Gakusen Toshi Asterisk

Though it started with a unseen interest to my eyes at first, but as it goes along further in the story it was getting enjoyable though my ease for wanting to watching this anime was a little uninterested to say the least. This anime was somewhat nice to watch to me, because it show self respect, team work, socialization which I lack the most and fighting which I love very much to see.....these things causes me seek interest in this anime which is to say that this anime was somewhat interested in a certain way to me since I could evaluate most of scenarios that took place in the anime.

Gakusen Toshi Asterisk is one of the shows you really hope would be good especially because how awesome the premise of the show was but after watching about six episodes, you will wonder if the show is ever going to get better, but then you realize the sad fact it’s not and you really question if you will ever get that free time you had back from watching this show. The story 3/10 The story to Gakusen Toshi Asterisk is students in six different academies fighting each other in tournaments to see who’s the best in the district is, also the winners can acquire money and become famous if they get first place in these tournaments. This sounded awesome to me because I thought it was going to be a competitive show with some amazing fight scenes, but the show didn’t do that at all and went a completely different direction. What the show does focuses on is having the main character Ayato Amagiri save everyone time and time again to add more people to his harem which can get really repetitive and boring, this show also focuses on a lot on clichés and you will start to question if you are watching something you seen before in the past. When the show does progress through the story you will feel like at times it doesn’t really know where it wants to go so it tries to add new stuff without explaining where anything comes from, which can get really hard to follow and it sucks because I wanted to know what they were talking about. The show also feels like they rushed a lot of parts dealing with the main story, when they didn’t need to do that because they had two filler episodes that didn’t need to happen. The characters 2/10 The characters are probably the worst part of the show because there generic, boring and not very relatable. The main character Ayato is probably the most generic character out of all them, he’s that character that’s way to strong and has nothing to him that makes him interesting as a character. For the other four main characters there’s not much to explain but hear it goes. For the main female lead Julis, she is just one of those characters that gets angry at everything the main character does for no reason. For the second leading female Saya, she is just the character that’s clueless most of the time and makes those repetitive jokes where she wants a bigger chest. The third leading female Kirin, she is the character that’s really shy and gets nervous pretty easily from pretty much anything and for the last female lead Claudia she is the character that’s just there for fan service, there is nothing to her that’s unique. They did offer little things about their past for each character on why they wanted to fight in the tournaments and why they needed the prize money but surprisingly gave us nothing about the characters that was all that interesting or helping the characters grow from that experience and they were also way too short and some characters didn’t have them at all, which was disappointing. The art 5/10 The art design on the characters were okay but it felt like they were very generic. The backgrounds were decent, there wasn’t much to complain about. For the fight scenes though I felt like some were decent but then some focus way too much on these huge effects and made the fights feel poorly down which I felt they could have left out by not doing them or just doing them right. Sound 5/10 The opening song really didn’t do it for me, it felt like every other opening song to any other show, which isn’t bad but isn’t good either but the ending song to me was really good and was the thing I was looking forward to for each episode. The voice actors to me weren’t the greatest and some of them could be very annoying sometimes well watching the show, but mainly for the supporting cast not the main characters. Enjoyment 2/10 I didn’t enjoy this at all and it’s frustrating because the only thing I enjoyed was the ending song which to me isn’t a good thing, but I guess it could have been worse. Overall 3/10 This show is terrible and it’s not because it’s a harem anime, it’s not good because of the story, the clichés and the terrible characters. Stay away from this show.

As I have just finished the final episode today, this is a quick review of the first season There is spoilers ahead so you have been warned Genres - action, comedy, ecchi, harem, fantasy, romance, sci-fi, school, supernatural What I Liked about the show - 1 - Some of the Action/fighting scenes in the show were quite good 2 - I loved watching the Post credit scenes with Claudia at the end of every episode Dislike - 1 - Too clichéd with all of the other action/harem animes (everything from the story to the characters involved) 2 - the ending seemed a bit anti climatic to me, now wondering if season 2 will help make up for the ending of Season 1 Favourite Character - My favourite character from this show is Claudia, this is because that she is the only one who is not annoying and is enjoyable Overall - 6/10

Step One of enjoying this anime... ignore the romance and harem tags. Step Two ... watch in the now don't compare it to other anime especially Rakudai no Kishi This doesn't have romance this doesn't really have a harem. Going into this anime for those will only lead to disappointment. What it does have however are well structured action scenes. Just make sure to treat the relationship of the MC with the female characters as girls who are friends and not much more than that. It does not really fall into the "so bad it's good" category just treat it as an enjoyable anime. It probably would have been received better if it had been released before Rakudai no Kishi and not at the same time the characters of the 2 anime are rather similar but the story itself is a completely different beast. Rakudai is all on the romance. Asterisk on the other hand is more about the action. The "Romance" doesn't exist. It wouldn't surprise anyone if it developed bit is doesn't make any real appearance in the anime.

A perfectly good example of "average". Nothing in particular felt bad, or even subpar. However, per a review online, it did feel like the studio took a "How To Make Popular Anime: 101" guide book and followed it to the T. It did feel generic, and the main reason it scores below an 8 for me is that I was hard pressed to 'feel' anything for the characters. Sure, the harem was likeable. But that does not equal being able to really invest in their character designs or personalities. It didn't affect me the way ReLIFE, Toradora, or even Infinite Stratos did. The show was good for sure, but in a very technical way. The animations were great, the music was good, the harem was good, but it all lacked a certain personality, uniqueness, or air about it. It could have improved much more by going deeper into relationship development or even deeper writing. The political aspects were very interesting to watch and I would like more of that backstory. The writing simply did not strike a particular chord with me, despite being decent. Still enjoyable but fell a bit short, especially compared to Chivalry of a Failed Knight which is shorter but emotionally holds together better. I can see why people hate this show, and there are some valid points there. However, this anime wasn't particularly "horrible" at any aspect, and it gets most of its points of my rating from enjoyment as opposed to execution. It was a tad forgettable.

