Giji Harem

Here's why you should watch Pseudo Harem:
1. Hayami Saori
- If you're a fan of her, you will definitely enjoy this one. The role she's playing has her utilizing her talent in every corner, so you get to hear every kind of voice aside from the renowned soft-spoken tone you'd hear from her usual roles. Not to mention having her character being an actress, you would get an endless amount of talent just oozing in every second of her screentime. Let's not forget the other guys as well, they do well to commend the character and help make Rin stand out as well.

2. Just Cute
- Like ... the many roles her characters have to strap into, you get many scenarios with the main couple that are enjoyable to watch for romance fans. Blushing, rizzing main heroine endlessly, holding hands out of nowhere, or getting close, it's the whole package for your romance delicacy.

Biggest Downside of Pseudo Harem:
No Build-up/Storytelling
- The anime is only interested in showing you cute scenes and has no actual scenario creation. There's no plot cohesion either, so you're constantly jumping from one cute scene to another without proper build-up or connection between scenes. It may seem like a plus for not having your romance being sidetracked by the other plot, but the lack of plot means there is no chance for character development except for cute moments or random drama it sometimes throws once in a while.

Other than that, you get an experience equivalent to getting diabetes. As much as I would appreciate the anime having storytelling, think of it as a large dose of sugar sweetness that keeps going nonstop without a break. It's a good ride, try it if you want to.

Thank you for reading.

When a harem evolves to the point that it consists of only one girl, you get Pseudo-harem. This anime is perfect for those who love harems filled with lots of girls with different personalities but just can't choose who to simp over. Or maybe you just want to see two well-adjusted and kind-hearted adolescents having lovey-dovey moments.

This anime is the equivalent of powdered sugar-covered candy. Every part of it is sweet and delightful: the colorful animation, the serene background music, and the way the characters interact. Simply amazing.

Right off the bat, though, the story doesn't have one plot. It's more of a compilation of ... their sweet daily lives. But then again, this anime doesn't really need a plot when it's pretty much visual diabetes. It was meant to make you giggle and punch the air with joy and a slight hint of jealousy like an idiot, and it succeeds in doing so.

The animation is pretty good and well-suited for this type of anime. It's not visually stunning or anything, but it does the job of capturing the cute and wholesome tone of the show.

The OST is also much appreciated. It gives off that 2010s romcom anime feel. The OP can easily be on my no-skip list; play it on the speaker and put it on full volume.

The MC in this anime is very likable. He's not dense or annoying. He's supportive, humorous, and his voice is surprisingly nice to hear. He's not a plain beta male like in some anime. He knows he likes the heroine and sometimes even confesses his "love" to her but cleverly hides it by saying things like "Oh, it's just acting" or "Oh no, I'm confessing to one of your personalities." But I think the creator isn't very subtle about showing that he indeed really likes her.

As for the heroine, oh boy, where do I start? She's genuinely amazing. A girl that can "transform" into any type of girl that you want, but at the same time, remain the same sweet and lovable girl that she is. You can't get anything better than that. The author was definitely daydreaming when they created her. If she's based on someone the author knows, then I'm seriously envious of the author for ever meeting someone like her. Every time she smiles, I just want to get on my knees and propose to her. She radiates so much sunshine, energy, and positivity that if you put Enoshima Junko next to her, they would start pulling at each other like magnets.

Highly recommended for those with a sweet tooth.

The "harem" genre has often been viewed negatively in the anime community as a whole. Most of the time, whenever there's a new show that is tagged with harem, watchers ignore it, and in result, it gets underappreciated despite their potential to actually do better than what people think it would be (atleast some harem). Unfortunately, this is also the case on "Giji Harem", as the title suggests that it is a harem, when it is actually not.

As for the story, it's rather simple. The narrative mainly focuses on both the main character and the main heroine's "moments", which some people might not like ... that much, as other shows doesn't really follow this kind of format. Personally, it really works with the show's idea of showing how their relationship develops. Focusing equally on other characters would make this show bad. Though, what really stands out in this show is the idea of 'one girl, one harem' which no one has ever seen in this medium. Sure, there were mindbreaking ideas like having 100 girlfriends (I'm talking about you Chadtarou), or alien girls, or whatnot, but this one just blasted all of those, ate the cake, and left no crumbs.

