At least this series' protagonist has a cute little sister. Your arguments are invalid.
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Everybody expected Mashiro-iro to be the Fall 2011 equivalent of the shitty summer series with the protagonist, his brother, and the monkey toy. And, yes, if you don't like standard rom-com visual novel adaptions with the obvious harem, then Mashiro-iro was shitty indeed. But for those of us that enjoy that genre, we found a rather nice and safe place to spend our days, dreaming of maids and tsunderes.
...If only that was the case.
...If only that was the case.
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Let's get into graphics. As I said back in my First Impressions post, Manglobe has always done a good job with series (if a bit strong with the pastel colors). Exact same style as what was displayed by The Sacred Blacksmith and The World God Only Knows. Nothing more to say, really. The girls look really good, but for some reason, when they're happy, they look like they've taken a bong hit and smile vaguely instead of actually being happy. What's up with that?
In the sound department, Mashiro-iro has a pretty good soundtrack (at least one that's going into my collection). The OP (Authentic Symphony) AND the ED (Suisai Candy) are both very enjoyable to hear (if a bit high-pitched and sparkly). The soundtrack in itself doesn't seem to be any different from other visual novel OSTs. Ah well, we can't always have CLANNAD OSTs.
Acoustic guitar + piano + reverb + husky female voice. Always a safe combo.
I've made quite a fuss over the past few months about Mashiro-iro, predicting the endings and claiming that it played the plot safely. Well...I haven't changed my opinion. Mashiro-iro is the cliché-filled series that everyone loves to hate but secretly watches in the middle of the night while clutching their rocky road ice cream. It has all of the girls that fill into every standard harem slot of modern manga/anime: the Tsundere Main Heroine, the Maid, the Genki Girl, the Senpai, and the Imouto/Little Sister.
The story is the typical "nice guy that keeps apologizing and making stuff for the girl wins the girl" straight-up, balls-down, happy-go-lucky story. You know, the type of lesson that boys like to hear: "If you try hard enough, you win!" Unfortunately, that doesn't happen IRL, and the discrepancies show pretty easily in this series.
Meet the main character of this series.
I feel as if there are simply too much filler and not enough side-stories with the other girls to go around. Yes, he had interactions with the Senpai that he eventually goes out with, but jeez, include the others in the fun, will ya? The lack of competition and actual romantic scenes in this series makes Mashiro-iro lukewarm at best.
As for how the characters progress...they really don't. The boy (Shingo) literally just walks around visiting each of the girls. At the end, they're all infatuated with him. How does that work? Not sure. The girls certainly aren't telling the viewers. The guy isn't too much of a dumbass, but the fact that all of the relationships in the story are gained ezpz (even more so than in a standard rom-com) unsettles me. I want a struggle! I want them to think! I want the series to show me why I should like this character. I don't care if it's 36 episodes. Character development in a series that's based just around what the characters do in their daily lives is the core of the plot. And Mashiro-iro flopped around a bit with the different-hair-colored girls before giving up in disgust after about 2/3rds of the series had been completed. Poor form, poor form I'd say.
tl;dr I just watched this for the cute girls. And MorningLescue watched it solely for the imouto.
The moment I saw this I could hear MorningLescue rage across a few counties. Pray for an OVA son, pray for an OVA.
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