Gakusen Toshi Asterisk/The Asterisk War's story setting reminds me of the Unreal Tournament video game franchise where a mega corporation took power after a certain tragedy that almost destroy Earth and all of the contestants are chosen to fight in the tournament as an entertainment spectacle albeit less blood sport and the contestants must be a special kind of human being or a metahuman than the Unreal Tournament series. The main character's personalities are diverse since it is a harem anime which gives you laughter that brings you good vibes when you're down. The fight scenes are awesome for an action-sci-fi, fantasy anime because of the lightsaber-esque weapons and big guns found in most sci-fi anime and FPS games. The animation is awesome a big thanks to A-1 Pictures, the animation studio that brings you Blue Exorcist and Sword Art Online. The series music is very catchy and great thanks to Rasmus Faber for providing the series music including the series opening music "Brand-New World" by Shiena Nishizawa who is notable for contributing the ending of music of KanColle "Fubuki".

Mucho ruido y pocas nueces, es la mejor frase para describir Gakusen Toshi Asterisk. Un anime que podría ser interesante, pese a tratarse del típico y genérico cliché de adolescentes en una academia en la cual parece que los adultos sean simplemente los altísimos cargos del lugar y estén todos podridos hasta la médula, con el fin de que tratemos mas de simpatizar mas con esta panda de inadaptados sociales con claras taras de personalidad. El protagonista, alguien quien podría pasar por pariente de Kirito, es mas plano que un folio de papel, no destacando por nada mas que por estar OP por conveniencia del guion, con una misión de buscar a su hermana la cual un día se fue a por tabaco y no volvió. Hasta ahí es pasable, lo que no es aceptable es que este chico se encuentre en varias situaciones en que una chica, aka la amiga de la infancia, la loli esa op, la presi o la pelirroja/rosa tundeare ("algo nunca antes visto") se le ponen delante invitándole con todas las de la ley a graduarse del club de los vírgenes y el decide salir por patas como si se hubiera dejado el móvil en el autobús. Esto señores, es algo patético y que falla completamente a que simpaticemos con el personaje, ya que cualquiera, y digo cualquiera de los jóvenes adolescentes de quince años que se le ponga a huevo tal oportunidad la desaprovecha voluntariamente, lo que hace que parezca un personaje irreal y difícil de que nos agrade, a parte de que la mayoría de veces concluye en un gag ya mas gastado que el genero de este anime. El torneo es una excusa barata para que los personajes luchen, teniendo un premio mas abstracto que los cuadros de Dalí. Las chicas de la serie, lo que suele destacar de estos animes con "harem" para hacerlos algo atractivos, son decepcionantes, no quedando nunca claro de que palo van. Las peleas son un chiste, desde la primera de todas en que son dos rallas de colores chocando, pasando por la que lucha mientras lleva a la chica en brazos y vuela because yes, hasta las finales, cuya tensión radica en que no te metan un flashback con exposición sobre los personajes. En resumen, es un despropósito de anime, el cual gana mucho borracho y viéndolo con amigos, pero que pese a todo no recomiendo mirar. Pd: sigo sin saber a que viene el "Asterisk" del titulo. No me extrañaría que el concepto saliera durante el anime, pero como cuesta mucho que te mantenga atento por su pobre trama y aburrido avance, pues ni papa.

In my opinion is a good anime so far....but the plot characters and the drawing style is almost the same with Rakudai kishi no cavlry which is far better than it....but yeah i enjoyed it and i recommend it^^is not long ....no complicated a bit echi ....i like the idea even it is not unique though...but you can watch it why not...The idea about a man who doesn t have almost any magic and win every match is too exagerated....i know the final need to be good and things but why he win everytime?i know he work hard but.....it s too much...in my opinion

One of the worst anime that I've ever seen. Even the name of the anime makes no sense. It's called "The Asterisk War", But there are no wars whatsoever. Maybe one will appear in season 2 but as far as I'm concerned it should have been called "The Academy City on the Water" because that's where its been taken place and there are 'NO' wars. It's terrible series with anime cliches, an annoyingly overpowered main character and forced in fan-service, (BTW, Fan-service is not my cup of tea in general, so that puts more weight into this shit fest of an anime). Even after finishing Season 1, We are still in the middle of the arc. What kind of series would end a season in the middle of an arc?! That's like Yu Yu Hakusho finishing season 2 at the fourth round of the dark Tournamnet. Ayato is perhaps the worst main character from any anime that I've ever seen. He's basically the textbook definition of a Gary-Sue, which I can not stand in storytelling. The supporting characters are also just as bad. We've got Julis, The Typical Tsundere chick. Kirin, The overly cute chick. And Claudia, a psychotic sexual predator, who is probably the worst character in this travesty. They even have the nerve to make the most interesting character a robot. I'm not even kidding, the best character in this anime isn't even a living being... What more can I say... My advice is to stay away from this trash. You'd get more experience from watching paint dry.

