t have much else to say. The strongest part of the first season was in its fights and wacky humor (e.g., Shouko and Yuuji, Hideyoshi as a girl, and Akihisa getting the crap beaten out of him). In this season, we got much less of this than I would have liked. Instead, they decided to focus on beach episodes, festivals and Himeji’s cooking.

• Plot / Script – C – Reuse of jokes.
• Characters – C – I always liked the characters in this series (except Himeji). But this season didn’t add much to them.
• Production – B – It has a unique visual style.
• Overall – C-

Recommendations – School Rumble, Seto no Hanayome, Full Metal Panic Fumoffu

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