Midori no Hibi Episode 1

Midori no Hibi

"Right Hand Girlfriend"

Now, here's the reason I watch anime! Where else could you find a story about a guy with a girl as a right hand? No, I mean that literally. A girl as his right hand! Genius!

Hey, I always want romantic comedies to deviate from the norm, and this is definitely getting out there. The main character, Seiji is sort of like a younger, less principled Onizuka (hey, he's got some serious principles). From the way he acts to the things he does and his character design, I think it's a fair comparison. Well, of course, Onizuka didn't have a girl on his right hand.

Basically, Midori is a girl that the romantically-challenged Seiji never noticed, but who is very much in love with him. She probably made some sort of wish to be with him (or something along those lines), and fate twisted it into their current situation.

There's a good amount of CGI in this first episode, mostly used for backgrounds and crazy camera movement, and it blends fairly well, though it's usually evident when it's used. The pacing and content of the show is suitably zany and whimisical given the show's premise, and it's all pretty entertaining.

I can only imagine it'll get more insane from here!

Rating: B+

Posted by Kei at 09:01 PM | Comments (0)

Midori no Hibi Episode 2

Midori no Hibi

"The Love Between Us"

So, Seiji is the bad, tough guy with a heart of gold. That's more or less your plot synopsis for episode two. That counts as character, development, I suppose.

Oh yeah, for the purposes of actually making this a series, when the opportunity arises for Seiji to reveal their current situation, Midori stops him, because she doesn't want her mom to be sad. Because her daughter being in a coma, that's a lot less sad.

I thought she was just referring to how sad she'd be to find out her daughter was in love with this hoodlum (and the fact her daughter was wearing a mini "I Love Seiji" dress.

Rating: C-

Posted by Kei at 12:08 AM | Comments (2)

Midori no Hibi Episode 3

Midori no Hibi

"They Day of Discoveries"

Ugh.

We're introduced to Seiji's sister in this episode, who has a pretty boring character design, with the exception being her enormous mouth. I mean, it's huge. And it looks stupid. On the plus side, it matches her obnoxious personality.

This isn't a very serious show, but it's still annoying that his sister (a caricuture, but still!) is so inconsistent. She starts out as a ridiculous, bullying ex-gang leader with a big drinking problem and a psychotic streak. Then the next morning she's talking about Seiji like a good big sister, and then even has some stupid line about hoping that Midori will take good care of him.

It's only episode three, which means--by the code of anime--that nothing interesting can happen anyways, so stay tuned and maybe after the trial period is over, this mindless drivel will just turn into normal drivel.

Rating: D

Posted by Kei at 11:26 PM | Comments (0)

Midori no Hibi Episode 4

Midori no Hibi

"Discovery of the Secret!?"

Midori no Hibi is a pretty terrible show. If you like the premise of a love story between an Onizuka-like guy and a cute, innocent girl attached to his right hand, then you probably can't do much better than this one.

The only realy strong point of this show is the art, which is pretty cute and lively.

In this episode, Seiji and Midori's secret is discovered by a crazy doll-otaku from their school Of course, he's convinced that Midori is just an extremely lifelike doll. When he discovers the truth, he just want Midori for himself. Of course, she's not interested. To add insult to injury, the resolution of this episode's story involves the doll otaku LOSING HIS MEMORY, thus forgetting all about Seiji's secret.

Rating: D

Posted by Kei at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)

Midori no Hibi Episode 5

Midori no Hibi

"The Power of Love"

This show is really, really bad. Luckily, the premise is so bizarre, I actually want to know how they get themselves out of this. Five episodes in, they haven't even hinted at how they might return Midori to her real body, so in the interim, I'm forced to slog through these terrible episodes.

Really, when it comes down to it, this show is just as bad as the concept implies. Imagine how the meeting went where they came up with this brilliant show:

"Alright, we're going to do another romantic, young-adult anime."
"What's the catch?"
"Something has to keep the lovers apart... She could be... half-robot? An alien? His sister?"
"No, no, those are all done to death."
"Well... what if..." And he looks at his right hand. "What if she's his RIGHT HAND?"
"Great! Imagine the problems that will cause! Run with it."

Okay, so I think there was actually a manga first, but you get the picture.

I also hope that the doll-otaku's getting hit with heavy objects as a way to try and get his memory back doesn't turn into a recurring concept that finally leads up to an episode in the future where he remembers about Midori, and proceeds to cause problems for Seiji. But I'm pretty sure it will.

Oh, before I forget, the plot of this episode. It's your standard romantic anime, one of the characters gets sick, then the other character gets sick after taking care of the other one. Except this time, one of them is the other's right hand (substitute that for alien, sister, goddess, robot, or whatever floats your boat).

Rating: C-

Posted by Kei at 10:38 PM | Comments (6)