Ooo, a harem anime! Actually I was not that much interested in catching a harem series this season, but figured, what the heck? Well maybe I should be glad I did. Asu no Yoichi!, though a harem anime, was at least decent and something that I can watch without taking it too seriously. Of course, the usual boobs and stuff are inside, but well, the story was ok in the first episode. It is something that can be watched on the side complementing my tastes for the season’s anime. Anyway, huge number of screenshots in this post, you have been warned.
Show starts with a picture of the onee-san of the Ikaruga sisters, Ikaruga Ibuki, who is shown in a screenshot above from slightly later in the show. As can be expected, she has nice boobies. And she looks nice, and has a nice voice. I feel ashamed for not recognizing the voice until I looked at ANN, seriously, you will know why after the episodic and turn to my impressions. The onee-san type, I like!
Then we hit the OP, which is by meg rock, “Egao no Riyuu”. I am fine with meg rock’s music, and as usual, for a harem anime, the OP sounds like nothing much other than just average, which is still a pickup in my opinion. Pretty upbeat, that was it. They also showed a girl whom I already prefer over Ibuki, and they have stripping in the OP! Yes, the girl I like strips too. No, she has not appeared yet in the story, hopefully by next episode she will.
Our protagonist, Karasuma Yoichi, is shown almost right after the OP. Surprisingly, he is not weak. Still, his way of talking follows those of the samurai/warrior class, so he ends a lot of his sentences with “de gozaru”. The guy is very innocent however, as he lives in the mountains training with his dad, who now wants to send him to the city for the official reason of allowing him to get stronger.
Yoichi’s dad. Quite the funny fella, gets owned by one poke from Yoichi while trying to ambush him.
The real reason why his dad wants him to go down the mountain into the city. I could not catch what he was saying at all during this point but it was funny all the same, looking forward to finding out the reason.
His dad then shoots an arrow to the Ikaruga dojo from a freaking mountain. Talk about power and skill. Wait till you see where it ends up.
In every harem anime, there must be a mixture of boobs and lolies. This one is no exception. Meet the youngest Ikaruga sister, Ikaruga Kagome. Not surprising who voiced her either (impressions section please, not now), too bad I did not recognize her voice off the bat. Kagome appears to have great respect for Ibuki, as can be expected.
Kagome and Ibuki are at breakfast, but the other two sisters have yet to wake, and seeing as it is an off day, Ibuki finds it fine that they are late for breakfast. The doorbell rings and Kagome goes to find out who it is. A very short while later, she screams instead, waking up the other two sisters in the process.
Ikaruga Ayame, the second sister. I also really like her for her more modern dressing ways and how hot she looks. She is also rather hot-tempered it seems, and impatient.
Ikaruga Chihaya, the third sister, a meganekko, rounding up the types that usually appear in a harem anime (other than the two that have yet to be revealed).
And this is where the arrow ends up and the reason for Kagome’s screaming. Man, seriously. The letter obviously contains news of Yoichi’s arrival and move to the Ikaruga Dojo, and Ibuki gathers up the sisters and informs them about him coming. Ayame then argues with Ibuki about how unsafe it was to have a male in the house of females, while Ibuki refutes that since it came from Uncle Karasuma, the guy could not be anything bad. The argument continues for a while, until Ayame wants to leave, but Ibuki stops her because she has not eaten breakfast, and some other reason which I could not understand with my super limited Japanese skillz (or lack thereof).
The Ikaruga sisters.
Ibuki vs. Ayame
Meanwhile Yoichi reaches the city in his traditional outfit, and is of course astounded by the sights of the city from a higher place. People around him are fearful however, not too sure what he is exactly. Then two delinquents show up in front of him while he tries to find the location where he is supposed to meet the Ikaruga sisters, with the wind snapping the paper out of his hands. The delinquents are the Saginomiya brothers, with Ukyo being the elder and standing directly in front of Yoichi, asking him what the hell he was looking at. He then kicks Yoichi’s boken, causing Yoichi to feel really insulted.
Saginomiya Ukyo
Yoichi then declares that his honor has been insulted or something to that effect, and decides to punish Ukyo. With one hit, he sends Ukyo flying with a technique.
In the right hands, a boken can be more powerful than a sword (in an anime) as Yoichi proves. Not good pissing off a warrior and insulting him…
…because this is how you would end up. That is the other brother at the side, Saginomiya Sakyou.