Alright, this is my first review and because the second season just came out and is getting really popular for FUCK-ALL reasons, I decided to review it. But if you like it...good for you. Story: 1 (Sorta spoilers...? I don't know when I cross the line, so just a warning.) I gave it a '1' because it was very disappointing. I thought that perhaps if A1 took time to flesh out concepts and arcs the story might shine out of all of their shows and get a 6. For example, the holograms are a good idea but the consistency is not there. With consistency and and fleshing out the concept, I would really get into this world and understand it a lot better. People are holding it AND controlling it with their mine. Wouldn't your hands pass through the hologram? I don't get it at all. Any foreshadowing in wordplay or symbolism is horrible. When Julis is sewing Ayato's jacket, she talks about coming to the academy for money to put into the orphanage where she (sorta) grew up and where her best friends grew up. The camera then zooms into a photo of the kids at the orphanage including Julis. We automatically know a character is going to be important. Why? The girl next to Julis has white hair, (everyone else has brown/black/dull purple hair), is the only one right up next to Julis, is grinning with Julis, and besides Julis has the biggest grin. Why does it matter? She doesn't matter until LATE into the second season. So no consistency, generic plot, (which I didn't have to point out) horrible foreshadowing, and everything else (that is wrong with the plot) every reviewer has pointed out on every website from MAL to Youtube to Reddit. Visuals: 4 There is one pro before I jump into the cons. I love the color theory, which is the incorporation of colors that seem to go together. Julis's eyes and hair color contrast each other and a good shot of her face in the first episode shows that well! Also the ending theme kinda shows color theory in some shots. But the animation is average most of the time to horrible in some shots. So I don't have much to say about. Lots of things feel unnatural, like Julis's hair looking completely still and dry due to hair spray...I guess, and Ayato's jumping animation is really, really choppy. Flashing lights and directing is fucking horrible and ruins what could've been okay fight scenes. Props to you A1. Sound: 7 I can barely ever hear music when I'm focusing on the stupidity of the plot and trying to put it together in my mind with no avail. Shit. I bet it's even more lack luster than the anime its self. That being said, A1 just wasted (the critically acclaimed) Rasmus Faber's time. The ending and opening isn't bad though but should've been used in a different, better sci-fi/cyberpunk not high school/romance/harem/ecchi anime. Yet it was great music and if the soundtrack had a better anime to work with I bet the music would've been EPIC!!! Character: 1 Being my first review, I think that the rating system is a bit flawed but I shouldn't talk about this in my review, to me characters are apart of the plot but I'm going to talk at all about it. Half these characters are shit and worthless stereotypes. I wanted a yandere character to murder all the bitches in the anime then murder Ayato cause she realized he was an asshole. Ayato is constructed horribly and is a fusion of all harem MCs and all light novel MCs (except Koyomi Araragi, he's cool) and becomes a Frankenstein I don't wanna read about. Lets go through the bitches' 2% real personality and 98% stereotype/bad archetype characters! Yay! FML!!! (I will mention all these archetypes can be done well, but this anime is worse than a cookie cutter character-filled anime) Julis-...Alexia von...Reissfelt (the fuck is this name? Sure she is a princess but she sounds too MUCH like a European princess.) Archetype: Tsundere Level of Archetype: Tsun is directly built into her dere Motive: Get money from Festa. Put money in orphanage. Background/family: Princess, European that speaks fluent Japanese, with no explanation. Plotwise: Has no meaning except to be a female MC tourney partner. (which this anime fucks up) Claudia Enfield Archetype: Mysterious woman with high power and sexual craziness Level of archetype: All she does is dump exposition Motive: for Seidoukan Academy to finally win. Background/family: She has duel swords that show her the ways she could die, and affects her mental state greatly. Plotwise:("Plot") Ass, titties, ass, and titties(and exposition), ass, ass, and titties Saya Sasamiya Archetype: Deadpan lolli, childhood friend Level of archetype: Actually they didn't write her like a deadpan lolli Motive: Promotes her father's weapons Background/family: Ayato's childhood friend that now promotes her father's weapons Plotwise: You could remove her from the plot and nothing would happen. Todou Kirin Archetype: Innocent,(usually over sexualized ) shy lolli Level of archetype: 13 and has fucking Double D's and just follows who ever helps her Motive: To win money in the festas to release her father from prison. Background/family: Father she needs to get outta jail, abusing uncle, and #1 fighter in Seidokuan Academy. Plotwise: Just follows Saya in the end and could also be removed from the plot if she wasn't the #1 fighter in the Academy. She is just there to help Ayato become #1 so he can be the best person in the fucking festa, k? Haruka Amagiri Archetype: big sister-chan Level of archetype: created Ayato's fuck all weakness and created his moral values and motive. Motive: doesn't fucking matter but to be the person to be saved by Ayato Background/family: Fought and supposedly died to an obviously going to be an important character and is Ayato's sister. Plotwise: Ugh...fuck. I don't care to watch the second season. Enjoyment: I was laughing so hard at its stupid shit. So i gave it a 5 cause i laughed at myself for wasting my time and laughed at its dumb characters and almost meta-like story. Which it should've been but it wants you to take it seriously. What, why? Meta-commentary about anime like this is genius and "The Asterisk War" has the perfect characters for it. Cause their shitty and if they did this meta-commentary they would be so much more enjoyable and tolerable characters. Overall: 1 It is bullshit, k? Just pretend there is a synopsis of my review here.

