2.5-jigen no Ririsa

Here we go. First of all, a point I have to emphasize right at the beginning: ANIME IS CENSORED! The manga is much more explicit, very much. J.C Staff did the favor of removing the only interesting point from the work.

Fine, but if it’s bad, why did you mark it as mixed feelings? Simple, I definitely hate censorship. For me, if it’s adapting something, it has to be the same way as the original or improve what already has changing some things. However, there are some points that make me like this work: Traits of the characters are beautiful, the characters are beautiful, the ... plot does not appear to be dragged (so far), removed much of the ecchi but another small part remained... Given that it has studio that removes everything, then I would say it is a plus point.

Overall, I give my AVERAGE SCORE a 7. But depending on it, it can go down to 3-4.

Imagine a world where the entire history of anime and manga were trained into an AI model, and then someone wrote a prompt like "setting: high school, topic: cosplay, includethemes: (harem, childhood friend, ), malepatheticnessfactor: 0.65, fanserviceweight:0.86, tropeweight:1.0". It feels like the output could be this show. Its not that its a bad anime. It has some enjoyable parts. But it feels soulless. The premise is generic. The execution is generic. The only thing it has going for it is its "plot". That may be enough for some. For a long time it was enough for me. ... But lately it feels like many anime (and manga) are just cookie cutter products relying completely on tired tropes and fanservice to carry a mediocre core. This one is no exception. Story is an after thought. What story there is doesn't seem that emotionally engaging so leaves little impact or investment. True, the girls are attractive. 10/10 I would bang. But after that I would leave and wouldn't call again. As opposed to a best girl from something like Oshi No Ko, who I'd call back every night begging for more.

Based on the "3 episode rule" this one has failed to engage me to the point of feeling I need to continue watching. At no point was this an anime I looked forward to seeing each week. From the buzz I've seen in the comments so far, its mostly been around how toned down the fan service aspect has been as compared to the manga. That seems to track. But I doubt adding it would make up for its lack of substance. In short, if you're looking for a brain rot tier fanservice heavy trope fest, this one will fit the bill nicely. If you're looking for something story rich with depth and emotion, ignore a MAL score as inflated as the female characters chests and look elsewhere.

6/10 - Not bad / Nothing special. Dropped (for now) after 3.5 episodes. Too much other quality anime this season. May pick it up again later after its full run if I am in the mood for an anime like I described above. These tend to be easier to stomach binging all at once instead of letting its mediocrity stew over the course of 6 months.