Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「Naughty Love」by Fleia, Kurasaka Kururu, Megami Ryousei, Nairu, Nekota Ashu, Yomichi Yuki
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「孝士、寮母になる」 (”Koushi, Ryoubo ni Naru”)
“Koushi, Becomes a Dorm Mother”
You know an anime is magical if there’s an uncensored version of it, and Megami-ryou no Ryoubo-kun’s doesn’t disappoint as it captures the daily life of a dormitory where clothes aren’t as much of a prerequisite. But when a boy named Koushi is brought in to be the problem dorm’s “mother” as a means of giving him a roof over his head, the scope of the show goes beyond thrusting him into awkward situations as he takes it upon himself to repair the dorm’s bad reputation and better acquaint himself with its residents.
It was surprising to see that Megami-ryou no Ryoubo-kun didn’t shy away from Koushi’s homelessness, nor did it magically forget about his ordeal after he became the mother of the Goddess Dormitory. From the start, we see him admitting to possibly dying on a sidewalk as the Bystander Effect kicks in for those who pass him by and can only feel guilty for going about their day without doing anything to help him.
Even later, when he finds himself back to living outside, he contemplates whether he’ll be able to survive a cold night on a bench. It’s pretty shocking and I have to give Megami-ryou no Ryoubo-kun kudos if it gets ecchi fans to become more aware, socially conscious, and supportive of people who’ve lost their homes.
It was also interesting that the harrowing experiences he faced without a home end up being the foundation for much of his character. Koushi takes it personally when Atena plans to abruptly move out to avoid triggering her nose-bleeds around men considering that he doesn’t want to feel like he’s responsible for taking someone’s home away if he stays. Additionally, his anger from Mineru casually letting toxic gas flood the dorm definitely came from a place that couldn’t help but think back to the fire that took his home and nearly denied him the chance to go back to school.
It builds an emotional and personal reason for Koushi to use his new position as the dorm mother of the Goddess Dormitory to foster a newer, safer environment where the residents are able to see why he would never take having a place to stay for granted. Even if he has to use his own skills living outside to gather resources like blankets to cover up Mineru and Fray, he has a level of compassion that makes him far more understandable as a protagonist than being merely a kid that exists to be placed in odd positions with the other girls.
Not that this aspect doesn’t exist, but it’s also interesting that the show plays around with having a character like Atena around that calls to question the main caveat of having college girls snuggling up around a middle-schooler. Atena’s reaction to men ends up being the foundation behind her own motivation for cultivating a more wholesome culture for the campus’ problem dorm. The last scene of the episode where she’s slapping make-shift censors on the girls is not only funny, but also brings awareness to how Atena acts as the moral backbone of the show’s approach to ecchi.
Making Atena hyper-aware of the story’s morally questionable content is fascinating because, in the process of telling her fellow dorm mates to be less creepy around the middle-schooler, it calls into question why exactly it’s always younger boys that are placed in these situations with attractive yet uncouth college girls. Sunohara-sou’s release ended up squeezing in right before this kind of backlash would come into the fold, but looking back on it, there were several messed up aspects of the show that I and other viewers shrugged off because the older women were attractive and the power of “ara ara” overweighed the general creepiness of the scenarios the main guys were thrown into.
Admittedly, my interest in Megami-ryou no Ryoubo-kun was mainly drawn from the fond memories I had for the character designs for the older women of Sunohara-sou. Underneath some of the squickier aspects of their interactions with the main guy, it was a relatively light-hearted slice-of-life show that thrived on throwing boobs at the screen. If you just made the guy a lot older, it’d definitely be rewatchable. The same can also be said about this show. But the complexities that Koushi and Atena have as characters make it easier for Megami-ryou no Ryoubo-kun to avoid falling into as many of the traps that have caused some of the “boy in an all-girls dorm” to age not so well.
At the same time, It’s still a fun, light-hearted ecchi that leans into the boobs hard, especially with the uncensored release. And with scenes where crotches are accidentally rubbed, it definitely doesn’t shy away from throwing Koushi into situations where he has to navigate around some of the more unruly members of the dorm. Mineru is the most amusing of the bunch since she is a jokey science major who enjoys flirting almost as much as she enjoys destroying the dorm with toxic gas and bags of garbage that litter the second floor. Frey looks like she could be interesting since she’s a truly unscrupulous cosplayer, but they don’t give us as much of her.
But I really enjoyed Megami-ryou no Ryoubo-kun for giving Koushi a sense of purpose for reforming the Goddess Dormitory and adding some gravity to an ecchi show that doesn’t skimp on the fanservice. The two-episode format should also help to keep the anime focused and avoid feeling like it needs to jump from scene to scene. It’s unpretentious and exactly what you’d expect, but it’s admirable to see that the story is willing to tinker around with the casts’ life experiences to create more nuanced characters that could potentially add depth to the narrative.
