Reviews for O Maidens in Your Savage Season

At the start of this series after finishing the first episode I will admit I found it dumb and cringy, but as I kept on watching it the series grew on me in a way I never thought it would. What to me seemed to be the start of a melodramatic series became something wholesome, relatable, hilarious, and down right awesome. While watching this series each episode felt like a roller coaster. During one moment im laughing my ass off or cringing from how I felt like this before to then being in awe of what would happen next. I was felt with greatjoy while watching these girls try their best to understand their emotions and how to properly express them, which is something most people of all ages find difficult to do.

Now I feel like I have seen many different series and a great number of them at that, not just with anime but all medium in general, and there has been very few times were I can say I really did not know which direction the series or Movie will take and how it will end. I can say that this is one of the few series series were I had no idea how things would turn out. Almost everything that happen was a shock to me and in a great way. Especially with the last 2 episodes. Can I just say wow, those last two episodes had me glued to the screen not knowing what was gonna happen and it was such a refreshing experience. They were filled with emotion and warmth, it was a feeling I haven't felt in a long time, and even more for the ending which is one of the most satisfying ending I have ever seen.

I absolutely love this series and is something I can see myself coming back to over and over again and each time while watching having the same feelings I am having right now. As someone who did not like this series at the start I would like for people to give this a chance and maybe you will like it to. I hope for the people who have already watched it and the people who will watch this in the future will be able to enjoy it as much as I have.

In a season stacked with big Shonen shows, all with high production values and great advertising, alongside many sequels and the usual isekai spam, it is easy to overlook true gems. Maidens in your savage seasons is one of those easily overlooked gems. At first glance this anime looks a lot one of those basic Ecchi shows that just focuses on lewd dialogue, sex jokes, and random sexual shots of girls and boys inadvertently walking in on each other undressed. However, this show differs in that it does all of this with exceptional dialogue and execution, it is the difference between some basic otaku pandering Ecchishow and highbrow erotic art.

The characters in this show all are young high schoolers who are sexually repressed, as they are youth, in what is a fairly sexually conservative society. As the story unfolds each girl has their own backstory given to us through their interactions with the cast and some flash backs. Kazusa has a childhood friend who they realize they are in love with when they inadvertently walk in on them pleasuring themselves. Hongou is an aspiring writer and tries to “seduce” a teacher in order to learn more about romance and improve her writing. Momoko is likely gay but is having a hard time coming to terms with it. Rika is an uptight reserved girl who actually is just jealous that she is missing out on sex and romance, so she copes by looking down on people with fulfilling love lives. Finally, Niina has had a fairly fucked up view on romance as she was mentored by an obvious lolicon for most of her childhood but developed some weird sort of Stockholm syndrome for him and is actually mad that he did not molest her. These girls are all crafted wonderfully with lots of nuance through interactions with other characters, foreshadowing, and their internal monologues which greatly humanized them and made them very likable.

While the plot execution does take a wild turn in the last few episodes, it actually is preferable to similar shows where cast falls apart due to backstabbing and fighting over each other’s boyfriend. The writing is very good, far more than one would ever expect from a show with this premise. Short comments by side characters, lines from the novels the girls were reading, and dialogue early in the show foreshadowed most of what happened in the story, but it isn’t obvious until the viewer finishes the show. This show is definitely worth a watch not just once but twice, one time to see it unfold and a second time to see everything that was overlooked and carefully foreshadowed the first time.

Another aspect about this show that was great were the production values. Visual directing is hard to master for action shows, let alone a rom com coming of age anime. The show has great framing and cinematography, excellent effects, and clean animation when it counts, these things are normally lacking in most low brow Ecchi shows. The sound is also quite impressive, although the opening does pale in comparison to the fire fighting anime, the sound and animation still place it in the top 3 for me this season, the background music and effective change in pace during confessions were also quite exquisite.

Finally, and most importantly, the overall message of this show is delivered perfectly. Love is a complex thing, most of our media revolves around it, most people in our society seek it, and it is something that is hard to define. This anime encapsulates love and carnal desire from the point of view of teenage girls in a serious manner, something most anime will tend to shy away from doing. It tells people that girls are sexual beings just like men and they have to come to terms with their sexuality, while understanding that everyone is an individual who may have a different approach to coming to terms with themselves.

If Mari Okada had written a Spring Awakening of high school girls that look like they're fresh out of middle school. If that isn't cringey enough, one of girls tries to make a move on their teacher. The idea and premise sounds good for the high school genre as most of the stories out there seem too wholesome, but the dialogue and character interactions are too cringeworthy and borderline overly dramatic. Neither the dialogue nor the character interactions seem believable, like the two girls who have to constantly exclaim "Tomo!" meaning true friend multiple times in one episode. I went in thinking it would havethe sophistication and character believability Anohana or Anthem of the Heart had. I was mistaken. The character designs detract from the believability and tone of the series. I thought they were all in middle school, not high school. Anohana and Anthem of the Heart at least had the characters drawn their age. The characters are bland and hallow at best.

Mari Okada has a fascination with having to pair off five leads. There must be some convulted love triangle involving at least two girls with one guy. There could have easily been four girls instead of five, as there is just one girl who's just there. There's your childhood friends who will be paired off, the tsundere with glasses who is against romance but is pretty once she dons contacts (so she'll be paired off), the mysterious girl, the girl who's there to fill the fifth spot, and the amaeture romantic novelist who has some inappropriate relationship with the teacher/club advisor... Aside from the said childhood friends turned possibly couple, the romance/pairings happens lightning fast. Like no development at all. Bam they suddenly like each other and suddenly they pair up out of nowhere! If you are watching any Mari Okada original work, you must have characters shouting or exclaiming their emotions in public, which constitutes as emotional depth! Characterization and relationships are very shallow for the most part, especially Izumi. Izumi is a guy who likes trains and girls.

By the end, everyone is paired off and the childhood friends get together.

There is no deviation from the manga. Too bad you can't speed through the cringeworthy moments like you can with the manga. The lethargic pacing makes all the cringeworthy moments even more cringeworthy. Without the Super Peace Busters to edit out or even put a restraint on Mari Okada's ideas, this will leave you facepalming and asking why??? It actually started out really promising and fresh: I'm referring to the end of episode one btw, but then all the promise collapses. Believe me, once the love triangle suddenly emerges out of nowhere, you're wishing Mari Okada didn't have free reign. I didn't believe it would get worse, but my god it just got worse.

I wouldn't even try that with a guy. I don't know what point Mari Okada is trying to make on this not so progressive modern take on the sexuality of women/girls. It's not okay for a guy to do it, so why would it be okay if the girl does it, when the guy clearly has a girlfriend!? Girls/women have to face this problem on a daily basis. No girl with a functioning brain desire or behave in any of the ways Mari Okada is wildly fantasizing about. I get that the manga is in a shounen magazine, so all these scenarios are for guys to pick their favorite girl to fantasize about. But that completely detracts from the believability of the narrative! Again I'm all for the childhood friends getting together. But my god, I have to drop this now. I don't care what the outcome is anymore of this utter mess.

Another love triangle has emerged out of nowhere! When did any of this happen??? There needs to be a love pentagon/square.

Reading into Mari Okada's background, before she was working in anime, one of her screen writing gigs was writing for pornography. Hence the basis for one of the girls in the gang. It honestly had a lot of potential in the beginning that has long been squandered.

Other alternatives for this season: Given, Fruits Basket, Nagi no Oitoma (Drama adaptation of a Manga Taisho and Kodansha Manga Nominee) or really anything other than this convoluted mess.

I can't believe I'm sticking around, well skipping a lot of ad nauseum scenes, just because I want some sort of happy ending for Kazusa. If you haven't been watching Hulu's Four Weddings and a Funeral, this is way worse than what happens to Ainsley.

Final verdict: Mari Okada cannot write coherently without the Super Peace Busters, specifically Tatsuyuki Nagai shutting down her stupid ideas. She can be a competent screenwriter given the right environment, but by herself, she is terrible. You will be let down at the end when you realize nothing happens. Dialogue is laughable near the end:

Izumi: I love you Kazusa but I have sexual feelings for girl B!

Girl B: I don't mind being viewed sexually!

If you want well written love triangles/squares, go watch Mindy Kaling's Four Weddings and a Funeral. Now that is done well. Every main character (5 of them) gets paired up, some pairings swap, but the writing is way better.

If you take a teenage soap opera, add some sex jokes, and make an anime version out of it, the result would be something similar along the lines of Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo. It goes without saying the show appears to be a clichéd romantic drama about teenagers growing up. The journey to growing up isn’t without obstacles and for the Literature Club, they learn that the hard way. While the opening minutes of the first episode doesn’t seem too unusual, the second half of the premiere may change your mind. It’s not every day we get to see a guy getting caught masturbating inanime after all. But backtracking a bit, it also became clear the show wanted to make a story about characters growing up. The adolescence experience is a complex journey and for our main characters, they want to make the most of it. High school student Niina Sugawura makes her intention clear when she declares her intention of experiencing sex. In probably the bluntest way possible, this anime isn’t intent in hiding its adulthood culture. In fact, it’s easy to look at this anime with some controversy from the start.

