Nagasarete Airantou

A boy runs away from home, falls off a ship, and washes ashore an island filled with females. It sounds like a guy's fantasy, but Nagasarete Airantou is much more than that. Story For the genre, Nagasarete Airantou is a slice-of-life that combines comedy, some drama, some romance, and bits of ecchi. Airantou, the island that the protagonist Ikuto washes up on, is not a normal island. The village, including the people's clothing and lifestyle, are based on rural Japan. But before that, Airantou is an island where whirlpools prevent anyone from leaving, a mountaintop collects snow in the middle of summer, forests are inhabited by bizarre-looking animalsand carnivorous plants and fungi, humans and animals talk to eachother, and a once-every-hundred-years tsunami washes away all the men in the village during a fishing contest. It's practically another world for Ikuto, who is from modern-day Japan, and that does an excellent job in driving the story forward. With each episode, you get to know Airantou better, as Ikuto himself adapts to a totally new lifestyle. The story's not as deep and compelling as a full-fledged action or drama, but for a comedy/slice-of-life, the setting definitely adds some spice. Characters There's a variety of characters on Airantou, including Ikuto, -the only boy in the cast- a whole slew of girls, -as expected of a harem- and -something more or less new to harems- talking animals. Ikuto may not seem like much, but he is actually an admirable character. The two most notable things about him would be that he refuses to believe anything is impossible, and that his squeamish self suffers a nosebleed in pretty much every ecchi moment.(That doesn't count as an admirable quality) The girls come in distinct personalities, ranging from the innocently cute Suzu to the sadistic voodoo-user Machi. As for the talking animals, they're often just supporting characters, and you won't even hear them talk until Ikuto learns to speak to them. But you can't forget about them; at one point, you will find that a few of them will play a huge role in the show.(side note: there are actually male animals) Art Leaning towards the cartoony side, the art style might not suit your tastes, but it's done really well, from the character designs to the backgrounds. Best of all, it somehow feels like it matches the nature of the show. Music The BGM is also a bit on the cartoony side, but just like the art, it goes very well with the show. But you are definitely more likely to enjoy the opening theme, a wonderful song performed by voice actress Horie Yui, who also sings the two ending themes and voices Suzu, the lead female character. Both fans of Horie Yui and those who never heard her should check them out. Enjoyment Nagasarete Airantou is definitely a comedy. In the first few episodes, just as you and Ikuto are getting used to the island and the village, Airantou will throw out a couple surprises and the characters will pull off some crazy actions, and it will keep on going throughout the whole series! There are very few episodes that you might think as far-fetched, but they're still funny, and may well be the episodes at which you laugh the hardest. Overall If there is one point I want to re-state, it would be the one I started with: Nagasarete Airantou is much more than just a guy's fantasy. Having said that, I'll close this review with one last opinion: I wouldn't mind living on Airantou. (even if the men came back, mind you)

What do you get when you combine a teenage guy with an island full of young women (except for one) and creatures that look like pokemon? You get Nagasarete Airantou, an extremely hilarious show. To show you just how much I'm impressed with this anime I'll tell you this - if the island of Airantou was real, I'd swim across all the oceans of the world to get to it... or I'd die trying. Yes ladies and gents, Airantou is a paradise like no other. However, before I describe the epic scenery of that island let me start with the story. It's very banal, infact anyone with half a brain could come up with it. We have a teenage dude Ikuto, who one day has an argument with his father and decides to run away from home. He boards a ship which cruises around the Pacific. One day however there's a terrible storm and our hero is thrown overboard and the ship's staff doesn't really do much to save him. The following day Ikuto is fished out (literally) of the water by an exotic girl and finds himself stranded on an isolated island (escape is not possible) in the middle of the pacific. Much to his suprise, he finds out that the island is only populated by women. Young women. So it's just an another average boring Harem anime, right? No. The girls on the island are not your average boring harem girls who just stand there waiting to be scooped up by the male lead and Ikuto is not an average teenage guy who'd take every oportunity around him so you can pretty much see who's chasing who in this anime. Also the island of Airantou is not exacly normal... not only does it have a huge ass mount everest in the middle but there are also "pokemon" living on it. From weird and exotic creatures that glow at night (and I'm not talking about fireflies) to huge dragons capable of creating whirpools. Hence, I'm calling them pokemon. Anyway, Ikuto soon finds out that being the only male on the island is not easy as most of the girls never had any contact with a boy before however they're eager to experiment (hmmmmmm). And so the wacky adventures of our hero start. In order to get use to the way of living on the island, Ikuto must go through a lot of challenges and every episode is filled with "WTF did I just watch" moments which never make the viewer bored. Nagasarete Airantou consists of only 26 episodes though. I say only because this anime has such a good and strong plot that it could have been at least twice as long. This anime has a lot if innovative ideas and there are no loopholes in it. Everything's thoroughly explained as the story progresses, inculding the reason why the island is only populated by women (and why the hell there are pokemon living on it). The art is very good and high quality imho. Whoever came up with the idea of Airantou is a genius. The island is beautiful, huge mountain in the middle with lush forests around it and then we have vast grasslands on the outskirts which go all the way around the island. It's as if you took Honshu and pulled it on itself, making it into a circle. Not sure why but I think that explanation sucks... anway, the scenery is breathtaking and the island's tropical weather makes it even better. My hats off to the studio who did a fantastic job. The sound is very good although it's not anything special. Standard comedy tunes and there's some serious music too (usually for serious moments, though there aren't many of those in this anime). The music is perhaps the weakest aspect of Nagasarete Airantou, but who cares anyway? The story and art makes up for it tenfold! The characters are amazing and they all have an interesting story to tell. Let me see, we have a sourcerer, a ninja, a carpenter, a psychotic genius (all of those are girls btw) we have a girl who's mother looks younger than her and... many many more! Phew, it's a crazy mix for sure and that's also what makes Airantou special. All the girls have depth and their lines are not limited to "Hi" and "goodbye" as in most Harem animes. Again, my hats off to the studio and the author for making the characters so entertaining. All in all, Airantou is an island where crazy adventures never cease. Be it Ikuto being chased by a horde of curious girls to awesome ninja like fights between giant tigers and pandas. The series never ceases to amaze you, there's always some kind of a crazy twist waiting behind the corner. Also the ending itself is a one huge twist but at the same time it perfectly completes the anime. It's what I like to call "explanatory twist". Now, if you've read this far then that means you're either interested in watching this anime... or you just like my sarcastic way of describing things. Whatever the reason, I strongly encourage you to take a look at this anime, shows like this should not be missed and Nagasarete Airantou is a true gem. It deserves a full score and it gets a full score from me.

