OK, I was drawn to this series by the title: “The ‘Hentai’ Prince and the Stony Cat”. Well, I jumped on “Panty and Stocking” and “Chu-Bra!” and I found those very entertaining shows, so why not this one?

This revolves around Yokodera Yota, a second-year high school student. He has a reputation on campus as being the biggest pervert around, but he has a problem: he cannot express his emotions well. One day, a good friend of him comes up to him and unloads all of his smut collection on him, as he has been cleaned of his impure thoughts. All he did was make an offering to the stone cat statue at the base of a tree on the high peak in town. What it does it takes what you no longer want and gives it to someone in greater need of it.

As he goes up there to make his offering of a body pillow, wishing to be more open with his emotions, a girl comes up to him, Tsukiko Tsutsukakushi, and makes her wish of being more of an adult and not show her emotions so easily. The cat grants their wish and the next day at school is a total disaster. He cannot tell a lie; she cannot feel anything. They work together to try and find who received their tokens and try to get it back so they can be who they once were, as who they are now is nerve-wracking.

Now, the show is much more than a mere hunt-down job, as we learn the history of the Stone Cat and the real secret behind it. He discovers that Azuki Azusa has gotten his wish and makes friends with her, but his open emotions thaws her tough demeanor and she is willing to have a friend. The biggest arc is with the Steel King. Her real name is Tsukushi Tsutsukakushi and is Tsukiko’s older sister. She is the President of the track team and absolutely pounds Yota into the ground with her strictness and his lack of total commitment. She has the double problems of possessing a terrible sister fixation (she wants to marry her sister) and a horrific secret in her past regarding Mom (who, by this point, is long out of the picture).

The Stony Cat plays a huge part in this, as it grants wishes along the lines of “The Monkey’s Paw” (be careful what you wish for, as it won’t be what you want it to be). This is a romantic comedy, despite some dramatic moments, and when Yota presents himself as his own twin brother, to escape a beating from the Steel King, things take on a rather odd atmosphere, as she buys into it completely.

Oddly enough, despite the title, the fan service is reigned in, even when we are given a chance to see what Yota owns (and what gets thrown out) and the end to the Italian School tale arc. However, it does get a little convoluted near the end with the whole Steel King scenario. And when we throw in the confusing Emi/Ponya story arc (as I was uncertain as to the ‘truths’), it loses a bit of steam, as we now play fast and loose with the wish requirements. Events reach a conclusion, but by now it’s a muddlesome mess. For the latter part of the series, it felt like things were done just to show they could be done, so there is a sense of betrayal, as though the Cat granted my wish, but didn’t have it work through as one expected.

I would give this a conditioned recommendation, in that when you reach the point that the series seems like it’s work to watch it, walk away from it and let it be.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork 8 (Appealing design)
Plot 7 (Gets strained near the last episodes)
Pacing 7 (Can move slow at times)
Effectiveness 7 (Again, latter-end problems)
Conclusion 6 (It reaches a ‘coupler’, but doesn’t really end)
Fan Service 5 (A similar show would be “Maburaho”)

Overall 7 (It hits a fade point)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. Watch what you wish for.