The staff in charge of this anime includes script writer and original creator, Mari Okada. To me, this wasn’t a surprise considering the amount of drama that blew up as every episode progressed. Initially, it all began with the curiosity about sex. Then, it transformed into a plot about the characters wanting to grow up and experiencing it. Okada gives an appropriate tone with her writing by adding elements of drama at any chance possible. To do this, there’s plot with blackmail, dark troubling background stories, and various school drama shenanigans. However, this anime doesn’t hit home with its emotional drama, at least from a storytelling perspective. While some of her previous projects can be tearjerkers, Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo never once managed to make me feel emotional about its plot or character drama. As far as teenage romantic drama premises go, the series does seem to show some promise to craft realistic ideas. Spawned from curiosity, the Literature Club seeks to learn about sex as much as possible. Don’t take this as a sex education though. The anime sells the idea of adolescence with the characters growing up. Sex is just part of that process. In the meantime, the anime’s script goes through phases of letting characters experiment with their own ways of growing up.

While each character in the series has their own personality, most of them all fall under the ‘teenager syndrome’. In other words, they are constantly changing with puberty playing a prominent role. Characters experience a variety of feelings ranging from jealousy, sadness, anger, and other common mood swings. But don’t take this anime as some sort of psychological study. This takes the direction in tone with coming of age style of story presentation. Likewise, I believe the character cast all must learn about themselves before they grow up into adults. The main character, Kazusa Onodera, shows signs of fear in early episodes. Due to her infatuation with her childhood friend Izumi Norimoto, she has trouble breaking out of the friend zone. As part of a love triangle, Niina begins to develop feelings towards Izumi after growing to understand him. The anime pits the three characters into a romance angle that tests the limits of their feelings. Does this seem like trashy soap opera-esque writing? The answer is yes and no. With the growing amount of love in the show, we have to come and understand why characters feel the way they do. The anime does a decent job at showing this but sometimes fall short on overall execution. I won’t spoil it but it’s easy to point fingers at certain character behaviors and their how they feel attraction towards the opposite sex. One example is Hitoha Hongou, a novelist who develops feelings for an older man. The anime doesn’t commit much on their character relationship other than based on how Hongou wants to pursue a relationship with him. It’s the type of character drama that show little improvement and lacks importance to her overall growth as a teen. On the other hand, I do feel it’s worth getting invested by the main love triangle between Kazusa, Izumi, and Niina. While childhood romance dramas can be very cliché, this show contains a degree of realism that touches on more sensible subjects. Blending between the line of childhood romance and genophobia, you have to wonder how far the anime commits to its romance elements. However, do also be aware that the anime itself sometimes isn’t meant to be taken too seriously. This is especially true in early stages with the amount of jokes reinforcing the idea of “sex is evil”.

With a cast of teenagers on hormones, you have to also wonder how much the anime planned to develop each character individually. At its very base form, characters hopes to break out of their shell and become adults. Some even undergoes physical changes such as the case of Rika Sonezaki when she gets rid of her glasses after being told she looks beautiful without them. Others develop a more psychological change such as the case of Momoko Sudou. If you don’t believe me, just look at how she begins to see other girls in a different way, in particular Sugawara. To be honest, I think these type of character behaviors are common norm in our society. We all undergo changes especially during high school years. It’s during those years that characters experience growth in countless ways. Otherwise, I also find many of the characters relatable to us. Whether it’s speaking through their actions or personalities, there’s no doubt you’ve countered similar people in your life.

With a variety of projects under their umbrella, Lay-duce made this anime look and feel like what it is – a teenage romance drama. Character designs looks polished that makes the most of its character expressions. In fact, it’s especially important for this anime to bring out character expressions to show how they feel. Other times, I do feel the anime may be over the top with the way characters reactions, in particular Kazusa. The fear of sexuality hits hard that is all over her face. Some viewers may even wonder if she needs professional help. But on most parts, this anime managed to bring out the most of its animation qualities by illustrating character behaviors. Similarly, I do want to praise on the voice cast. It made me understand more about the cast’s personalities on more relatable terms.

Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo isn’t a niche anime but it can be a bit different than what people realize. While the initial first episodes can generate some controversy, it does manage to capture the elements of a romance drama. Love is probably a subject humankind will never truly understand. For the characters in this show, they took the first steps in becoming adults and at the same time, trying to experience sex and love.

While there were only 4 episodes out at the time of writing this, I wanted to make a review to get people to give this a try. With a lot of good anime coming out this season it's easy to skip this one, but that would be a big mistake in my opinion. So lets dive into it. Story 7/10 The basic story isn't that special if you really think about it, but the way it's executed makes it special. It's about five girls in a literature club who stumble upon an erotic book and start discussing it, but they all lack experience in that regard. Ithelps a lot that one of the five girls doesn't mind being open about discussing it, and soon the girls find themselves talking about sex and love. From there on the story focuses on the emotional development of the girls as they start to explore their feelings and sexuality. This is done in a quite realistic manner. The emphasis is on the psychology of the characters and not on the mindless ecchi scenes which appear in most anime of the genre.

Art 9/10

While the artstyle may appear a bit bland at first, I find it very fitting for the story. The animation is fluid and really knows how to draw out the emotions from the characters. It reminds me most of the animation in "Sora yori mo tooi basho / A place further than the universe" in a sense that it does very much using very little. Everything feels natural which makes it possible to immerse yourself in the story completely.

Sound 8/10

As is the case with animation, the sound doesn't really stand out on it's own with some incredible OST, but it fits the scenes perfectly.

Character 10/10

While it's only 4 episodes in at the time of writing this, the characters already get some nice development. We start of with each of them having an overemphasized characteristic (unconfident one, way too serious one, impulsive one, open to everything, secretive one), and as the story progresses those traits remain, but other ones emerge as well and we get some depth of character. This makes sense since the age they are at is when the character forms the most in life and is most susceptible to change.

One more major plus is that there's no main character. Every character is handled with care and developed.

Enjoyment 10/10

So far I'm loving this series. By the end I might even give it an overall 10/10. The thing that really gets me hooked is that the scenarios are relatable and the story could very well be a real life one. While some aspects may be a little bit over the top (not spoiling but you'll figure it out if you watch), they are unlikely but far from impossible ones.

Overall 9/10

To conclude, this has the potential to be a masterpiece similar to Sora yori mo tooi basho by the end, and you should give it a try.

Mari Okada is an extremely controversial anime writer for reasons both obvious and inarguably deserved. The main complaint most everyone cites with her scripts are her characters being utterly non-relatable and overemotional. Often times their emotional reactions to certain events are outright far fetched, and moreover, they’re hyper-passionate about things no actual person would be so with. Screaming, crying, wailing, and flailing all their merry way, Okada’s characters always loose me and many other viewers because we cannot find ourselves within them at all, but while many of us feel the need to critique her writing, there was this one time I read something someoneonline said which really intrigued me. They thought Okada’s writing was actually just fine the way it was, and the only real issue with her scripting in their mind was the subject matter of her shows. From their point of view, if Okada had written her shows on topics with which her overdramatic writing would actually be appropriate for, then the masses—me included—would finally see her writing operating at its full potential…and I think this is supposed to be it.

Araburu Kisetsu no Otomo-dono yo is a show about teenagers and their budding sex lives, so, on a conceptual level, literally my new favorites anime of all time. Anime is criminally averse to sex, and while much of the community may not fully appreciate this reality given the illusion that is fan service in cooperation with the fact they’re not the type to go outside and live normie lives rife with casual sex, any among the rare breed of anime watchers who has made the journey into the real world will’ve surely already noticed just how glaring a void this aversion is in almost all anime made. Granted, most shows are made for teenagers and young adults, which is fine, but while young people may not need a sexual side to their media, there is still a sexual side to their lives whether they’re a bystander or not. My point is, the lack of sex drive within most anime characters is and should be an immersion breaker for any viewer who has even the thinnest shred of maturity or worldliness. And if you’re an older viewer like me? Well, shit, you’re totally out of luck, because it makes ninety nine point nine percent of highschool anime totally unwatchable, seeing as you are well aware of just how maddened people that age are by the idea of sex, especially if they’re not a normie whose having it all the time. This is where this show swoops in like an absolute hero, and just as that one forum poster had posited, Okada’s melodrama fit their puberty riddled angst like a glove, and it would’ve made this show a crowing jewel of the genre if not for the characteristically awkward execution which diluted and undermined the refreshingly hilarious concept and daringly realistic worldview.

