Make Heroine ga Oosugiru!

PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK CINEMA.
This show is SO flawless, stainless steel got nothing on this absolutely stain-less of an anime.
This show got EVERYTHING done right, so in this review I will only cover what it mostly shines from and highlight the super good of this show.

Recommend for: *Romance, *Directing, *Production Quality, Character, Pacing, and script

FULL REVIEW:
First and most of all is the directing. I feel like I've been transported to the era where A-1 pictures peak as a studio again, with "Your lie in April". A-1 truly struck ... gold with this story, and they fully pull out all the stops to make this story the best it could be. The directing is VERY good, as I will discuss on why in details for each aspect later in this review. This have the same quality, if I may say, as the comix films anime movies, which is very captivating and stunning just to experience. [10*+/10]

Firstly is the production quality. I'm not a production quality / animation Andy that much per se, I normally doesn't care much, but HOLY this show have some absolutely STUNNING visuals, as well as some absolutely angelic OST. If I could mute other sounds, and just look at the scenery in this show, with these beautiful sound mixing, editing, and gorgeous OST, I would for hours, just like a documentary. Though I wouldn't because the character, story, and script in this show is also very good. [10/10]

The character in this show is also what make this show good. Everyone truly feels like have their own life, own story. There's BARELY any stereotyping in this show, at most mixed stereotyping with the characters, which I really like. For example, the dude that's the president of the Literature club, could be seen as your typical handsome dependable president, but he's also like weeb stuff, and don't shy about it, which holy BASED ASF. [10/10]

Next is the pacing, this go in very well with the first point I just mentioned (the production quality). We got some good old comedy, that come in snippets, have some good pause to admire the atmosphere of the circumstance its in, then cut. Which is hardly done to this level of perfection. The story is also not too fast, and not too slow, and always keep e laughing at the edge of my seat every time I watch it. [10/10]

Lastly is the romance script. This arguably is the best (on par with directing and production quality). The romance in this show is VERY real and good. By that I mean there's little to none inner dialogue, nor overly excessive sound effects or animations to signify stuff. Sure there's some comedic animation like derp face etc etc. , but most of the time they let it play out with the atmosphere, which make it feel very real. Also with this mentioned, this make the romance on a whole another level, some may thinks it will take too long to progress in the romance department with the show dont excessively and obviously show us, but I would argue otherwise.

This make the romance develops very real. There's no love at first sight here, there's no love just because he's good, love takes time to develop in this show subtly without the show just blaring at us with their inner head dialogue of "OUUUU I love him so much omg" or something like that. Thus make this very real and very interesting and a good time.

In conclusion, I think this show have no flaws. The production quality with the directing already make this show realllly good, but also with the script and pacing and character that's really real, along with the romance that's very subtle and not blaring, make this even more stand out and the best. There's some point I would be cautious about, that is how fast would the romance develop in the future, but I think it will be good from what we've seen this past 3 episode.

My rating as a rom-com anime: 10/10
My rating as an anime overall: 9.98/10

Why Makeine might be good for you:
1. Good production quality
- A-1 Pictures just performs exquisitely when making romance or waifu bait anime. Here, the character designs stand out and the background art visually looks great overall.

2. Subversion of ideas
- If you're a guy who likes ideas being subverted for a fresh take, this anime might be your choice. Makeine focuses on the tragic yet comedic fates of these heroines who fail to make a move on their love interests, leading them to the friend zone route.

3. Character interaction
- I'd say it's a plus for this anime thanks to Nukumizu's role as an audience's ... surrogate. He's witnessing the girls at their worst, so you get to find out the funny side of things instead of your usual melodrama crying from utter rejection and such. Because of that, the comedy works pretty well, even though the majority of cast existing are pretty much nutjobs.

Possible issues for Makeine:
1. Tropes are in sight
- The story is eager to explore the fates of the losing heroines, so you're also subjected to their personalities that led them to not being able to get a boyfriend in their school days. As such, they employ tropes you have found in your earlier anime-watching days. Development will come for sure, but you may have to go through a bit of uninteresting quips to find any worthy growth.

2. It's susceptible to disappointment
- When you try to pursue unique ideas, it relies on proper execution and unique storytelling. Other than making a plot for the actual romance plot to happen, this anime is diving into solely subverting the friend-zoned girls arc without any focus on other plots for a safe backseat. This means if the anime sucks at delivering it or has no more ideas left to pursue, it utterly fails on its mark.

