Gakusen toši Asterisk

A bunch of the most generic clichés within the high school battle harem shōnen genre. The list of the main characters' features are a variety of fanserviced archetypes of the OP jack-of-all-trades type, the tsundere (oddly enough staying pretty well grounded, thumbs up for that), the flat and flighty lolita, all underscored by a noticeably more pumped up ara-ara tease. Except for the last few episodes, the plot is more linear than "2+2=4"; example: fights, more fights festooned with stupidly named special abilities, the building up of a constantly blushing harem, some filler in a pool followed by an overlong and fairly uninteresting tournament full of boring opponents that aren't worth talking about at all; they just constantly praise the protagonist when he manages to get his ass in gear. The final mildly political arc throws a welcome pitchfork into the mix and tries to build something from the so far null foundation, but for what? There weren't enough episodes for that, and there's no next season. Sadly, it doesn't even look all that great on the surface. It's perfect for turning the sound off and falling asleep to it. A weak 2 stars (21/04/2021)

The Asterisk War is a typical action/fantasy/ecchi/harem magic academy anime series. Once again, there is a transfer student, a magical school, and superhuman abilities, and the hero struggles with them. Next, we have a boring main male protagonist who is quite shy and a pink-haired tsundere. There are ecchi scenes that do not make any sense and seem forced, culminating as usual with a hand on the breasts of the tsundere girl in the very first episode, who, of course, "punishes" the boy horribly for it. Then there is a blonde with huge boobies and an "I am looking for my sister" type narrative that is so unoriginal I cried. If anyone did not get it, this anime series features just about every trope you can think of in the first episode, which is why I do not want to watch it. The animation is not that bad, the soundtrack is okay, and all the fight scenes are beautifully colored and have the right amount of oomph. However, aside from these few things that I would take for granted in an action-packed anime series, everything else is wrong, in my opinion. So I cannot help but be disappointed. I slammed it after the first episode. However, I then went back to it out of boredom. Plus, I can say that it has gotten a little better over time. As mentioned earlier, the fighting and action side of things is interesting enough in places that it balances out most of the shortcomings. Summing up so far, the action scenes are a bit better than average at times (episode four), the animation and soundtrack too. However, the rest (characters, narrative, originality) is way below average in my view, so I am not going to give it more than two stars. 3.5/10. (03/10/2015)