They Are My Noble Masters

They are my Noble Masters is ecchi harem with a great story. That pretty much sums it up and if any of you out there have watched a lot of harem, you'll know it's a rare thing when it has a story at all. What was great about this anime is that the story doesn't apologize for itself - it is what it is. The eldest sister, Shinra, is a weird cross between a tsundere and a deredere with potent perverted instincs. She's so unique, that she alone is worth watching this series. But the supporting cast minus maybe one or two characters are all well-developedand you find you know them intimiately by the end of the series, which is another rare thing. The theme of this story is essentially this trio of rich sisters who lost their parents, taking on delinquents or orphans like them to become their butlers and make them a part of their family. And what's great is that this anime never loses that theme, not for a moment. Most anime will introduce a theme and then forget it two episode in in order to dispense with the cliched nuances of harem anime. So, by remembering the theme, this anime accomplishes so much. I wanted 30 more episodes of this anime simply for that reason. It was refreshing and I fell in love with the people. There were some minor problems. The relationship between Shinra and Ren could have been developed more, but the animators chose to put it off most of the time in order to stuff each episode with Shinra basically molesting her chief maid and her lolita-looking younger sister. It wasn't bad (it was very good, if you get me. hehe), but romantics might be a little disppointed until the last episode. Also, as mentioned before, this series was just too short, but it's because it was so good. So it's a win/lose proposition. I would recommend this to any guy. (I just don't see how girls could enjoy this.) It's certainly among the best out there and considering it was released in 2008, I'll have my fingers crossed for a second season.

They Are My Noble Masters is a Harem, Ecchi, Romance, Comedy that pays more attention to its extremely ecchi fanservice rather than the actual romance or comedy. The series is about a brother and sister (Ren and Mihato) who ran away from home in order to start a new life together and after a turn of events, they end up working for a famous, rich Kuonji family consisting of 3 sisters (Shinra, Miyu and Yume). Surprisingly this anime has an underlining story to it but for the most part it is full of random mini stories/adventures that have little relation with each other. Each episode spendsit’s time either focusing on a specific character or theme, usually involving Ren getting to know one of the girls, so the series never gets entirely boring and it becomes slightly dramatic later on. There are plenty of characters in this short series and each with their own unique personality. Nevertheless only a few of them seem to get plenty of attention, while the rest barely get any screen time. But at least they all get their own moment to shine. I must say that the quality of the animation is somewhat good with a lustrous colour palette, for the nicely drawn backgrounds and characters. But most of the effort seems to go towards the fanservice, which is a good thing I suppose. The music can only be described as very upbeat and even though it’s good, there’s nothing special about it. Overall They Are My Noble Masters proved to be a very enjoyable ecchi, comedy with quite a few parodies for the hardcore anime fan to enjoy. There’s plenty of tasteful fanservice and adult humour for any guy to enjoy as well but sometimes it does feel a bit excessive. At least this anime has creative ways of censoring nudity XD. In the end this series did prove to be somewhat dull compared to its superior counterpart (Hayate no Gotoku) but if you just feel like watching something entertaining and extremely ecchi then be sure to check this out. ^_^

If you are looking for the usual harem/shonen romance/ecchi anime, this ain't it. But it was a good weird and spontaneous romance story. One, there are only sporadic content of ecchi in there. Save for Shinra Kuonji's occasional tease and some other gimmicks, not much ecchi content. And that is not necessarily a bad thing. It allows the story to expand beyond the scope of the visual novel.But, the producer could have done better. The storyline was not planned out, and was very sporadic, with too many filler episodes for a short series. What drives the story forward? It should be Ren's relationship with the other girls. But, little progression is made at the emotional or psychological level. There is a huge social gap between both sides. The character planning could have been better, but since this came from a visual novel, you could not have expected anything but one male character along with a huge ensemble cast of girls. Artwork is pretty well done, and there was no action, no pan shots, no heroic shots. But it was well done for this genre. The animation studio did a nice job touching up this anime. The characters look like repeats from other series except for Shinra. She seems to be fresh design, and I think that design will be used in the future for other independent female designs. To conclude, good anime to watch on the plane, or something. Don't waste your prime time or money on this

Note: I may have been comparing this too much with Hayate no Gotoku. This review is from a man who has watched it first, I would probably have given this a higher rating if I had watched this first. Story: Your basic maid/butler story. Ren and Mihato have ran from their home and looking for a job, and all of a sudden, they find themselves working as butler/maid for the ultra-rich Kuonji family. Based on an Eroge, it contains scenes that shows relationships between Ren and all those sisters. I like how they gave enough attention to all of the chars. 7/10 Art: Not very good, and thescenes where they "tried" to make comedic moments were sometimes not-so-well drawn. Despite that, I think they've found amusing ways to censor nudity^^ Average drawing+ good ways to censoring = Not the best, but not the worst either. 7/10 Sound: Definitely not good. The seiyuu cast usually lacks emotions. You all know the scenes where something strange happens and a character changes their voice to mark some entertaining remark. Well, it just doesn't happen right in this anime. This may just be because I'm watching Lucky Star again (which has an awesome seiyuu cast,) but they really aren't the best. Background music was average. OP wasn't that bad, but I certainly didn't wait for it to finish. The ED wasn't so bad too, mainly because I listened to it every episode (due to various reasons >_> guess why ^^) 5/10 Characters: The Kuonji family were unique in my opinion, and they really provided me a reason to watch this anime (other than ecchi.) What I didn't like was that the others didn't have good backgrounds. Ren's background is the same as Hayate's, Mihato acts too much like Maria-san (calm looking but can be very dangerous,) and also the cooking scenes where she cuts various animals and we see blood is too much like psycho Kaede (Shuffle!) 8/10 Enjoyment: As a healthy young man, I enjoyed watching the ecchi moments. I didn't realise that I like this anime until it finished (which really left an empty hole in my heart.) I think I liked watching one episode a day, it was about the right amount for my daily ecchi needs. 9/10 Overall: Please, do not ask me how I got 8 for overall while I have two 7s and a 5. Lets call it being a man. Ecchi gave me enough reason to watch, the Kounji sisters made it interesting enough, and the end made me want for more (and made me want for its eroge - not translated yet unfortunately.) My advice would be to watch this before Hayate no Gotoku or other animes that have very powerful seiyuu cast. 8/10