Violence however does not go unpunished in a city. Another funny moment.
So Yoichi gets caught by the police, while Sakyou worries about his bro, even asking him to go to the hospital to have a CT scan lol. Ukyo only looks after Yoichi with a pained expression, wondering how it took just one hit to take him out.
At the station, Yoichi enjoys a cup of tea, then after a small conversation, suddenly realizes he is late, and runs out of the station after hurriedly finishing the cup of tea, and jumps down and runs off. One cannot help but notice the teacup he leaves behind has the tea leaf stalk standing upright; for those who are well-acquainted with Japanese culture, this should be familiar.
Yoichi shortly loses his way in a department building trying to find the location he is supposed to meet up with the sisters at, and decides to go to a higher place for a look. Of course his first time on an escalator makes him nervous.
Hesitant Yoichi is hesitant. He soon takes his one big step though and moves up the escalator. Saginomiya kyoudai happen to be nearby and the younger one alerts the elder.
Meanwhile, Ayame and Chihaya grow bored of waiting for the late Yoichi, and move off. Kagome has to go to the toilet, and Ibuki is left alone to wait for him.
As he exits the escalator, Yoichi trips and smashes headlong into one of those cleaning trolleys.
Of course, the trolley begins moving forward at a high speed through the department store, and the boken sticking out at the side lifts up the curtains of several changing rooms in the journey. The trolley hits an obstacle, sending Yoichi flying into a changing room…straight into – you guessed it – Ayame.
I would want to barge into a changing room with this girl too.
This scene looks awfully familiar to an episode in another anime series.
Boobgrab!
So of course Ayame starts tearing up at his appearance and before she can scream, Yoichi covers her mouth with his hand and locks her other arm, and realizes his mistake almost instantly. While she continues to struggle and makes noises, Yoichi accidentally finds his hand on her breast, and a moment of hilarity ensues. Ayame goes over her limit and smashes him in the crotch with a back heel.
This is seriously painful if done right.
So Yoichi hops out of the changing room holding his groin followed by shouts of “hentai” and stuff from Ayame, and just then the police appear. But a thief saves the moment, snatching a handbag from an old woman. Yoichi instantly follows the thief through the department store. They go through some weaving and turning before the thief disappears into a bookstore. Yoichi sees him at the other side of some shelves, but decides to stop him first with a scroll.
Scroll flick!
Though Yoichi is successful, while running into the other side, Chihaya suddenly shows up in front of him and they ram into each other. After a moment of light-headedness where Yoichi thinks he is seeing an ocean (striped blue and white = ocean? WTF?), he hears Chihaya asking him if he would be so kind as to get up, and we see another fanservice moment that often occurs in such anime.
Face in pantsu!
Yoichi instantly gets up and whacks his head on the shelf behind. Then Chihaya gets up, obviously unperturbed, and holds up a yaoi manga and asks if that was Yoichi’s interest. Again, Yoichi whacks his head against the shelf behind. But then he spots the thief, and off he goes again.
He finally corners the thief and defeats him with a move. However upon picking up the thief’s arm in trying to immobilize him, he sees the thief’s watch and realizes just how late he is for the meet. He then ties up the thief and the policeman chasing both of them sees only the image below, the words say something like “here is the criminal/culprit”.
Yoichi finally sits down in front of a banner sign somewhere in the department store as he is unable to find his way around. He then recollects how easy his mountain life was and how good it was for him. Just then, he hears sniffing beside him and turns to find Kagome crying beside him on the bench.
It turns out Kagome had indeed lost her way despite saying she would make it on her own. Ibuki also worries about her around the same time, and asks Chihaya and Ayame, who had returned, to stay at the spot while she went to look for Kagome.
Yoichi meanwhile comforts Kagome, telling her that her worry about her elder sisters laughing about her losing her way was groundless, as there would be no sisters who would not worry about their younger sister, and that in fact, maybe her sister was looking for her now. Yoichi then asks how her elder sister looks like, and Kagome replies that she is a kind person and very good at cooking. Obviously, this was of no help, so Yoichi asks her about her appearance. Kagome can only come up with “big boobs”. I lol’ed.
