Short Run Series X – Totally “Mental”

August 7th, 2014 in Anime, General Reviews, Short Run Series X - Totally “Mental” by

short run series X totally mental blog 94

My Mental Choices are Completely Interfering with my School Romantic Comedy (“Ore no Nōnai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Rabu Kome o Zenryoku de Jama Shiteiru”), also known by the abbreviation “Noucome”, is a show with a rather original concept and situation. Our hero, Kanade Amakusa, (dead center guy) has a terrible condition. He’ll be riding on the Freeway of Love in his pink Cadillac when, out of nowhere, he will be given two choices. Now, neither of these choices is all that swell, but he has to choose it and do it, otherwise, he gets a blinding headache for not choosing and STILL has to choose it and do it.

Many of these ‘choices’ are weird and/or perverse. As a result of his actions, he has tainted his reputation with his classmates and other people around him. Needless to say, this makes getting a classroom buddy difficult, so getting a date is very difficult. One day, a choice he makes on his way home from school causes a mysterious, beautiful young girl to fall from the sky and land RIGHT ON HIM. Amakusa discovers that she, Cocolat, was sent from the God World to assist him in completing a series of missions given to him directly by God himself. After completing these missions, the “Absolute Choices” curse will be lifted from Amakusa; but should he fail in completing any of the missions, he will be stuck with the curse forever.

Oh, Cocolat is to Kanade’s right, striped socks. When we first meet her, she’s all in brown, thus her name, I assumed.

Adding to his problems is that he does get to speak with God on this, but since he is ‘new on the job’ and the previous God is ‘away’ (sounds like an H-P executive), he can’t really do much to help him with the condition. Does he need more problems? Well, he’s getting them. He is part of a group known as “The Reject Five”, the biggest losers in the school. These guys couldn’t pick a winner in a one-horse race, as the animal would probably get struck by lightning on the back stretch. The other members:

Furano Yukihira, gray hair to Kanada’s right. She is very cold and distant, but she does care for him.
Ōka Yūōji, the chesty number with the black stockings. She is a bit of an airhead but has a good heart.
Yuragi Hakoniwa, childhood friend, to Furano’s left. She calls everyone older-brother or older-sister
Karasu Yumeshima, guy at the far right. Yes, he wears a mask and we barely see him during the show.

The thing is they don’t want to be the Reject Five, but there you go. The show details Kanade’s attempts to rid himself of this curse, and how things go from bad to worse to abominable. Everything he does to ‘improve’ deepens the disgust and despair that others have for him, as he is a pathetic pervert.

I liked this show for the pleasantly goofy nature of it. I mean, God is a position, no different than a branch manager? The people Kanade are around are just as hapless, helpless and hopeless as he is, including the Popular Five (their polar opposites), who prove they have just as many twisted secrets as the Rejects. And when Cocolat gets her memory back, things really turn strange.

True, this is a show that plays the supernatural card (I mean, pretty girls just don’t fall from the sky into your lap, right? If that was the case, my school attendance would have been far better!) but it does it in a charming sense. Even when people are mean to Kanada, it’s not vicious, more like a reminder that you don’t have to be like this.

Fan Serivce, right? Well with two busty numbers up there and short short skirts, you will get your fill, but it’s not obtrusive, and (and here’s the kicker) it is somewhat germane to the plot. We HAVE to have it to make it all work. I found it a show well worth my time to watch, even for 10 episodes.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork 8 (Interesting artwork, as you have lots of pretty girls)
Plot 9 (A very different plot)
Pacing 8 (Can get too frantic)
Effectiveness 8 (Nice use of strangeness)
Conclusion 7 (It reaches a ‘coupler point’, but doesn’t really end)
Fan Service 6 (A similar show would be “Mahoromatic”)

Overall 8 (A good time is to be had)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. Please make a choice.

 


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