Nagasarete Airantou is in many ways a great anime. It's a harem anime down to its very core, but don't let that chase you away. The comedy in it is fantastic, the girls are very cute, and the romance in it is decent. Now that the complement's are out of the way.... Nagasarete as an anime suffers from the same problems as any other harem anime: it really feels like once you've seen one harem anime, you've seen them all, and this one is no exception. Just like any other harem, there's one male lead, and batches and batches of women who adore the male lead.The male lead is quiet and reserved, gets greatly embarrassed whenever any ecchi things happen, and he gets very protective whenever any of the many ladies are in danger. It doesn't really add any new spices to the same old recipe, leaving me with a lukewarm feeling after having watched it all. Though I hate to admit it, despite its lack of originality, I still enjoy watching this type of anime. Stuff like Seto no Hanayome, To Love Ru, or even Two Heart 2 are great animes in my eyes. I genuinely find the comedy to be quite enjoyable, and I do like the ecchi. Sadly, I'm not sure how many more of these I can sit through. The episodes really start to drag on after episodes and episodes of harem plot, and this anime in particular seems to recycle jokes far too often. Events in these animes just seem to blur together and upon completion it's near impossible to remember everything that happened unless you took notes. However, nobody can deny that this anime is funny and that the ecchi is very good at times. I particularly like the relaxed, floaty mood that this harem has. From start to almost the end, the anime never tries to be serious, and spends twenty minutes just trying to tell short fun stories and crack jokes. It's not like Death Note which requires lots of thinking to truly enjoy, nor is it like Code Geass which will get you emotionally involved. It's just a harem anime, which I can watch, enjoy, and if I'm feeling up for it, wank afterwards. There is one more problem I experience with the harems, and that is their endings. Harem endings are quite often dark and very serious, and exist to create drama in the last few episodes, which was absent from the last twenty-ish episodes. The ending is completely different from the rest of the show, and it feels out of place. It disgraces the mood the previous episodes had maintained and basically makes them feel like they were a waste of time just keeping the viewers from reaching the ending. Some people like these endings, but I don't. If the anime wanted to end dramatically and with a serious tragic tone, why wasn't the entire anime like this? Why only the last half hour? In these endings, it's also quite typical that the cast starts acting completely out of character, and quite often plots are inconsistent and full of holes. Is it worth it just to have a dramatic ending? I don't think so. I refuse to let an anime's ending ruin it for me, so ignoring the ending, I felt this anime was quite good and worth a watch, especially if you like harem animes. However, don't expect anything innovative to blow you away.

I loved it. Watch it. Re-watch it. Re-watch it again. When I first saw this show, I knew that I would love it. It was one of those "love at first episode" things. Story was great. Guy falls off a ship running away from home, floats to an island populated completely by cute girls, they all fall in love with him, every guys dream. NOPE. Not Ikuto's. The entire show he wants to get off the island, but guess what? It's impossible to leave, so it looks like he's stuck there for life. Let me tell you, if all I had to give up was Electricity,Plumbing, TV, Phones, Videogames, and Store Bought Products to live on that island, I'd be over there in a heartbeat. Art was great. I liked the way the characters were portrayed, I liked the scenery of the island and it's multi-climates, it was all great. Voice actors did a great job, in fact it'll be interesting to see how this show will fair if the english dubbed version is ever made, because it'll be hard to beat the great voice acting of all the people in this show. Characters, I love them all. They're all funny, lovable and unique in their own way, they're all great. Enjoyment, 10/10. There wasn't one episode I wouldn't be willing to watch again. Overall one of my favorite animes I've ever seen. In my top 20. Watch it. Re-watch it. Re-watch it again, and again, and again.