But to get the easiest critique out of the way first, this show is not the most well-produced thing in the world. The animation is lacking at best and clunky at worst, and some of the ugliest episodes were littered with off-model artwork—even in the foreground and on principle characters. The voice performances were a mixed bag, and as you’ve probably come to expect, Okada’s autistic scripting made their dialogue sound even more ham-fisted than it already would’ve, and while the golden apples in that mixed bag aren’t spoiled by the rotten ones, they’re spoiled anyway by the utter lack of fluid animation. Mouths will stay open for more frames than necessary, lip syncing is virtually nonexistent, and really any standard issue with anime produced by lower tier studios are present and pressing as expected. However, this isn’t all to say the production wasn’t cared for, and in fact, I’d say it may’ve actually been a little too cared for. The animation staff behind this show clearly had a lot they wanted to do with the visuals which was simply far too ambitious given the clear lack of time, money, and manpower they had on hand. Gradient coloration on a frame-by-frame basis was impossible, so they settled for a horrifically ugly white filter which they laid over the ENTIRE show. A cut of perspective animation from a character running down the densely packed city streets was impossible, so they settled for the camera shaking back and forth across still images of the street as if the character was whipping their sight side to side exclusively. I could go on but you get the picture. Even if the show’s small, inexperienced staff was truly, wholehearted giving it their all, their all was just not enough to deliver a good looking final product.

But I could complain about bad productions all day. What really ended up turning me off to this show was what should’ve made me love it: the character writing. We discussed characters having sex drive. Great, love it, but while realistic on paper, the way the cast is characterized is—like all Okada shows are—so incredibly non-relatable and stunted. Our main character Kazusa is basically the “childhood friend” from any other generic dating sim anime if not for her sex drive, and since her character is mostly handled per that trope, she’s just a reminder why those girls never win, and when Okada actually tries to capitalize on her sex drive to make her at all interesting, her autism gets downright diagnosable—and to no real effect. The object of her affections is her childhood friend Izumi, with whom she shares a completely platonic relationship with, seeing as they’re both as pure as the Holy Virgin, and the inciting incident of the show is her juvenile image of him getting shattered when she walks in on him masturbating…which is awesome, but then she autistically scrambles away like Generic Male MC walking in on his waifu changing and spends half the show avoiding the subject through a series of retarded misunderstandings, so you’re just left wondering what the hell happened to the supposed realism. Izumi himself is even less believable, since the alleged reason for him and Kazusa drifting apart isn’t their budding sexualities and the insecurities associated, but instead the simple fact Izumi became popular whilst she remained a bibliophilic nerd. Now, if Izumi was a normie, you’d think he would’ve already gotten laid, but he hasn’t because he’s actually a closet train otaku, BUT IF HE WAS A TRAIN OTAKU, HE NEVER WOULD’VE BECOME A NORMIE, because no one would’ve EVER accepted him, especially in Japanese schools internationally notorious for their rampant bullying.

And the realism didn't escape to the side characters. I earlier compared Kazusa and Izumi to the Holy Virgin as a joke. Well, Kazusa’s best friend, Sonezaki, takes the comparison to a whole new level. Her skirt goes down to her shins, her glasses are bifocals, her hair is pinned strictly aside her forehead, and her only dialogue amongst classmates outside her bubble is pretentiously delegitimizing them as hedonistic beasts. This was a striking character introduction I loved. However, she’s the first one of the girls to give in, and the guy she gets together with is someone whose only reason to be attracted to her is the fact she gave herself a makeover. This is almost acceptable, because this is a girl who’s been bullied for being ugly for as long as she can remember, so when she changes things up a bit and finally gets a guy’s attention it’s reasonable to assume she simply couldn’t help herself, but while that’s personally the most (and only) relatable character piece in the show, I can say for certain—because it’s so relatable—such a turnaround would just come across as disingenuous and turn me off to whoever’s attention I caught. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Of course she reacted differently than you would. You’re a bitch, and she’s not, so of course you would take cynically what she took graciously.” But I remind you, this girl’s entire character was just built around her pessimism and judgmental disposition, SO WHAT HAPPENED? The irony of this inconsistent character writing is magnified to an immeasurable degree when it develops parallel to another side character, Momoko, literally having her lesbian awakening because she’s disgusted by the fact guys their age are only after women’s bodies and looks. Then there’s Hongō and Sugawara, but they’re fine. I mean, Hongō goes from a closet fetishist to a public exhibitionist in a matter of episodes and Sugawara explicitly, and in no uncertain terms, endorses the character of a pedophile who expressed sexual interest in her as a grade schooler, but their character writing is never inconsistent or broken, just…yeah.

Where the show finally came through for me, as most Okada shows do, is as a truly fantastic comedy. Okada’s so-called comedy has always been a matter of perspective. Anohana was a schmaltz tearjerker which was so over-the-top with its melodrama as to be hysterical; Red Garden was an inspired take on an anime musical which took its thespian aesthetics so far as to be farcical; Mayoiga was an ambitiously intricate whodunit murder mystery which overcomplicated itself and its bloated cast to the point of being a nonsensical horror-comedy. All Okada’s works are like this in that they take themselves completely seriously, but being so obtuse, no one can relate to them and therefore can’t take them as seriously as she does. This show is the first occasion on which the comedy was not only funny, but funny on purpose, not just us laughing at her toneless writing. The countless visual innuendoes were kind of the funniest thing on the planet, even though they’re not really what the show is about. From Izumi making Kazusa blush by putting his fingers in a bowling ball—one in the bottom hole and two in the top—causing her to stand up with her hands covering her crotch and scurrying away all flustered to Hongō uncontrollably shoving her teacher to the ground and straddling him only to realized what she’d done compulsively and run away embarrassed, only for the scene to close with a shot of the school’s water fountain dripping, every little one of these gems was a comedic treat. Granted, these jokes are ruined just as often when Okada decides to unsubtly spell them out for anyone oblivious and innocent enough not to recognize them, like the time Kazusa is terrified by a train approaching a tunnel, exclaiming how it couldn’t possibly fit inside, only for it to go right in much to her discomfort, but most of the time it’s a joke between you and the director, and it’s usually good for a laugh or two.

At the end of the day, though, I feel compelled to remind you, despite sticking a positive turn on the end of this review, I can only really describe Araburu Kisetsu no Otomo-dono yo as a disappointment seeing as it failed to capitalize on the potentially hyper-realistic characterization which I wanted it to find success with. If there’s one group of people on this planet who need to have the realities of sex shoved in their faces until they accept and embrace them, it's the otaku whom this anime seeks as an audience, but the fact the characters therein are bizarre weirdos at best and backwardly written at worst makes it so the important message these incels desperately need to receive—if there ever was one—ends up totally flaccid and hard to entertain critically at all. Even if they nailed the worldview and attitude, failing to apply it to the characters in a believable or empathetic manner leaves most of the show’s efforts being all for naught, and the fact it had to constantly poke fun at itself in order to illicit any positive response from me at all really speaks volumes about how well it managed itself on really any level. I can’t recommend this show to kids because it would just confuse them or give them very bad ideas; I suppose I can recommend this show to adults who are like me and just dying to see ideas this risqué portrayed in a highschool anime whether it’s done poorly or not; I can’t recommend this show to teenage girls, because they couldn’t relate to it at all unless they are literally Mari Okada and probably shouldn’t be encouraged in their apparent perversions even if they are somehow able to see themselves in the characters; but I can most certainly recommend this show to teenage boys, the majority of the otaku audience, just so they can take notes on everything Okada’s woke author-insert, Sugawara, says.

Have sex, and thank you for reading.

When we’re young, love and sex seem larger than life—it is the most embarrassing thing imaginable. Maidens of the Savage Season captures all those emotions in the most melodramatic way possible. It skips all of that pesky build-up, the characters are stereotyped, it’s oftentimes predictable, and so what? Who cares about all that crap when it’s so damn entertaining? Melodrama is what Mari Okada is known for, Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo is no different. Anything she writes that isn’t edited heavily by a director will surely be overflowing with melodrama. She’s an ambitious writer, however, she stuffed far too many ideas into this show.Sex, love, jealousy, homosexuality, social commentary, pedophilia, netorare, the list goes on and on. As someone who loves analyzing themes and the author’s intent, after watching Araburu I have no clue what the hell she was going for. There’s one thing I can say for certain, someone really needed to tell Okada when to stop.

Half of me hates Maidens of the Savage Season, and the other half loves it. So few rom-com anime are written over the top to the point where it’s hilarious. If you came here expecting a subtle drama with in-depth writing, you will be disappointed. Anyone who says this show is realistic is a liar! Sure it’s relatable at times, but it’s so intentionally unrealistic to be as enjoyable and shocking as possible. It will gut punch you immediately with the main point: sex, love, and growing up. Prepare to be beaten over the head with embarrassment until you cringe. After it grabs you by the collar and gets your attention, it slaps you in the face with endless sex metaphors. Trains going through tunnels, stimulating bowling balls, mushroom innuendos. Once it has your attention, the roller coaster is already moving and it’s too late to jump off. You’re stuck on it for every tight turn and a 200-foot drop. It’s a thrilling ride, I loved it at first.