There isn't much to Asterisk War, so I don't have much to say. It's just overwhelmingly generic from top to bottom. Nothing sticks out. The animation is stiff and awkward, with bland character design, bland scenery, bland backgrounds, bland architecture, bland weapons, bland attacks and flat-out horrendous choreography... it's like a manila envelope taped to a white piece of paper. I have nothing to say about the protagonist, as I honestly cannot even remember his name (To be fair, I quit on the series very quickly, but I have seen scenes from later on and am familiar with the overall plot). He looks generic even by light novel and harem anime standards. He's a blank post-it note on the manila envelope, if even that. The fanservice is also pretty bad, so don't let that be a motivator. If you're looking for an anime with cute girls and swords, there are tons of alternatives that far exceed this show. Please, do not just mindlessly consume this show and settle for its placid and uninspired characters. I highly recommend avoiding this series and spending your time with something more worthwhile. Music is alright though. A little on the bland side, but still. Good enough to get this uninspired milk toast piece of animated garbage a whole extra point on its ranking. Nice job.

Nearly typical harem anime with strong male protagonist who is clueless when it comes to girls. To be fair, the male protagonist does have to be nearly as strong as he is in order for the story to develop and move along. However, all of the main character development points and interactions with members of his harem are predictable to a "T'". This anime reminded me a lot of Infinite Stratos except here the subplots of the MC's enemies were better done - and there were more of them with their own goals. For those that read the light novels, the anime stays pretty true to them and you really don't miss much just watching the show.

Hey folks, lets talk about Gakusen Toshi Asterisk. First let me say it is a generic harem, if that is a turn off then don't bother. That being said I feel like we can break down the good and bad and give you a more concise review. Our story starts off with the introduction of the main love interest(Julis Alexia von Riessfelt) and the the male lead(Ayato Amagiri). The viewer is thrown into a transfer student situation. We start off with Ayato walking to school and what does he do on his way? Well our fine young protagonist picks up a handkerchief and decides to return it to its owner by jumping up and entering its owners room through their window. Our Tsundere female lead doesn't take kindly to this as she was currently changing at the time. We get to be thrown into this new world quickly by seeing her rage spill out into magical fire and a duel. This is pretty much the start of our story and the basic information needed to begin our anime. The story from this point forward picks up speed and somehow manages to cover the entire history of this built city, the existence of different factions, Magic, peculiar weapons and the inner workings of the school and the tournaments all in about 2 episodes. Along with the oddly quick pairing of our two leads Ayato, and Julis. This is way too quick and really is the reason this show is not very good. The term "Generic" gets thrown around a lot when it comes to Harems and IMO this isn't very fair. This show however unfortunate fits the "Generic" labeling pretty well. They had a few interesting concepts with the whole arena city, magical weapons with varying degrees of power and options..etc however they decided to blow past everything that could have made their show interesting and different. The last 6 or so episodes begin to slow down and to try and add drama and suspense which unfortunately felt like a slap in the face because once you had gotten used to the speed you expected it to take you to its destination in a single season. However they decide to lead us through their lackluster story and leave us with a most annoying cliffhanger. Though this anime managed to receive a 6 in score, the story wasn't good enough to make me overly excited for a season two and I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way. The characters are pretty "Generic" as well. This is truly an unfortunate experience. Having a definable characteristic like Tsundere is what I think people mistake for "Generic" which of course is incorrect. However this anime again goes to prove the naysayer's correct. The characters have little to no personality, and feel like vessels holding popular characteristic that would grab the attention of those who enjoy them or are new to anime. That being said this again was another chance for the anime to prove its worth. The characters all have goals and dreams and each is obtainable and makes sense. There is no Eren Jaeger here shouting about how he will kill all the Titans as he gets his ass beat. Each character has a selfish, obtainable goal which they hope to obtain through winning these tournaments and getting their wish granted. There were a few frustrating situations with a few characters as they were introduced through a forced drama series of events that didn't feel like it had a purpose other than to add in characters that were not introduced properly earlier. I seen a few reviews telling people it was a poorly constructed political battle or regional battle and though the regional battle is technically true this doesn't seem to be about politics at all. It is basically a Twisted Metal like story, groups of people fight each other to win the greatest prize of a single wish granted as long as its obtainable on earth. The art and sound were really well done. Art was fairly standard, nothing jumps out as bad or great. The fight scenes were bland which isn't good for an anime like this, though they seemed to try and spice it up at the end.The Music and some of the sound effects were really well done. The only negative thing here was the sound effects for the sword were like light sabers. I'm not mad at this because I like star wars but because it didn't fit the weapons. In conclusion this anime isn't great, but it isn't terrible. The second season or the manga might be able to redeem the things this anime did poorly. It doesn't deserve the 1's but a solid 5 or 6 I think is fair game. Watch this if you a fan of Harem's. Though this is pretty low on my harem list.

