"Date A Live" is a harem based on dating spirits. Its a little different from what we see normally from harems and comes off as something pretty awesome. The characters are likable (except for a small few) and everything else just spells goodness. "Love Live! School Idol Project" is another idol based anime like "The Idolm@ster", but with a different theme and setting. Still pretty great though. "Mashiro Iro Symphony" is just another pretty good romance anime. Nothing more, nothing less....
Date A Live
I honestly didn't care much for "Date A Live" when I first started it. But of course, you know the drill, I loved the crap out of the characters and it became one my favorite harems to date. With such an awesome selection of characters, how can you not at least like one?!
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| Love me my big busty warrior girls :3 |
I originally wasn't sold too much on Tohka. I mean, she was so hell bent on killing shit early on, and she seemed like one of those soul-less warriors that would destroy everything without hesitation. Good thing I gave her character a chance, as she grew to become one of most adorable things I have ever seen in an anime. As she got to know Shido, her personality changed and took a complete 180, and honestly, with some common sense beat into her, she becomes quite the angel!
The complete personality change in Tohka makes her really cute (and seriously, Marina Inoue as her VA is just PERFECT). From an angry sword wielding chick, to a naive, innocent school girl who didn't know anything and just wanted to be normal. It was an amazing shift in character for me, and changing into that naive, innocent school girl really got me all tingly inside. Its just one of those moments where you'd want to squeeze her silly.
I believe that she's the one for Shido in the end. I know, you Yoshino fans would rage at me, but COME on. You take all the possible candidates and then you look at Tohka, she's the most fitting! (But then there's Kotori, though I think Shido is the kind of guy that doesn't dig little sisters) It still shows that Tohka gets jealous if anyone but her gets hold of Shido though, as she has regained her powers through jealousy before. However, that honestly just makes her a better character in my opinion.
Love Live! School Idol Project
After "The Idolm@ster", the sky was the limit for me. Any type of idol themed anime, or at least anything completely music related didn't really get to me too much. "Love Live! School Idol Project" was a good experience, albeit a little bit cheesy. I think it deserves a spotlight of its own, and its good that its getting its own share of love in Japan.
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| Sexy~ |
Really though, in a 9 girl idol group, any kind of character works. Seriously. "Love Live!" has plenty of characters, whether or not you want to like, hate, abolish or hug them is completely up to you. Viewer's choice, there's lots of personality to go around (of course, not as much as "The Idolm@ster). In a group where everyone just practices, have fun and get into troubles, someone like Nozomi really hits the atmosphere right out of the park.
You've got your aspiring lead dancer, that's Honoka. The serious girl who wants everyone to practice, that's Umi. The tsundere girl, that's Maki. The complete bitch that suddenly becomes good, that Ayase. Nozomi is just the mood lifter, and that's a little something that the group needs in my opinion. Nozomi is serious about what she does, but when something gets a little too serious, she steps in to keep everything in check. To put it simply, shes the badass >:D.
Nothing much is really known about Nozomi herself, which actually plays a big part in her overall appeal. She's sexy, sure. She likes to grope the girls as punishment to keep their spirits up, true. But we've never really seen anything about her background, other than her being a shrine maiden that can predict badassery through tarot cards. She's an amazing person, in fact she's the one who brought Ayase into the group. Now if only we get to know more about her in season 2....
Mashiro Iro Symphony
Romance. Girls. Big white furry ball creature. Romance. End of Story.
....TRUE romance, not some half assed shit.
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| What are you doing?! Don't cover that up! |
I honestly do not recall much of what happened in "Mashiro Iro Symphony", but its alright, because I remembered alot about my favorite girl there, Airi. When you see the characters in that anime, many of them come off as pretty memorable (except for the maid), but Airi went through the most change in her character, which actually made her even more likable than she already was. Yes, I have a thing for tsunderes, but that's not the point here.
Airi started of as a complete...how do you say this. A complete bitch. She hated boys, and the very mutual thought of merging her all-girls school with a mixed school was a nightmare to her. She detested guys right off the start, even though Shingo helped her at the very start of the anime, she gave him no regard when school opened at first. Ouch.
Of course, through many events of constant accidental sexual harassment, Airi's constant flame of hatred slowly died off, and she grew to accept things as the rest of her classmates did long before her. She even started to develop a liking for Shingo, though it eventually got overthrown by other characters (Sana and Miu). I honestly thought Shingo was going to go for Airi in the end, but I guess things happen. Miu was a god choice, but I'd rather Airi or Sana in the end. Its just a shame that it didn't happen. Airi ftw!
Peace.
