Fortune Arterial: Akai Yakusoku

Even at first glance, Fortune Arterial seems... shakey... generic. Whoever said "don't judge a book by its covers" probably didn't look in the right book section because, indeed, Fortune Arterial is shakey and very generic. The experience of watching Fortune Arterial is comparable to eating rotten food (not that you would ever do it voluntarily)- the experience is horrible for the first half, then after eating it for a while your taste buds already dead so you feel that it's passable. After you finish eating all the rotten food, you look back and ask yourself "what the hell just happened?" Not all of the episodeswere bad, just a majority of them - pointless episodes that you wonder "why the hell are they showing me these things". In addition, the lolwtfBBQ ending really didn't do much to improve the standing of this anime in my eyes. Story (5/10) The story is my biggest problem with this anime. Simply put, the plot doesn't make sense. The story follows Kouhei after he transfers to a private academy. On the first day, he meets the Vice-president Erika, who strangely alienates him by suddenly stepping away from him. Later he learns that the both the prez and vp are vampires. I think, at this point, ok a generic vampire school one, I'll just put my hopes at that. Yet, surprisingly it fell even short of what low expectations I put onto it. For seriously the first half of the season, nothing happens. Take my word, absolutely nothing happened. They went shopping, talking, tea blah blah blah. Then for the second half of the season, it seems like the producers were smoking crack, trying to fit in everything into the remaining measly 6 episodes. This shows very faulty planning and poor organization. Certainly it would be wise to introduce the plot through the season, maybe even hinting at it for the first few seasons if they don't want to jump right into it, but none of that happened in the beginning. The characters kinda just shopped their asses away and then worked their asses off for the remaining episodes trying to do everything that was written. Truth be told, I skipped parts through the episodes in first half of the season because it bored me to the point where I'd write English essay sometimes instead of watching it. And I didn't feel bad about it. The second major let down was when I become very interested in it starting at the 7th episode and it began to build suspense. I expected a stunning ending.. and all I got was a cheap generic one leaving myself to wonder "wait.. what the fok happened in these 12 episodes?". Grr. the horrible plot makes me angry just by thinking about it. After 12 episodes, almost nothing happened and the things that did happen were relatively insignificant and beyond my care. Art (8/10) Art was probably the only thing that matters that significantly raised the score. The art is good, nothing exceptional, but pretty to look at and doesn't interfere with enjoyment of the story (albeit the meagerness of enjoyment). Besides, one of the characters in the end looked so much like Yami, so I found that pretty awesome. Character (5/10) ugh... characters. What can I say? Kouhei's dense, retarded and probably a fallible species of those generic harem type males. It comes to the point where you're almost yelling at the screen asking how he could be any more oblivious. Oops she's screaming in pain and falls down, knocking over and breaking stuff... BUT she says she's ok with a pained expression... so SHE MUST BE OK :D. yeah that's how "smart" Kouhei is. Nevertheless, the producers had no problem portraying him to the level of goody2shoe that even Mary Sue would get annoyed at his actions. You'd hear the word "Gomen" about 5 times for every time you see something enjoyable. Besides Kouhei's pathetic personality, I find that the majority of the characters weren't too likable or significant. The manipulative and arrogant president, the overprotective secretary, the loud obnoxious loli... perhaps the other quiet loli was the only character that I didn't dislike. What's more is that over 80% of the anime was simply the lazy president forcing Kouhei to join the student council and forcing him to plan events. After 7 episodes of Kouhei with papers around, typing and bowing to the store owners for their support in the next whatever event, one tends to get bored. Very bored.Meanwhile the prez is trying to get Kouhei and Erika together all the time for some unknown reason revealed later. Nevertheless, nothing happens between those two. If you were hoping for a nice summer romance, well look for somewhere else. The lack of actual love in the plot sticks out like a sore thumb in the pile of "we believe you" "you're important" and "not only I, the school needs you!" cheesy crap. Overall (6/10) After reading all these vehement criticism of Fortune Arterial that I wrote up until now, I'd feel bad to simply leave it at that without explanations for improvements. There were some very good things about this anime: stirring scenes that incites emotion, suspense keeping the viewer watching, deep character developments, however, animes hardly ever succeed with just that. What let me down the most was the ending. I was so hooked on the series from episode 7-11 that I thought a good ending would amend for the crap first half of the season; yet, I was very disappointing by the ending and it's inability to introduce something innovative. Not even at the standard of just generic, the ending reverted it so absolutely nothing important happened at all. If the producers ever make a second season, these are some aspects they should consider. 1) Better organization and connection of plot and events so they make sense 2) Cut the useless school scenes and focus on the actual plot. Many anime attempts to combine school and ulterior plot, but unfortunately few succeed at that ordeal. 3) Reduce the episodes spent on developing the history of characters that didn't play a single role in the actual plot. I really hope that if another season comes out, it would be a season where the characters in it could actually feel proud being in it. Call me weird but I sometimes feel sorry for the anime characters being in an anime that was just skimmed through and thrown away. They unfairly carry the failure of the producers who made it.