The only thing of value in this show, it’s only appeal, is too heavily censored to matter
This sort of thing (Oneeshota) is actually one of the boom genres in the doujin world at the moment, so it’s a little surprising that there haven’t been more mainstream anime lately trying to cash in on that. Sunoharasou is about it from the last couple of years. Unless you count Kobayashi-san of course, but it’s strictly a minor subplot there.
It is an odd circumstance, but I’d imagine there’d only be so many mature women / young boy stories that would be able to make it through Standards and Practices to air.
Where it’d have to be kosher enough that a censored version would still have a stronger focus on the older women looking attractive than the younger boy having to deal with unwanted advances.
I guess it’s why with Kobayashi or Sunohara-sou, it’d be easier to ignore the questionable age gap if the main focus was on the appeal of the “ara ara” characters made.
The market is there for dudes who like older women, but it’s probably a larger problem for production companies to have to navigate around the stories where the main kink is having an older woman act as a surrogate mother while they get close enough to be more than a mother in the MC’s eyes.
Anime is normally pretty good at getting around that problem. There are some excellent manga that aren’t actual oneeshota but center on relationships between boys and adult women (Watashi no Shounen, Yankee Shota to Otaku Oneesan for example) that would have no problem getting aired and might be superficially close enough to appeal to the same target audience. Absolutely no ecchi in either, though, which I suppose could be a prpblem.
Found the amount of bare tits at the start to be in your face to the point of comedy but hey, respect for sticking to its guns
Having stumbled upon the manga sometime ago, I was trying to remember what was good about it just before watching, The sudden T&A at the start made me forget all about it. XD After that slight shock, it was an amusing episode
Still haven’t figured out why I took not of this show, but wiyh that bunch of misfits, it looks like it’ll be fun. Still haven’t seen the quirks of the other two ladies. After looking at Koushi, there’s probably a reason why the girls are that way.
Also have to wonder, how does Frey not get arrested?
First of all, I am watching the uncensored version. I chose this Anime thinking it would be like Maburaho or Comic Girls but I was wrong, this Anime is To Love-ru on crack cocaine. The ecchi level is over 9000 which I noticed when the first scene was heavy on the chest, skin, and panty shots.
I like this show I also like both Nagumo and Wachi they are polar opposites. Nagumo is a solid kid with solid morals, while Wachi she is a lot of fun being irresponsible, mischievous, and child like…even though she is the most adult out of all the girls.
I can’t tell which is the gimmick with Athena between her fear of men to the easy nose bleeds, her character is pretty flat to me. That’s saying a lot cause none of these girls are physically flat.
sorry, this story has been done already and better…
Love Hina, anyone?
Maybe it’s just my memory being foggy cause that’s an old title but I don’t remember “Love Hina” being this intense.
I was meaning more about basic premise of young man being forced/lucky to become caretaker for girls dorm.
And Love Hina definitely had its share of flaws, but it had managed to bring smiles with much less nudity. Yes there were bath scenes and all, but it was toned down, not in-your-(literal)-face.
Love Hina was a little more sentimental as a romcom with ecchi as the spice. That being said, I had a major crush on Kitsune back when I read the manga.
Motoko and Kitsune….ahh, the memories…
I knew what I signed up for when I picked up this show (like I did with Ishuzoku Reviewers many months ago). And I can assure that Love Hina (the anime version) wasn’t as wild as this. If anything, the ecchi levels of Megami-ryou no Ryoubo-kun are reminiscent of Nande Koko ni Sensei ga!? or Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san.
At a glance:
– Even though she’s had roles where she played against type, Takahashi Chiaki is still considered as one of THE go-to seiyuu for mature voluptuous women/onee-sans. So it’s kinda proper that her character, Mineru, is the first main girl Koushi meets. She also reminds me of Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san‘s Arahabaki Nonko, who’s also way too comfortable being in nothing but her lower undies and teasing the male protagonist.
– I’m also liking Frei/Frey, the dorm’s resident cosplayer. Her default outfit is the traditional black gothic lolita dress, and her choice of undies… *chef’s kiss* Just the right balance of the “good kind of ya be” and the “bad kind of ya be“. Though I do wonder if she’s also one of those “landmine girls” and if she’s the type who would find amusement in forcing Koushi to cross-dress…
– Koushi’s backstory of his home going up in flames reminds me of Oozora Subaru’s own real-world backstory before joining Hololive.
– Atena’s androphobic reaction is the complete opposite of Working‘s Inami Mahiru. Instead of reacting with a punch like the latter, Atena suffers nosebleeds instead. That aside, though there will be another tsundere in the show (see below), I’m more partial towards tsundere characters who don’t instantly resort to violence, and Atena’s shaping up to fill that role.
– Looking forward to what Serene and Kiriya bring to the table. Based on the intro, Sutea seems to be the only person close to Koushi’s age and the show’s resident petite (Shana-like?) tsundere.
Bring on the next episode, I say.