Holy shit. When a series throws ecchi and slapstick comedy at you for 20 episodes straight and then gives you a dramatic, tear jerking ending... your brain explodes and you're just left speechless. I had to think a while to decide what kind of a review I was going to give this series, more importantly I wasn't sure on the rating. I could give it a 9 for pulling off such an incredible combination or I could give it a 3 for being absolutely ludicrous. I decided to give it a 9, read on to find out why.
First of all, this series should be ... listed under the Hentai category. It starts off in the weirdest way possible. The female lead, Momoko is an innocent looking girl who aspires to become the world's top martial artist. She fails to master a certain technique and what's her father's solution to that? To find the world's strongest man and make babies who will later become the world's most powerful martial artists. Her reply? "HAI!"
What follows then is a series of absolutely the wackiest scenes you will ever see in an anime series. I guarantee you that. Momoko finally finds her man, Inuzuka Koushi, and after a set of even whackier scenes wins his father's approval for a marriage. She then prepares a makeshift bed and asks Koushi to make love to her and Koushi promptly refuses. Yeah and this is only the very beginning of the very first episode.
As it turns out, Koushi's father and Momoko's father have made an arrangement when they were born and that arrangement was to have Momoko and Koushi marry. Soon the whole thing comes into picture as we learn that Momoko and Koushi both belong to greatly respected martial arts famillies and their marriage was arranged to produce the world's strongest martial arts clan. Koushi however is not a martial artist but rather a weak, though intelligent, person who is not interested in violence in the slightest.
Barely 2 episodes later we already know most of the main characters and the true over top craziness begins. Koushi takes on the role of the stereotypical sex symbol and every girl around him literally begs him for sex. I'm not trying to be funny either, this is what actually happens in this anime. I'm only giving you a heads up, discretion is advised. There's not a single episode where Momoko doesn't stun us with lines like " I need your juice" or " Rock me sensless ". The rest of the main female cast, Iroha and Sanae is no better. It's like they're ready to do anything for Koushi without hesitation. Indeed, the meeting of Iroha and Koushi is sure to give even the most experienced romance/ ecchi connoisseur the nosebleed of his life. And this anime will bombard you with these type of sexual and more often than not perverted scenes episode after an episode, scene after scene. Interestingly enough, the girls are the only ones who are being naughty here as the male lead, though attractive, has absolutely no sexual drive or interest in any things sexual. He's more of a selfish self-centered bookworm more concerned with his studies than anything else.
The rest of the male cast is not even worth mentioning, they're only there to be jealous of Koushi and his female fanclub. None of them are given an episode and even though we are given some background information on them, they're so shallow and plot-insignificant they could have just as well been removed from the anime and you wouldn't even notice it.
The series progresses like this, with occasional serious or dramatic moments, up until episode 20 and that's when the seriousness and drama starts. All I'm going to say about the ending is that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It could have been a lot more satisfying but it wasn't bad. As many reviewers have already mentioned and I mentioned it myself too, Koushi is a bit of a prick with an attitude problem, especially with the way he treats women. Unfortunatelly that doesn't change in the end and it's just one of those things that annoys the hell out of you.
The sound and art are both good. I have no complains in this department. The design on the girls and the male lead are perfect and the slapstick comedy oftenly involves scaled down chibi versions of the main characters which worked pretty good and didn't ruin the overall feel of the series. Voice acting was convincing and not once did it feel out of place, likewise the opening and ending songs were very good.
All in all this series makes a great job at taking all these ingredients together - ecchi, romance, comedy, harem and even drama and a slight bit of seriousness - and mixes them and produces a truly great anime series. This will be going into my favourite anime list and I will be rewatching this series in the not so distant future. And that is the reason why I gave it a 9 and that's the reason why I personally recommend this series to anyone reading this review.
Alternative Titles Synonyms: Sumomomo Momomo: The World's Strongest Bride Japanese: すもももももも〜地上最強のヨメ〜 Information Type: TV Episodes: 22 Status: Finished Airing Aired: Oct 6, 2006 to Mar 16, 2007 Premiered: Fall 2006 Broadcast: Fridays at 02:40 (JST) Licensors: None found, add some Studios: Studio Hibari Source: Manga Theme: Martial Arts Demographic: Seinen Duration: 23 min. per ep. Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older Statistics Score: 6.851 (scored by 24,976 users) 1 indicates a . Ranked: #50932 2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #2636 Members: 67,940 Favorites: 100 Available AtResources |
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