First Look: Astarotte no Omocha!
Title: Astarotte no Omocha!
Genre: Fantasy
Summary: In the medieval fantasy world of Alfheimr, succubus princess Astarotte Ygvar, the first princess of the kingdom of Ygvar, has just reached the age of 10. For the coming years of a young succubus’ life, it is necessary for them to have a male harem. In order to maintain their body and preserve their beautiful appearance, they must consume a substance only found on males. This substance is a liquid called Sauzfryma, better known as semen. The princess, however, bears a great dislike against men, and only agrees to create a harem if a human male is to join. The catch is, nobody has been able to travel between Alfheimr and the human world, Midgard, for over a millennium.
First Look: After watching four episodes I think I have a good idea where this anime is going. With a touch of ecchi, touch of cute, and a touch of romance you get Astarotte no Omocha! From time to time you will get the comedic awkward moments and heart warming new friendships. So far the series hasn’t impressed me because there really isn’t anything going on. The summary of starting a harem isn’t very pleasing to me considering the princess is only ten years old. While I didn’t think much of it at the time I started to cringe when I realized that the main male lead is in his early twenties, and has a daughter. Putting age aside the anime isn’t all that great anyway. The plot is something that you would probably watch in a softcore porn, and the characters are much to kiddy to be playing the roles. Probably the only reason I continue to watch it was because Astarotte was voiced by the same V.A. who did Tiaga in Toradora!.
The art for Astarotte no Omocha! isn’t bad, but isn’t great either. there really isn’t anything special about it, and from the series I’ve seen lately it is a bit disappointing. I feel that it could do a lot better, and I’ve never been a fan of such a cute style. Art isn’t the biggest thing I look for in an anime, but it does help to have nice visual effects. The series has the occasional pantie shot (sadly from a ten year old) but other than that pretty PG. The character design isn’t bad though. I think they do a bit too much blushing, it seems like everyone is constantly embarrassed or sick. Seriously with all the blood rushing to their face and staying there health problems must be in question. Another disappointing feature in the anime is the lack of variety. The anime has a lot of potential for unique designs and ideas because it takes place in a strange realm. However, the succubi (succubuses?) are nothing more than elves with tails. In fact, most of the creatures are nothing more than humans with pointy ears. I’m not a huge fan of elves so this isn’t really doing much for me.
I can’t really say much about the soundtrack either since I usually skip the opening and ending theme to watch better anime. I have listened to them once (episode one) at least, but I’ll probably need a refresher if I plan to review this anime. Other than the opening and ending there isn’t much in terms of soundtrack. Of course most anime don’t need background music to be good, but it does help some. After watching a few episodes though, I’m not sure where background music would fit in well enough to benefit the series. Long story short the soundtrack isn’t worth mentioning to anyone.
Final statements: The reason I originally got into the anime probably isn’t a good one. After watching four episodes I still don’t know how I feel about it. At times I can see it being half-way decent, but the overall premise of it just bores me (or makes me feel awkward). I’m on the fence on whether I’ll keep it long enough to review because there are so many better anime out there.