Nozoki Ana

Nozoki Ana is a very strange OVA, to say the least. It is an OVA that may put off others at the very first sight of it, due to the heavy ecchi content within it. Though I didn't come to like the show itself, it can't be said that there weren't some redeeming traits. Story: 5-/10 The first thing to note about Nozoki Ana is its odd storyline. It is generally an ecchi romance that nearly heads straight-on into adult content, but isn't so direct. It will be very clear from the beginning that it is not an ideosyncratic piece of work filled with any type ofmeaning or worth. Though, that's not to say it isn't at the very least interesting. The general premise of the story is interesting, though similar to another anime soon coming out this next season. When 18-year old Tatsuhiko Kido moves into an apartment, he finds that his next-door neighbor, classmate Emiru Ikumo, has placed a hole into the wall so that she could fulfill her sexual desires through peeping. The question remains how she knew that her neighbor would be a substantially lust-fulfilling roommate to begin with. She blackmails him, and forces him to let her peep on him. She does this with a picture she took of both of them, when she just happened to catch Kido in a stereotypical anime "tripping situation". How she happened to have a camera at that very moment is also of question. This nonchalant, simple moment happens to be the only thing keeping the story together, and becomes rather questionable. The rest of the story holds the backbone of Kido's sexual relationship with Yuri Kotobuki and his growing relationship with Emiru Ibuko, who is essentially sexually harrassing him. The OVA seems to end halfway through the actual story, according to relative sources. It may be important to note that this is a 13 volume manga being adapted into a 46 minute OVA. Because of this, the general pacing of the anime is dumped to ruin. The prose of the anime generally consists of pseudo-sex scenes, leaving no time for any real story development to begin with. Due to this, the viewer generally gets BORED, if not aroused, and will likely find the situations uninteresting, save Emiru's odd nature. Art: 4/10 One thing to say about the art style is "BLAND". Bland is a very simple word, but one that is perfect to say about the art style of this anime. The art in itself is unimpressive, and is similar to the style that low budgeted hentai anime have. I am led to believe that this show might as well have been a direct hentai, as it didn't have much else going for it in any department. The animation itself is under decent, if I am using the word "decent" in its purest definition. At times, the animation seems to be clear and fluid, though never eye-catching, as I refer to the movement of the breasts. However, at other times, the animation is clearly slow, and lacking. When viewing this show, you will notice, that, like many hentai animations, most of the animation goes into the movement of the breasts. This is why, once again, I reiterate the fact this show might as well have been completely hentai. The art and animation in general were lacking. Sound: 4/10 I don't have a very keen ear for music in general, but I can tell when something is ear-catching. Like the mediocre story and artwork, the music somehow manages to compliment the others in the "mediocre" section, to the point in which I believe the writers were going for a "mediocre" tone in general. The music barely caught my ear, as it was so insignificant to what was going on. It was boring, to say the least. The melodies were simple and formulaic, and they felt as if they were often there just to add some feeling to the scenes I had been watching, and it did. It gave me a general feeling of "mediocre". Like every other quality in this show, it was completely and utterly mediocre. The seiyuu were unimpressive as well. They basically filled in the archetypal roles of the characters. This, however, was to be blamed on the lack of real character development. Due to this lack, the seiyuu were unable to give any serious attempt at emulating the nonexistant characters. Characters: 3/10 Every single character lacked real personality, and I found that most of the characters were there to push along the storyline, which was also almost nonexistant. Tatsuhiko Kido, the protagonist, is an 18 year old male who ends up trapped in Emiri's web. He tries to ignore her, but for some reason, the plotline requires him to develop a close relationship with her without actually developing their relationship. He comes off as a generic anime main character, and lacks real personality. Emiru Ikuno, the female protagonist, is the only character with arguably positive qualities: the fact she actually has some personality to begin with. Of course, most of her personality comes from the shock value of her consistent lust. For some reason, she comes off as apathetic to Kido, but comes to love him for no disclosed reason, and, again, the lack of development to begin with. Because of this, any of her real potential is lost to begin with. The side characters are only there to move the plotline along, and, find that they are not developed at all beyond what they exist for. Due to this lack of character development, which comes from the lack of time, the story once again shoves the side characters off as material that would work better in an actual hentai. Overview: 3/10 Nozoki Ana was not an anime with much potential, but it was one with, at the very least, the potential to become interesting. Unfortunately, it focuses so much on the ecchi factors that you can't help but think it would work better as a direct hentai series. Due to the general mediocre qualities of the series, and the abyssal pacing, the show feels like softcore porn. I argue that this anime should have expanded on the story and characters a bit more than it did, as it would have become substantially more watchable. Unfortunetely, it becomes a generally useless piece of work made to satisfy flesh.

Being an overly stereotypical mess... The main character is sexually oblivious and refuses to have anything to do with the first girl that "comes onto him". Not only that, he actually does life her "alot" but refuses to accept it because he is that terrible of a character. Then he goes out and believes he fell in love with someone who decided that instead of playing innocent, would be extremely aggressive and clingy. Yep. Great show. The manga is worse because the Main character somehow gets even stupider, even more selectively-sexually oblivious, and is prone to long bouts of confusion and yelling at completely inappropriate times topeople infront of his face... while overreacting at that by destroying his own belongings. Pro-tip: Pretend that this Manga/Anime doesn't exist. The MC and forced plot are beyond awful. And the amount of "hentai/ecchi" is downright minimal at best for the manga at most times while it drowns out your depression and confusion with the man character yelling "I HATE YOU" multiple times unjustifiably.

I don't usually review shows here on My Anime List.. but I'll make an exception for Nozoki Ana. The thing is... I'm INCREDIBLY pissed off at this OVA, to a degree only people that actually went trought the whole manga can imagine. This OVA makes Nozoki Ana seems a simple "soft-hentai show" while in reality... it's so much more than that. In the rating of the show i gave 6 to every single aspect of it because well.. the characters are the ones in the manga, the story is the one in the manga, etc... the problem tho is this: Nozoki Ana, in manga form, isone of the few mangas i really consider to be a "masterpiece". It becomes incredibly dark, it has heavy (and i mean H E A V Y ) drama and it's romance puts to shame a lot of other "pure-romance" show out there. This OVA tho... it only takes the beginning of the story, focus a lot on the sexual part of it and... it ends before you can even have a little glimps at what the story will actually become after that. I'm positive whoever watched this without actually knowing about hos good the manga it will categorize Nozoki Ana as something "ecchi" worth the watch only for the sex part and nothing more... and that is why I'm pissed off at this, because I'm sure this will make people think Nozoki Ana is something not worth going into and will probably make the manga lose quite a lot of chances. So know this: don't watch the anime, go DIRECTLY for the manga, you will find a masterpiece that will literally tear your heart and soul apart from time time... i know mine actually did skip a beat... expecially in the 116 chapter.