*contains some spoilers* Gakusen Toshi Asterisk or titled in English as Asterisk War is what exactly you would expect from a generic, uninspiring light novel adaptation. I went into the show with an extremely low expectation since it’s been revered by many as an absolutely horrible series (credited to Digibro’s infamous Asterisk War Sucks series). Due to its reputation, I got curious as to how horrible it could be. Moreover, for some reason, I like to watch bad shows from time to time just to criticize or ridicule them for fun and this instance is no exception. After having watched the show, I did get what I was expecting, yet it got something that surprised me a tiny bit. Perhaps the most notable flaw of this series you would notice is how generic the premise. In a world with specialized schools for kids with superhuman capabilities and technologically advanced weaponry, our protagonist is a mysterious outsider with a hidden overpowered ability. I can probably name more than a hundred stories with the same synopsis. This wouldn’t be much of a problem if the execution isn’t so unengaging and bland. Everything about the setting’s history, social system, and power system are explained through boring expositions. One of the things I despise the most in any entertainment media ever is constant reliance on exposition to inform the audience. It always feels so forced and shoehorned because you know that they couldn’t integrate the information into the story naturally. Even after we’ve gone through the beginning narration, we still need constant expositions from the characters. The one most guilty of this is Claudia, but I’ll get to her later. This show is unable to engross the audience with its dull worldbuilding, but what about the other aspects? Another aspect of Asterisk War that bugs me is its visuals. God this show looks more life less than a dead mosquito I squashed while typing this review. Everything from the color palette to the character design feels so bland and unimaginative. It’s as if this show wasn’t animated by humans, but instead a bunch of undead corpses who’re pushed to the brink of their existence due to bad scheduling and inhumane work ethics. The whole show uses pale colors with zero saturation to make it look bright or colorful. I’m not saying that the art always has to be bright and colorful, it depends on what kind of atmosphere you’re for. A series with a melancholic tone would need a more pale color palette to fit that tone. Meanwhile, a show that’s supposed to be exciting and fun needs a richer color palette. An example would be a series such as No game no Life though I am not the biggest fan of that show. Still, its color choices are incredible and they fit the series perfectly. Besides the color, Asterisk War’s character design looks so generic that I instinctively know it was animated by A-1 Pictures. Why the hell does every light novel protagonist from this studio have to look the fucking same? Nonetheless, the mc isn’t the only one guilty of this. The only ways I could distinguish characters from one another are hair color and dressing style which aren’t even that varied mind you. Now that we’ve established that the show fails to engage us with both its world and visuals, are the characters any better? I’m honestly impressed at how predictable and tropey these characters are. Our protagonist, Amagiri Ayato, is like any other self-insert, power fantasy protagonist who’s an underdog that has a mysterious overpowered ability. He’s a typical nice guy who loves protecting others and is oblivious to the females’ feelings for him. His reason for protecting others comes from his backstory involving his older sister who went missing. If this sounds familiar to any of you, then congratulations ‘cause you’ve probably watched more than 5 anime series. And again, this sort of characterization isn’t inherently bad, but nothing about Ayato stands out whatsoever. He’s nice, heroic, dense, and overpowered. That’s it. And not like these four adjectives are even uncommon among other anime protagonists out there. I guess the only thing they tried to make him stand out is his hair color which is purple. I guess purple hair is still better than another black hair. Well now we know the main character sucks, but do the supporting characters save this show? Julis-Alexia von Riessfeld is the main heroine of Asterisk War and she’s a tsundere. That’s pretty much it really. Normally I have a soft spot for tsundere characters whether they’re well-written or not. But with Julis, holy shit she’s the most basic, run-of-the-mill tsundere I have ever seen. Her whole character is just acting tsun towards Ayato and showing off her firepower. They tried to flesh out her character by giving her a backstory about how she fights in order to raise money for an orphanage she knew as a young princess. Oh yeah, she’s a princess by the way. It doesn’t really add that much aside from being a part of her background as well as adding on to her tsundere personality. However, if you remove the fact that she’s a princess it wouldn’t have changed much honestly. In fact, if she was instead someone who grew up with the orphanage and wanted to enroll in the tournament for money to save her fellow orphans, that would’ve been more emotionally compelling. Her relationship with Ayato is as unimaginative as you would expect. The only development happens at the climax of the first arc where Ayato saves her from a villain with robots which makes her completely in love with Ayato. This changes nothing about their dynamic except for the fact that they decide to team up for the tournament. Another major character that’s introduced in the second arc of the show is Toudou Kirin. She’s the third or fourth main heroine of the series after Saya is introduced. Her entire character is about overcoming her dependent nature and lack of confidence, but it’s executed in the most on-the-nose way possible. Her main goal is to prove her father’s innocence and her uncle promised to help her achieve that goal if she works under him. The main conflict is that her uncle is abusive and Ayato wants to help her to become more confident in her abilities or whatever. The way Kirin’s conflict with her uncle resolves itself doesn’t really make sense to me. First of all, what does her uncle even do that benefits her? Like they never demonstrate why Kirin needed his help. It’s not like her uncle trains her swordsmanship or anything. The only thing he does is scold her or abuse her physically. Then Ayato hangs out with her and tells her what she needs to do and she gets over it instantly. You could argue that the reason Kirin is so dependent on her uncle is because he’s the only family member left whom she can rely on. This argument would work only on the assumption that her uncle provides something she needs. He’s not emotionally supportive nor does his strict discipline benefit her. It would have been much better if the reason Kirin has to obey her uncle is due to being blackmailed or something. Aside from her lackluster character arc, Kirin’s just a kouhai, loli-bait with big boobs whose sole purpose is to become another part of Ayato’s harem. Here comes the most pointless character out of the main cast, Claudia Enfield. It’s such a shame too when she’s voiced by my favorite seiyuu ever, Touyama Nao, who is most notable for her roles as Kirisaki Chitoge from Nisekoi and Yuigahama Yui from Oregairu. In Asterisk War, she plays an onee-san, “ara ara” type character which is pretty unusual when compared to her other roles. Touyama’s performance itself is pretty decent so the problems only reside within Claudia as a character. She’s literally in the show just to give exposition or give fan service. Besides those, she’s just horny for Ayato 24/7 for no fucking reason. Other series have this trope, but in Asterisk War there’s not even an explanation as to why she’s into him. At least with the other girls …

