Anime 55998 Momochi-san Chi No Ayakashi Ouji Reviews Filter Check 3

It's like Kamisama, Hajimemashita without any of its charm, and less!

Plot: 2/10
It's been three whole episodes and there isn't a semblance of an interesting plot. There's almost really no plot at all? It seems like the show wants to set itself up as episodic with a larger overarching conflict, but we are given no reason to care about either of these elements with how little they have established. This is probably largely in part due to how little the audience cares about the characters at this point in time.

Character+Art: 2/10
The characters do not have personalities. Their designs aren't even that great either, and the ... anime's visuals leave a LOT to be desired. Making the male lead naked every time he transforms is not a personality, and not even attractive.

Overall (at this point in time): 2/10
The entire time I was watching, I was looking for SOMETHING to be able to complement and enjoy, but there is actually nothing. I genuinely have no idea who the target audience for this is.

I wanted to like this show, but its pacing is way too fast. Impactful scenes will happen so quickly that the character interactions feel inorganic. For instance, there’s a few scenes where Nue goes against bad youkai and struggles to protect Himari. However, this happens so quickly that the scene ultimately amounts to Himari going “No, Nue!!” and Nue finds the strength to beat the youkai. They then feel glad that the other is safe and then the next scene proceeds with little time to breathe. Being based on youkai, there’s a lot of lore to the world and cast, but it’s dumped on the ... viewer so quickly that before you can even process what they’re talking about there’s another action or character angst scene.

I have to imagine the manga is much better because despite my complaints about the show you can tell that its base concept isn’t bad. I like the setup of the anime and, if taken at a much slower pace, the scenes the characters go through could offer some tense moments and genuine character development.

This could have been another okay bishounen romance, but there’s just too much holding it back to enjoy what it’s offering.

The Demon Prince of Momochi House - It's Kamisama Hajimemashita, but 100 times worse. Let that sentence sink into your brain.

Everyone within the AniManga community sure knows famed mangaka Julietta Suzuki's Kamisama Hajimemashita a.k.a Kamisama Kiss, if not, then where the hell have you been? It's one of the famed Shoujo series that all girls will speak of when they have a classic that they can recommend to, hell even to guys who are not interested in the Shoujo genre, at least for the classics (which I recommend you read/watch the entire series in general). And yes, countless examples have followed this tradition, but not ... in the specific sense, which is where mangaka Aya Shouoto comes in with her work of Momochi-san Chi no Ayakashi Ouji a.k.a The Demon Prince of Momochi House. And let me tell you, despite it looking like an imitation copy of Kamisama Hajimemashita, it's nowhere near that level. Hell, everything looks like a carbon copy of the extreme bad side of it. And yes, I read the entirety of the already completed 16-volume, 64 chapter series so tell you my overall thoughts as a whole.

So first, the story elements of which all characters have their fate intertwined to one mansion where the border between human and the supernatural meets:
- The human side: the 16-year-old orphan of Himari Momochi being granted her old family estate as a gift of inheritance. Despite the many rumours going around that the house is haunted, she takes the challenge to reclaim the haunted house as her own, to which she finds 3 handsome guys loitering around in the estate for god knows what reason. As the sole proprietor of the house, she attempts to shake them off her house, but soon realizes that her destiny how lies at the hands of the same 3 Ikemen who warned her about the impending changes/fate within the Momochi House itself.
- The supernatural side: Led by Aoi Nanamori, he is one of the 3 entities whom Himari tries to chase out of her House. But the House itself has a hidden secret: the bloodline of the Momochi family must take its reigns and become the next Omamori-sama or "Nue", one which Himari was supposed to be as its guardian. But Aoi escaped into the Momochi House when he was 10 due to his family's problems when he was a human, and through the goading of an adult who tells him that he would be able to find solace within the House on a hill, there he is unanimously welcomed into the House, and soon realizes that he will become the Omamori-sama instead of Himari, which grants its user spirit-like shikigami powers when he's transformed into a Nue.

