AKAHORI GEDOU HOUR RABUGE
Evil is good. Literally.
Review by: Craig “So Bad I’m Good” Norris
Length: 13 episodes
Genre: Comedy, parody, magical girl
Watched: All, subbed
Did you ever try to do something and wind up with results that were so different from what you wanted, you might as well have done the exact opposite? Now imagine that happening every time you try to do something. That’s this series in a nutshell. Behold 13 episodes that teach us that some of the biggest mistakes rise from the best (or worst) of intentions.
Plot synopsis: This series follows the exploits of two groups of people. First, Ayumi and Karuko are two aspiring comediennes who moonlight as galactic police officers in super suits who go by the name of Love Pheromone. However, their comedy routine is not funny in the least, and their “heroic” exploits cause so much collateral damage that they have been named the most evil organization in Japan. The other half of the series follows the Hokuke sisters, five girls who were orphaned after the deaths of their parents, underlings in a professional evil organization. The girls unseal a demon left to them by their father, who gives the five girls the power to become the evil Gedou Otome Tai. Unfortunately, the girls don’t have an evil bone in their bodies, and everything they do seems to make the world a better place.
Artwork: The art is admittedly not the greatest, but it gets the job done. The only time that the visuals get fairly elaborate is during transformation sequences, all of which get recycled over and over again. Hey, gotta save money somewhere, right? Backgrounds and character designs are all pretty standard and unremarkable. This is not award-winning stuff, but it’s not so horrible that it drags down the whole production.
Music: Again, not the greatest, but good enough. The opening and closing songs are pretty catchy, but still fall into the category of fairly generic. All the stuff in the episodes is your run-of-the-mill background stuff. All in all, the soundtrack is not impressive no matter how you look at it. But it won’t cause massive hemorrhaging of the eardrum, so there’s that.
Characters: The personalities of the two main groups are extremely divergent from one another. Love Pheromone is a selfish free-for-all, while Gedou Otome Tai has a strong family bond. Ayumi and Karuko are two peas in a pod, with the same blind ambition and inability to see that both of their jobs always turn into disasters. They would probably both sell each other out given the right price. Their manager, Seki, is actually a billionaire who is also a masked crime fighter. Not technically a Batman ripoff, because Seki is inept. Otone, the eldest Hokuke sister, is the responsible matriarch of the sisters who looks after the others and works several part-time jobs to make ends meet. She keeps the family together, and also makes sure that the memories of their parents stay alive. Yoku is in middle school, and is pretty much the opposite of her elder sister. She often falls asleep in class, and lounges around the house. Maika is a middle school genius who doesn’t say much and works as a teenage model on the side to raise money. Kanashi is a gentle-hearted grade schooler who is often confused at her teachers’ reactions to her over-developed figure. Utano is the youngest sister, and predictably is the most simple and pure hearted of the sisters. The demon that they unseal, Akunoko, is determined to turn the girls into the ultimate evil, and gets understandably frustrated when they wind up doing good deeds. The characters are developed such that their desired good or evil intentions are completely contrary to what their nature dictates.
Plot: The whole plot is basically a fleshed-out fish-out-of-water scenario. You have two selfish and shallow people who are supposed to be great heroes, and kind-hearted sisters who are supposed to be “excellent evil.” Of course, there are the standard plays on magical girls, property damage, fourth wall breaching, and impossibly contrived plot twists. It’s all pretty well done, and is sufficiently entertaining throughout the episodes.
CHICKS!: With a name like Love Pheromone, you’d think they’d be the easiest score this side of an installment of Girls Gone Wild. This is not so, due to the preferences of these two girls. Karuko has a thing for underage boys, and Ayumi is a total lezzer, whose desire shifts evenly between underage girls and big-breasted girls. I am none of these, so I get written out of the equation by default. Of the Hokuke sisters, Otone is the only one who is of legal age, but that works out well since she is the best looking of the bunch. She has a nice figure, ample bosom, and a sweet smile. She also has a cavernous appetite, which is not a good thing given the family’s shaky financial situation. Patience might be a virtue well worth having in this situation, as some of the younger Hokuke sisters may grow up to be extremely desirable, especially Yoku, who seems to be getting in some much appreciated fellatio practice with all the bananas she eats.
Overall: This is a fun, silly, non-threatening series that presents some highly entertaining scenarios. If you need a relaxing afternoon or a few good laughs, there are a lot worse ways you could spend it than watching this series. Of course, you might intend to watch this series and wind up painting a fresco or something, but that would be nobody’s fault but your own.
IN A NUTSHELL
+ Entertaining
+ Lighthearted
- Production values unimpressive
Rating: 7/10