Shelf Life

Cat's Cradle Robber

Oh, Omamori Himari! At least your first nine episodes had diegetic panty flashes. In film terms, “diegetic” music is music playing within the movie, like if a character turns on a radio. Soundtracks are “non-diegetic,” because it's music that isn't playing within the world of the film. I think the panty flashes in Kiki's Delivery Service are diegetic because they occur naturally and believably, as opposed to the special camera up-skirt angles invented in Najica Blitz Tactics. Omamori Himari falls somewhere between those two extremes. The panty shots try to be slightly believable, at least at first (a character falls and her skirt flips up, etc.). In this scene it was hot out (not work safe).

Yuto, an every-boy orphan teenager with a cat allergy is surprised when a sexy demon cat girl named Himari turns up claiming to be his bodyguard. Yuto's childhood friend Rinko is upset by this development, not least by the fact that Himari is much more *cough* developed than Rinko. Rinko has more opportunities to be upset as new sexy girls are added to the show at an average of one per episode. Most of the girls end up living at Yuto's house in a traditional anime harem arrangement.

Readers following this column will instantly know that Shizuku was my least favorite character. Shizuku, a water demon member of Yuto's harem, has with a pre-pubescent body and is involved in many erotic scenes. For example, Shizuku admits that the humping she does in this scene (not work safe) to heal Yuto is totally unnecessary. As a water demon, Shizuku often appears in a wet T-shirt. Good lord, what's the point of a wet T-shirt contest starring an elementary school student?

In scenes too hot for TV, a white cloudy blur effect blocks out the naughty bits. I'm not sure if this effect was added for Japanese television or by Crunchyroll. Please be aware that some scenes starring Shizuku (or later, Tama) may not be legal in your area (like Australia).

Underage characters aside, you could do worse than Omamori Himari. The animation quality is not that bad. The character designs are solid, except for Yuto, who looks utterly generic. Of course, Yuto is meant to play a generic archetype because this is just that sort of show. I thought Daisuke Hirakawa sounded oddly nasally as Yuto.

If there is a deeper theme to this show (there isn't), I'm going to throw out there that I think it's about impotence. Yuta has inherited magic powers that are supposed to manifest, but he can't quite get the magic going, not even when his roommates are stripping naked and rubbing against him.

I usually hate demon fighting and harems and erotic comedies. This is the opposite of the sort of show I like. I only watched this because it aired in 2010 and I hadn't seen it yet. I can't tell if this very typical harem otaku database show holds up versus other similar shows. It certainly has maids, vampire-like girls, cat girls, a sexy Zashiki-warashi (house spirit), a sexy-no-jutsu nine tailed fox, striped panties and three-quarters socks if you're into those things. In general I am in favor of the sexy-no-jutsu form of various Japanese traditional supernatural creatures like the Zashiki-warashi. How about a sexy umbrella yokai?

The only unique element to this show may be Yuta's cat allergy. When Himari's cat ears and tail pop out, Yuta displays believable allergic symptoms. Other than that, I hated this show and actively cheered for the characters' deaths. At the end when Himari starts going berserk, I was hoping for an Old Yeller ending.[TOP]