Anime Review: Okami-San and Her Seven Companions

Title: Okami-San and Her Seven Companions
Season: 1
Number of episodes: 12
Released date: July 1, 2010
Summary taken from Anime News Network:

Ryōko Ōkami is a spunky high school girl who is a member of a "fixer" club called the Otogi High School Bank. She fixes the school's problems with her partner Ringo Akai ("Akazukin-chan").

3.5 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW:

I had no idea what I was going to get into when I first started watching this anime, and that was fine since I generally end up watching pretty awesome anime this way. To no surprise, OKAMI-SAN AND HER SEVEN COMPANIONS ended up being one of those anime.

The first episode had me cracking up, it was so silly and hilarious. The narrator is so funny and different from most anime or shows in general; she has the voice of a fond grandmother and likes to break the fourth wall by poking fun of the characters in the anime and interjecting her own sly comments throughout the show. However, sometimes it's annoying hearing her talking over the characters' conversations to explain something or to just have her own input in the episode.

Basically, the first few episodes lulled me into a false sense of security thinking that this was a silly, comedic anime with a tough, kickass protagonist. I was wrong.

With every episode, you learn more about Ryoko and her friends from the club, and slowly but surely, they all find a place in your heart. You start having feelings and becoming invested with all of them, especially Ryoshi and his earnest feelings for Ryoko, which is both endearingly cute and hilarious since the two are so slow.

By the time you're halfway through the anime, it alludes to Ryoko's dark past that helps explain why she is presently. A couple of episodes later, things finally come to a head with the antagonist from her past, and you'd think that it would eventually end with a resolution, right? Wrong. Instead, a point is made, but nothing is completely resolved. There is no closure for Ryoko or anything regarding her antagonist.

And the last episode completely disregarded that story arc, focusing on a completely different plot! This anime had the potential to be great if it had expanded more on Ryoko finally getting over her past, but it didn't. It decided to focus on her and Ryoshi's feelings for each other in another crazy plot.

If it was any other episode before her dark story arc, I would have been fine with watching Ryoko slowly falling even more for Ryoshi, but after everything that happened, I don't think she'll ever get with him until she finally faces her past and conquers it, which never happens in the anime, which is such a shame. I looked online and saw that the anime was based off of a novel series, so I can understand its episodic behavior, but still, the anime should have had a better climax and ending.

Overall, I hope that there will be a sequel that actually has a resolution, because I've grown fond of the characters in this anime.