After making it half-way through the harem/mermaid/romantic comedy known as Seto no Hanayome, I’m proud to say that I’ve become a fan of this fine comedy series!
A young boy gets saved from drowning by a mermaid but, according to mermaid law, if a human sees a mermaid’s true form, both have to be killed. The only solution to the problem is for him to marry her.
A young boy gets saved from drowning by a mermaid but, according to mermaid law, if a human sees a mermaid’s true form, either the human must be killed or the mermaid must be killed. The only solution to the problem is for him to marry her.
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Initially, I thought Seto no Hanayome would be a pretty generic and bland harem anime with mermaids, cute girls, and a perverted monkey friend. It was an anime I thought I would NEVER touch, but out of sheer boredom, and reading through the posts on the Subculture Anime Blog praising the the anime for being an excellent romantic-comedy, I decided to try it out for myself. I was immediately shocked at how good the series was! and this was a GONZO anime!?
The series did get off to a rather boring, and bland start, but maybe after….4 episodes in, the series really began to “take-off” and venture into the crazy antics of the series’ characters, which all prove to be VERY entertaining. I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of Akeno!!!
The characters in the anime start off rather annoying and unlikable (which is really bad!), but after they develop, and you learn a bit more about them, you really can grow to like them. The character designs are pretty solid as well. Not sure about Maki though…she’s still a bit annoying…Lunar/Sun are my favorite character(s).
Even though you have to adjust to liking the characters, without a doubt, the strongest point of the series is the comedy! it’s got some of the most WTF and in your face comedy I’ve seen in quite some time, which I just love! perhaps one of the funniest moments in the anime thus far is the point where Nagasumi and his father sit around watching fish porn. Actually,episode 11 all in itself was just a riot. As funny as this series may be, there are times where the humour and episode does fall a bit flat. Which can be forgiven since the next episode always proves to be even more awesome than the last! I also think that it’s worth noting that this is pretty clean for a harem anime, but some of the jokes do get a bit raunchy.
Even though this an excellent comedy series without question, it certainly has it faults… BUT good news is, that it has very few. The biggest problem is the fact that (with every long-running comedy series) the humour involved eventually runs “dry” and becomes “stale” at certain points, and in attempt to save the humor from plummeting since it’s the main point of the show. The writers just decide to re-use old gags from who knows how long ago in order to save the show. Most notably in this series is the “Masa-san~” line… it’s only funny up to a point, I personally feel as though that joke is being used a bit too much… I think that perhaps the jokes and comedy are the biggest concern for me as I continue to trek through the series. The animation or rather art, also remains a fairly weak point to the series. And this is a GONZO series!? (the Limited Edition DVD covers are VERY beautiful though) !!?well, the humor more than makes up for that!
Besides the crazy and likeable characters, and off-the-walls comedy, another merit of Seto no Hanayome is the music. I’m not talking about the BGM here, which seems non-existant(except for that weird singing music), but the best part of the music is actually (for once) the character/insert songs! Your Gravitation, Eiyuu no Uta and Rasan are amongst some of the best the series has offered! and there are tons more I have yet to listen to!
So then, in conclusion,Seto no Hanayome is a crazy and off-walls-comedy centered around mermaids. And so far I’m Loving it(…). It’s got side-splitting comedy, awesome music, likeable characters and cute girls, what more could you ask for!? GONZO should so more anime like this and STRIKE WITCHES, they really know what they’re doing when they produce comedies, let’s hope that they’ll live long enough to produce and outstanding comedy series! that’s enough to make it one of my top anime(which it currently is now~)! But FUNimation has licensed this series…I’ll buy it, but I’m a bit worried about the dub since they don’t do too solid of a job with comedy dubs…
*this was only a review of the first 13 episodes, once I’ve finished the anime, I will review episodes 14-26 and maybe even the OVAs!*
*this’ll be the layout of anime reviews here from now on!*
☆☆☆☆☆ 5/5
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