Photokano; Fun At Cetain Points, But Ultimately Boring

Photokano Quickie Review

By James U.

Photokano is an anime adaptation of a visual novel published by Kadokawa Games, and started airing April 5, 2013. It’s a slice of life/harem/ecchi title with photography as one of the main themes.

Maeda Kazuya is a friendly high school student who is given a camera from his dad. He takes it up as a hobby and encounters several girls who become his friends that would sometimes model for him. It’s as slice of life as slice of life can be, with the exception of being constantly bombarded by hot women. While it does have its fun points, I ultimately had to drop it because it was utterly boring. I’m not planning on making a speculative review since I didn’t make it past the third episode.

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru (OreShura) Speculative Review

By James U.

Speculative Review at a Glance:

Rating as of Episode 5: 
2 out of 5
Multi-dimensional characters in a terrible story.

Highest Point:
Masuzu is one of the more interesting characters I’ve encountered in recent anime. She’s got a lot of complexities about her that make most of her actions difficult to predict and her motivations hard to read.

Lowest Point:

An important plot point felt completely out of place. What’s worse is that it keeps getting referenced and exploited, but is so poorly executed that it comes off as unnecessary (and worse, unfunny). The anime could still theoretically survive if the details of that plot point had been changed completely.

Recommendation:

OreShura has some interesting characters and ideas set up from the beginning, but ultimately fails in execution. If you’re willing to put up with that for the sake of watching the characters grow, then go ahead. Otherwise, steer clear from this terrible title.

Overview

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru (My Girlfriend and Childhood Friend Fight Too Much) is an anime adaptation of a romantic comedy/harem light novel series written by Yuji Yuji (I’m not kidding, that’s the dude’s name). It began airing January 6, 2013. The anime is directed by Kamei Kanta who’s involved in titles like Blood+, Ergo Proxy, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, among others. I seriously don’t know what he’s doing here. Granted, this is his third time as a director; his first being Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike (2009) followed by Usagi Drop (2011). So yeah, what the hell is he doing here? The anime is also called OreShura for short.