Well first of all, this is actualy my first review, even tho i have read reviews for all kinds of anime for over 4 or 5 years i have never written one myself.
Well then, i sincerely feel that Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka is extremely underrated, although i agree with other people that it was built in the stereotypical Harem-Anime mold, it has quite a few unique features.
The reason why i started watching this is pretty simple, for the past few months i have gone into a harem-anime frenzy, at first i didnt feel like watching it because of the overly used themes like a girlfriend popping out of nowhere and the semi-taboo that is getting old lately: the incest-with-my-not-related-by-blood-sister.
But again, it turned out to be way better than what i expected.
Animation -
Above-average for a late 2008 anime, far from being the best but it does stand out among others.
One small complaint i have is that at the beginning of the series(ep 1 and maybe a bit of ep2) they had too many static frames and scenery shots, making me get the "low budget anime" feeling, but then, it did improve as the anime progressed, so it's not that big of an issue.
Sound -
Again, above-average. The seiyuus were very fitting for each character, and, for my surprise, none of them annoyed me.
The ending was good, the music was nice, but then i'm not very sensitive sound-wise, heh.
One thing that really bothered me was the opening, i was freaked out and almost stopped watching after i saw tons of SD characters and UFOs... although Nagomi gives out several hints of a sci-fi/alien themes, thankfuly most of it was kept on the opening and Jun's parents scenes.
Story -
Well, like most of hentai game animes, it severely lacks story. You could watch the first episode then skip the next 7 episodes, you wouldnt feel that you missed anything at all. Even more because they keep repeating the meaningful scenes over and over in the last 4 episodes.
But still, it wasnt bad. if we could turn this into an OVA and rip the 7 useless episodes i would have given the story category an 8 or 9, the romance was really well done and even tho the setting was really eccentric, special agent parents and rich family daughters showing off their wealth and all. You could feel the reality, at the same time it feels like a fantasy-like world which is too good to be true, you can very well feel that it's all possible and could have been real.
Character -
My favorite part i guess, hehe.
The protagonist, Jun'ichi, has his reasons for being popular. The Geno Killer legend does add a lot for his popularity, some might fear him, some might get attracted to him. Unlike most harem series the protagonist does have a reason why he is surrounded by so many ladies.
Even so, there is no romance between Jun and the secondary characters, which was a big plus for me. The romance was focused on the main characters, even tho there were a few hints of feelings here and there from other characters. But still Jun is a great protagonist, so far one of my favorites of the harem anime genre.
His sister, Minato, even tho she uses the stereotypical adopted sister template, she is a very charismatic character with a rather unique personality which sadly, wasn't shown very often.
Yuuhi is the naive rich family girl stereotype, that was, rather surprisingly, able to inflict serious pain on our protagonist with her tiny arms and delicate fists, but then most of her violent retribution moves were well deserved by Jun'ichi.
Jun'ichi's parents, in my point of view, were an amazing adition to the series. If you regularly watch anime, at some point you must have tought where the hell that guy's parents are, every single time he talks about them is to reinforce the thought that they are out in a business trip.
In the very first second of this anime there is a scene with a secret agent-like guy beating out some guards in a secret base-like place, which definitively doesn't fit in a harem anime, but as soon as i noticed that this agent was actualy the protagonist's father, i found those scenes to be rather amusing.
Tsukasa and Fuyuhiko were nice additions to the anime as well, Tsukasa mixes the Childhood friend template with the Crazy journalist friend one but still have several unique points and she develops quite nicely, a pity we didn't get to see much of her. Fuyuhiko is clearly a mix of a Bishonen character with the mischievous friend template, making him interesting.
Jun'ichis teacher, Seijirou is rather unique, a Fresh-out-of-college Bishonen character, while being strict about his work and his student's education, he picks on Jun all the time and his scenes are always amusing to watch.
Except for karen, which was the only character i couldn't stand and annoyed me every single time she showed up, the rest of the cast was ok, nothing worth mentioning i guess.
Value & Enjoyment -
Having seen several other eroge adaptions, i sincerely feel that this one stood out among them, even tho the ending was kind of lacking it was acceptable and enjoyable, i liked almost all the characters and the romance developed quite nicely.
If you are looking for an anime with a nice story or a great plot, look elsewhere, you wont enjoy this as much as i did.
But if you have watched several other harem animes and is looking for something different but still along those lines. I'm pretty sure you will enjoy Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka.