Yes, of course I watched this because it's bad. One must watch bad shows from time to time, otherwise good shows lose their worth. Of course I watched it so that I could bash on it afterwards, it is simply entertaining to me. You would be surprised to know that I almost dropped it around five times though, I had to battle myself every time to ensure that I could finish it! I want to start out by saying that I feel sorry for Ono Daisuke, I know a job is a job and that everyone's got to eat, but I'd live off of porridge asmy three meals a day for a month rather than involve myself with something like this. By no means is this anime in any way original. Fanboys of harem have seen it numerous times before. Since the vampire theme, unfortunately, is all the rage at the present time they've decided to incorporate it in this schoolbook harem that I'd frankly hoped they would stop producing for the sake of the anime industry. The vampire theme has become something so common that we don't really think it's strange anymore, neither do the characters in the anime when they find out about the existence of vampires so it's all good really. Therefore the vampire theme in this anime became a gimmick, it could just as well have been left out and the show would probably have been better for it (not really). Characters, character interaction, script, screenplay, storyboard, art and animation were all sub par in this production. Being a harem characters especially were abominable, but really, noone should ever expect good characters in a harem. This anime could never have become good, the concept would never allow it, nor would the stellar production company Zexcs, which probably is the worst production company in the industry. It has been a misfortune to have watched Fortune Arterial: Akai Yakusoku.

Fortune Arterial: Akai Yakusoku is a visual novel adaption that I thought really should have done better. The problem with this series is that it lacked uniqueness in anyway and it seems very generic There actually is a plot is very lackluster and seems very generic. Our main protagonist Kouhei Hasekura has just transferred to a new school where he meets our heroine Erika Sendou, who falls for him immediately. He also gets reunited with his childhood friends and he soon finds out that Erika along with her brother are vampires. The problem with a plot like this is that it's very generic and predictable. Ifyou watched so much as one harem in your life you would know what to expect. There's really very little that's unique about it, sure they have the whole vampire plot but it really have much depth. It's a shame really because the part of the plot seemed interesting and overall would have made the series much better. Now I understand that the series is based off a visual novel and they are following the events but the producers could have tried to deviate a bit. The ending is also too good either it looks like something that they pulled out of their ass last minute because they couldn't think of anything. I don't really pay attention to technical aspects but the art didn't really seem too special. It seems up to par with most anime today so I guess it's not bad but nothing special either. The sound is alright too. The opening sounds really good but I think that's because Lia is singing it. The ending is performed by Veil, who I actually never heard of but I would say they did a good job. The VAs all seemed to fit their roles well too. The characters are generic too. They seem like the characters that you would find in any typical harem anime. The main protagonist, Kouhei Hasekura seems like the typical warmhearted lead. There's hardly anything unique about him that separates him from other protagonists. The other characters are also very bland, we got our female lead who seems perfect but has a problem that she wants to deal with herself (well at least she's a vampire). Then we got the childhood friend who had amnesia and is responsible and helpful. We also got her lively and active sister. We also got a character who is really quiet and doesn't really have friends. These are typical personalities for characters from the typical harem. Also there is very little character development too. I wouldn't have really had a problem with the character's personalities if they had significant development, but they didn't. There are a few romantic interests that fly around but nothing ever comes of it. This is a series I really wanted to enjoy but I couldn't because of it's blandness. If it did go more in depth with it's whole vampire thing maybe the series would have been good. But that was a big "if" that never happened. At this day and age, playing it safe doesn't cut it anymore. Thanks for Reading =)

