Having dabbled in a variety of genres, such as loli, yuri, comedy, service and even martial drama, indecisive anime Koihime Musou has drawn to a close with its final and twelfth episode. The series has been positively received, and for good reason, but does have some weaknesses, so it perhaps deserves a guardedly positive evaluation.
Nobody is likely to find too much to fault with the likable characters and high production values (although the battle scenes are quite dire window dressing at times), but the haphazard story development would be more forgivable if the title opted to make things (even) less serious.
The charmingly reimagined Three Kingdoms story, with all the hairy generals replaced by maidens, is also a rather intriguing premise which deserves praise.
The last episode itself seems like something of a rushed tie-up, though perhaps this was unavoidable given the balance of the series, with story a distinct second place to situation.
I have to say I am curious about which demographic they were aiming for with this production; presumably eroge fans would receive less restrained service well, whilst the bouncing female cast at times seems to suggest this is just the market they were aiming for. But in spite of this, the series is most tastefully restrained throughout.
Yuri undertones have run throughout the series in lieu of any actual male characters of note – here we see what looks like a novel way of getting a drink without having to use a glass…
Given the large cast and potential for a developed story as well as interesting characters, I would think that the story might be better served by being adapted in a longer format, but perhaps the title’s popularity could not sustain this.
It seems unlikely that another season will be forthcoming, but fans will soon be flocking to the upcoming expansion of the original eroge title (as well as a non-ero PS2 title), set to add a mass of new characters, so it looks as if the series nonetheless has a promising future in its original visual novel format.
I leave you with a segment of the game:
[poll id=”14″]
I think that it’s a super awesome anime as long as you’re not looking for anything super deep, thought out or plottish. As long as you take a laid-back approach to it, it’s fun as. ^^
I watched this right after the last of Code Geass. What can I say, it almost made me forget that crap.
I didn’t expect much from this series, but it turned out really solid, I kept enjoying it week after week while bigger names disappointed. I’ll definitely be waiting for those new episodes, whatever they might be.
I said it once, I’ll say it again.
I love ancient China.
Haha definitely the storyline was directionless, other than just trying to throw the characters into the general plot of the actual Three Kingdoms at the end, but the characters are great at least.
I enjoyed lin lin but after a while at episode 6 or 7 i just gave up on the anime. I do give praise to the ED though. I thoroughly enjoyed the ED