Then the roller coaster came to a screeching halt. The writing worked, I wouldn’t call it good writing, but it worked. Eventually, it stopped being a cheesy coming-of-age romance about love and confronting adulthood. Instead, it was about jealousy, love triangles, cuckolding, homosexuality, teen pregnancy, and childhood trauma. It stopped being relatable. Rather than cringe-inducing, it was frustrating, uncomfortable, and creepy. Everything I liked about Araburu was still there, but it felt like an afterthought. When you try to force a cheesy romance to be serious, you get terrible NTR moments like this: Person A and Person B are in love, suddenly Person C inexplicably develops feelings for B. Rather than confessing their feelings, C forces B to grab their ass, cuckolding Person A. Romantic tension like this can work in a story with the proper character writing, and like I’ve said before this show does not spend time on that. We know who the characters are solely based on their personalities, which is fine for a comedy/melodrama. The moment the characters were shoved into a drama that wants to be taken seriously, the whole thing collapses. All of the characters are simplistic people.

The story follows five distinct heroines, in the same “savage season” of their lives but moving in different directions. Kazusa, the most prominent of the five has it rough. Imagine walking in on your crush beating their meat before ever being exposed to sex, it’s maddening; that’s the kind of laughable nonsense Kazusa has to go through. Her encounters are always contrived, which made them all the more entertaining. For instance, when Kazusa drops off the food at Izumi’s house, rather than calling his name or his phone, she just opens the door and walks up to his room. Something was bound to happen. Ignoring how predictable the scene is, the direction is so heavy-handed it’s comical—and it’s so good. The fear in Kazusa’s expression, the slow opening of the door, Izumi’s house shrouded in darkness, the distant rock music with a vertical slice of light shining down the long staircase. The anticipation is overwhelming. Unfortunately, the entire narrative falls apart by the end, Kazusa’s story included.

The cracks started to appear midway through the series, motivations for a few of the heroines were still unclear. Kazusa and Sonozaki were the best out of the five because it was plain and simple what they wanted: to figure out their relationships despite anxiety and a desire to remain pure. Momo had no clue what was happening; it’s so obvious from the first episode that she’s a lesbian and unfortunately that’s a defining character trait. She supports her friends, always with a smile, yet her scenes are underwhelming because she’s too busy being oblivious of her sexuality. If you’re uninterested in dudes, but tear up at the thought of a girl not liking you, then you’re probably gay—just saying. Her personality is so underdeveloped that her actions make no sense later in the show, making her seem like she’s bipolar. This is a huge issue past the halfway point in this series, at the drop of a hat as if half the cast suddenly becomes bipolar.

On the other hand, Hongou wanted to grow up faster and gain knowledge about sex. Hongou is a more subdued character, not quite standing out in the group aside from a few crude comments. She’s an aspiring erotica writer, regularly sexting with guys online to make her writing more authentic. Her motivations are clear, I liked her scenes, at first. Soon she finds out fabricating sexual experience is much different than the real thing. Her perspective focuses on the problematic pseudo-relationship with her teacher. Their encounter is unbelievable. Out of thousands of people on illicit chatrooms, they somehow meet each other. Later they decide to meet in real life, lo and behold they’re student/teacher. It’s absurd, but I wouldn’t expect any less of Maidens. Even his username is Miro, one letter off from his actual name Milo; you would think a teacher would try to hide his identity while sexting a random person online. Seeing her blackmail Milo and push around him is hilarious, at first. Eventually, the writers forgot Hongou was trying to become a more experienced writer, and she starts trying to get with Milo. There is very strange sexual tension between them; I won’t go into spoilers, all I’ll say is that the teacher also engages (don't forget she's underage). I came into Araburu expecting to cringe, laugh, and enjoy the emotional roller coaster, not to be frustrated and unsettled. There were points when it was uncomfortable to watch, however, nothing came close to the most disturbing parts of Nina’s story.

Conversely, the dark horse of the cast, Nina is by far the most flawed heroine. She’s messed up from childhood trauma (it’s not graphic, but enough to cause a warped perception of sexuality). As we all know, a flawed character doesn’t equal a bad character. However, when handled poorly they can be the worst members of the cast. Unsurprisingly Nina is the most hated character. The things she does are objectively wrong; however, you can explain most of her actions with development abuse. I wish that I didn’t need to assume ‘because trauma she is a bad person’. The absent nuances to Nina's personality seem less like a creative decision, rather it feels like Okada was ignorant about the psychological effects of trauma. Rather than connecting Nina's trauma and insecurities to her actions in the present, the show just gives us more of Nina's obnoxious self-loathing thoughts. The pedo's actions are always condemned. It’s pointless shock value—though I will admit the directing of these scenes conveys fear exceptionally well. While I can't ignore Okada's talents as a director, these themes shouldn’t have been in Araburu. Barely anything that occurs throughout the show matters at the end. Given this is a complete adaptation of the manga, it left me feeling robbed. At least the characters face consequences for their actions, Nina included. Due to the nature of melodrama, morality is rather black or white in Araburu: you do good, you get good. If you treat people badly, you will get bad in return. For example; the kids that bully Sonezaki are portrayed as sex-crazed sluts who get 'what they deserve’ in the end because they picked on the nice main characters. Dramas are meant to pull in the reader gradually so you can identify with the characters, to believe they could be real people, this is not a drama.

There's not much to say about the art. A washed-out palette plus a strange foggy filter makes it feel like your watching everything through a cloud. On top of that, the animation is very lackluster. From a distance, all the characters look off-model. Backgrounds often look hideous even up close. There were a few instances when the art style was changed for laughs, and they worked, but I wish there was more. The CGI cars look ugly and completely out of place. The character designs look much better in the manga; there is plenty of well-timed visual gags thanks to the director, however, the animation only serves to weigh it down.

Maidens of the Savage Season was a roller coaster ride. Exciting at first, then it rapidly spiraled downwards—out of control. I loved it for its flaws because it knew what they were and played them for laughs. Over time, it lost that self-awareness and it unironically became everything it mocked. It took itself far too seriously, then it became a jumbled mess of unclear themes, empty character motivations, and no playoffs whatsoever. My favorite character, Kazusa, was done a disservice with such a rushed ending. She deserved better than the cliched bullcrap she got. This is what happens when you have something great and ruin it by trying to unnecessarily add more ideas. No one told Mari Okada enough is enough. At some point, an author needs to know when to stop.

Story 9 Art 9 Sound 9 Character 8 Enjoyment 10 Overall 9 First of all I want to say that this review score is based on the animes I have been watching this season. And I do not give 10 because 10 is for perfect and there is nothing perfect in the world. (We are in the world are trying to become a perfect but we can only be close-to-perfect, not perfect itself) This anime is the best anime I watched this season. (The 2nd is Fire Force) After watching this anime-episode 4, I understand something what I am looking for. What I am looking for until now is answered. Let me tellyou something before, I started to watch anime in 2012. It was Nisekoi and so I watch anime until now.

~Now, to the "REVIEW" part

This anime is worth to watch. I can feel the emotion in every episode. Every episode is a masterpiece. They wrap the story great in each episode fit to 24 minutes. And there is a development in every episode, both the development of the character and the story. The sound effect and the soundtrack is cool. They put it in the right time, so we can feel deeper the emotion and more carried away by the story. (To the music scripters "Good job, bro")

What I can say about the story is "This show is narrating about a young teenagers who are growing to mature. In the journey to mature they are looking for the meaning of their complex emotion and the natural fact they only have just know". I try to write about the summaries without spoiling.

This anime has the taste of Ao Haru Ride and Kuzu no Honkai.

After watching this episode 4, I understand that what I am looking for until now is an "ART". Anime is not just a "show for child". I write "ART" because I can not find better word because "literature" is not enough to express it. I am sorry because my mother language is Bahasa Indonesia not English and this what google translate shows "literature" when I translate Sastra to English. This art what I am talking about is called "Sastra" in Indonesian language. And I called this "Modern Sastra"(or may be modern art) because anime is an art of mixing Story(Novel/Writing Art), Visual Graphic(Visual Art), Music(Sound Art). Anime is an art which can affect someone views of life, someone ways to think.

and I am surprised found that this anime is from manga and there is an anime which is great in the story adapted from manga. Because usually I found anime with good story adapted from novel or light novel.

By the way I rate this character development by 8 not meaning I say this is bad but because I am still watching for the character development until the end of the show and I will raise it up to 9 if the development is outstanding/great to the final episode. I mean the character personality is developing to "ripe" and they accept what change to them.

