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Now in Japan
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Written by maehara
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Tuesday, 11 April 2006 00:26 |
 Sometimes I wonder how many romantic-harem-comedies the anime world can support, but for some reason fandom seems to lap them up with no sign of getting tired of them. I''s Pure is the latest to make the transition from successul manga to small-screen version, but while it may certainly look pretty, is there enough originality here to make it stand out from the crowd?
1 - Au Commencement (In the Beginning)
Ichitaka Seto has a crush on classmate Iori Yoshizuki - the only problem is, he's been too shy to even barely say "hello" to Iori since the day he first met her. Fate finally deals Ichitaka a lucky hand and being assigned to work with Iori on a Freshmen Welcoming Party gives him a chance to make an impression. That day, though, news breaks of Iori's "part time job" as a cover model, and suddenly every guy in school develops an unhealthy interest in her. When Ichitaka tries to get the baying mob to leave her alone, Iori begins to see him in a whole new light...
2 - Souvenir (Reminiscence)
Itsuki's return promises to cause all sorts of problems for Ichitaka - especially if Iori finds her half-naked in his room, or learns of their childhood promise to get married. It's bad enough that she already think he's dating Itsuki, and Itsuki's quite happy to let her carry on thinking that way - much to Ichitaka's annoyance. Back at school, Iori's having problems on her own as her fan club begins to get out of hand. Later, a school trip to Kyoto gives the two potential lovebirds a chance to spend some time together - but even when they're out of town, there's no escape from Itsuki's interference...
I''s Pure is set a few years ahead of most of the events it portrays, which are presented as Ichitaka's memories while waiting to meet Iori for a Christmas party - where he plans to finally confess his feelings for her, although even then Itsuki's still an issue. It's quite refreshing that the harm-aspect of the series seems to be restricted to just the two girls, as it gives it more the feel of a real contest for his affections than the contrived everybody-loves-me setting that some harem shows indulge in.
Iori's unwanted stardom also provides an interesting angle. For the record, she was roped into doing her covergirl shoot against her better judgement - if she'd known bikinis and underwear were going to be involved, she'd never have agreed to do them. But that one set leads some of the shadier guys at school trying to rig up some even steamier ones, giving Ichitaka a chance to come racing to the rescue. There's a whole comedy-of-errors aspect to this side of things that's been done a million times before, though, and it's here that I''s Pure falls down a bit.
That said, if benefits from OVA production values and at only six episodes total there's not going to be enough of it for anything to really seem to drag - which means I'm a bit more forgiving of its failure than I would be of a 13- or 26-episode TV series. It's charming, funny in places, and has a decent core cast that you can really warm to, and that makes it worth checking out.
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