"Maybe I'm imagining it" ---Ayato Maybe I needed drugs to enjoy this. There were some undeniably good points. Very well done art, great backgrounds, very good integration of CG, bit above average characters. Well done music, and above average voice acting. It even has the MC who isn't completely useless guy. Sadly that's about all the good points. The world is half baked. The writing is very lazy. The MC is horrendously OP but his ability to fight has been sealed. But he can break the seal when he wants for limited periods of time So he might as well have Voltron's blazing sword when he wants it. The other characters beside the MC are really bad. There's Pink Haired Tsundere that high kickcs Busty Blond manipulator that likes to make MC nosebleed Timid tiny sword saint who likes to take abuse. Tiny girl with big guns who and no personality. Angry guy that picks fights he can't win. Third wheel guy. Various equally generic and unmemorable villains. The world ? Well if you can follow what's going on in this world, you're one or more up on me. Far as I can figure there was some disaster or other that destroyed the current world order, created a variety of superhumans, who attend highschool in an academic city and engage in bloodsport as mass entertainment and as a means of determining status. You have a lot of ridiculous combat. There's also a bunch of subplots related to extortion and power games between the factions. It winds up like a mystery novel where the author has deliberately left out the clues. The story ? I suppose there was something, mostly what I saw was many many fights where I had very little doubt about the outcome. There were background threads but damned if there was any logic to them. Starving orphans ? Lost relative, crazy father, imprisoned father, it's got more of them than a season of Days of Our Lives. There's also a harem romance going on but with all the arbitrary going on I really couldn't care about how it worked out. Don't see how you are going to get caught up in 2 undeveloped 12 or 13 year olds fighting a 17 year old for the guy. Maybe one of them will win but if they do who cares. You just feel the need to shower and get clean. I've seen worse, this might even have been worse if it was more comprehensible. As it stands it's just another really muddled anime.

Intro: Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry after being downgraded. Story: 2/10 This series is so cliched and generic that it becomes annoying. The plot is just awful: it is boring, predictable and stupid. There is the OP, cool but shy around ladies type of MC, there is the girl that secretly likes him, and there are all these other girls that just fall for the MC. Characters: 1/10 The characters are, generic, cliched and worse than one dimensional with absolutely no development. The MC has no reason for fighting except for being by a girl's side(it would have been better if he was fighting in order to find his missing sister but they fucked that up). Animation: 5/10 The art and animation is nothing special but not very bad either. The animation is mediocre for 2015. Sound: 4/10 The sound is barely above the „shit” rating. Enjoyment: 2./10 Maybe if it was focused even more on the fighting I would be happier. The fighting is pretty boring. Overall: 3/10 This anime is so bad that it dosen’t deserve the time it takes to write a proper review. DO NOT watch this series.

So why watch it? The same reason you watch porn, not for the terrible over used story, the bad music or the inhumanly amount of non personality of the porn stars (in this case characters of this anime) but for the action even if you've seen this same predictable action a thousand times . Look if you're desperate for action, watch it. If you are all about plot and you are looking for a less painful way of self harming ,this is also for you. But seriously the plot is porno level, actually everything about it is. I don't know how to do reviews so...

Honestly, I was blown away by this show. After reading reviews describing it as derivative and generic, I had very low expectations and almost didn't watch it at all, but when I decided to give it a try I found it actually managed to achieve being pretty enjoyable in spite of its excessive and oblivious use of sad tired tropes. First things first, in many ways at its heart this show is nothing more than a very very poor imitation of Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry, although I'm unclear on which actually came first. Everything from the setting and drive, to a large portion of the cast, right down to the opening scene are virtually indistinguishable (although in this there's somewhat less colour both literally and metaphorically). Where they deviate drastically, however, is in the fact that Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry is self-aware of its own positioning within the genre and uses that to both poignant and comedic effect, while Gakusen Toshi Asterisk takes itself seriously even in its most pitifully uninspired moments. This is not a good thing. That being said, despite this show's depressing lack of self-awareness, judged on its own merits it manages to rise up and deliver an experience that is actually not half bad. The story is uninspired but well executed, and the pacing is spot on, but both are really just padding for the action scenes which absolutely do not disappointment. While it is a harem, it quickly dodges those shackles by establishing a primary romance that is solid and secure and enjoyable to watch, relegating the other women surrounding the main male to the status of thankfully uninvolved side characters: the main male doesn't explicitly make a choice, sadly, but over the short duration of the story that's pretty forgivable. The characters, artwork, music, and voice acting are all at the lower end of utterly average. However, despite their lack of distinguishing features, several of the characters are still pretty enjoyable to watch, and it is easy to be drawn in to their struggles and achievements. Though it is established early and often that the main characters are utterly overpowered, the threats they face still manage to be exciting, and that is quite an achievement.