#sorryformybadenglish

#myfirstreview

"It fit." Have you heard about drama anime’s lord and savior Okada Mari? Here’s a blitz version of what matters: she’s an r/raisedbynarcissists hikikomori turned acclaimed scriptwriter who keeps adapting her own life into anime scripts. And this makes her works divisive, because her life was so rough and tumultuous that sheltered middle-class snowflakes who never lived through any hardships and have no real life experience find it “overblown” or “melodramatic”. The bottom line is, she writes some of the best human drama in the medium, and Savage Maidens is the best one of her works to date. The series is a dramedy about five high-school girlswhose literature club activities lead to the discovery that es-ee-ex is a thing, hilarity ensues. The comedic and dramatic parts of the story aren’t just juxtaposed - they’re amalgamated perfectly. Meaning, comedy and drama are one and the same. There is a scene where a heroine has a genuine nervous breakdown over the fact that somehow everything around her suddenly revolves about sex. She freaks out, gets up and runs outside. She runs and runs. She runs past the Big Wang’s Restaurant, past a Hot Meat Buns advertisement, past a train going into a tunnel... you get the idea. It’s futile. There is no escape for her. You laugh at this the way you laugh at your friend who tripped and fell, but ended in an unbecoming pose. You feel their pain and you feel like a dick for laughing, but the sight is just too comical to hold it back. For a show to invoke such complex emotions is a rare occurence to be treasured.

The plot is structured as five different story threads (one for each girl) running in parallel, which allows for an amazing variety of the top shelf plotlines to unravel in the span of just one cour. Are you a nostalgic 30+ y. o. for whom the Watamote-level cringe of teens discovering their sexuality actually looks endearing? This is a show for you. Would you like to see Nisio Isin-level insightful character drama that wasn’t written by Nisio Isin? This is a show for you. Did you like Emergence for its profound plot? This is a show for you. Do you think that there is no situation to which the answer isn’t “we need a bigger drill”? This is a show for you.

Naturally, these five threads all combine into one single cohesive story.

The production values are great and do this story justice, utilizing the medium to its fullest potential. The art style is uniquely distinct with its glossy character designs and the papery composite filter (think YoriMoi or Asobi Asobase). Beautiful cinematography gives all the dramedic scenes such a strong impact.

The icing on the cake is that the story is adapted from the manga in its entirety by the original creator herself.

12/10 (on a 15-point scale) for the best comedy of the season and the best drama of the year.

This anime is just a mess, the story, the character, the art is a feeling mess! the color theory on this anime is throw out of the windows ( i thought it was my notebook but no) the story is so cringed the way the characters are set you have no real background story, there is no way a normal human girl would act like that I felt like was a 30 year old woman who never go to high school and maybe she never did for the one we see today. The love triangle and how one of the characters betray their friends, theIzumi guy he is just a succubus a freaking worthless piece that adds nothing to the storyline.

overall this anime is just useless, no sense, force drama, in the perspective of a female watcher no one I know would ever act this way is just a sex fantasy of an old lady.

I don't recommend watching you have a lot of good animes this season: given, fruit no basket, the end of Carole and tuesday please stay if this outcome.

If there is ONE person to call out for this fine masterpiece of a work, it's gotta be Mari Okada. After her debut directorial flim that is Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms and SO MANY series compositions such as AnoHana, Hanasaku Iroha and Blast of Tempest (just to name a few), her debut manga series has not been well-hyped to a certain degree. Unbelievable, I know and understand that most of (if not everyone) is well aware of the usual shenanigans of Okada's works that always works wonders critically, in the face of absenteeism of something that doesn't click together. But on a basiclevel, that has been her shtick for the past 2 decades of scriptwriting supressingly-emotionalist anime that makes us learn and experience the hard way, only for us to sorely wail in tears (i.e. AnoHana) and such.

SO...Sex Ed the Animation. Mari Okada herself has been a victim of the early childhood syndrome known as bullying, and lived a life of teenage recluse, even under abusive parents, and a relationship that didn't work out for the good. Based on the idea that relationships are NOT for everyone (in her sights, love is an "item" of relapse, be it for the opposite or same sex), her idea (and eventually script) of Araburu was panned outward as: "SEX, the one LAST thing for girls to commit before their death." Together with famed director Masahiro Ando (who has worked with Okada in recent years) and Lay-Duce's director Takurou Tsukada, this series seems set to be one of Summer's most overlooked shows. And it largely is, part of the pun.

Puberty, adolescence, sexual (im)maturity, whatever you wanna call it, I'm gonna call it: The awkwardness of growing up. THIS is Mari Okada's framework into Araburu, as it attempts to deal the icebreaker on everyone's minds (well, at least more towards girls anyways): How to answer a question where love, relationships, and sex are intertwined altogether, that it seemingly is the end goal of the human life (well, not really to an extent though). And how do we go around conducting this seemingly innocent but trivial issue so taboo, it causes a stir? By interviewing some people in a club, because that's the "fruits" of the knowledge (or am I guessing it wrong?). And what started out as a random but blatant reply became the central focus of this series.

In the Literature Club, there exists 5 seemingly random girls who come together, at first for a thirst of knowledge through books: MG (main girl) Kazusa Onodera, (3rd party victim) Niina Sugawara, (lesbian love) Momoko Sudou, (erotica novelist) Hongou Hitoha, and (strict upbrought) Rika Sonezaki. One by one, through the simple word called sex (erm, sorry er...Es Ee Ecks), it started becoming the catalyst to everyone finding out more about the notions and intentions behind this seemingly "brave but dirty" deed.

Starting out with main girl Kazusa, she wears the typical "childhood friend" face, where her next-door neighbour Izumi Norimoto, whom she has known for years, suddenly causes her to fluster at the thought of having sex with Izumi. But that's saying too far-stretched, as a relationship will only get both of them into the proper leeway of truly wanting to have intimacy with one another. Alas, as much as Kazusa wants to engage with her own feelings to be properly conveyed to Izumi, she constantly takes one step forward, two steps back, fighting for her own ambitions to be by Izumi's side, and knowing how much her best friend and rival too is also garnering for his attention. And this is highly relatable for all of us, because there is always the 50/50 hindsight of acceptance or rejection. What's worse is that compared to the next person in line, is someone that is overly beautified to no end:

Melancholic girl Niina Sugawara, whom as described by boys as being a "fragile crane". Being the ideal girlfriend in terms of both looks and physique, it's no surprise that the childhood friend that Kazusa has been "aiming" for faces intense interference, along with the fact that she is said girl's best friend. Like, how messed-up and shitty is this love triangle!? Due to her upbringing being one of the most hideous and scarring events that destroyed her outlook of love, Izumi's kindness and care unknowingly triggers her heart emotions to crack the past hurts of her heart into the "prancing" territory of "girl hooks up with men, have multiple friends with benefits". And as much as we hate how spoiled and ignorant Sugawara is for her presence in both Kazusa and Izumi's relationship, the constant nagging that she surpassing Kazusa is real and deep thoughts of the path treaded and no turning back. In the end, empathy is the best medicine I can only describe her as being someone who is naturally hooked onto, but comes up short.

For the guy in question, Izumi Norimoto is also (like Kazusa) the typical childhood friend, only this time, he's the subject matter of "contradictions". Even though he has been kind and caring to Kazusa all those years, the same EXACT properties of him swinging towards Sugawara's way develops a sense of danger all around. What's detrimental is being the naive guy he is, and with this love triangle exposing him to the depths of darkness having to deal with the influx capacities of more than choosing the right girl, he has to take lead and choose wisely. From once the "I like trains" boy to someone who understands the girl's intuition and acting in a proper manner, like men should to make and break hearts. Sadly, what he did throughout this series was shallow, not the type of guy anyone would reference to being a role model (and yep, from a guy's perspective, I would bar my thoughts as well).

Momoko Sudou on the other hand, she seems like the type of girl to be the average layman: get a guy who rouses her interest, get together and be intimate. However, for some goddamn sake of an excuse, she went from being straight to being pro same-sex love. Not much is shown of her interactions, but she did have some guy of interest, and it broke apart as soon as she realizes that she is developing feelings for girls instead (essentially, lesbian love), and who to look out for to be her "knight in shining armor"? None other than the beautiful but fragile Sugawara that is her unconscious and immeasurable one-sided Cupid's arrow.

For Hongou Hitoha, things could have gotten so easier, as opposed to doing it IRL, she brings the entire love-jolting exercise onto online adult chatrooms. After being told that her erotica novel isn't quite up to snuff, she decides to hook an adult to replicate the desires of the flesh, an untouched boundary between adults and high school girls. After meeting up with what seemed like a potential candidate (he was there together with her the entire time), it turns out that candidate was Tomoaki Yamagishi (or Milo-sensei), a teacher at their school, who was once blackmailed to be the Literature Club's advisor, and now being Hongou's friend (of benefit). Despite the challenges that Hongou has faced trying to seduce Milo-sensei, more often than not he will push her away and give her second throughts to take ownership of her own feelings of wants and needs.

