Animehouse

This past Summer season Crunchyroll alone had 40 new anime airing weekly. The worst part about this double edged sword- depending on how you look at it- is that the Summer season has historically been the lightest season for anime. The point being made is that it’s nearly impossible to find every good series without either significant effort or lag that puts you behind the weekly releases. For myself, and surely many others, Pseudo Harem was an anime cannibalized by that schedule bloat. However, when time was permitted I cracked it open and found…. a very serviceable series that takes some really great creative liberties.

Personally speaking, I never really watched many of the PVs for Pseudo Harem. I certainly heard that it was from Nomad and got the general gist of its story, but I wasn’t knee deep in information and enticing content so I passed on it in favor of other Thursday showings in Senpai Is An Otokonoko and Twilight Out of Focus. Sitting here after having finished Pseudo Harem a few days ago, I might have possibly substituted it in for Twilight Out of Focus, but I don’t really regret being late to picking it up. It is certainly a series worth watching, but I would also add that it’s not one that you should rush to experience as soon as possible. It’s funny, it’s cute, but it doesn’t go too much further beyond in terms of expectations.

Now, back to what I was saying about Pseudo Harem as an anime- it’s serviceable. It’s not a standout in any real realm, despite how much I might wish it to be. Towards the end, cracks can start to show in model accuracy and other odds and ends, but it’s similarly not something of a deal breaker. The series happily sits in a Goldilocks Zone of being a passable watch- far from poor enough execution to be an eyesore, but not enough quality to properly stand out. As I’ll get to mentioning here though, Nomad did still have a few tricks up its sleeve for Pseudo Harem. Nothing so much as an ace, but certainly a few pillars that helped keep Pseudo Harem standing- and yes, Saori Hayami and Nobuhiko Okamoto are two such pillars.

To simplify it a bit more, Pseudo Harem put quite a few- not all, but quite a few- chips on lead characters Rin Nanakura and Eiji Kitahama. Also, depending on how you look at it, the blockhead of a drama club president who’s voiced by the same VA that does Sukuna (Junichi Suwabe). Regardless, the secret to the gamble from Nomad (which paid off) was having a first time character designer in Yoshihisa Satou. Though they’re not a new face in the anime industry, their designs are undeniably very good, if not a bit different to the manga. In the manga, Yuu Saitou’s artistic emphasis is on the blocky nature of the designs and a much more transformative and malleable design for Rin. In the anime, Rin has the ability to properly act thanks to animation and a wonderful voice provided by Hayami. Because of that, it seems as though Satou has put more emphasis on a more normal design that focuses on consistency and just looking really good from every angle. Of course, they still aim for more of the blockish end of style for the characters, but the smoothness that they bring looks really good here as well.

For a series about a character acting, Pseudo Harem does quite well at delivering designs that can really appeal to that. Though, I do wish Nomad had a few more resources at hand to provide some more character animation with. Regardless, with characters as the shining star the rest of the series is a bit more… blank? Bland, maybe? It’s not necessarily lackluster, but a majority of the work outside of Rin and Eita is very much intended as background noise. Color design is rather flat in comparison to the color work Saitou provides for covers and loose pages in the manga. It’s an interesting decision, and works to a degree, but I think needed a stronger feel at times to really land properly.

Part of that can be attributed to the effort and quality of the art direction though. It’s hardly a knock against Shinji Katahira (okay, maybe a little), but their environments just don’t support a flatter color palette all that well. I think that the simplicity and layers of their environments have a sort of “stage prop” allure to them, but there’s a considerable lack of texture that would be able to support more monochromatic and dull color palettes. Still, I can’t help but enjoy the interesting blending of 2D environment and processed images. It really does great at making it feel like a set for a performance, but I do still wish that either the 2D environment work was stronger, or that Azusa Sasaki’s color design was a little stronger at times.

Similarly, I could hope for more creative boarding and layouts, but at a certain point you have to understand the limits of Nomad, and how they reasonably applied themselves to Pseudo Harem. A majority of their staff is rather seasoned, and Nomad themselves don’t have an astonishing degree of output or talent on tap. They do what they can, and that can mean neglecting a few areas in the realm of creativity (at times). Thankfully, creativity and expression are not some monolithic pillar of anime, so while the visual aspect remains somewhat untouched, the written realm underwent a world of changes. No, really, it did. I read the manga after finishing the anime (hence why this took so long), and most viewers would be thoroughly impressed with what Nomad and script writer Yuuko Kakihara accomplished.

Primarily, Kakihara introduced a much stronger romantic thread for Rin and Eita, which caused… problems, to say the least if a massive restructure was not in the cards. Kakihara put forward a great deal of effort to reorganize and shuffle content and interactions around to provide a gradient that reflected the development of Rin and Eita’s romance- and I greatly appreciate that. The only struggle with it is that the chronology of Pseudo Harem can get a bit choppy at times to accommodate it. However, I would also argue that while it can be a bit awkward in appearance and feel in the earlier episodes, by the time you arrive at the end, its cadence is comfortably familiar and enjoyable. Of course, the most enjoyable aspect certainly has to be the ending of the anime. While it’s not original to the anime, it does snip out a tiny little chapter in between, which I think was the perfect decision. It provides a much clearer cliff hanger to hold onto for those few seconds as you hold your breath. Then, as the curtains draw once more you arrive at the fair tale ending and the performance goes out with a bang.

Ultimately, there’s a difference between loving a series, and it being an outstanding work. I am more than willing to admit to the shortcomings of Pseudo Harem in terms of visual execution and presence, but I don’t think it quite quashes my love and enjoyment of the series. It wouldn’t stand a chance in a visual joust against seasonal sibling romcoms like MakeIne: Too Many Losing Heroines for example, but I wouldn’t say it loses an inch of ground in terms of enjoyment or satisfaction. At the end of it, Pseudo Harem is an anime that presents much like many others. In a sea of content and opportunity it can be hard to make the decision to pick it up, but this post is here for those who haven’t- what I’m saying is that you should give it a try. It might not make your shortlist during the season, but when free time is found I’d say it’s worth allocating it some time and giving it a shot. It’s fun, it’s cute, and it’s a complete story. It’s a great candidate for an out-of-season watch.