(WARNING: Contains REALLY SLIGHT spoilers for Spring 2011 shows… but it’s not like we’re giving the ending away anyway though, so whatever.)
HOSHIZORA E KAKARU HOSHI (a.k.a. A BRIDGE TO THE STARRY HEAVENS)
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Hoshizora e Kakaru Hoshi is based off an eroge (adult bishoujo game) made by Feng (Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka), with its anime adaptation being produced by the Dogakobo company (Myself;Yourself). It is scheduled to run for a total of 12 episodes.
A high school boy, Kazuma Hoshino (VA: Shintaro Asanuma, played Yoshiyuki Sakurai in Da Capo II, Junpei Kosaka in Nyan Koi, and Tsuda Takatoshi in Seitokai Yakuindomo), and his little brother Ayumu (VA: Ayuru Ohashi) are sent to live in a small village high up in the mountains in order for to provide a healthier environment for Ayumu, who is recovering from an illness.
As soon as they begin approaching the town, Kazuma starts having strange visions and dreams of a blue-haired little girl, apparently memories of his former stay in that town when he was a child, but even he is unsure of who the little girl really is. After a mix up taking the wrong bus to town, the two brothers get stuck waiting for the next bus to come. During this wait, Ayumu’s hat gets stolen by a wild monkey, which forces Kazuma to give chase.
After retrieving the hat, he runs into a girl, Ui Nakatsugawa (VA: Eriko Nakamura), who willingly gives him a panty shot some directions to get back to the bus stop.
As they’re about to cross a small river though, he accidentally trips up and lands on her, inadvertently kissing her as well in the process. They’re soon discovered by Ui’s friend, Ibuki Hinata (VA: Ringo Aoba), who promptly accuses Kazuma of lechery or whatnot. (What else is new, right? Lol.)
After the brothers find their way to town, they are soon met by the landlady of the onsen inn they’re about to stay in, Senka Yorozu (VA: Shiho Kawaragi), who also happens to be a family friend of theirs. Deciding to take a bath after settling in, he runs into another girl working there, Tsumugi Todo (VA: Chiaki Takahashi), who along with the landlady gets a good glimpse at Kazuma’s tallywacker as he panics around in the bathroom.
Morning then comes after the incident, and school awaits the two brothers. As Kazuma is introduced by his teacher to the class, he’s surprised to find out that the two girls he ran into yesterday in the woods are actually in his class as well.
Hoshizora starts off like any old eroge-based harem anime out there right now, making it a really huge risk at ending up being generic in all aspects it has. While this was certainly true in most cases for that pilot episode, the show did have its good points. The protagonist for one was pretty funny, as he got made out to be quite the butt monkey in some scenes, and his reactions were pretty hilarious. While the show didn’t really try out anything explicitly different yet in the first episode, I think shows like this (or any other show, really) are defined later on by how they handle their own plot flows and endings. Hopefully this show handles it well enough later on, but other than that, I think the show is still enjoyable in its own right, if not just for the eye-candy and the simple humor it presents.