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Now in Japan
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Written by maehara
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Saturday, 23 October 2004 00:00 |
 Final Approach dishes up what looks to be a twist on the harem theme, in handy bite-sized 12minute chunks. Should be easy to swallow, yes?
1 - Panic Visit!! Pretty Girl of Love and Destiny!
Picture this weird ending to your day - what appears to be a fighter
pilot, using a jet-guided parachute, crashes through your apartment
window. Under the jumpsuit is a Kimono-wearing young girl, who calmly
annouces she's your fiancee. The confused guy in this case is Ryo, and
the 'fiancee' is Shizuka - and let's just say that, initially at least,
Ryo's not happy. And that's before Shizuka's 'bodyguards' arrive...
2 - Great Explosive Debut!! Love and Adoration for the Transfer Student!
Despite his best efforts to get rid of Shizuka, it seems Ryo's going to
be stuck with her for a while. Life goes on, though, as does school,
where classmates Emiho and Miki have noticed that Ryo's been acting
strangely lately. Miki supects it's his sister Akane's fault, until he
explains what's happened. Meanwhile, Shizuka makes her own entrance as
the school's newest transfer student - and she's an immediate hit with
the guys, who are less than impressed that Ryo got there first...
Judging by all the girls appearing in the OP, this is shaping up to
be another harem show, although it's been all Shizuka so far. The
concept is almost original: to combat Japan's declining
birthrate, the government has come up with a 'compulsory arranged
marriage' scheme, and Shizuka and Ryo have been picked as the test
subjects. The comedy comes from Ryo's reluctance in the face of
Shizuka's determination, and it seems to work okay, so far - there's
enough here for me to keep watching for a few more episodes at least. I
can see it going down the road well travelled by most other harem
shows, in which case I'll be giving up - but at this stage I'm giving
it a chance to prove me wrong. Nothing here that's likely to be
Earth-shattering, but not bad so far. |
