[Kaoru Chujo]

Okay, so I'm biased. But I loved it. I could quibble about the character design not being quite as good as the manga, but I got used to it. The overall look was very sweet. Suited the piece well. The drama was played quite straight, mostly, so I really felt for Hazumu and Tomari-chan and Yasuna-chan at various times.

That's partly because of the great voice-acting: the three stars all gave their roles a very nice feeling. I was also maybe expecting a deeper voice for Hazumu at first, but the notion of playing it quite effeminate all the way through made sense, too. I thought Asano Masumi as the third girl (voice of wisdom) did a great job. I maybe wasn't quite as convinced by the teacher or the parents (edit: here is where I see the awkward comic timing mentioned in the next post), but the spaceman's voice sounded good, the little we heard it.

The climactic coming-back-to-earth scene was new from the manga, and maybe a bit more fanservicey even than there. As I said for the manga, if you hate fanservice, steer clear.

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but hearing the third-rate native English voice-acting made me wonder if Engrish wouldn't have been just as good. Lol.