Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka - Anime Reviews - AniDB (2024)

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Edited a bit after some feedback through comments. After some thought, I decided to boost the ratings I gave on animation and sound, since they, in actuality, were not that bad. Thanks for all the comments so far!
EDIT: Added comments after watching the OVA

After watching this 12-episode series in its entirety, I can say that it is indeed another generic love-comedy-harem series, even with the mysterious characters floating around in the background. The story starts and ends just like any other harem. Now exactly why I even started watching this, I don't even know. Maybe because I like these kinds of series? But this turned out really badly, since there was nothing really special about it that differed between this and other harems.

Animation

I really have no complaints here. The animation seemed clean and fluid and the colours were nice. However, I just want to note that although this series is called "Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka", i.e. "Hills Dyed in Rose Madder" (rose madder being a colour of course), the only hill in the entire series wasn't even close to being the colour of rose madder. (Now I may be wrong here since i just based it off of the colour that Wikipedia gave me. Also, I watched fansubs so who knows what the original producers wanted it to look like.) The only colour that I found close to the shade of red that rose madder is was the darkest part of the sky during the sunsets.

Sound

This series was full of well-known seiyuus including Hirano Aya (Haruhi from Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi), Kugimiya Rie (Shana from Shakugan no Shana), Tanaka Rie (Lacus from Gundam Seed), Inoue Marina (Kana from Minami-ke), Katou Emiri (Kagami from Lucky Star) and Hirohashi Ryou (Kyou from Clannad). I have no complaints with the sound either, except that Minato, the character played by Hirano Aya, sound just a bit too much like Haruhi at times, which I have no problems with except that it bugged me at times because it doesn't fit Minato's character. People have been saying to me that Kugimiya Rie sounds the same with every character she plays, but at least that voice fits in with each of those characters.

The opening theme "Hatsukoi Parachute" by Hashimoto Miyuki was a nice and fitting song, and the singer was also the one who sang the opening theme for the original game. The ending themes switched almost every episode, and were sung by the 6 seiyuus listed above, and they were pretty much character songs.

Story

Alright, here comes the bad part... I'm sorry for all of the spoilers here since it's the only way I can express how incredibly bad this was.

So, they pretty much followed the generic harem/comedy storyline:

1. Some person appears saying that they are the fiancée of the main character
2. The main character now has to choose between two (or more) people that he likes
3. He chooses one and everyone is happy

...Except that they mess up the ending. Big time. The two main heroines featured in this anime are Katagiri Yuuhi (the one who appears out of nowhere and claims to be Junichi (the main character)'s fiancée) and Nagase Minato (Junichi's younger sister). Now, after loads of random comedy and fanservice in the first 9 or so episodes, with very little of the romance actually progressing, the main story is in the last 2 or 3 episodes. Junichi spends an entire half an episode deciding which one with his conscience and then he does choose one. And then guess what the producers do? They make the one that Junichi didn't choose to go back to live with the other two (since they were all living together in the first place due to certain circumstances) and thus did not resolve anything. In the end, it's still the same harem and the "main" relationship may have been progressed a tiny little bit.

Long story short, with 12 episodes, they managed to get almost nowhere and decided to leave the entire thing to interpretation and comedy (like the ending of the second season of Zero no Tsukaima).

Even before the ending, the comedy-based episodes did not have much of a link, and they were just random days involving Junichi and touching on each of the heroines.

EDIT: To sum it up into one sentence, the OVA was a very, very random episode that was a huge ecchi-fest and could probably even fall into the "borderline hentai" category. If you like stuff like Kiss x Sis, then this will probably be your favourite episode. If you're like me, then you'll probably be better off not watching it.

Character

As I said before, this is pretty much a generic harem story. Most of the characters featured in this anime fall into generic roles as well. First, there's your "IMOUTO!" character; then there's the sudden girlfriend coming from nowhere; there's the childhood friend; a rich, snobby girl; and lastly a student council president. We've probably all seen at least one of each type of character listed above before. Now, the characters that are actually different, that is more or less Junichi's parents and that alien girl, they did nothing to actually progress the storyline (except for that one little scene where they hinted something at the end). They were mostly there for comical relief, which I find is quite disappointing. If they managed to involve them in this anime, it might have turned out better and less generic, since there are not many harems/love stories involving spies and assassins.

Value and Enjoyment

Considering that there are many, much better harems and comedies than this, I probably wouldn't like to watch this again or even keep it. The storyline is also predictable, but the comedy scenes could probably be rewatched, since they did give me a few chuckles. In the end, it was a nice romantic comedy series, except for the story aspect of it. I probably wouldn't recommend this to anyone unless they were huge fans of romantic comedies and harems, because again, there are many other harems out there. If you're bored and have nothing better to do, I would say that this show would be a nice one to watch then.

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.

Yes, it's another generic harem anime adaption. Why am I watching this you ask? There are two and a half reasons: the character design/ending girl, and the nearly ALL-STAR FEMALE CAST. Go look at the list in this anime's ANN entry and you'll see why: Aya Hirano, Rie Kugimiya, Rie Tanaka, Emiri Katou, Marina Inoue, and a couple more that I recognize but haven't been able to identify nor memorize. (On a side note, it is unfortunate I only knew that Aya and Teh Rie were voicing this so I fast forwarded through nearly everything...) And then there's an unfortunate Wataru Hatano who doesn't have much of a resume currently... but who really cares about the... oh wait, in this eroge the male lead is actually decent. THE POINT IS I WATCHED THIS TO HEAR THE SEIYUU PERFORMANCES, WHICH IS JUST SAD DON'T YOU THINK??? Never mind me, let's review generic harem adaption #34043!!!