I'm at the point of wondering if it might be a good watch or not. So far, it's looking good, you get to see heroines making more expressions than just being a losing heroine. But I'm also worried about the anime just randomly failing by the time it runs out of ideas. Let's hope for the best.

Thank you for reading.

“If only she got over him… then maybe I could have a chance!” cries the light novel author as he writes his NTR doujin.

Nothing is special about Makeine. It’s the 10000th rendition of a cast of cute girls involved with some loser. But atleast there’s a twist this time: The girls get cucked hard out of their love interest. This is the only interesting thing about Makeine. Everything else sucks.

The main problem of Makeine is that, despite being subversive, it’s no different from the classic, and well-beloved, loser harem show. We have a blank self-insert and a bunch of cute girls involved with the main ... character for no good reason. It’s not special at all. No matter how much it wants to paint itself and its vapid cast of characters as special with manipulative presentation.

Makeine tries to sell its hollow characters by how much they appeal as your ideal waifu. While it walks through introducing our beloved heroines one by one, it’s so obvious that they’re crafted to appeal to specific sets of tastes. Every heroine embodies an exaggerated archetype. Every anime is guilty of this to a certain extent, but with Makeine one gets the sense that an entire character's selling point is that archetypal template. Think of Love Live: Every idol in that show is made to print money; they’re marketable waifu templates made to peddle to lonely otakus. Makeine is no different. This is the business model of anime after all.

And that is as far as the characterization for each heroine goes. They’re as blank as rocks and just do what you would expect them to do based on their archetype. See this super shy and socially awkward girl? At every interaction and scene, said character would play out that role to a tee. There’s very little deviation or any substance to be found with anyone in the show.

One of the worst parts of Makeine would have to be the protagonist. Somehow, out of all the cope anime I’ve seen, this is the worst self-insert. Not only is he devoid of ANY personality, he can easily be mistaken for an eunuch—a term for castrated males who are assigned subordinate roles; their emasculation makes them the perfect docile slave, to not only to rule over, but to ensure the safety of the women in a royal palace.

Seeing that as the lead character is excruciating. He gets dicked around by all the other characters. His role seems to only be a vehicle to get the other characters to do things – rather than being an actual character himself.

The mere existence of the protagonist is what causes a lot of my problems with Makeine. Remove him. He’s unneeded. Not only does he add nothing to the show, he changes the entire lens and the expectations going into it. It could just be a handful of cute girls and their failings with romance; instead – since there's some blank, hypogonadal self-insert of a main character – the anime turns into some perverse anti-harem.

We’re not watching cute girls failing at romance; we’re watching a twisted and backwards harem anime.

“Oh… but that’s the point! See? It’s subversive and self-aware!” – says imaginary Makeine defender.

I can entertain the idea that it’s doing something similar to School Days and that it’s taking the piss out of MY expectations going into it. But even taking that as true, it comes off as a half-assed attempt at it.

Sure, it’s playing on an expectation and being subversive, but it doesn’t do anything interesting with that apart from doing the subversion. Other than that, it’s a generic romcom that’s considerably more annoying to watch – precisely because it fails at meeting the expectation it created from being subversive. It just ends up playing out how any romcom would in an infuriating way.

The most annoying part about all of this is that Makeine expects the viewer to applaud it for doing something mildly subversive. It presents itself with an air of sentimentality and entitlement. After it has shown you its groundbreakingly creative premise, it thinks that it already has you emotionally invested. I’m groaning at all the contrived sentimental scenes, at the sappy piano track, and at all its attempts to convince me that it’s some serious, deep and emotional masterpiece—It’s not. It really isn’t.

Its vapid presentation isn’t a redeeming quality. The visuals are just an eye roll; they’re painfully inoffensive. Sure, it does everything right. One could say that it looks good. But I can’t help but feel nothing towards it all. It does all the trite modern techniques—all the right camera shots, all the right editing and directing—because that's the industry standard and the formula that guarantees success. There’s no life or creativity. There’s no original or exciting animation or directing that would even hint at a spark of vision. Think of anything made by Trigger or Gainax.

This is what good anime is supposed to be apparently. Just formulaic cash grabs and with an interesting twist as the selling point. That’s Makeine for you.

Anyway! This sucks. Dropped. 1/10.