The Asterisk War is not an online battle over who can use the most expletives in a sentence, but rather a series of battles fought on Asterisk Island, where the victor can claim virtually anything they want as a prize. Here we find our protagonist, Ayato, a purple-haired Genestellar, empowered by some sort of magical rip-off of Charlotte who is looking for purpose in his life after his doting sister vanishes from the island. Here, he soon meets a princess, much like that in Chivalry of a Failed Knight, and is soon subject to having to pay his life for accidentally walking in on her getting dressed, much like Chivalry as well as Testament. This is one season where deja vu is the norm in the action-based harem genre. Asterisk is ridiculously close in plot progression to what I'll call its sister show Chivalry. As I'm too lazy to list out the enormous list of similarities, I'll try to instead point out the few differences as we go through the paces of the review. Overall, as mentioned elsewhere, though the harems of the season are a little too similar for comfort, each is pretty good in its own right and above average in general. That said, this particular is rather weak in the romantic aspect so if that's what you want in your harems, look elsewhere. Animation: Whereas Chivalry attempts a unique style and flair, Asterisk utilizes a clean and futuristic setting. The entire show is bathed in light blues, pinks, and purples - nothing stands out as overly-harsh or saturated. Likewise, there is a futuristic feel to everything as holographics pop up everywhere and weapons materialize as lightsaber-like instruments. Backgrounds are often blurred, but when they're not they show a super-modern city complete with lots of greenery and cobble-stoned streets. The characters are pretty good, I'd say even one step up from Chivalry in terms of style and facial animation. The show gets extra props from me as well for making the student uniforms match the feel of the city and for actually drawing robots rather than relying on ugly CGI; though it's not entirely free of CGI and some of it is really terrible early on when animating unimportant students. The show also uses visual-novel style episode previews, which is rather unique. There is plenty of fighting in this show, and like Chivalry, you'll see a good mix of close ranged melee as well as ranged magic spamming. Effects are nicely done and attacks are varied and well choreographed. Expect a bit of blood though nothing as serious as either Chivalry or Testament. As for ecchi, this is by far the lightest of the genre. There are scenes of accidental exposure but otherwise it's all rather innocent. You won't even get too much in the kissing department relative to other shows in the season. Sound: The sound is quite good and appropriate for the setting. The show opens with an energetic, electric-infused OP and ends with a mesmerizing and melodic piece by Maaya Sakamoto who unfortunately doesn't have a voice role. The show often uses a theatric-style fade in to the ED, which readers of my reviews know is a major weakness of mine. The BGM honestly could be better in terms of theme, but does have a few electronic-infused pieces that fit the bill, some of which are pretty recognizable after a few episodes. Expect a lot of sound effects to go with all the technology in the show, though I do believe the lightsaber sounds are a bit over the top. The voice talent is pretty strong here with Ai Kakuma voicing the lead heroine, a bit more personality compared to her role in Amagi Brilliant Park. Ari Ozawa is still growing in terms of experience but her voice is a great fit for Kirin's shy personality. Nao Touyama is probably the most famous of the VAs here though at least for this season she's more of a tease character; she demonstrates great range here, a strong departure from her voice as Chitoge in Nisekoi. I do find it funny that she also voices a main role in Chivalry concurrently and wonder if she noticed the plot similarity. Last but not least, Chinatsu Akasaki plays a minor role but as a very playful character, and her interpretation definitely elevates the character above what one would expect. Overall, expect a strong sound presentation from this show. Story: Whereas Chivalry has an almost desperate air with the protagonist at risk of being kicked out at any moment, the pacing in Asterisk is a lot less tense. There's ample room for comedic moments as well as very light romantic tension. I do feel that the exposition of the setting is a tad weak compared to the other harems of the season, not much is explained about the Strike The Blood-like island and only hints are given about why the world now revolves around a bunch of teenagers fighting each other in some tournament. In any case, the story is divided roughly into three arcs where Ayato encounters a different adversary. First up is our tsundere princess, who doesn't lose outright to Ayato unlike in Chivalry. The second arc revolves around the school's number one fighter, Kirin- who happens to still be thirteen despite her ridiculous proportions. The last arc is the actual tournament and focuses on the vampire scythe user Urzaiz. Mixed in with all of this are pieces surrounding Ayato's blue-haired childhood friend Yuki Nonaka er... Saya Sasamiya. Each arc has its own rising action and climax and some even have semi-filler episodes to cool off (see the ones titled "A Holiday for Two"). The final arc's tournament climax is a bit too similar to that in Chivalry for my taste; to further the parallel, both shows also don't actually finish the tournament. In this case, the show heaps anticipation about the next season with all parties hinting on how to expect great surprises. Compared to Chivalry, I think this story played it rather safe. There isn't as much tension with the characters and relationships are pretty bare minimum. The show differentiates itself by building on the technological aspect despite not actually explaining how anything works. Nonetheless, it is still an interesting show in its own right with lots of engaging battles and a few good laughs. Character: This is probably where this show differs the most from Chivalry. Whereas Chivalry had a great primary herione and junk supporting characters, this show has an average protagonist pair with some outstanding additional supporting characters. Let's start with our protagonist, Ayato. Unlike Ikki in Chivalry, he is gifted with unfathomable power at the onset and is only restricted by some unexplained curse cast by his sister. He is by far the weakest of the harem protagonists in the season, I mean come on he can't even properly turn down the multiple approaches by the student council president. Our princess Riessfeld doesn't fare much better either. She's proud and arrogant but is virtually unable to make any progress with Ayato throughout the show, a complete disappointment from a romance perspective and a far cry from what you see in the other harems in the season. However, the show does make up some ground with the large yet strong group of supporting characters. Saya is a rather low-energy childhood friend who specializes in weapons, her attacks remind me humorously of Virtue Gundam and its slow yet overwhelming attacks. Kirin is in my mind the strongest character in the show, having both a thorough development and a strong personality. The semi-harem is rounded out by the student council president Claudia, who emits both powerful and mysterious auras that draws the viewer in. The show has a fairly extensive list of supporting characters, not surprising given that there are six separate factions in the tournaments. What makes this show stand out here is its development of these antagonist forces; significant development time is given to antagonists to give encounters deeper meaning. This is a fair improvement over Chivalry and a huge positive over the joke tournament in Testament Burst. This will…

