Epimondas

For an anime based on a really good manga, they did a horrible job.  Even if it were not based on a manga and I judged it without that foundation, it is barely subpar because of how badly the story gets sucked into a mundane boring rinse and repeat routine.  She is the wolverine of the X-men movies.  Ya know a story with an ensemble type of cast of characters but irresponsibly it focuses too much on one character.  The mistake with X-men is, it is supposed to be a team, not a one man show.  In Rosario's case, though the rest of the cast may not have the same power or level of power they have different skills and specialties that in the manga you get to see them use alot more.  It is seen some in the Anime but not as much and in the end, everyone still depends way too heavily on Rosario herself.  She always needs Tskune to remove her rosary but that isn't the way things always worked in the manga, which makes for an incredibly worlds better story.  Also, in the anime, the characters do not seem to progress or change much or at least no where near like they do once again in the manga.  

I know video media usually takes on some creative license when presenting stories especially story adaptions from books or comics but usually they at least try to cater to the strengths of the story and not turn it in to complete rubbish and a meek shadow of the literary presentation like this series did.  Sure, they do a pretty good job of setting up the story, presenting the characters, and giving each a little background/side stories, and then they taper off quite a bit quality wise.  Tskune feels like the most weak and worthless character ever presented in any story and he is stuck with that moniker.  This series does nothing to turn him into a worthile character.  The manga might differ with it's treatment of Tskune more than anything else.  Since the manga does just that, Tskune changes, he contributes, he adapts and grows while aquiring some skills to handle the influx of challenges, the dynamic with him and Moka is much better and stronger, and his part of the story is one of the most interesting in recent years.  That's a total opposite of the anime Tskune.  Anime Tskune is a total wimp who relies almost exclusively on others, especiallly Moka to bail him out of virtually every little problem.  He never has a chance to learn, adapt, handle things on his own, or really contribute, and he is only a hand that removes the rosary and sorry folks at the studio that produced this sad adaption, that just is not enough.

There are some good story arcs and nice little bits of humor, true, however, it all resembles fluffy decorations meant to conceal a total train wreck of a production.  In the end, the constant rinse and repeat cycle that so drastically veers off from the manga, makes the series pretty dull with no depth or meat to the story, no welcome changes from trying experiences all the friends share to any great degree, and even the story arcs are missing so many elements they are mere shadows of similar story arcs featured in the manga.  As far as literary works adaptions to video media go, this is one of the worst if not the worst one ever done.  As far as standing on its own separate from the manga, it might qualify as a small footnote of interest but nothing outstanding.  

The animation quality is as good or better than the manga, the sound is up to specs, the stupid bat is a crappy distraction that takes more edge off the story than contributes any positive factors, and the over the top constant simpleton level mushy scenes only serve to enhance how poor this series is when compared to the spectacular manga.  Consequences are pretty obvious by how far off it strays from the manga such as, a significant drop in action, a much weaker and harder to follow progression of a love story, much shallower characters who contribute a fraction of what they do in the manga, fewer story arcs, fewer antagonists, far less tension, muddled pacing, mismatched and or screwed up characters, heavy plot holes that when compered to the manga make you go "oh now i get it", sloppy story arcs that are by comparision incomplete, huge changes between the manga and anime that not only do not benefit the series but severely handicaps it in major negative ways.  

I really wish they did the anime right, it would be one of the best if it were even close to the content of the manga.  There are too many changes from the original story and honestly none of them are good.  It is almost as if the creators skimmed summaries or breif reviews of the manga rather than actually read a single issue.  One of the biggest plot devices is completely missing that involves one of the most interesting side characters, the chairman.  What the manga does with the relationship between Moka and Tskune when faced with adversity really stands out as a unique and cool concept completely missing from the anime.  It is partly this unique relationship that the entire story is actually centered around but since such a significant and important factor is wholly missing from the series, for that reason alone it can never measure up even to the feet of the manga.  Again though, even if this were not one of the worst story adaptions to film or tv ever, ever made, it fails to stand up on it's own.  At best I might have given it a 5 but more likely a 4.  This is cause it is one of the most boring animes ever made.  It focuses too much on the same gimmick over and over and over again so much it just drives you nuts with how stupid and boring the repitition gets.  None of the characters develop well especially the main character, Tskune.  Tskune is the weakest most pathetic useless character I have probably ever seen in an anime, and that honestly would have stood out more if I did not know about the much much much much much better story found in the mangas.