Art-wise, it's also fairly simple. Nothing really ground-breaking aside from the fact that they did the character designs justice. Most of the characters that were shown up to episode 3 were all manga accurate, which is very nice to see. High quality animation is not really necessary as the show's straightforward nature serves its purpose well.

Another two that really stood out in this anime, aside from the trope itself, are both the voice actors and the opening song of this show. Hayami Saori and Okamoto Nobuhiko really did their characters well, if not, too well. The way they portrayed their characters really felt genuine and gave huge impact throughout the show. Additionally, the opening of this show perfectly works. The vocal duo complementing each of their voices are so good, and the lyrics are also accurate on what this show is trying to portray. It also felt like Rin and Eiji were the ones singing.

For me, this is an easy 9/10. I know, it's too high for a show like this, but I've been trying to find this kind of show for such a long time it's crazy. I've probably seen most of the harem shows already, and this one really stood out on everything I've seen yet. Will I expect everyone to watch this show? No. Will I expect everyone to have the same rating as mine? No. Would I recommend this to everyone? ABSOLUTELY. This is easily one of the best harem (not harem) you'll ever see, ever. (Also listen to the full op!)

relaxing and entertaining.

Objectively speaking, the series lacks several things, the animation is somewhat poor, and the relationship between them progresses somewhat quickly for the episodes that are broadcast...

But the story is simple, it is close, and it is easy to immerse yourself in the interactions that the protagonists have in the different situations that occur.

It relaxes me to watch each episode, and without realizing it I am smiling when I see the interactions with the different personalities that Rin plays.

For that reason, the shortcomings are more than compensated for by the virtues it has, I definitely recommend this series if you like the genre.

Approved by ... Chayane.

Giji harem is cute, fun, and heavily carried by the phenomeonal voice acting from some of the industry's most beloved. The story is cute, refreshing, and I leave every episode with a goofy grin on my face. I'm biased towards the story because I've finished the manga, but I will say somehow the adaption is full of so much charm and character it's unreal.

Shikimori-san, Angel Next Door; there's been a trend of giving school romance more animation budget than they frankly need or deserve. Giji harem goes heavily in the other direction. I was very, very skeptical when I saw the studio's track record, ... and I was prepared for a dumpster fire to match the frankly appalling and cash-grab feel the entire studio reeks. And, in a way, they kind of pumped out the exact level of animation quality as you'd expect. Giji harem has what I would call 'bare-bones' animation. The characters doesn't move much, it's choppy enough that I swear I can see the keyframes, and I've seen the same tree asset like twelve times.

**HOWEVER**. And this is a *big* however. The studio has done a phemeonal job of keeping in with the original manga's artstyle. Unusual facial expressions, some purposefully dubious anatomy, a graphite-like line style, pleasantly pastel and gradiated backgrounds - Giji Harem feels like. Well. An adaption of a manga. It feels like someone took Giji Harem, and, directly from the pages, animated and gave life to the most important part of the series - the characters, and their wacky reactions. The series' strongest points are the almost amateurish art style with it's light and funny banter. Taking that, adding some great actors, and the entire story simply comes to life, with no need for fancy effects, or roto-cam, or heartstopping art.

The two protagonists are, of course, the star of the show. It's rare to see a romance where both parties are just so damn attractive and fun to watch. As a girl myself, watching anime women is...frustrating, at the best of times. It's like watching a whole different species walk across the stage, bug-eyed and whimpering 'onii-chan'. At the worst of times, it means dropping the whole series and scrubbing your skin to get the ick off. And even in shoujo romance, the female lead is often a mary sue with no redeeming features other than 'nice'. Nanakura, with her questionable approach to flirting, is surprisngly relatable and a blast to watch. She's likeable, weird, interesting, fun to watch, and she doesn't act like her brain runs on a cracked version of windows vista. The love interest, Kitahama, is also a joy to watch. He's shameless, loud, and a total class clown. He's weird, but in the same way that your class had that one weird kid, or the guy that was too social. He's weird, in a normal guy way. Something that the empty shell of harem protagonists should learn. He bumbles sometimes, but he's kind, considerate, and has surprising depth. He also doesn't treat women as a totally different species.