Feeling the Nanami Momozono and Tomoe semblance within Himari and Aoi? Strap on, because things are about to get worse.

With Himari's Omamori-sama power stripped down to just expelling entities from her own House, she has to settle down with Aoi and his 2 other shikigami lackeys: Yukari, a serving Mizuchi spirit, and Ise, a hard-headed Shoujo-like orangutan. The former is tolerable since he displays a fair expression, and like what he does, only serves his master to the fullest, which he eventually displays that affection to Himari as well, seeing how she is still serving as a co-linkage between her and Aoi as well. The latter is very brash and grumpy, and would bolster trouble even over the most minor things. But when it comes to the crunch, like Yukari, he's in loyalty to Aoi as well to drive out beings who dare to disrupt the House's dimensions, save for the one who always grates on their nerves: Kasha. The powerful Ayakashi who has a deep obsession and rivlary towards Aoi as the Nue, he is the definition of the boredom character, trying to annoy the heck out of everyone for some amusement.

The biggest sin, however, is Himari herself. Though she does give the usual appearance of a main character, it's not exactly enforced on her until she gets to the root of the problem within the happenings at Momochi House. And even then, she tries to take charge handling all matters from the wandering ayakashi to the shikigamis themselves, which is nice to see from the authoritarian standpoint of the female MC. The part that feels egregious is the romance section, because since this is a Shoujo, you can't exactly run away from Himari and Aoi having feelings for each other even in times of trouble. This is where Kamisama Hajimemashita does this better at knowing where to emphasize character growth that leads to expressive outcomes...wis an irony for the author herself that Aya Shouoto has an idea on where to take Himari's character, yet force it down the predictable route when creativity besets her back. Despite the difference between Aya Shouoto and Julietta Suzuki's approach of the Shoujo genre, you know who won, and had a better, yet creative approach that doesn't betray its themes and knows how to create a natural guideline on long-standing storytelling.

Being an Aniplex show, they do have shows that are definitely out of the ordinary like Yana Toboso's Kuroshitsuji a.k.a Black Butler. But this is even lesser for Shoujo-centric shows when it comes to the traditional classic Shoujo, which is where this show comes in. The production by studio Drive is just...there, it's not the greatest, but it's not bad in either way, just mediocre to a low-level decent, avoiding it being a literate imitation of Kamisama Hajimemashita. To make matters worse, director Bob Shirahata isn't someone high-profile of note, going through almost 35 years of main roles and assuming directorial roles for the lesser shows, the last notable one being the downfall of Nanatsu no Taizai a.k.a The Seven Deadly Sins via the Ensa no Edinburgh ONAs. I mean, I did not expect much from this show from the get-go, and my feelings were pretty much unchanged from start to finish, with the dip coming off from the 2nd half.

The music is decent, with both Ayana Tsujita and Tomoyuki Kono helming the department, they did a fair job creating the atmosphere for the show. The part that I don't get, is the theme songs. Muto's ED is calm and collected, just like an actual Shoujo work, but Yoh Kamiyama's OP is a pure wreck of a disaster. Sure, he can create songs like for instance with Horimiya's OP (and "Iro Kousui" IS a fantastic song BTW), but "Hozuki" sounds too much of a Shonen than a Shoujo-ish song, resulting in quite a dissonance of a song that is just plain bad, or even close to ear-numbing in my terms, yikes.

If there is any recommendation after washing off the distastes of the anime, I implore you to read the manga from the very beginning, because Shoujo anime rarely have follow-up seasons and tend to rush to get a stopping point, which this show unfortunately has done so. The manga is quite the opposite approach to the anime and is a decent traditional Shoujo romance work on its own, which I respect Aya Shouoto for her long and arduous work over 6.5 years.

Just take the standard word to "Go read the manga" and forget that the anime ever existed.

