Well folks, it’s been a while once more. I finally got some time off from college, so I’m going to use that opportunity to catch up on some posting here. That said, I’m going start sharing my thoughts on only a few select anime starting from now on. I may have said before that I’d be covering every show that I watch every season on this blog, but it’s becoming more and more apparent to me nowadays that I can’t really back that up. Anyway, I’ll start this off with my favorite show from the Fall 2011 season, Mashiro-Iro Symphony. This will be the only show I tackle from that season, mostly because I’m too lazy to do anything else. Hopefully I’ll be able to focus on a few more from the recently finished Winter 2012 season.
Mashiro-iro Symphony: Love is pure white (ましろ色シンフォニー -Love is pure white- Mashiro-iro Shinfonī -Love is pure white-) is based off a visual novel of the same name by Palette. Its story revolves around the protagonist Shingo Uryuu, a second-year high school student whose school suddenly decides to merge with a formerly exclusive all-girls private academy. Shingo is one of the select students from his school who gets to participate in a trial class consisting of students from both academies. As expected, the transitioning he experiences there is pretty rocky, to say at the very least, as most of the girls from the other academy are wary and suspicious of boys are a result of a lack of exposure to them.
The plot of the anime itself isn’t anything entirely new, and neither are the characters themselves. Anyone who’s been watching harem-based romance anime for most of its existence can probably see the patterns drawn in this show. A protagonist who draws the romantic attention of a handful of girls, a few tsunderes here and there, a quiet-type little sister (who conveniently enough isn’t blood-related to him), a very cheerful, lovable, and comically clumsy maid, a sweet, yet air-headed upperclassman… the list of cliched themes in this show goes on and on.
Fans who’ve grown accustomed to watching shows like these have probably already convinced themselves that they’ve seen it all with regards to this genre, and only tune in for the comedic situations or the fanservice. Such was the case with me going into picking up this show at the time, as I was expecting nothing more than picking up a few laughs and some random “HNNNGGH” moments here and there. While I still did get both of those by the end of the show, I surprisingly ended up getting a heck lot more than what I was originally planning to check it out for.
For me, Mashiro-iro’s strengths as a show lie in its dedication to cling to its plot ball and completely run with it in the opposite direction most other harem romance shows take today. While granted that the show still has its occasional fanservice moments, most, if not all, of them were done with some obvious moderation in mind in comparison to other shows in its genre that completely blow their ecchi meters off the scales (not that I’m complaining about that, of course :P). What it lacked in “explosive” fanservice though, it more than made up in other forms of aesthetic candy. The character designs are wonderful, and you can tell that a lot of effort was put by Manglobe (the production company for this anime) into its animation. The OST songs and tracks are all pretty catchy too, with its ED theme, “Suisai Candy“, in particular being the one that stands out for me here. (The OP theme is pretty good too, btw.)
I felt that ultimately the show was able to focus on properly developing its core group of characters and establishing a firm emotional tether between them and the audience because of this. All of the major characters felt very real and natural as the series went on, and it was hard not to empathize with whatever it is they’re doing on-screen. It’s been a recurring issue for me before on some anime where over-the-top fanservice pretty much switches me from “serious” mode to “LOLWUT” mode, which in turn causes me to lose any stock of emotional investment in a character. This, of course, wasn’t much of a problem with this show in connection that what I pointed out earlier.
Another part of character development in a harem-based anime is that you eventually take your bet of who ends up with the protagonist by the end of the story (if it ever gets to that point, that is). The storytelling did a great job of allowing for a few surprises here and there to take place and intentionally keeping us on our toes for most of the anime in that aspect.
All in all, I found Mashiro-iro Symphony to be a surprisingly deep and well-written show that happens to be unfortunately bunched around with other more pedestrian shows in its same genre. Romance fans will surely love this show because its simple, straightforward storytelling does a great job of stripping down the love stories it tells to the bare, heart-warming emotions and charming, subtle humor it wants to impart to its audience. I’m obviously going to leave out how the story concludes, but I think it would safe to say that regardless of which girl in the series you end up rooting for, it’s inevitable that you’ll be enjoying the journey leading up to it anyway.
Cast (Major Characters):
Takahiro Mizushima (Shingo Uryuu)
Ryōko Ono (Sena Airi)
Mai Gotō (Sakuno Uryuu)
Noriko Rikimaru (Miu Amaha)
Mayumi Yoshida (Sana Inui)
Oma Ichimura (Angelina Nanatsu Sewell)
Episodes: 12
Recommended Fansub Groups: Doki-Chihiro, Oyatsu
Personal Grade: 4/5