: Just by looking at the posters for this anime and you'll get exactly what you see. Elaborate character designs that stay consistent throughout and some good fanservice shots of them. Directing is also nicely done. There are some extreme close-ups and stills, but they are there to keep the general quality up.

: A nice 9 for an all-star female cast collecting paychecks on another eroge cash cow. I enjoyed all of their performances greatly. The OP and EDs are pretty catchy, so try not to skip them. Background music sprinkled here and there to keep the tension up.

: From episodes 2 to 8 we are treated to a variety of antics that concern the development of the relationships between Junichi and Yuuhi and showcase the other characters whose names I will not remember. First date, check; birthday party, check; onsen trip, check; haunted house dare, check; school festival, check; vacation somewhere hosted by the rich girl, check; advancing the dreams of a side character, check. Then there are some awesome action sequences featuring Mom and Dad doing crazy shit, which adds to Junichi's overall not-bland factor. Basically, if you like this fluff, go ahead; otherwise, fast forward or skip.

: I admit, I nearly cried at episode 11 because the drama was actually well done. The rest of the romance was done pretty well, and the ending justifies it. Not that the romance is anything special, but it suffices (unless the girl you were rooting for lost, ah ha ha). Both Yuuhi and Minato were great candidates, and I didn't rage either way when the ending came about. Junichi was made glorified with all the "inner dialogues" sprinkled throughout when he makes a decision, which at least doesn't make him another male lead wimp.

: Having just watched the ending, I realize I sound a little rude in this review. I don't mean it, because I actually enjoyed this anime. However, it really is just another eroge adaption with the usual formula and an above average romantic plot. I do recommend this if only for the all-star female cast.

I could not in good conscience call Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka a good show. While the most common charge levelled against it is unoriginality, I was more irritated by the thinness of the main plot and the halfhearted attempts at a "serious" sideplot. Possibly if watched with the same attention I gave, say, Higurashi, this would reveal itself to be a brilliant, well thought out sideline which throws a lot more light on the main characters. But this is not a show which lends itself to careful watching, because of the sheer unimportance of the main plot; it's fair to say that missing any given episode (well, other than the first and, being generous, either of the last two) wouldn't impede one's appreciation of the series at all.

But for all this, I enjoyed it. The plot may be generic (though it's not without the occasional flash of brilliance) and the characters archetyped, but when looked at more closely they reveal some a lot more depth. On paper, yes, we do have a tsundere, a little sister, a spoiled rich girl and some crazy secret agent operative, but the characterizations don't in any way rely on this; almost everyone manages to be interesting in their own right, by dint of personality rather than gimmick. Thus, while we know how everything's going to go, it's still pleasant to see these people just talking to each other, learning and revealing more of themselves. That said, I think the truly dire ending conspires with the general shortage of plot to make this not a series one can watch more than once.

While much has been made of the all-star voice cast, I didn't find myself noticing any benefit therof; the voicing was good but never outstanding, and the music/opening/ending very forgettable. Likewise the animation, perhaps slightly below today's standard but unarguably good, just... never anything more, and ultimately forgettable.

Which seems, damningly enough, a fair assessment of Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka as a whole. Nowhere is it actively bad; everything is good or at least competent. But not once does it raise itself above "good"; there is not a single moment at which you can point and say "that was a great scene". Objectively it may be better than (to pick an example from what I've watched recently) Kurozuka, say, which had superb animation but was terrible on all other fronts - but Akane will be forgotten far more quickly, because it just has nothing to distinguish itself.

But for all that, I liked it.

Junichi is a high schooler living with his sister when suddenly a girl barges into their lives, claiming that Junichi will be her fiance. Though it sounds just like a more forceful version of Da Capo SS, the difference is that the little princess this time is actually cute and has a real chance at winning the main character's heart.

ASS (quite a loaded abbreviation) is a light, comedic harem based around ordinary school life and the after school adventures of a group. I originally picked this up due to the INCREDIBLY strong list of Seiyuu and they definitely deliver.

Overall, this is a fairly average harem. A good watch for its length if you've got nothing better to do.

Animation:
The animation is crisp and clean, definitely up to 2008 standards. The characters are drawn very nicely though some of the girls have gravity-defying hair. The overall presentation is very consistent except for the random UFO and the action sequences where the parents randomly appear.

Sound:
The OP and ED are fairly good but nothing spectacular. The BGM is a good support for the storyline but could have been much more dramatic at times (thus falling short of Da Capo Status). The VAs, on the other hand, make up for what is otherwise a fairly average story and character set.

Story:
The premise and initial exposition of the characters was very well done. The main and supporting characters were presented in an interesting and plot-progressing way. Usually we don't see the main character taking action in the first episode... Anyways, the series appears to be very one sided until two thirds through the series. Will Junichi go with his initial impulse or will unexpected relationships develop? Watch the show to find out.

One of the more disappointing aspects of this show is the weak climax in the last episode. It should have been a lot more dramatic and powerful considering how long the series built up to it.

Character:
Junichi was a middle school delinquent until his sister moved in and redeemed him. He is lazy but brash, a good change compared to most of the wimpy, shy guys seen in typical harems. Minato takes care of Junichi and is essentially a "perfect" sister, doing all the Cs (chores, cooking, and cleaning).

Into this family comes Yuhi, the daughter of a friend of Junichi's father, who has been forced by her father to marry Junichi. She initially comes to detest Junichi and bring evidence of why he is unfit for her. Obviously, things don't go her way as she eventually develops feelings for him.

The character development in general was well done, though I'm not about to nominate anyone here for the best character of the year...

Value:
A fairly good, light harem overall. There are some deeper points in the series (the entire alien observation and Minato's true relation to the Nagase family for example) that may merit a second watch.