Watching Giji Harem, you *root* for these two. The simplistic artstyle, excellent adaption of the source material, and the voice acting give it a solid 9/10 for me. It loses a point for a less-than-stellar OST and music choice.

This is an early review, so I won’t make any definitive decisions on the quality of the anime. What I will say is what I like and dislike about it at the moment.

I am very happy with their casting decisions for Nanakura and Kitahama. They play into their parts exceptionally well. I think Hayami probably has a better range of voices than Okamoto, but both are seasoned pros in the Japanese VA industry and they wear those long hours of work and diligence proudly.

I am also pleased with the animation quality so far. We don’t need the next AoT or anything crazy, but Nomad (responsible ... for animation of Jashin-chan) isn’t holding back on making the anime look like the manga has come alive. Nanakura and Kitahama are very well expressed, particularly Nanakura, and we are never starved for solidly drawn scenes.

These two characters are the only ones with depth, no other characters get more than a few frames of screen time, which means these two have to play off of each other in order to keep things interesting. I think the hope is that by keeping characters limited, they can emphasize the contrast between Nanakura’s different bits better. Personally, I think that using side characters more would allow a better representation of Nanakura’s acting capabilities through reflection. She is convincing on her own, but in a way we only get a sense that everyone is aware of her different characters through implication, for example when the president claims that’s a thing she does every now and then when Kitahama is around. It would be nice if we can see more of natural Nanakura when she isn’t with “Senpai”, or more of Kitahama when he isn’t around Nanakura. Again, this plays out more like a yonkoma (4-panel) manga than a more story-driven manga (and the source is relatively similar in that regard).

What I think Giji Harem gets right is embracing this dynamic and bringing out the richness of Nanakura and Kitahama’s relationship. What is most interesting is that the main character here is in fact Nanakura (we never get internal dialogue from Kitahama, but we are always hearing Nanakura’s). With the main character being Nanakura, that also means we can toss out the oblivious MC (instead we have an oblivious deuteragonist). Kitahama is not completely oblivious though, in some ways he seems more aware than he lets on but he often leans back on thinking Nanakura is acting, and it shows he isn’t entirely sure what her baseline personality is.

This is probably the part that hits the hardest, that Nanakura goes through a lot of effort to make Kitahama feel better and he ultimately sees her characters more than he sees her. He undoubtedly has a great time with her, in fact their dialogue is some of the best I’ve seen out of an anime that laser focuses on two characters. The dynamic is not quite a reversal of the one which we see in Teasing Takagi-san, Kitahara is much more aloof than Takagi when he teases Nanakura and Nanakura is much less standoffish when it comes to being teased by Kitahara, but the strength of the dynamic is at least very similar. It could be that he sees for who she is but doesn’t have a great sense of why she acts the way she does, even when all of the background characters are painfully aware.

All in all, with only three episodes out I am excited to see where this show takes us. I find myself laughing and smiling almost every scene and even if Nanakura isn’t getting Kitahama to confess, I think she’s already won his heart. If anything it seems like he’ll just one day find himself married to Imp-san, Cool-san, and Tsundere-chan and realize he never even confessed.

Giji Harem is a delightful rom-com anime that plays with all the typical anime girl tropes.

In this series, a first-year aspiring actress builds friendships with a second-year stagehand who works on a drama together. She can act out various anime girl archetypes, such as the cool girl, tsundere, spoiled girl, and more. In this way, the guy gets his "pseudo harem."

Their interactions are hilarious, and I enjoy the anime's unique format, which presents them as a series of scenes showcasing their interactions.

While this anime might not be the best of all time, watching how their relationship develops and how she gradually reveals her true feelings ... to him is very satisfying.

This is a must-watch for romantics who enjoy a bit of parody this season.

I grant this a 7 out of 10 as it is not groundbreaking or fun.

Midseason update:

Nothing has changed so far in the anime. It drags to some extent on progression. I want the pacing to improve a bit. Or else it will be a forced 2nd half.

