Angels Tail

Catching up on a few eps of this one last night. Pretty ordinary harem comedy that has way too many characters for a 12 episode + 1 OAV series. I mean, this guy has a DOZEN angels overseeing him? We get the first three introduced in the first episode, and they begin adding more and more of them before we even have the chance to become acquainted with the ones already present. Take away the last 3 or 4 eps for the 'serious' story arc, and you're left with cramming 12 girls and the guy's stories into 8 episodes. They needed to either cull back on the girls, or go 24 eps with this one.

Art: plain. Girls are adequately cute, guy is your basic everyday average nobody. Scenery is simple, yet cleanly drawn as to be easy on the eyes. Music: the one main theme (sung in the closing credits and instrumentalized throughout the body of the episodes) is an easy listen; but is replayed so damn many times as to become annoying (reminds me of my local DJ erasing Debbie Gibson's 'You Light Up My Life' after having to play it once per hour every hour for over six months due to its popularity with the local listening crowd. He finally snapped and destroyed the master live on the air). Script: bland. They had too little time to cram in the large cast and have any of them develope anything past flat 2-dimensional cliches. The extra time and patience that could have been given the series with a 24-ep run would have paid off in a much better product, IMO.

Rating: B-. If you're not into the cute girl/harem stuff or if you're ultra-selective in choosing from among the genre, this is a thumbs down. There are far superior harem comedies out there. If you are a big fan of this stuff (I am), this is a decent enough thumbs up. Totally inoffensive series that will pass the time in a pleasurable manner. You will have to use your imagination for the most part, though, given how brief and flimsy the introduction and coverage the characters get...

IIRC, there is a second story arc either on now or coming soon. ( Shudder, 'Pet Semetary 3' )

Wouldn't the old song, 'And They Call It Puppy Love', be more appropriate for this series?

What would have resulted if he had kept for pets, say, tarantulas, or horny toads, or blowfish?

Dave Baranyi

Here's the page: http://www.wonderfarm.co.jp/shippo/

His 12 girlfriends are derived from the Chinese Zodiac animals; their opponents are the Four Saint Beasts. Our hero is himself the reincarnation of ... somebody I don't know. None of this is spoilers because it's totally irrelevant to the story.

I wonder if part of the inspiration for this story is Inoue Kikuko's belief that she is a reincarnated fish: http://www.tcp.com/doi/seiyuu/inoue-kikuko/

Ah nuts, I was hoping for the appearance of a blowfish-girl. They could call the episode, 'Deep Trout'.

Dave Baranyi

The problem is, you can't go back and fix it. The characters are now there and they've gone through their first season. The only thing now is to plow ahead with some other storyline; and from what I've seen, the second (or third) runs aren't as good as the first. Given how shallow this one was, I fear the second will be pretty bad. This series really needed those 'filler' episodes to make us care about the cast. Take the first three angels, spend two or three episodes before bringing in the next one (instead of throwing her in in Ep 2, followed by 2 more in Ep 3, followed by...). Basically, they introduced themselves, we spent a few brief minutes watching them, then it was time for the next batch to be thrown in the group.

Well, there was the snake, and she turned out to be quite the looker...

And are all guardian angels girls? He didn't have a single male pet? And he couldn't play any other melodies on that harmonica? And why did they all think he was such a good master? Shouldn't the fact that a dozen DIFFERENT pets ended up dead under his care clue them in to something about the boy?

I also could never figure out how he was able to support all of them in their guardian angel form. In the first episode, he was having trouble making ends meet when he just had to worry about himself. But introduce twelve others, who all eat like humans while contributing nothing financially, and it's no problem?

They probably will be going into more about each of them in the new season though and also they will be older in the 2nd season as well.

Probably not all of animals are females though but they took the forms of the girls he met before something like that.

I don't really think all of them are his pet though.....some are like from wild. Also not all of them die 'cause of his fault.

Kill 'em, and flush 'em down the toilet. They didn't mind the first time.

I've not seen the show, but from the sounds it sounds like a really cute idea, horribly mishandled.

Little do you know. Pray that no enemy comes in the middle of the night, binds you to a chair, sews your eyelids open and forces you to watch this travesty, episode after episode, horror after horror. Better that you watch the complete Pauli Shore collection if you wish to suffer less.

Dave Baranyi

Isn't there a Law of Anime that says that every male lead in these things must be a pauper? From Tenchi (mostly ate from what he farmed) to Ai Yori Aoshi (the one-room apartment) to Chobits (student from the country in one-room apartment) to countless others.

Why did this one have such a hard time finding a job? In most other series, you go out, get a job that day, and get paid 2 days later. It's amazing how that works...

If it's a Law, it should apply to everyone; Taro of Hanaukyo Maids Tai.

-Galen

Potential Employers think he's taking something because of his totally stoned empty stare.