Review of Candy Boy: Nonchalant Talk of the Certain Twin Sisters in Daily Life
I like yuri. Rather, I like lesbians. Alot. And these lesbians are a welcome addition to the admittedly small genre of yuri anime. And yes; I said lesbians. With a name like Candy Boy, this title exudes almost pure DO NOT WANT vibes, what an absolutely terrible name for such a series. They could have at least called it Candy Girls, or Girls Like Candy, or Candy Lesbians. Or better yet, YEAH MAN, LESBIANS MAN! in big blue letters. I'm series; It took not one, but four recommendations for me to check this out because the name is so misleading that I felt I wasgoing to fall pray to the old "watch Bible Black, feels good man" trick. Luckily such was not the case. Candy Boy is, to clarify, actually made of 50% lesbians and 50% MORE lesbians. To get this out of the way fast, Yuki and Kana are related. Very related. Not that fake hentai related, actually biologically related. It's blatant incest, so if that bugs you, steer clear. But, personally, I don't give a damn. I think it's awesome, because they are attractive and fictional.
Story; 8. It's fairly episodic, and at seven minutes an episode this is neither surprising nor bad. If you've seen a slice of life, you know what will happen; just on a much smaller scope. Picture the storyline of a single episode of Azumanga Daioh (If everyone including the gym teacher were lesbians) spanning an entire series; That's Candy Boy. And it works, more or less. The only plot point that failed hard for me was the little sister; Hell the what now? Get off my screen, annoying not-as-hot-as-your-incestuous-sisters loli. Go hang out with those mindless girls from K-On! or something.
Art; 8. Let's be honest here; people who watch yuri, at least to some reasonable extent, want to look at attractive girls that love other girls. How very unsurprising. That said, even series as stellar as Simoun can fall short as a yuri series by having poor or unfitting artwork. Even Strawberry Panic, the only other "pure" (absolutely 0% of weenie at any given time) yuri series, fell here on a number of occasions. That said, this is actually Candy Boy's biggest success point. Kana and Yuki are well drawn, and shockingly identifiable in the vast sea of doe-eyed, smiling anime girls that exist today. Kana has a very neat haircut, as well as two cool cartilage piercings. Yuki often wears suspenders that are left hanging, and just generally layers clothes to create a very "realistic" or "modern" stylistic look. I know this sounds silly, but these cartoon girls really are quite stylish; and when a large factor of your genre is how adorable your protagonists are, this counts quite a bit. Rest assured, the art is good, especially for the girls (and nothing else really matters anyways, stop pretending).
Sound; 8. There was one theme I could type all the do-do-dum's to and hope one reader (if there ever is a reader even) gets it but I'll spare you; Suffice to say, the music here was elevator-esque anime music, no doubt, but a couple of the themes were catchy enough to stick with you till you heard an actual song. And none of them reeked of casio keyboard basement nonsense; Boring and unsurprising themes? Yes, but at least they sound like someone with good technology made them.
Character; 8. Personally, I see a lot of fans who like Yuki over Kana, and perhaps I'm just not looking that hard (scratch that-I'm not looking at all. I've just happened to notice) but I really liked Kana. I'm sure half of it was that she, like myself is a struggling arts student dealing with poor lodgings and aggravating professors. But even aside of that, Kana had more of a mystique about her; Yuki was just cute. In a full series run however, I can very easily see Kana being more emotionally interesting. Her character model also appealed to me more, although I enjoyed both, and as aesthetic and small as it is, the cartilage piercings and quasi-hime cut as well as the darker skin really did it for me. She's probably the most attractive (I can't believe I'm typing this, but then again, being a user on MAL already shoots my cool factor straight to hell) anime female that I can think of. The only stupid charcter is their little sister. Hot lesbian twincest, hot lesbian stalker, more hot lesbian twincest, little sister feelings and drama,....Wait. What? She greatly interrupted my enjoyment of something I don't always get to enjoy with my anime; girls with boobs, and as a character was made of I-don't-care-bitch and TOWERING depression. The stalker was awesome though, in case I didn't underline that previously. Three feet tall but still not lolicon? That's a welcome first. Sign me up.
Enjoyment/Overall; 8. It's length makes Candy Boy very, very rewatchable. Every now and then if I just want to watch something quick and nice, or whenever I just want to replay the scene of Kana and Yuki sharing cake over and over and over (every single day, amirite?), the length is actually a very nice change of pace from the standard 12 to 26 episode series. As stated many times before, when I watch a purely yuri series about girls that love girls, I want to see pretty much nothing focused on but that; Hot girls frolicking about my screen with other hot girls, only to be interrupted by other hot girls stalking them. And Candy Boy delivers in spades; Or should I say, lacking all humor, class and wit, IN LESBIANS. And in incest. But that's only wrong when it isn't two hot sisters anyways.