Last but not least, is the venerable Literature Club's president Rika Sonezaki. Despite being the strong advocator that the issue of sex shouldn't even be mere child's play, she is the most innocent out of the 5 girls to get a full-on relationship that is the healthiest and most supportive. Despite receiving love for the very first time, it doesn't seem that Sonezaki herself would waver, but as time passes, the boy who caught her attention and eventually scores her heart, is really heartwarming. Goes to show that even as trifled as you are skeptical in love, the same love will break your heart to see how much he/she has encapsulated all that love to reach out to you and steal the innocent heart in play.

When it comes to Okada herself, characterization is her strongest suit, aside from the usual overbearing melancholic "drama" that has us waver in favour or objection of the issues of her storyboarding, but I'd say that this series have that prevalent Okada flawness onto it, the same way that she does her stuff in the past.

I'd have to say that Lay-Duce was the perfect studio to being Okada's vision to life, as pretty much their vibrant and stunning cool-lighted art effects, coupled with some good animation, is another highlight in the series. Though it may seem cel-shaded at times with disparing quality dips, for the most part it handled the series gracefully from start to finish. No problem with colorful and stunning visuals though.

And the music, I have to say that as with accompanied Okada-styled shows, the music also plays a part in establishing the feelings and emotions of not just the characters, but the setting overall just oozes pure unadulterated moments, even at the constant signs of destress. With HoneyWorks conducting the OP, I'd have to say that it's as great as usual sounding for their repertoire of songs. ED was plentiful was well, giving the series a closing feel. Regardless, a fine showing.

If anything, I'd say Lay-Duce's anime adaptation of this series somewhat fell short of the ideals that the production staff and/or even Mari Okada herself would contemplate withholding information as each episode passes in a jiffy, so much so that information gets hoodwinked or lost in the structure. But really anyways, it's not a great show, and it's not a bad one too, I still think it's worth a watch if you're a fan of Mari Okada's works and nothing more. This journey to finding the true value of sex will be a mixed bag worth hits and misses.

Adolescence is no uncommon stomping ground in the anime world. The pairing of high school and romance isn't exactly particularly new and exciting either but fear not, Mari Okada has arrived to crank the drama into levels never before seen. On a more serious note however, the themes presented in the earlier episodes of the show actually were engaging and interesting. Sex is a touchy subject, especially in the heat of your youth. Having a positive outlook toward sex encourages a more thorough understanding of it. Araburu handled this quite appropriately when the girls were beginning to express they had thought about physical contact and intimacy. Atthis point of the show, I was honestly impressed it didn't fall into the pitfalls that most drama pieces usually do.

But what's that over the horizon? It's needless and unwarranted drama.

As is the case with most things Okada writes, she tends to take a subject and then take another five or six and roll them up, hoping they stick together. More often than not it doesn't work and you end up with unsatisfying teen melodrama and baffling character logic as is the case sadly with Araburu. The slow and steady pace that the series had begun with started to mutate into lightning fast nonsense. Characters had begun to fall out with each other, a detestable teacher-student relationship to pander to fetishes and of course, a dull love triangle in the final stretch to name a few of the "interesting" events that begin happening.

The show completely loses it's focus and swerves into the lane of cliché. You find yourself rolling your eyes at every new development Okada attempts to stir the pot with. The characters you were rooting for begin to change into completely predictable shadows of what made them interesting in the first place and the illusion crumbles as you come to realise the show has set itself up to constantly dramatize each and every line of dialogue it has left. Each shallow attempt to cause controversy becomes as aggravating as the last.

Araburu is basically a 1 to 1 adaptation of the manga which is a huge let-down seeing as the show had the potential it did to be something great towards the start. Creative liberty could have done wonders in this case, but as Okada is penning both the manga and the anime that was never going to be the case. She didn't choose to challenge herself by improving material or subverting the expectations of already invested manga readers, she chose to sing the same tune she's always sung.

A true shame, this could've have been something special.

If there's any take away from this review, it's to watch White Album 2, it's a superior drama story with a love triangle that's handled exceptionally.

I'll make this review short and quick. I used to watch anime and no matter how bad they were I would finish them. I now feel my time is too precious to be spending on stuff I wont enjoy. So I might as well drop them this show is one of them. Story: Story is about 5 girls who are in a literature club which they read books mostly involving adult situations. Until 1 of them says they are interested in sex. These 5 girls [except for 1] which you know nothing about all of a sudden have someone they are interested in because hey fuck it we need to forcerelationships.The show get soo boring cliche the only character that is actually interesting because a relationship was not forced on her will most likely get screen time late in the show. I am 7 episodes in and dropping the show.

the fact that AnoHana and Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou

came from this women is a shame

I will update this review later in writing it

2/10 reeks of School Days There's nothing else to say, really. It starts out as a comedy-drama and then becomes your typical overly dramatic drama, where every dramatic situation is a result of completely forced and illogical stupidity. Most dramas have this problem, where drama is created for the sake of creating drama, not because it makes sense. The characters make decisions that completely contradicts their earlier built-up personalities, regardless of whether you consider them thinking with their brains, or their genitals. E.g. (without spoiling much) like a high school boy suddenly wavering in his loyalty to the girl he confessed his love to, just because aslut tricked him into touching her butt and he got a boner from it, EVEN THOUGH in an earlier episode he was jacking off like there's no tomorrow to a random pron DVD. C'mooooon, a high-scool boy knows how to handle a boner, they don't act like this...

There's many more weird shit like this that just makes no sense and forces drama. You won't miss out on anything if you don't watch this.

Adolescence is a rather turbulent period for most people with all its conflicting thoughts and emotions. Considered too old to be treated as a child, but not old enough to be seen as an adult. An odd transitory road that many have to go through and along the way hopefully figure out who they are as they come of age. And it is that coming of age that really fascinates people and what many try to capture in their fiction. It’s a mode of story telling the begs for change and begs for development because it is what the characters are going through. Maiden ofthe Savage Season is no different with its main focus being the sexual awakening of a group of young literature girls.

The story follows five girls who belong to the literature club that also serves as their own clique as they all are good friends with each other. They are also sort of portrayed as outcasts to the rest of the school, mainly to the fact the club tends to read more risque novels. Despite the content they read none of them has had a romantic relationship. As they are near the tail end of adolescence it all wells up and finally bursts from the mouth of Sugawara, one of the club members, who wishes to have sex. This in turn leads to the other girls wondering about their own sexuality which sets forth the story for them all.

Each of the girls follows a different facet of having a relationship. With the primary one being the the main lead Kazusa who follows the mode standard of the childhood friend. The others include between classmates, teacher and student, homosexuality, and the final one being a bit all over the place. They all develop in their own certain way and at times intertwine and conflict with one another. The conflicts themselves aren’t that bad and the friendly relationship between the girls doesn’t become too strained which mostly comes from the tone it has.

Savage Maidens has a weird tone as it is sometimes very light hearted and comedic, and other times it is serious. It does make sense to have a sort of serious tone when dealing with something like sexuality as it is both intrinsic and extrinsic experience. The fear, anxiety, and uncertainty of knowing whether or not someone likes you back like it’s life or death situation. The confusion of your own sexuality and whether your feelings are true and whether or not people will accept you as you are. However it also makes sense to also keep a light tone as well in order to keep the show from wallowing in it’s own seriousness so that it doesn’t come off as pretentious. The show recognizes its own self-seriousness and uses it’s comedy to ground the show so that its head isn’t sticking up its own ass. It would seem like a decent balance, but that’s the thing, it really isn’t balanced. Since sometimes the comedic tone at times will undermine the serious moments, and the serious tone can at times propagate out of nowhere and feel unwarranted and unnecessary.

The main group of girls are all decent for the most part and thanks the the light tone of the show they become very easily likable. Some of them are better than others such as Rika and Hitoha who are the more developed of the main group, Kazusa despite being the lead is just decent, and Momoko and Sugawara who aren’t bad, but they really aren’t that well developed or interesting. Sugaware especially being the lesser of the two who comes off as a plot device who adds drama for the sake of drama. The rest of the cast are ok across the board they all aren’t that interesting or aggregating to take not of with maybe the lit club’s adviser being the exception.

Even though the show was a rather decent experience, it does peter out during the last couple of episodes. All the interpersonal relationships and tension that was built up during the entire show is pushed aside for some outside force in order to hurry things along. It does try to keep with the theme of sexuality and sex, but it is a cheap replacement to all that has occurred. It’s a shame seeing these characters who came a long way from what they were in the beginning be given such a bombastic yet flat ending, hindering this show from being far greater than it could have been.

This is an anime where you go a few weeks after finishing thinking, "wow that was mediocre". Initially, the jokes were landing and felt a bit fresh having humour that wasn't superficial or degrading, but teen sex-curiosity talk that would be more familiar with a western audience. That's pretty much it regarding what I enjoyed. The rest is just the same teen love story you see everywhere lol. The only difference is that people say 'sex' a way lot. I would add that most of the characters are unlikeable and kinda cringe. Though you may argue that its more realistic that these teens are kinda cringe, which Ido agree but it's really not enjoyable or fun to watch at all.

