Anime: Asobi Ni Iku Yo!

Now look at this picture of the anime. What does it say to you? If your answer was another dull and unoriginal harem anime then you get WHACKED WITH A PAPER FAN!
Didn't your mother ever tell you not to judge an anime by it's poster?!

Asobi Ni Iku Yo! (Or it's American translation, "Asobi ni Ikuyo: Bombshells from the Sky" Which I will refrain from calling in this review.) Is about Kakazu Kio, an ordinary High school student who encounters Eris, a girl with cat ears and a tail (the one in the picture) and claims to be an alien and asks to stay at Kakazu's home for the night.

It's there that conflicts arise, when his next door neighbor and childhood friend Manami Kinjou turns out to be spying on him and his new alien friend so she may join the CIA, his high school teacher sees Eris and is the leader of an alien enthusiast group and Kio's friend outside of class happens to be a Japanese military super soldier and has a secret love for Kio. Still a typical harem you say?
WHACK! Shut up! The review hasn't even begun yet.

                                                                                                                                         YOSH!! 

Music: 7/10 Nice!

Here is a taste of what the show has for you...

Now aside from the very tropical and upbeat OP the rest of the music in Asobi Ni Iku Yo! fits great... maybe to great. You see in my opinion the music of an anime can fit to well in the background to be noticed for various reasons, the music is downplayed, it's a bit to quiet, or ever it fits too well with the scene. This isn't bad but the problem is that we don't notice the music much unless you re-watch the same episode... again... and focus completely on the music. It's not a strength... yet it's not a weakness. However, the catchy up-beat OP as well as THREE count them THREE different ending songs, each fitting perfectly with one of the corresponding 3 characters. I personally like Eris's the best with the traditional japanese Biwa leading the instrumental.                                                                                                                                        Art & Animation: 8/10 Good


                                                                                                                                      The art is pretty good, but nothing original is brought to the table. The colors are good and all but the artistic ideas are already used, especially for a part sci-fi series. The space suits are familiar and hold not much value except they make the wearers super powerful and and cover there milk trucks. The japanese super soldier suits are also, been there seen that but they do look really good and really intimidating. However the animation is probably the best part graphic wise. The animation team did a really good job balancing the CGI with the naturally drawn animation. They give CGI to things like Eris's space ship and her little hologram cat buddy. The animation is fun, bouncy and most of all pops out at you during an action scene. (And yes guys, the boobs are simply GLORIOUS!)


                                                                                                                                   Characters: 9/10 Great...


                                                                                                                                      First off. Let's look at the main character.

Before

After

Now then... do you see a difference? To the top is Keitaro the main character of Love Hina, a very memorable harem anime. To the bottom is Kio, the protagonist of Asobi Ni Iku Yo! Do you see the difference? Do you see how Kio looks upright, calm, and completely reasonable. What does Keitaro look like? Cowardly,Scared, nervous, and completely scatterbrained. I'm not saying Keitaro is a bad character, he's great and is actually the natural archetype for most harem anime protagonists. And that's where Kio shines.                                              


                                                                                                                                       Kio isn't worried about this girl that he just met and instantly falls in love with her. He isn't completely nervous about having a girl in his house, let alone an alien. He treats her like any guest, even though he pushes her off or corrects her when she makes sexual advances. Hell if one alien cat girl wasn't enough, guess how is he with 5 alien cat girls, one who has the hots for him, and a CIA agent and a ex-super soldier living under the same roof?! The answer, he's completely the same. That's the amazing thing about Kio, sex and love are the last things on his mind most literally,  and at heart he's just a good guy that is very innocent for his age yet he won't mind holding a gun to save his friends. Now some people may say that Kio is unrealistic... those same people forget they are watching an anime about about a Cat girl alien who comes to make peace relations to the japanese. And that's the biggest plus in the characters.

There is a big minus though...                       

Remember that next door neighbor who was going to be a CIA agent? Well this right here is her biggest characteristic... beating the hell out of Kio... for no reason. Okay look, I like feminism. But when the guy doesn't do anything it's just being sexist. You can get away with it once, but more than that and you have an annoying character. Like the one from "Working!" Bah!

                                                                                                                                               However, in between the big plus and the big minus I have...a favorite character
ROULLET PLEASE!
*drum roll*
                                                                                                                                    The Favorite is...

  Aoi Futaba!

Now this character is interesting! Aside from being a super soldier and not having much social experience outside of that. Aoi had time between that to grow a secret admiration for Kio, now Aoi isn't your typical, "What does this do? 'That's a frying pan.' Do I fight with it?" girl. She has lived through high school like any girl, but instead of hanging out with friends after school she was shipped off the coast of Japan to deal with terrorists. And now she's having trouble making a basic omlette as she is probably better accustomed to eating military rations instead. What's great about her is that she isn't some butch tomboy character (unlike Manami) and has a natural gentleness to her but never knew how to use it or that it was there. So congrats Aoi, you are my favorite character of Asobi Ni Iku Yo! It also helps that she is voiced by the same voice actress who did the voice of Angel in "Angel Beats!"

Finish it!

From the start of the first episode to the end of the third this series had my attention. I was getting worried when in the mid of episode 3 that they are going to throw everything they were building up to for some dime a dozen harem storyline, but the conclusion of the episode proved there was more. I enjoyed watching Asobi Ni Iku Yo! and I am still enjoying to watch each new episode every week. 

Asobi Ni Iku Yo! is being streamed on Crunchyroll and I give this series a green light! If you like action, explosions, and ridiculous yet surprising plot twists and love pyramid madness or you just want to see a brand new Harem anime idea since Tenchi Muyo, then it's your Otaku duty to watch this series! 

Here!  

or

here

If you don't like those kind of extreme plots and you like girls beating the crap out of defenseless nerds then go watch Love Hina. It's also a good show which I hope to review once I get all of these lesser know series out of the way, this is an underground first after all. ^_^

Overall: I give Asobi Ni Iku Yo! or in english "We're coming to play!"

8/10 Good!