I dropped it to a 6

There's some bits I like. Both Saori Hayami and Nobuhiko Okamoto are great and carry the whole show. The art and animation are fine and the ED is really good! But other than that it's all over the place. Main girl Rin is in love with MC for no apparent reason, it's as if they skipped that part entirely.

It feels incredible rushed! So far they went for all the classic rom-com tropes: christmas date, new years date, going to the boy's house and taking care of him while he has a fever and THAT WAS ALL IN EPISODE 2!!! The pacing is akward and it's ... just weird how it unfolds.

I'd love if they took some time to let things breath and develop at a normal pace but so far nope. Might want to skip this one!

I wanted to give Hayami Saori every chance to continue her absolutely virtuoso performance in this series. But I am getting the impression that even her prestigious talents aren't going to keep this one afloat.

Sure started out well. The first three episodes were cute as hell, and well written to take advantage of the main plot gimmick. But sadly things decended into romcom trope and cliche hell in eps 4-6. The writers completely crushed whatever goodwill they had mustered up to that point.

The artwork is nothing special to start off with, although in the first couple eps, it was cute enough. But in ... eps 4-6 it falls off. But not as badly as the animation. OMG, by ep 6 it was down to Saturday Morning Cartoons bad. Budget cuts definitely slamming this production hard.

I've already raved about Hayami-san. The MMC's VA is pretty good too, and is a good foil for the FMC. Any other characters are meh. I think these two are saving the director from looking completely incompetant.

I wish these characters and voice cast were getting the writing support they deserve. Where this series started out a B+, the grade has slid to an uninspired C+ 78/100. There is nothing phoney about that. If not for Hayami-san, this would be into the D range. But I'll keep watching, because her talent is so amazing.

Why does it seem like anime studios don't put in any effort into their shows? This is actually an anime that I've read the manga for first and really enjoyed. I loved the characters and they actually have great chemistry for once. I don't know why but for some reason in anime romcoms, the writers are so hellbent on focusing on how to force circumstances onto their characters to progress their love, that they forget to make them actually have an interesting relationship. Like these two characters are a really fun duo. You believe their romance because you see their friendship first. They play off ... of each other well and have a trusting relationship that is fun to watch, and it's because we see how much fun they have together that we root for their romance. It may just be my ideals from the American culture in which I grew up, but I prefer relationships built on enjoying the others presence more than emotional residence. Anyways, I love the characters and I really loved the premise of acting out a harem. It's cute, charming wholesome and just a good time.

So, why the 3/10? You see, I was talking about the manga. Now, what I'm about to talk about is not one of those "the manga was better" spiels (even though it was). The biggest issue I have with the anime is the fact that the 10-page chapters that the manga had, where it was just focused on one sort of gag a chapter (kind of akin to American comics like Calvin and Hobbes) does not translate well to the cinematic format. These are not episodes of a show. They are five unrelated circumstances that have the same characters, mushed together jarringly into 20 minutes. It is a series of gags, not a story. This worked for the manga because of how manga is formatted. Where it takes like 2 minutes maybe to read a chapter in the manga, it takes 5 for it to play out in the anime. It does not work for anime. Why is Japan so insistent on just copying the manga verbatim?

Now that kind of series of gag show can work. Nichijou is amazing and it does the same thing. So does Saiki K. But those work because their gags are short and there is enough variety that it remains interesting. This show only has two actual characters and each segment of the episode is 5-6 minutes. As much as I love these characters, these unrelated string of 'things that happen' is not engaging enough for a 20 minute episode.

Why can't they make an original story, with the same characters, the same premise, the same humor? Just add a story. That's all you need to do to make this show great. Deviate from the manga and make a story that fits into the 12 episode run-time. The whole manga is based around the Drama Club, right? Why not make a story about them going through a troubled production, or just give us a sense of time progressing like Horimiya? Add new characters, add emotional depth, as long as you keep what made the manga so great (the chemistry and the humor), we won't complain. I am asking as a fan of the manga, to not just copy and paste, but do something with the source material so it can fit the anime medium. But they would never do that. Because making an original story takes effort and risk.