If that's your thing though, go for it ;)

Art is pretty good but soundtrack is forgettable.

Following the trend of almost every new anime,there are always going to be romance and isekai animes. More often than not, there are going to be a lot of just terrible adaptations and bland story lines mixed in with the good ones. So, is this show a good shot at a romance? Not exactly. No. The MC is pretty average, nothing to comment on her, just a typical shoujo girl in love. Then, the rest of the cast isn't actually that bad, with no signs of just boring one liner characters. Then, why did this show suffer? Well, the plot kind of just sucks. This anime,instead of having one romance, has multiple subromances. Nothing new here, but it's executed so poorly. That is, the other subromances. They're not really given a lot of time, and they all seem forced. Especially the fight over Izumi, it seems extremely forced and shallow. While I'm not going to say who falls in love with Izumi, all you need to know is that she falls in love with him with about 2 scenes of interaction. It doesn't make sense, and it seems that the only reason this conflict is there is to get in the way of the main heroine(btw thats definitely the only reason why this happened). The other girls' romances don't seem to have much depth either. The writer girl's romance actually feels the most in depth of the subromances, but that doesn't speak for much, as the other romances are so bland and boring. It's like the author had to put every girl with a romantic interest or else the story wouldn't be complete. While I actually don't mind multiple romances going on at once, it should be executed with intention and it should make sense. This story is just, kind of terrible. The main romance is actually not so bad, it's pretty developed. Unfortunately, the supporting cast and their subplots and romances are just terrible, and drag the show through the mud.

And... of course, there IS the interesting premise of the show. Girls think about sex, and they're going to be aggressive about it. Or is it? Eh. Not really. The girls in the show act normal, the only difference is the emphasis on sex that doesn't usually happen in shoujos, so I guess I can give it that. It doesn't seem that bad, but it's more of a gimmick than anything else, I'd say. It's not terrible, but also not exactly super useful.

Conclusion: The story goes pretty awry halfway through the show, and ruins the show. Nothing to see here.

If you were thinking this was going to be this embarrassing sexual-education type series (like Tsurezure Children which beats this show in every aspect) with a lot of humour and relatable situations then you're dead wrong. You're in for one dimensional characters, unnecessary, formulaic drama-conflict and worst of all: NO SEX-ED HUMOUR! I'm not saying this should've been a hentai, that wasn't my expectation but when that charlatan Gigguk recommended this to me as an awkward shoujo about girls interested in sex, I thought it was going to be an awkward shoujo about girls interested in sex. The characters are absolutely trash. We have: - love triangle foreign girl withthis mysterious and deep personal philosophy /s

- nerdy perverted chikan girl

- fujoshi

- normal girl

and lest we forget

- token lesbian...

... because we have to be inclusive but can't be bothered to do it right.

If I said that this show was worth my time, i'd be lying. I'm a completionist at heart and kept trying to give it that final chance to shine because by some miracle i'd breached the three-episode threshold but at episode 8.5 I have to concede.

Don't watch this trashy show and don't watch shows like it. There's no humour, no comedy and no awkward sexuality. There's only cliches and tropes.

Go watch Tsurezure Children instead, or Nichijou.

If a few months ago someone had told me that my favorite new series of the Summer season was going to be a slice of life series about five girls(and at least one boy) learning about sex, I would’ve raised a very puzzled eyebrow. I’ve enjoyed some very “sex educational” slice-of-life series before like Scum’s Wish or the more recent Domestic Girlfriend, but those kinds of shows had a much darker tinge that gave the innocence of their characters some engaging bit of edge. And yet, despite how innocent it is, Maidens of the Savage Season is shaping itself up to be a very matureand entertaining exploration of the subject matter.

The main reason I say this is because we’re only 4 episodes in, and already the characters either have a very sizable amount of depth or, at least, a very interesting hook that’s got me dying to know more about them. So, here’s a quick, little break down of the five girls that make up the school’s infamous Literature Club:

1) Kazusa Onodera.

Kazusa is very much the plainest girl you could imagine. Her face, body, hair, demeanor, and style of dress all scream normal. This is in stark contrast to her childhood best friend Izumi who has, over the years, become one of the most popular boys in school. As such, with her we see a sort of self-deprecating attitude towards her feelings for him. Seeing all of the popular girls that are constantly trying to cozy up to him, Kazusa can’t help but feel inadequate. And, the way she copes with her inability to be with him, is by holding on to that memory of their youth and rationalizing that they are just too young to think about things like sex (even though they’re already in high school). This, hilariously, backfires on her by the end of the 1st episode and she is sent into a spiral of emotions that forces her to finally confront her true feelings for Izumi. As what seems to be the main plot of the series, the relationship between these two characters is nothing short of fascinating.

2) Rika Sonozaki.

Rika is the incredibly high-strung leader of the Literature Club. Though she enjoys the club’s main activity of reading out-loud erotic literature, the deep-seated shame of her enjoyment forces her to hide it very aggressively. The topic makes her, quite often, fly into bombastic heats of rage where she screams about the immorality of sex and insults all of the girls of her class that she considers to be “sex crazed beasts.” But, it’s clear that she does want a taste of that kind of life when, in a later scene, we see her buying a fashion magazine at a local store, but still awkwardly asking for a paper bag to hide it in. The scenes that follow where she is slowly forced to come out of her shell by a boy who has long had crush on her are very cute.

3) Hitoha Hongou

As the aspiring writer of the group, Hitoha’s interest in sex seems to be the most technical. She wants to be able to write great erotic literature like the authors that she loves, but struggles because she is simply too inexperienced to do so. She wants to be able to convey these scenes in a way that her readers would enjoy, but all of the manuscripts she’s submitted to publications thus far have resulted in her pretty much getting laughed out of the publication. Her strange, but proactive, way of fixing this is by joining an online sex chat. Without spoiling anything, this goes into some interesting directions when she finds out that the person on the other side of the chat is closer to her than she thinks.

4) Momoko Sudou

Momo, like Kazusa, is the member of the club who is most visibly embarrassed by the topic of sex. She is also one of the ones we know the least about so far. What we do know, is that she is a very kind and supportive friend who cares deeply for others. Also, even though we see the story bring a boy into her life, many scenes indicate that Momo might be our look into a girl’s coming-of-age story from a much less heterosexual perspective.

5) Niina Sugawara

Finally there’s Niina, the blond-haired beauty that is the object of affection for many boys in the school. Known as the “Jewel in the dung heap” for her involvement with the Literature Club, Niina does feel like the mysterious outsider of the club. This mystery deepens when she announces to the club that she wants to experience sex before she dies, because she might die soon. Like Momo, we know very little about Niina. But, the combination of her shocking declaration and her overall ephemeral demeanor, makes her a mystery that I am dying to learn more about.

As you can no doubt see, this is very much a character piece. There isn’t so much an overarching plot as there are five stories that are constantly intertwining. But, so far this is perfectly fine because each of the characters has a fresh and interesting perspective from which to explore this classic coming-of-age story. This, combined with the pastel art style that gives the whole show a cute layer of innocence, makes for a very intriguing, engaging, hilarious, and heartwarming debut for this slice-of-life series. I wholeheartedly recommend giving this series a try to anyone who was able to get through their high school Health Education class without being a massive tool about it.

Story: 6

Art: 8

Sound: 7

Character: 9

Enjoyment: 8

Huh. Another Okada Mari anime? Time to break out my bingo board and see how quickly I win. https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQoTsk4uxOIa9LMx55LPRkHsdDeawgb4IQ42oep_pBFwTNtVWz_ 2 episodes. Literally 2 episodes in and I got bingo. WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS AND IS QUITE LONG O Maiden's in your Savage season is a coming-of-age anime that got people hooked on it's more mature, grounded themes of sex and youth. While not the first anime to do so and certainly it won't be the last, Maiden's is an Okada Mari anime and oh boy do I have to emphasize that. This anime screams her writing. Whatever your enjoyment of this series will be dependsalmost entirely on whether you like her writing style and its quirks. Let's dig into the anime now to elaborate on what I mean.

This anime is a melodrama. Almost offensively so. I separate melodrama from simple drama on the basis that in melodrama, characters do stupid things and make silly decisions to fuel the story, not out of a want for an actual logical flow. This anime has characters do incredibly stupid things that can only be done in anime. I mean, seriously? The creepy pedo director? He's literally only there to provide a point to expand more melodrama. The whole teacher-student subplot? Melodrama too. And I swear that these girls have not had their sexual education course yet even with them in highschool. This anime is not a realistic depiction of highschool girls (and boys) in any sort of realistic setting.

