Shock of the Season – Asu no Yoichi is a Pretty Good Show

When I say pretty good, I mean just that. It’s been an entertaining show that’s kept my attention well beyond what the generic harem-esque premise should have been capable of. Now, I’m not saying that it deserves to be ranked up with the excellent shows of the season like Toradora but it’s definitely no where near the bottom. In fact, I’d place Asu no Yoichi above several current shows like Maria+holic that should have been able to leave Asu no Yoichi in the dust but haven’t. I decided to figure out, if I could, exactly why this show has been so successful. (Manga and Anime spoilers ahead.)

The first step, I decided, was to check the source material to see if maybe that would explain it. Checking the first chapter, I was surprised to see that none of the events inside the mall happened; the eldest sister found Yoichi in the police station and took him home. Reading further on, chapter three is the chapter that introduces Chihaya, the manga drawing middle sister, but it stops right at the point where Chihaya tests to see if Yoichi is a good guy. There’s nothing from the second half of the episode where Chihaya gets bullied for being a manga artist and Yoichi coming to her aid. Both of these parts in the anime where important in establishing that Yoichi is an honorable samurai and not a lecherous pervert. Reading more, I found other parts that where altered in the anime to improve Yoichi’s character: in the manga he once says to himself that if it was the past, he won’t have to put up with the sisters treating him so badly; and when he gets asked on a date, instead of declining because he doesn’t know her, he shows up for the date and finds out she was just playing with him.

Once I realized that that animators where largely responsible for making this a pretty good show (for tweaking the characters and adding important character development), I wanted to see who worked on this and if I should have expected this. Of course, I forgot what I wrote for my winter anime preview and was surprised to see AIC was the ones that worked on this. If you remember from the fall season, AIC worked on Ga:Rei – Zero which created a far superior anime-original prequel to the Ga:Rei manga. I guess I shouldn’t haven been so surprised then and I will remember to look out for anime by AIC in the future since even with lackluster source material, it could turn out to be good.

I don’t know how it’ll finish but up to episode 8, it’s proven to be entertaining with a main character containing a real backbone and the girls being more then just character types. I’d suggest giving the show a chance provided you’re not bothered by fan service, there’s a fair amount in the show but it’s more thought-out then what’s standard, and you realize this show is in the entertaining fluff category and shouldn’t be thought to be on the same level as say Clannad or Toradora.

Asu no Yoichi also has eyecatches which I always enjoy.