(i should have dropped this seeing the "recommended" to "not recommended" ratio, except I forgot to check that before putting it in my watchlist)

Look, (to whomever reading) I didn't watch "Momochi-san chi no Ayakashi Ouji" to trash on it. The premise seemed very "Kamisama Hajimemashita" (or "Kamisama Kiss") and I was all for it. I was very much here to enjoy a shojo ayakashi rom-com...

Except, you can just watch Kamisama Hajimemashita instead.

I don't know what this story tries to accomplish or what the story is even, it just seemed like a bad copy-paste work of Kamisama Kiss. And that has me sad & angry. ... At first I was thinking 'well, this is juts an average anime that walks straight behind Kamisama Kiss', but by the end of it, i knew it doesn't. It's bad. it's not worth the time or the energy. and it makes me sad that it is like this.

animation? - so-so, iut got v worse by the end. was not a fan
VA? - Yuukari (tachibana shinnosuke) saves the day. Aoi's & Ise's were also nice. *but take a drink everytime you hear Aoi & Himari being uttered - hospitalized hungover)
OST? - idk man, was not invested/ HOWEVER, The OP & ED are bangers! it's like the entire brain power and budget went to creating them vs the actual anime & story.
story? - was all over the place. things just popped up & happened & it went like that. they thought they could get away w the finale being all mushy-overflow w a happy ending. welp, didn't work for me. Kasha had so much potential as main villain - didn't see him at all, nor is his obsession with Nue explained (and thus, that's my ship - Nue x Kasha)

if you miss Kamisama Kiss & wanted something similar, skip this & re-watch Kamisama Kiss - you'll be 10x happier & fulfilled. Idk if it's because Kamisama Kiss has just been so successful in this particlular sub-genre of shojo rom-com or because Momochi-san chi no Ayakashi Ouji was just bad... - i guess bcs the stories are so similar i couldn't help but keep comparing the two throughout my watch.

There are plenty of ayakashi-falls-in-love-with-main-girl stories out there however, i opine that Momochi-san chi no Ayakashi Ouji directly wanted to challenge/compare itself to/with Kamisama Kiss. Nue is a lovely kitsune design - i absolutely loved Kasha's and Nue's character design, but alas is this anime a failure :(

As a disclaimer, I never read the manga. This review is strictly in regards to the anime so I may be lacking some information in that particular respect.

This plot is more akin to a “monster of the week” power rangers type of plot line, making the entire experience boring and repetitive up to this point.

The characters are set up in a reverse harem with a young girl surrounded by 3 handsome men. While this setup has seen success previously, it lacks the comedic punch needed to pull it off. Aoi’s schtick of saying “Don’t look at me” when transforming and ... Himari’s only role of tossing something out consistently makes the experience annoying more than anything. Himari’s only meaningful dialogue has her saying Aoi’s name over and over again. You can play a drinking game with it.

I am not sure what practical role the other two guys play than as a forgettable peon.


To sum up: In a word…disappointing.

I usually try to hold off on reviews until I’ve actually finished the show, but I just don’t see this one getting any better. I really didn’t want to compare it to Kamisama Kiss but it’s pretty much impossible not to. This show really is just a not as good Kamisama Kiss.

The pacing is really bad. A lot of stuff happens in every episode, but it happens so fast and with so little exposition that honestly it’s hard to care. They’ll give a character a two minute backstory then kill them off and one, expect to you care and two, expect you to believe ... the character was super influential, and it just doesn’t work. There’s another part where a character is told the human world is dangerous because of one specific thing. Not even two steps into the human world and what do you know, that one specific thing happens literally immediately. Like, where’s the suspense?

The attraction/affection between the two main characters also happens pretty early on, which is normally something I would be excited about. But again, it’s feels superficial and unbelievable. At that point in the story, Himari’s only trait is that she also lives in the house.

I will say that I really like the character design and that’s what initially drew me to watch. But unfortunately the plot doesn’t hold up. If I wasn’t watching this weekly as it releases, I would have dropped it.