Review of Akikan!

Please note for this review that I began the series under the assumption that this was technically a magical girl series. With the above information, I would like to point out that this will not factor into the show's review; I will be judging it primarily as a romance story. To start with, the premise is extremely interesting; inanimate objects, particularly consumable ones, coming to life is a novel concept, although in my opinion the series fails to utilize this properly, as either a comedy or a drama. It tends to cycle back and forth between taking its story seriously and playing it for laughs, whichcontrast heavily; the themes of martyrism play heavily into this, as do themes of capitalism ad ironically, recycling in an antagonistic light. This helps develop the primary Akikan, Melon, granting her some good character development, and Yell similarly gains some nice introspection into her own nature of existence.

Additionally, there is some room for some good comedy to occur here, which is unfortunately squandered on fanservice and failed romantic plots which never have any true payoff. The series additionally seems indecisive as to whether Kakeru will date Melon or Najimi, and every development towards one offsets the other by a wide margin. A similar situation occurs with Najimi and Yell, although it works out a bit better, as they're able to form a more cohesive couple (albeit, one we never see come to fruition in the series).

Unfortunately, these themes cannot co-exist: attempts at comedy downplay the more serious moments, while the series nature is too dark to make any of its comedy have any impact. The Akikan Elect was a seemingly major plot point that was forgotten, while Miku only had two episodes to make any impact. It does feel to a degree that Akikan was hoping the novelty of its concept could carry it to success (there was, after all, an episode dedicated to literally doing nothing), and many characters are very one-note. I believe this type of series could have worked well if there was a consistent theme chosen to stick with, although as it is, it currently is not as enjoyable or memorable as it would like to be. 5/10.