Review of Samurai Girls

This is a review of the censored TV version of the show: Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls is another representative of a show that started with potential but failed due to bad direction. I'll state my main gripes first before stating the main aspects that were appealing. First off I'll say that if you seek echii content, this "may" be an ok anime to watch (which I'll explain later); if you seek story then you should turn to a different anime. The story overall was pretty generic and in my opinion, was pretty forgettable for about half of the season. Hyakka Ryouran is a harem, and beinga harem, it suffered at multiple points. The whole general-sword master idea reeked of the near identical Ashkabi-Sekirei relationship which only stopped pissing me off when I realized there were no more new characters to be introduced. Character development was nothing special, I would say that the only thing that was different is that the male protagonist was not 'as' pitiful as other shows. My biggest pet peeve is probably the overuse of the ink blot effect. It could have been an extremely enjoyable effect but it ended up being the one thing I hated most since it was blatantly used to censor any nudity.

That being said, Hyakka Ryouran does have some nice artwork, not the "best" but pretty good. The art took on a sort of pastel look multiple times and at multiple times the animation was recognizably different from most animes, sort of how Bakemonogatari had a unique feel to it. If you take out the bad ink effects, the ink blot during the fight scenes really caught my eye in a good way. Also, I did like how the colors "white" and "black" didn't necessarily mean "good" and "evil". I said above that ecchi seekers may like this anime, which is true if you watch the uncensored DVD version. If you watch the censored for echiiness, you may notice the ink blots even more than I did, though it isn't to the degree of Seikon no Qwaser (which I did watch for echiness). I can't post my final positive since it may be considered a spoiler but its more on the lines of the lack there of than something that was in the anime.

I finished this anime with a feeling of disappointment and will be highly surprised if a sequel is made. Watch once if you're interested in some of the art concepts but don't get your hopes up for anything else. Rated '6' for fine