The pacing of the show is all over the place. I was somewhat surprised that the girls never actually work together all the time and the anime instead takes its time looking at each characters and their struggles in their own individual sup-plots - and they often jump around between each one almost at random. This breaks up the pacing a lot. I'm fine with this as long as the show gives me characters to care about. The show's major problem stems from this in that it expects you to empathize with each character but they never really give much reason early on to get you to like them or cheer for them. The 5 MCs don't really have particularly outstanding traits outside them being misfits who have an unnaturally high encounter-rate with sexual-related themes in their daily lives. The anime never explains how or why they've gotten together as a literature club to do the things they do (reading soppy romances) and it doesn't give us any sort of motivations early on so it throws you into pretty heavy character moments without much foundation. This is NOT helped by the fact that this anime is incredibly long-winded. Seriously, 4 episodes in and they've barely actually done anything to advance the plot since the anime loves taking its sweet time on things that don't really matter or they drag scenes on with long-winded dialogue when they should be setting the characters up. Oh well. I've certainly gotten used to this level of distracted writing by Okada and I pushed through but here it clearly sank a lot of people.

The characters themselves aren't actually too important in the grand scheme of things despite being a character-driven show. How much you like them depends on your tolerance towards having sex jokes thrown at you every two minutes. As I've said before, none of them are particularly stand-out. We have the club-president Sonozaki Rika who sees all sex as a deviant act. We have Hongo Hitoha who is a novelist (but that's not important) who is struggling to write any sort of sexual scenes. Sudou Momoko, Suguwara Niina, and Onodera Kazusa make a trio of first years who provide the spiciest of the melodrama. The anime initially starts primarily as a comedy that is riddled with the sex jokes you've seen in every other anime but blown up in scale. The melodrama comes in as soon as there is any sort of serious interaction with *sigh* the male characters. I don't know man. The male characters in Okada Mari shows are never really the best but Maiden's takes a pretty hard-line stance on things without it even knowing. I failed to find any sort of reasonable traits in the male characters other than for being fuel for melodrama and for being half-emasculated most of the show.

There really is no reason for me to care about any of the relationships the characters are in when most of them don't have much of a personality. And that's only for the actual couples. If you're the sod who got written to be pared with Momoko, not only are you melodrama-fuel but you're also a one-note arsehole. Seriously I never really gave much thought to Izumi or the teacher since they were pretty predictable. This entire show is, in fact, pretty predictable since you just have to think about what character action will cause the maximum amount of melodrama. Although, to be fair, that scene where Suguhara goes "SIKE that's the wrong number!" on poor little Kazusa in episode 8 was absolutely hilarious. The dialogue itself is so obviously Okada Mari. It's adapted from her manga and so the dialogue would probably have fit in a manga's panel-and-speech bubble format but it doesn't work out too well in anime. It's too tedious to listen to a character talk about their sexual and emotional desires and I forgot a lot of what people actually said (ESPECIALLY THE GUYS).

As the story progresses it consolidated itself and really starts to pick up. Disregarding the stupid way the relationships come to be as well as the creepy pedo guy, we really start to get a good look into the inner workings of the characters. The main themes of the show also manage to rise up from the muddy initial pacing. I gotta say first; this show gives an almost unfair amount of time and development to two specific characters - Hongo and Suguhara. Really, the other three are almost shafted out to the way thanks to them and I wouldn't have it any other way. Both of them have hidden complexes related to their sexual identity and were clearly the best characters of the show. Suguhara has a complex over her high sexual appeal and relating it to her "growing out of childhood" and emotional romance. She struggles to find and maintain any sort of fulfilling emotional relationship. She only has two friends - Kazusa and Momoko - and knowingly does things that pushes them away in an Okada Mari-style NTR attempt. Her actions, while very much geared towards causing more melodrama, were dynamic and emotionally impactful since she was a genuinly well-written character. Hongo has a far more subtle case. So subtle in fact that I'm almost sure she was almost somewhat forgotten about by Okada and Masahiro. Her complex is a similar to Suguhara's in that she never has had any sort of relationship likely due to her appearance and aloofness and thus aims, and struggles, to write any sort of erotica to fill her hole in her heart. It's a damn shame she isn't given more screentime. Their character arcs felt the most complete by the end and it felt that there was genuine thought given to the development of both of them.

They basically carry the anime since the rest of the cast (especially the guys) really don't do too much. I actually enjoyed Kazusa's and Izumi's arc but it was let down by Izumi being poorly handled. He really doesn't get much room and acts incredibly passively like the rest of the male cast. Seriously when the only guy who is actually making an attempt to impact the story is the creepy pedo guy you know something is up. Momoko is a pretty decent character but I really wish she got more screentime as well. I completely predicted the prediction her character arc was going to go (I know you know) from episode 3 and I would have loved to see it played around with more. Sonozaki was meh. She completed her arc as soon as she got paired with her Okada Mari-issued boyfriend which was very early on and nothing in their relationship stood out from literally any other romance anime. The teacher was somewhat interesting but suffers from both the passiveness of Izumi and the limited screentime of Hongo. He has some lines about highschool girls and his ideals but they're never explored in detail which was a shame. This anime really doesn't know how to pace itself and its characters. Overall the characters are fine (except the creepy pedo guy who's seriously just there to cause melodrama and nothing else). You'll either love them or hate them depending on your tolerance for the Okada Mari style (I'm starting to use the phrase "depending on your tolerance to X" a bit much now).

As I've previously described; this anime is not realistic at all. But I really don't believe realism was the point of this series. It's an ANIME for crying out loud. We have an anime about boys turning into borderline homoerotic Kappas that aired just last season. It's almost like an experiment of Okada Mari where she attempts to conceptualize themes usually frowned upon by Japanese society. Seriously, who couldn't laugh at the absolutely hilarious 11th episode when the arsehole authority figures went full Tari Tari and put a blanket ban on non-platonic relationships between the students. In a goddamn HIGHSCHOOL. Absolutely crazy and hilarious and would never ever work out in real life. The amount of contrivances that happen just to further the plot is also hilariously high. The long-windedness of the story is likely a result of Okada trying to fit was much stuff as possible. I would certainly like this anime to have at least 2 more episodes or just cut down on the unnecessary dialogue to develop it's characters. Seriously, Okada was stuffing this anime with more themes than it could handle. Thankfully it's not that much of a mess since it simply cuts off stuff abruptly whenever it moves on to the actual meat of things (which is a problem in and of itself I guess). Going back, I really think people should view this from the perspective that this is some sort of experimental work from Okada. It's so full of her quirks its impossible to judge it without really taking her into consideration. This is exactly why I said that you'll love this anime or hate it depending on whether you like her style of writing or not. Masahiro Ando clearly gave her a large role (similar to Nagai Tatsuyuki whenever he pairs up with her) and she grabbed it fully.

Final bits I can't bother writing paragraphs out for:

- The animation is, like the pacing, pretty all over the place. Did people actually work on episode 5? There was so much off-model and crappily-drawn STILL FRAMES in that episode that I can't believe they had much time to animate and check it. The rest of the show suffers from inconsistent animation especially with the character models. Thankfully it gets much better by the end.

-By god do I love the voice acting. Anzai Chika fully understands Suguhara as a character and Kouno Hiyori put forth a great performance for a newbie seiyuu. The other girls were pretty good too and it's pleasing to hear Kurosawa Tomoyo's voice again.

-Really, that creepy pedo guy is just...why? It'd be fine if he was given more backstory and a reason to care about him but he hardly gets any screentime. The anime never explored what could happen with a character like him running about which would have been pretty interesting. I harped on him a lot in this review but that's because he's representative of this anime's inability to draw interesting situations out of pretty big opportunities.

-*siiiiiiiggghhhhh* give me something to care about the guy characters. Izumi's only traits are that he likes trains and that he's sexually attracted to beautiful woman. Wut? Literally any guy would do that and I don't understand why the anime makes such a large fuss about it right up to the final episode. We live in a world where "10/10 would smash" is not meant to be taken seriously for Pete's sake. And really? In front of your girlfriend? You just don't say that shit you know?

So my final thoughts on O Maiden's in your savage season? It's surprisingly alright. There's so much that irks me (and certainly did so for plenty of people) but I can see why this show was hyped as it was early in the season. It really isn't my cup of tea but I give it a "6" score since it does things better than other similar shows (and I gave the same score to Golden Time and have similar feelings to this for that show) and because its vastly better than some of the scores I gave "5" to. It has its problems with pacing and it's inability to make meaningful relationships to care about and it's not very well-written; but it does pay attention to its characters quite closely. Don't get me wrong, I'll probably forget this show and its characters and I've watched far better romances and coming-of-age anime but this is fine for what it is. It's certainly not well-polished nor do I care enough about it to check out the manga but I would like to see this sort of thing with it's themes expanded upon in another anime. Okada Mari, right after directing a movie, is penning a manga so I'm interested to see her next multi-media approach.

Thanks for reading if you've reached this part.