Finally got a chance to watch Otome Y?kai Zakuro, as someone suggested many posts ago in this thread, and I wish I had seen it sooner. Great stuff! Bonbori and Hozuki are pure love, and I actually found myself liking Zakuro, despite not being a fan of tsundere. I like how the girls are far more powerful than the guys (who are really just scene furniture when a fight begins), and rather surprised it’s considered seinen rather than a josei.
IMHO about the cast…
Zakuro: Wonderful character. Her tsundere makes a non-tsundere follower like me even melt. Not only love at first sight with Agemaki, but he quickly earned it (back) as well by two episodes.
Agemaki: Perfect match for Zakuro. He never gives up and never wavers in his love. His phobia is great foil.
Susukihotaru: Never been a Yamato Nadeshiko fan, so I wasn’t keen on her character as a whole. She’s all weepy and timid, so you never actually see her do anything useful. She’s either using her friends as a crutch, or being blushy around Riken.
Riken: Weakest character in the main lineup. His lack of emotion was huge turn off for me. I understand that it represents the ideal warrior samurai persona from feudal Japan (one can easily maintain face if they never betray expression), and his personality is the perfect match for Susukihotaru (he the ideal samurai, she the ideal wife), but they just seemed so… stiff together…
Bonbori and Hozuki: Twincest is Best!! Not the main stars of the show, but always steal the scene. Then there’s the whole Stepford Smiler thing, making it hard to tell how much of their joy is a front or actual happiness.
Ganryu: Disappointed with his character. He’s supposedly a genius, but never actually shows it. My biggest beef with him however, is that he never did anything to earn the twins love. They just liked him from the start. At least Riken had to do a few things for Susukihotaru… and Agemaki spends the entire series getting Zakuro to admit her love. Ganryu had the twins in the palm of his hands from day one (or rather, they had him at the mercy of their body smothering).
Nonetheless, it’s the combination of all these characters that’s entertaining. The story is about Zakuro and Agemaki, so I can understand why the rest of the cast takes a backseat… but I do wish a bit more time was taken for them. Reading the manga source, I can see that it’s the same on that end as well, so I can’t blame the animation studio. In fact, they put characters in story plots they were absent in the manga (for example the twins and Ganryu during the evil sword episode).