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IT'S REVIEW TIME
This is the short and simple tale of two twin sisters in love… with each other. Yes, it is designated as yuri but outside of a few scenes it can easily count as a normal family oriented show… But then again it’s that perverted lesbian friend of theirs doing her hentai stuff, so don’t try that family thing.
First of all I’m not really into yuri stuff. The only anime I dig with such a thing is Revolutionary Girl Utena and only because it had artistic expression, mystery, character depth, swordfights, shadow theatre play, thorn roses, wtf ending, a movie version and a great place in anime history as a really revolutionary series. Candy Boy has none of the above.
Not that all shows need to be so epic in scale or complicated in thematics; some can be just good to ease the mind after a hard day. Aria for example is quite good at this. Some even find Gintama relaxing. Candy Boy is like that too, only it lasts way too little to make a permanent impression.
The pacing of the anime is by all means just fine. It has no major heights or lows and hardly any conflict. It has a steady feeling of fuzziness and silliness all the way, with a few very simplistic emotional issues thrown in for a few minutes just for the heck of it. It is otherwise the normal lives of two sisters who love each other. No kisses or fights and separations at all; just silly comedy and every day actions at school or at the dorm. And yes, it does the trick.
The question is, would it work without the yuri subtext? I sure sat to watch it because I was curious about that. If it wasn’t there I wouldn’t even bother. So it is a nasty bait of sorts who one may ask “Why in blazes did I fall for that?” It is basically guilty pleasure working here; no deny that the girls are drawn cute and sexy in a fuzzy calm setting. It works but again it’s basically carnal guilty pleasure; something Aria (or even Gintama) needed in order to work.
Another thing is how the characters are not really changing or maturing in any way. The few emotional problems last too little to really make a difference. They are otherwise very simplistic, with the lesbian friend being a silly comic relief otaku. It may work while watching but they are not memorable afterwards for the same reason.
All these wouldn’t work without proper production values and Candy Boy excels in this. There is a great deal of detail given to backgrounds and the characters are very well drawn all the time without any significant quality drop anywhere. My only qualm is that there isn’t that much motion in this series. All background crowd and even the main characters don’t move too much.
The soundtrack is actually a very good set of pop songs; very fitting to the mood of the series. Each episode features its own song too. Still, nothing worthy of remembering. The dialogues are also very likable, full of simple yet direct with emotions context. But boy, they are repeating the –chan honorific, like, a million times.
But after all that, this anime is simply not something memorable. The fuzzy feeling may stay with you but it is not something Aria didn’t achieve as well with far more duration, equally good production values, far greater duration and in no need of yuri baits. So not much value is to be found in this.
Animation: 9
Mousic: 9
Story: 2
Characters: 5
Value: 2
Enjoyment: 7
Score: 5.8/10
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