For a show that gets abbreviated as GTA, it seriously lacked sex, action and guns. Gakusen Toshi Asterisk or Asterisk War is an anime that suffers from the A.S.S. syndrome, also known as Action Sci-fi School syndrome. What is this weird disease, you may ask me. It is a plague that hits dozens of light novels authors every year which forces them to write the exact same story over and over again. If this anime had come out 15 years ago, I could have rated it as "decent". However, after having seen over 20 versions of similar plots with similar characters with similar personalities, I cannot help but feel... tired. However, I dislike spending too much time on comparison so I will start off with the plot. The story in short: In the future, people can use magic and swords (yes this is the future, not medieval fantasy). They can also use guns but for the sake of "plot", barely anyone does and blades are considered as more mainstream weapons. There was a war, bla, bla, bla, you read the synopsis. Why do I skip all this important background setting ? Why of course, because no one cares about it : neither the audience nor the anime itself. This is made obvious as all this backstory is dropped onto you in episode 1 and never mentioned in later episodes. This is the way of this anime to say "Ok, useless information for world creation: done. Now onto the fan service." Our main protagonist Kirito *cough* *cough* I mean Ayato goes to one of the several academies and enrols to take part into the Festa, basically your usual battle tournament. His reasons to take part in it are pretty unclear, as far as I could understand he is looking for his sister who disappeared and if he wins the Festa, he could potentially find her... but then again this is also useless forgettable stuff explained in episode 1 that everybody forgets after that. So what are we left with here ? Well just 11 other episodes where nothing significant happens. If I had to resume, Ayato gets a harem for no reason whatsoever and he defeats his opponents because he's OP. I would go into detail about what makes the tournament battles interesting but even after trying very hard, I still couldn't find anything. After all, the female lead clearly states at the very beginning that Ayato is the highest ranked student to take part in this year's Festa. Way to rise the stakes. We're introduced to a bunch of OP looking possible antagonists but then again, who cares ? They're not even going to take part in the tournament so what's the point of even introducing them ? Huh ? Oh sorry one second. I just got a report informing me that this anime got the green light for a season two. But that does not really matter because I'm not so much of a masochist that I would sit through another 12 episodes of the same recycled formula. Or maybe I will, just so I can review it for you here. Who knows ? As you may have guessed by now, the story and characters are very, VERY dull. The show is full of clichés, be it the characters that can be defined with archetypes (tsundere, deadpan loli, big-breasted loli, blonde bimbo), the story that has the exact same synopsis as other shows such as "Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry", "Serei Tsukai no Blade Dance", "Infinite Stratos", etc, or even the situations the main character ends up in (unexplained harem, overused fan service moments...). Don't even get me started on the main character. He could be Kirito, he could be Satomi Rentarou, he could basically be just about any high school student from A-1 Pictures and he still would have no personality whatsoever. He is just a massive pushover who does what he does because it's what is expected from him as the male lead of a harem show. Another thing that's expected from him is to be surrounded by attractive females but when they outright ask him if he wants to have sex with them, he shies away. This must be a curse, for him. The only trait I remember from Ayato I can remember, funnily enough, is that he sighs ALL THE TIME. Especially before and after helping members of his harem, yet he helps them anyway. It makes you wonder why he goes through the trouble if he doesn't accept their affection in return. So what does the show have going for it ? My fellow friends from Reddit highly complimented the artwork and animation of the show. Well this is something produced by A-1 Pictures so the quality is regular I guess. But the character design is so poor that if you took the main character and added a filter to turn his purple eyes and hair into black ones, you'd have Kirito. I'm not even joking. The animation is... normal too. Nothing out of the ordinary... oh yes ! The very bad timing of the CG is something I have to mention. I have nothing against CG that's not noticeable but when it's used so badly like that... it lowers the show's overall aesthetic. For the OST, nothing major. It's not bad but it's not good either. It's just there. Nothing in particular that I would listen to again but that's more of a personal preference than anything else. Now for my personal enjoyment. Truth to be told I did not enjoy this show. I feel like I've watched it 10 times already, and this is definitely not one of the better ones. I definitely think this is one of those anime that is way past its era yet it is still being produced because, well, there is still a market for it. People consume that kind of milked product and as long as there's money, there will still be other copycats of that story. But if I can thank A-1 Pictures for anything, it'd be that they made my job as a reviewer much easier by having Asterisk War air on the same day, at the same time as another show with the exact same setting, the exact same main female lead and the exact same plot. This way, I could compare the two of them much more easily and I clearly know which one to pick as my favourite one out of the two. As previously said, comparing two anime is not something I like to spend too much time on but here we have a situation where it's almost impossible not to mention Rakudai when talking about Asterisk. They both suffered from a horrible start. The difference is that Rakudai got better and more original as it went on whereas Asterisk stayed true to itself and just kept increasing its pile of needless clichés and boring turns of events. Rakudai tried its best to animate fight scenes and crowds, Asterisk just threw in lazy CG. Rakudai gave importance to its romantic subplot, Asterisk showed it the middle finger. I could go on all day long about how I enjoyed Rakudai more than Asterisk but that is probably not why you are reading this review. But if you are reading this review wondering whether to watch Asterisk, then I'd advise you watch Rakudai instead. At least Stella Vermillion might be able to remind you that a good tsundere needs to have a balanced amount of -dere to match the tsun- otherwise the girl just comes out as a bitch (much like Julis).