Hello there. This is review number forty eight. It’s another one from the Spring lineup. This one slipped by me too. Here I thought I was done with the 12 episode anime of the season. I was rattled a bit when I discover I had one more to review and I really don’t want to try that jpop anime. *Sigh*

Anyways, I’ll be reviewing Haiyore! Nyarko-san which is a parody anime and it is twelve episodes long. I haven’t reviewed a parody anime yet so this’ll be interesting. Let’s read on.

Story

Haiyore! Nyaruko-san is about the normal boy named Mahiro Sayaka who was attacked by an alien seemingly interested in him. He was saved by this cute girl named Nyaruko. She explains to him that she is actually Nyarlotephian who came to Earth to protect him and she has seemingly fallen in love with him. It’s love at first sight. In order to protect him, she decided to live with him and the normal everyday life of Mahiro is about to be seriously turned into chaos.

Taking the Pants Off

Oh boy, this anime. Well, this one tested me. You can always Xebec to do some unnecessary anime to further better your lives. I was actually curious to try this because I heard the flash animated ones were good. That’s what I heard so I was always curious what the anime is about. Sadly, this is one anime where you might want to kill your curiosity for leading you to it. I get to a lot of this all the time so I guess I’m used to it.

The  anime is of the parody genre. The problem with this genre is that its mostly slapstick comedy with little plot to it. As if the number of parodied gags is enough to keep the anime going and that’s what generally hurts the genre. You have to be super in love with Japan and everything anime because if you don’t get the reference then you’ll just be wasting your time staring at something you have no idea about.

Surprisingly the anime did do great on the parody side. Some of the jokes where smartly slipped in and most of them are currently up to date. I lost it when they parodied one scene of “Maria is watching over us” and I felt proud about getting the reference. The anime isn’t really that obsessed with parodies and that’s really a good thing. There is just enough to grease the wheels and keep the anime rolling.

Parody is good but the anime is essentially missing an important ingredient. It has no decent plot. There is some small plot about Nyarko being a tentacle alien or something and the girls bunking with Mahiro as part of a mission but it was never really that interesting enough to pay attention to. The plot is really thin and there is very little development. I would always be intrigued about someone getting kidnapped but then anime would stupidly end the story with senseless comedy. There was no payoff when you tune in to the plot so I suggest turning off your reasoning radar and enjoy the anime for what it’s worth.

The anime is supported solely by the characters so whether you like the characters or not affects the overall enjoyment. I’m not going to lie, I really love the characters. Nyarko herself was pretty nice with her loud and clingy personality. The best part of the anime is the character interactions. They were bright and vibrant. The whole setup of Nyarko wanting Mahiro to dominate her while Kuuko would interject herself and offer herself to Nyarko was genius. The characters become likeable in an instant and as they bring more to the mix, it just gets better. The characters are extremely one dimensional though but their personality is enough to make each situation and each episode worth watching. It was a different experience for me to be honest. I love a nicely developed plot and the lack of one in this anime did bother me at first but I got over it fast. A character driven anime is hard to pull off but the anime works without any decent plot. It’s great.

Some people might be turned off by the idea of a parody anime with thin plot and one dimensional characters appearing in 2011 as a huge sin on mankind. I understand that but don’t let it hamper your enjoyment. Some anime just want to be stupid and funny so you can’t blame it for trying. It’s actually a pretty rare case for one to pop up nowadays so this is actually a rare gem. It’s really up to your preference really. They anime is easy to hate but only a few can appreciate what it has to offer, I guess.

Sight and Sound

The anime was flying off the radar most of the time. The anime opens with a dark set up and a pretty gory first episode where Nyarko was beating a monster with a rock then it had some visual novel inspired sweet moments and I suppose it was to suit the parody but it threw me off at first.

The character design was pretty sweet. If you combine it with the characters personality then you get a pretty nice result. The characters are greatly generic though but it has its moments. I particularly love the all fire get up of Kuuko where her body is covered with flames. It was cute and sexy minus the big boobs.

The background was pretty plain and almost everything about the anime is plain. There was no stand out in terms of background or key animation which is sad considering some anime of 2011 at least tries to mask itself with some nice scenery.

There were some fight scenes in the anime too. I loved it because it was just random and meaningless but the scenes where pretty clear and precise. The view would always be fixed on one side so we get a decent fight scene but those scenes slowly petered out of the anime though.

“Taiyou Iwaku Moeyo Chaos” by Ushirokara Haiyoritai G is the opening song and it was cute and fun like the anime. The opening sequence was great and it summarizes the anime pretty good. The ending song shares the same energy as the OP and it was as energetic. The songs were pretty great and it ties the whole anime together.

Overall Score

4/10 “A decent parody anime with no plot.”

As I said before, the anime is easy to hate but it is entirely up to you on how to respond to what it offers. I personally love it because the characters were pretty interesting and the parody was nicely done. It doesn’t alienate me like most parody anime so I love it. The anime is great by my standards.