Story & Characters (2/10) Another season, another eroge transformed into an anime. Eroge adaptations are now ubiquitous enough that they have to be treated like shonen action series: you have to start ignoring the obvious and start enjoying the variation in details. Taken that way, Fortune Aerial isn't just bad enough, but even if there's a level of Hell for anime, it wouldn't be allowed in. Ah, school transferring. No youthful memories, no lasting friendship and no meaningful romance. That's the kind of lifestyle Kouhei has been suffered from until he finally gets a choice of his own he opts for Shuchikan Academy, a boarding school outon a peripheral Japanese island that he had once briefly stayed at several years ago. There he reunites with his childhood friends and quickly gets associated with several classmates, but when comes in contact with the eccentric vice-student council president Sendou Erika, something annoys her so bad that would forever leave mark. Much to his dismay, is the discovery of a vampire on campus, and it's someone he's already met. Yeah, this is yet another old-fashioned premise of visual novel, spends its first episode introducing the key players. Awfully familiar, yes? Some guy transfers to a new town to frolic amongst the walking female set up; he encounters "Girl #1" then childhood friends and some new girls. Why does this have to be strikingly cliche when there was another eroge adapted-series in its season, Yosuga no Sora. My goodness, if it isn't bad enough that this was filled with the worst kind of school-romance drivel and unacceptable introduction, it's got VAMPIRES. Whenever you hear the word "vampire," the first thing comes to your mind is blood-sucking monster walking around at night and get burnt when interacted with sunlight, doesn't it? Don't expect any of that kind of treatment in Fortune Aerial because it simply is what it is, school romance. The regular episodes have nothing that could be called an ongoing plot, as they mostly just amount to the main characters busily preparing for school events, enjoying school activities, or (in Erika's case) try to subdue her vampiric nature. The personalities of the characters are a cross-section of archetypes common to fan service shows, and most are executed in a simple, straightforward way. To begin with, Kouhei's lamely nice guy attitude and his "picking-up-girls" comrade soon prove to be boring. While other characters don't show up much, including standards like the childhood friends, the mysterious and quite one, the cute younger sister you want to protect, the focus remains on the central character Erika. However, the latter turns out to be the most awfully written of all. Heard this before? A vampire tries to integrate herself into man's society by subduing her thirst for blood ends up being more pathetic than she already is. Even if you're not a big fan of Twilight, you would not want to see how much damage vampires receive in this show, stick to Hellsing or Tsukihime if you want to see a vampire babe in action. Art (5/10) Feel, a support-focused animation studio whose only other significant lead efforts are the recently-released Mayo Chiki! and the unlicensed Yosuga no Sora, here produces a showy and colorful effort which is hardly a paragon of vampire element but loads itself up so effectively on the cute factor that the lackluster animation may not matter. The same applies for background art and character design too, which seem to look good but also absolute typical for this type of series; while the girls' look can be replaced, the blandness of background art is a complete waste of this unusual setting (a boarding school built on a small forested island). Perhaps the way vampirism is going to fit into the picture could be a bit intriguing and serve as an initial hook, as these vampires can walk in broad daylight, but this offering comes from Feel didn't show why viewers should keep watching. Sound (5/10) The problems don't end there; production wise, this thing is an epic fail. The score is acceptable with nice violin mix and soothing music, but its graphic spends too much to show the bright side of schooling despite all this vampire problem here. The same could be said to ED, which captures the enthusiastic fan-service of the show, something they didn't allow to bring on campus. Japanese seiyuu performances conform to the expected mix of cutesy interpretations. The voices is a loud, shrill assemblage of cheesy and cute accent; whenever something "funny" is supposed to be happening, a "THIS IS FUNNY" honk-beep cacophony starts blaring, nearly at the same volume as the dialogue. Overall (4/10) Now Fortune Arterial is a terrible show, but not because of the idea - its current season also aired one of the most censored eroge anime, a guy traveled to his place from childhood and got stuck up in one of the worst harem, so let's not pretend that somehow this particular idea is any more or less boring than anything else in its genre. No, this show is awful because it's unbelievably poorly constructed and executed – this is one of the worst vampire element of any fiction ever come in existence. At least Yosuga no Sora has the benefit of pretty landscape and soothing music; this series can't even manage that much or perhaps, it aimed to become even more than what a school romance could be, which often fails.