Opening Songs
OP 1 - Brand New World (Shiena Nishizawa)
Ending Songs
ED 1 - Waiting For The Rain (Maaya Sakamoto)
Genre: Action, Science Fiction
Episodes: 12
As someone who loves his typical sci-fi futuristic high school harems, its seriously no surprise that the very concept of "Gakuen Toshi Asterisk" had me hooked. I mean, its a harem, high school action anime that runs most of its fights in a tournament styled setting, and after the shenanigans of "Shokugeki No Soma", I could not wait for more tournament styled fights. The anime community didn't take "Asterisk" too well, mostly because its another generic harem anime with the first episode having the protagonist stumbling into the main heroine while she's changing....a setting that's WAY too overused for these types of anime. All those aside though, look past its generic first few episodes and I actually found the first season of "Asterisk" to be quite enjoyable, with the show having its own share of interesting characters. Still, its a harem, so harem nutcases like myself can immediately jump into this one.
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| No shortage of generic looking heroines! |
I won't lie when I say that the opening theme of "Asterisk" got me pretty f**king hyped, and its one of the reasons why I wanted to watch it in the first place. "Brand New World" by Shiena Nishizawa is a pretty nice techno styled opening theme (though admitedly, the techno parts are few and far between) that's very nice to listen to. Its fast, the opening animation visuals are flashy, and the song itself is catchy. The ending theme, "Waiting For The Rain" by Maaya Sakamoto, is a slow paced song with again, some electro based instruments used in it. Nothing much, the opening theme is leagues better to listen to.
Rating: 7.5/10
I actually think its better than most people it is. Sure, it starts off generic, and yes, its another tournament styled high school fighting show, but at least for the parts that matter the most (the action), there are some really nice fights. The show's weaker points come in some of its heroines, they're pretty bland and the show puts them in some incredibly predictable situations. I didn't think I actually liked any of the main heroines too much, though the show DOES introduce some other side characters which are a lot more interesting (too bad they're not really expanded upon too much, probably saved for season 2). How the setting of the world is set is pretty much like "Index", an island city that's filled with academies, each brewing up their own star students to take part in the "Phoenix Festa" to bring pride to their school. Its a simple concept that works well, and I liked the way it was presented.
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| Of course! Everyone wants the MC's attention! |
Amagiri Ayato looks like your average high school student in an island city full of super powered teens with wacky weapons and fighting skills. Nothing really stands out from his appearance and his personality doesn't really show anything. However, deep down, he's trained in the Amagiri family dojo, and is one hell of a skilled sword fighter, though he doesn't brag too much about this. He enrolls into Seidokan academy to fight for the school and to enter the annual Phoenix Festa tournament in hopes to win it. On his very first day, he accidentally stumbles unto a girl changing in her room by entering through her window. This girl would soon battle him for pride's sake, and she would introduce herself as Julius, one of the strongest students in the academy. After surprisingly holding his own, he is brought to Claudia, the student council president, who briefs him on his task. The festa only accepts pairs as entries to the tournament, so naturally, he would need a partner. With the introduction of more and more girls that seem to know Ayato, things start becoming more complicated.
"Gakuen Toshi Asterisk" was a good watch more me. It wasn't fantastic or amazing, but it stands out enough to have some sort of impact with me, though on the fan service and heroine side, there isn't much to see here IMO. I'm hoping that season 2 shows us some more of the characters that were more interesting that AREN'T the main heroines.
