Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend

"OTAKU must not disappoint the 2D; the manufacturer also must not let the believers down."                                                                                                                                       - Tomoya Aki, Saekano 

Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata

          Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Licensed By (NA): Aniplex of America

                      (Aus): Madman Entertainment

Director: Kanta Kamei

Genre: Romantic Comedy, Slice of Life, Harem

Main Cast:

Tomoya Aki - Voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (JP)

Megumi Kato- Voiced by Kiyono Yasuno (JP)

Utaha Kasumigaoka - Voiced by Ai Kayano (JP)

Eriri Spencer Sawamura - Voiced by Saori Onishi

Michiru Hyodo - Voiced by Sayuri Yahagi

          Based on the light novel by Fumiaki Maruto.

          Tomoya Aki is a huge otaku: anime, manga, figurines, dating sims, you name it, he's got it in spades (his collection makes me jealous, actually...). His passive lifestyle changes when he meets a beautiful girl during his spring break whom he later finds out is his classmate, Megumi Kato, a girl who is barely noticed by her class. Taking inspiration from chance meeting, Tomoya decides to make a visual novel with a character based off of Megumi. He enlists the help of a popular dojinshi artist, Eriri Spencer Sawamura, to do the art and an up and coming light novel author, another of his friends, Utaha Kasumigoaka to do the story. They for Blessing Software and Together work to make the game to sell at Winter Comiket. At least in theory. In practice, he enlists the help of two, later three, girls that clearly have a crush on him to make a game about a protagonist (him) capturing the love of a girl VERY clearly based on Megumi. Hilarity Ensues.

Writing

          There are good points and there are bad points as far as the writing is concerned. On the plus side, it gets side-splitting, gut-busting, absolutely hilarious at times. The characters are wonderfully made and the cast interactions really drive the humor, and make Saekano wonderful. On the down side, it took a couple of episodes to get to that point. I personally found the first couple of episodes to be terribly boring, but fortunately after they get past the exposition, the plot really takes off.

Yeah, it's that kind of a show

Characters

          Tomoya Aki is our protagonist and an otaku to the core (check out those references to other anime in his room, btw.) I like him as he is not the usual wussy harem protagonist, which is a nice change. Megumi Kato is the aforementioned boring heroine [in the direct translation of the Japanese title; the boring girlfriend in the official english title (even though she and Tomoya are not dating)]. She is a plain jane type character, but has a tendency to make some hilariously nonchalant snarks. Utaha Kasumigaoka is a classic older sister seductress type character with a very sharp tongue. She is a sempai to the other characters in school and is secretly a light novel author. Eriri Spencer Sawamura is Tomoya's half-Japanese (any excuse to give the tsundere blond hair) childhood friend and is very defensive of that title. She drawn H-dojinshi (and has her parents sell it for her at Comiket, no less!) Michiru Hyodo is Tomoya's cousin; she plays guitar in a girl band.
          The characters really make this one, whether it be Megumi's deadpan, almost off-handed, smartassery, or Utaha's ferocious flirting, this is a story that is driven entirely by the characters. My only qualm is that Eriri does not receive enough character development to become a great character. She just never quite breaks out of that tsundere bitchy stage, but it is not really surprising given that it is a twelve episode anime that was adapted from a series that is eight novels long (as I'm writing this).

          

Visuals

          The artwork in Saekano was exquisite, probably the best animation of the season. All of the characters were drawn with great detail and the movements were nearly as smooth as a feature length anime movie. There was just one thing that bothered me. Sometimes they used pastel-like colors for many of the character outlines; something that takes a little getting used to.

See those weird orange outlines?

          

Audio

          The voice work was excellently done, especially Ai Kayano as Utaha and Kiyono Yasuno as Megumi. The way that they deliver their lines, especially the snarky quips is just superb. And not to mention Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as yet another harem protagonist.
          The openings and endings, on the other hand, I was not quite so crazy about. They weren't bad, they were just nothing to write home about. The opening song is "Your Signal" by Luna Haruna, and the ending song is "Colorful." by Miku Sawai.

Personal Enjoyment

          After getting past the first couple of episodes, I really liked Saekano. It was initially set up as a standard harem anime, where the girls fall for the incredibly average guy for no reason, but it became more than that. It also probably helps for me that I love the meta jokes that Tomoya thrives on and I found it absolutely hilarious.

          

The Final Word

          Saekano is a fine example of why I don't drop series after the first episode. Sometimes things get better, and I always like to give everything the benefit of the doubt (and now that I do anime reviews regularly, I almost WANT to be able to trash series.) If you watch it, give it a little while... it might grow on you.

          

For your enjoyment: A-Cup Angsting at it's finest.