Kurenai OVA

MrsickVisionz Aug 28, 2010

9

The BasicsReleased as a pack-in with the fifth manga volume, this series of three short stories takes place after the events of the 2008 series. While it uses the same characters, tone, music and animation studio as the first series, the art style is noticeably different and closer reflects the manga.The GoodIt's Kure-nai. All of the characters are back and they have the same quirks and personality traits as the did in the original. The music and tone of the series is the same so if you enjoyed the original series you should get a kick out of this one as well.The three stories are all hilarious and each focuses on one or two things that really made the series what it is for me: 1) light espionage & Shinkuro's crazy neighbors and friends2) Shinkuro & Ginko's unrequited romance3) Murasaki being cute and adorable and the comedy that pops up from her view on things around herMy personal favorite would be Diary, the third episode.The BadA tiny a bit of fan service has crept into the series, but it's only in one episode for a short time. To be fair, it's a swimming pool episode but it is there and it is blatant. It's not lolicon so it's never really focused on Murasaki, which is a good thing.Something that might have a bigger impact on prior fans of the series is the change in art style. It's still the same studio but this time around the look of the series is very close to that of the manga. At first I was off put by this, but I got over it after like three minutes. It certainly isn't ugly and it's not poorly animated, it's just different than what I had become accustomed to. The most seriously bad thing about the OAV is that I reeeeaaaaallllllly want another season of Kure-nai now.Final VerdictIf you didn't like Kure-nai before, this OAV certainly won't win you over but for fan of the series it delivers on everything you'd likely want from an OAV. It's good sign that people in charge still know how to deliver on everything that made Kure-nai a great show.