Glo the Legend recently described Asu no Yoichi as having “no god damn fucking cons.” Should you trust him? I can’t think of a reason not to, seeing as how he wrote a 100% truthful post about my trip to England.
Calling Asu no Yoichi the BEST HAREM ANIME EVER may seem heretical—until you actually take a moment to consider the competition. Try to name a better harem series. Come on, try. If you can’t, at least answer me this: what harem series would you not rate in the 6.0-7.9 range? I can only think of Guardian Hearts (a generous 4) and Shuffle, which gets an 8 for being the only harem I know of with a yandere (the second best character type in anime, #1 being the lesbian yandere).
Asu no Yoichi falls within the basic confines of the Harem genre. Failed confessions and misunderstandings drive the show. The male lead’s sexual ineptitude allows loser otaku to relate to him. The female characters cover all three bases of the female personality.
So if Asu no Yoichi follows the same formula as every other harem, what makes it any better? Good jokes and good characters. It’s that simple. Believe it or not, the genre and premise of a show don’t predetermine its quality, as the it is what it is crowd would have you believe.
[P]lease stop telling me that x show should be granted immunity from my analysis because it is what it is. No duh a show is what it is, I’d be kind of bewildered if it wasn’t and I’m sure the fabric of space and time would rip apart from the resulting contradiction of realities, but more importantly and since I digress I’ll just say that it’s kind of beside the point. A show being something doesn’t necessarily mean I find it entirely good at being that something . . . . — Kaioshin Sama
Some harem series—get this—can actually be better than others! Similarly, a group-of-girls slice-of-life anime can be horrendous (even for a group-of-girls slice-of-life anime) due to crappy jokes and terrible/poorly utilized characters.
Better Characters:
Better Jokes:
I’ve heard quite a few bloggers describe Asu no Yoichi as Love Hina + Rurouni Kenshin. Here’s why: Kenshin and Yoichi both carry swords. Brilliant analysis. Here’s my take:
Asu no Yoichi = (Love Hina + Full Metal Panic) / 2
Firstly, division by two is absolutely necessary. Secondly, Sousuke Sagara has much more to do with Yoichi than Kenshin. Sousuke and Yoichi are both fighters who are clueless about the urban lifestyle they’re forced into. Hilarity ensues.