Yoichi then helps Kagome peer over the low wall nearby at the lower level, asking her whether one or two women were her sister, whose boobs seemed big to him. Kagome then spots Ibuki and Yoichi realizes the meaning of “big boobs”. The police appear suddenly then, taking Yoichi for a kidnapper. Yoichi however promises to protect Kagome, and unclasps a metal hook nearby that hooks some large banners across the floors of the store, and swings down Tarzan style while asking Kagome to call out to her sister.
A new scene from the new movie the “Japanese Tarzan”, starring Karasuma Yoichi as Tarzan.
Yoichi then precisely hands over Kagome to Ibuki, and their eyes meet…
Of course, every action must have a reaction, and Yoichi gets snapped back by the hook swinging back due to its momentum, and through the glass he goes!
Karasuma Yoichi stars in the new Japanese “Through the Looking Glass”.
And where does he end up? On a freaking outbound train. Awesome.
Nendoroid Karasuma Yoichi, anyone?
A very depressed Yoichi comes back in on the evening inbound train, on top of it that is, and goes to an overhead bridge sighing about how late he already was not meeting the Ikaruga family. However, Ibuki has already recognized him from his previous technique used in saving Kagome, and finds him at the bridge. While she holds his hand and talks to him, Yoichi keeps staring at her breasts. This is when the cop appears, and says “Ok, let’s continue where we left off in the afternoon”, putting a handcuff on him.
Handcuffed yet again.
However, Yoichi says that there is something he must absolutely do before returning to the station. He then goes around apologizing to everyone he had made trouble for throughout the day, and the elder police officer takes note of this as well, and releases Yoichi, claiming that he could not possibly be a bad guy for all his good deeds. The teacup with its standing leaf stalk is shown again.
Ibuki then brings Yoichi back to the dojo, but since it already is late, they go straight to the residence, where the other three sisters are waiting impatiently for their dinner. And Yoichi introduces himself, and Ayame recognizes him as the hentai, Chihaya as the “guy with that kind of interest”, and Kagome as “Samurai-san”.
The girl I <3 appears in the ED here. I find it quite likely that Nabatame Hitomi will voice her. If that is correct, then this character is Takatsukasa Angela.
The ED is “Life and proud” by Misato Aki, whom people will recognize as the singer of the first ED, sad rain, for Blassreiter. Very nice voice, I like the ED more than the OP here.
Now for the important bits. With every harem anime it seems they must have some really good seiyuu to round it up, or at least seiyuu experienced in this sector. Therefore you will be quite likely to see a bunch of the usual people. Satou Rina voices Ibuki, which is why I said I am ashamed I had to look at ANN to recognize her voice, as she already just did Minami Haruka in Minami-ke Okaeri, making this the third role I know her by in which she plays the elder or eldest sister (the first being Kamishiro Mana in Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula). She really has a good voice for that kind of role, very nice and gentle yet firm when necessary.
The now popular Tomatsu Haruka voices Ayame, which was why I thought her voice familiar. Both have collaborated last year in sister-sister roles, in Kyouran Kazoku Nikki (Tomatsu as Chika and Satou as Gekka, though Chika was supposedly “elder sister” to Gekka). Back then there were hardly any interactions between the two in the anime, so it is nice to see them interacting as real sisters for once. The veteran seiyuu Tamura Yukari, or Yukarin to her fans, voices Chihaya, while Kagome, as I said, I should have recognized her voice too, is played by the recent loli voice goddess (IMHO) Hanazawa Kana. As you can see, there are more of recently popular seiyuu, though Yukarin certainly brings depth to the team, though a team that already has quite a bit of depth in such series just means a good cast overall.
Aside from that, veteran Nabatame Hitomi, as mentioned earlier, will be in the show, alongside Makino Yui and Konishi Katsuyuki (as Ukyo). Konishi also was in another harem series last year with Hanazawa, Sekirei. So where the cast is concerned, you need have no worries. All that is left of course is how the plot goes for you.
Not that much fanservice, but the right blend so far of humor and fanservice in the right places, a non-weakling as a main male character, and the way this anime rubs on me just makes me want to finish it. It is definitely a side series to catch and finish for me. Impz also already has his impressions of the anime up.
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Just a note: those two guys aren’t the Saginomiya siblings. The blonde guy is called Washizu or something, and the other guy is basically his lackey or some such.
Oh shi — Harima! XD
Cat Megax: You could have edited your post for 15 minutes after you posted it actually…and yes I realized that mistake only after watching the subbed version, so decided not to change it anyway, as this was from the raw that I made the mistake of.