The Asterisk War
a review by Rarity
a review by Rarity
(This review assumes that you also watched the anime Rakudai Kishi no Eiyuutan because it's mostly a comparison of the two)
I know what is expected of me. I should roast this anime because it was bad. However, we all know it was bad. There’s no reason for me to rehash how bad it was right? But if I don’t roast it what am I going to talk about? Well I intend to both mock and pity Asterisk War as it was a victim of poor circumstances in addition to its own shortcomings.
An Inescapable Comparison
We cannot ignore the elephant in the room. Asterisk’s War greatest fault is that in most ways it’s a worse Rakudai Kishi no Eiyuutan. But why is that? The characters, world and the plot lines are almost painfully similar, so what made Rakudai more palpable? I think there are two main differences that separate these shows:
The fights in Rakudai were good, whereas the fights in Asterisk were bad. This is crazy subjective but please hear me out. The fights in Rakudai were a lot more polished and fun to watch than those in Asterisk. Honestly every fight in Asterisk felt rushed. In contrast, all the Rakudai fights were stunning and were easily my favorite part of the anime. I can safely say the fights were a low point of Asterisk. They even managed to ruin one of my favorite tropes in anime, shouting the name of your attack before launching them, by making the attack names shitty. I’m looking at you Livingstone Stone Daisy…
Ikki and Stella formally started dating whereas Ayato and Julis were just bonded at the hip. This was a minor plot point, but it radically altered the show. Rakudai killed its being a harem aspect by establishing the canon pairing mid-show, whereas Asterisk kept the harem alive by having Ayato never hook up with Julis. Now while this was dumb as Ayato was clearly devoted to Julis, it makes sense when you learn that the anime was adapting Julis’s route from the videogame.
I looked up the game Asterisk War for the PS Vita and for a game from 2016 it looked pretty good. The anime pretty much adapted Julis’s route completely, but that just leaves me wondering about Saya’s route. Thus, in its own shitty way Asterisk gave me a slight degree of interest in its source property, which I assume was the entire goal of the anime (also you can play as Lester and Saya in the game!!!)
Furthermore, Asterisk while shitty wasn’t really that bad if not compared directly to Rakudai. It’s a travesty that both shows aired at the same time. Someone should’ve caught it, someone should’ve said something. No season needs two battle harem high school animes, much less ones that are this similar.
Let’s do some more quick comparisons:
Ikki was more tolerable than Ayato. The latter just let shit happen to him never trying to intervene or change anything. Once you realize that he’s just a video game protagonist I can start to understand his passive approach to everything, but I still think a bit of angst or brooding would’ve made his character “good”. I’m still questioning why he wasn’t trying to find/avenge his sister…
Julis and Stella were basically the same character. Stella was a lot more tolerable, but also dumber. Still I wasn’t upset every time she was on screen whereas I just didn’t like Julis. Also, her being princess still irks me as it ruined her character motivation of making money to fund the orphanage. I just can’t believe that a princess doesn’t have ANY available money. I guess in 2016 there was some male fantasy of dating a sword-fighting princess that we all sort of missed? I don’t know, but this fetish ain’t for me that’s for sure.
Might as well hammer out a few more. We could do this all day if we tried:
The Festa and the Festival are the same thing.
Annoying brown-haired news reporter is our friend, kind of (Yabuki&Kagumin)
Protag is broken af, but has time-limited powers
Main heroine is a red/pink haired princess from a tiny nation that wields fire magic, is a tsundere and wins canon ship with the protagonist in their anime
Protagonist walks in on a girl changing clothes in ep 1. He is then forced to fight her. He defeats her, somehow leading to a everlasting friendship and romance.
There is a girl from the protag’s past with romantic interest in him that is ignored by the Protag (Shizuku&Saya)
We have a scene of two characters being almost naked while their clothes dry, during this scene they talk about serious issues
The student council has too much power, the student council is arguably corrupt
Protag meets, fights, tutors and sidelines a talented female swordswoman with daddy issues (Toudou&Ayatsuji)
So, what did I like about this show?
Some of the side characters were great and amused me consistently
It was a harem anime, a crappy one, but a harem nonetheless
What did I dislike?
Anime was aired next to a similar show that it loses to in direct comparison. I honestly think Asterisk would just be meh as opposed to utter garbage if we didn’t have to compare it to Rakudai.
The fights were awful. This is a pretty bad thing to screw up in your battle harem anime. I can safely say that watching the videogame sprites fight was preferable to the anime battles.
Ayato and Julis. I’m very critical of protags in harem anime. I grade everyone against Yuuki Rito from To Loveru and usually they just need to be on par with him to get a passing grade. Ayato however was worse and I was legit annoyed with how bland he was all show. Julis as a main heroine wasn’t very compelling to me either. She was a poor tsundere and her only saving grace was not being as blatantly dumb as Stella.
Anime adapted the route of my least favorite girl
In conclusion, I hope to remember three things about this anime:
Saya, as she was funny, quirky and while totally unreasonable made me laugh a lot
I would only recommend this show to someone wanting to compare it to Rakudai for kicks. Now that being said the game looks decent...
25 out of 39 users liked this review
