Okami-San and Her Seven Companions

It could have been something decent, but instead Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi reeks of mediocrity. The art work and animation was actually pretty and appealing, but the terrible story and cast of characters makes this series a pretty little scab you want to tear off. The rag tag bunch of characters have a very minor development and role so it'll feel as if most, if not all, of the characters are a side note. Even the story leaves you hanging till the last episode. At the end of the series, you will ask yourself, "That's it? What the hell was I watching this for?".I'm sorry to say this, but I felt as if the writer of the series did a half-assed job and produced a story about kids doing random things without any plot or motive. I say this series was a wild goose chase. I recommend it to those of you who have nothing to do and just want to kill time.

Ookami was one of the more popular series of the season. Why? Beats me... Was it because of J.C staff? Despite their many successes, I find Ookami to be an incredible bore. Let's start with this: I really hate the narrator. I feel that shows that uses narration heavily are due to the director's lack of ability to convey plot and emotions, and that can't be more true for this show. And I hate Satomi Arai. There are only a few instances where I can follow the character's train of thought, though that wasn't suppose to be hard due to the incredibly simple storyline. The main antagonist isso one-dimensional, it feels like he's a last minute addition as a plot device. The climax of the story is just... Can you even call it a climax? I don't even feel the slightest sense of excitement during that. It feels like a cheap way to end the series, and it leaves so many questions but I couldn't really be bothered any more. There's so little material for the main storyline that most of the series focuses on stories of the supporting characters... Which none was really interesting, but at least it's better than the main plot. I suppose Ryoko's tsundere personality is suppose to sell, but beyond that trait, her character got no depth at all. Ryoushi's really irritating as a main character. As a wimp he can't even go to GAR mode properly... You'd hope he'll actually grow up by the end of the series, but all he managed is to overwhelm the bad guys with the final blow like a typical Shounen protagonist. The animation and songs were good. I wont expect any less from J.C staff though... Well... Let's just leave it at that. I think the only thing that this show gotta sell of is Ryoko's tsundere... But come on, really? This is a lame piece of work. Plot/Concept: Lame Story Style: Booooooring Audio/Visual: Great Value: 3

The fact that this is a wasted potential is a shame, this could have been good. Story The story started good i was really interested to follow it but then it just started to be more of a comedy/parody without the romance that at some point you think will happen, it never happens, and that was annoying, it also ended being an episodic job of the week anime and the story never progressed. Art & Sound Both were like you think will be, good character design and colorful landscape. The sound was good, it was really enjoyable, the VA was good. Character This is what the anime is, there's a greatvariety of characters from fantasy books and you will recognize them, the ones that i liked were Ringo and Ryoushi who at first might seem like a wuss but he shows that he can be a badass for Ryouko the problem is Ryouko was too tsundere for my liking, she hides her feelings for Ryoushi and never accepts them, not even when everyone sees it, and i hated that she didn't appreciated what Ryoushi did for her which mostly ruined the anime. Enjoyment I could have enjoyed this more, but i couldn't because of that bad ending and Ryouko being the way she was so overall it was an ok anime as a whole but ruined by the anime and characters direction, enjoyable but not recommendable.

Translating a book into a movie or show is always a challenge for developers. Why? Because taking all the information contained in a book and trying to cram it into a 2 hour movie is near impossible. So why do developers constantly try and do what seems impossible? Well it is my opinion that books have an uncanny ability to truly capture a readers attention with the use of two things, characters and story. The attention to detail and the ability many authors have to flesh out a character or grab a readers attention with interesting plot twists is what has kept books from dyingout for so long. And so we come back to the question, why do developers try and do seems impossible? Maybe it is to try and reach a new demographic in a day and age where reading just isnt "cool" or "in," or maybe developers would just like to create there own interpretation of the original work or maybe they just want to cash in on the success of the book. Whatever the case, developers have tried countless times to try and recreate the magic of a certain book in visual form, and the outcomes range the full spectrum of great and horrible. When it comes to anime, in my opinion, there is one thing that will truly define whether the developers rendition will succeed, time. Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi is based off the light novel of the same name and follows the adventures of Ookami, Ryoushi and the group they work for, Otogi Ginko (Otogi Bank). This anime's story really had everything going for it right from the start. While the story's structure is by the books, little details kept things fresh and exciting. With a change up of action and romance things were fast paced and while this is not unusual for an anime story line and maybe not original, I couldnt help but smile at parts or notice myself getting drawn in. And yet, this anime's biggest downfall is its story. Why you ask, after all my praise do I say that the story is this anime's achilles heal? It comes back to what I said in my opening comments, time was what brought this anime to its knees. What Ookami-san (abr. title) really needed was 24 episodes, maybe even 32. While the story and characters are all very enjoyable, because of this anime's short length, you only seem to graze the surface of everything. You never seem to get the chance to get deep into things, get under the character's skins and see what they see, essentially immerse yourself. Even the story, we only seem to be looking at the tip of the ice berg in the anime, and even the more interesting elements, such as the antagonist only seem to be an after thought, a "reason" given to the "good" guys to fight evil. I have not read the light novels, but I feel as though the story was not given enough thought. With what I saw at the start, there was more than enough material to really delve deep and grab the viewers attention, and yet instead we are side tracked with usual anime shit such as the usual "moe moe" we all seem to want. And while much of the story may seem cliche at times, there was a lot of squandered potential. By the end of the anime, most would have realized that there would be no "real" ending, and things would be left unattended. Which is unfortunate because like I said numerous times, Ookami-san had so much potential, so many more characters which could have been developed more, so much more story to be revealed, so much more plot. It all seemed so rushed. My feeling was the developers were trying to cram as much of the story in as possible, but by doing this they were unable to get to the essence of the plot, and unable to draw viewers in. Ookami-san does have some solid strong points though. The animation was very well done, with fight scenes that were enjoyable and smooth. The art was also extremely pleasing, with very good character models and detailed backgrounds. The sound was done very well also, with great voice actors for the main characters, and sound quality that while not outstanding, surely stands above other series in the same genre. Really, by the end of this series, it was these qualities that kept me coming back and allowed me to finish the last few episodes. But anime is not all about the quality of its art or animation. As I stated at the start of this review, Ookami-san's biggest weakness was its time management. This show desperately needed 24 episodes. What started out as a great show, by the end left a bad aftertaste, and not because the story or characters itself were bad, but because of squandered potential. It is not impossible to adapt a book into an anime, as there are many examples of great adaptations, but what needs to be addressed when attempting such a difficult task is time. What amount of time is needed to truly convey what the novels were trying to convey? How much time is needed to truly recreate the story? How much time is needed to delve into the necessary characters and develop them? And unfortunately with Ookami-san, the developers didnt seem to ask themselves these questions.