Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi (Trans. Ookami-san and her Seven Companions) is a twelve-episode anime produced by JC Staff that was based on the light novels written by Masashi Okita. The anime started airing last July 2, 2010 and just ended this month.
Long, long time ago, well, not so long ago, in Otogibana City, there is a school named Otogi Academy. In that school, there is a club called, Otogi Academy Student Mutual Assistance Association also known as the Otogi Bank who aides students in various task with a fee which is, the client must help the Bank in return of the favor they did to the client.
Here comes Ryoko Ookami, a flat-chested tsundere, who wears a modified school uniform and is simply known as Ookami-san. Her best friend, Ringo Akai, a dark loli, accompanies her and wears a modified school uniform that resembles Little Red Riding Hood. Both are freshmen and the said academy and they are members of the Otogi Bank.
Enter Ryoshi Morino, a guy who just came from the province and has scopophobia, a fear of eye contact due to him being in the province for quite a long time, and one day, he tells Ryoko that he likes her… and got rejected. Ouch. Because of this, Ringo got interested in him. Because of this, he was recruited in the Bank due to his abilities to stalk someone without getting notice and his background as a hunter, in which his grandpa thought him the ropes.
And so, Ryoshi is now near to Ryoko and as the series progressed, we saw Ryoshi becoming more manly for the sake of protecting Ryoko and she slowly harbors feeling for him even if she tried to deny it while they are accomplishing various request and meeting the members of the Bank. Along the way, we slowly learn the reason behind Ryoko’s tsundere attitude, along with it; we learn her dark past in her previous school in which we met, Shiro Hitsujikai. Will they lived happily ever after? We will find out.
On to the review, Ookami-san’s idea is something fresh. Giving fairy tales a modern take while retaining the charm they had. For example, the fight between the hare and tortoise has given a new spin; instead of a foot race, we have a beauty contest! Instead of Snow White eating a poisonous apple from a witch, we have a sister who doesn’t know that she was the reason for Snow White to be away from her. See the point?
As for the main crew, the wolf’s (Ryoko Okami, okami in Japanese means wolf) best friend is the Little Red Riding Hood (Ringo Akai) and the hunter (Ryoshi Morino) fell in love in the wolf instead of killing it, and like in the original, LRRH is the one who made the wolf and hunter go even closer! This is the fun factor of the series, the fairy tale concept with a modern take. What adds the fun factor is figuring out what are they trying to parody!
Since the series is a romantic comedy series, we will focus on the two lovebirds, the wolf and the hunter. Ryoshi fell in love with Ryoko because of her features and something that is deeper than that. She is the one who saw behind her wolf clothing, is a sheep with a weak spot and so, he was there to protect her. Our hunter is now her Prince Charming.
As for Ryoko, she is a sheep who pretends to be a wolf and tries to hide behind that wolf skin, her dark past in her previous school in which back then, she is true to herself. Not acting tough but a regular girl who just had a crush on a certain guy and started to cry wolf that she is a slut. It was Ryoshi who saw it, and slowly she develops feelings for Ryoshi, even if she is not honest with that. This is the problem with the series; they never gave a good balance between the love story between Ryoko and Ryoshi, giving the readers a cliffhanger ending with the series.
But even with that fact, episodes that involve Ryoshi doing something manly for Ryoko are worth it especially the 11th episode in which Ryoshi fights Shiro. It was one of the moments that you can feel awe between this rather hot and cold relationship between the two. Moreover, speaking of episodes between Ryoko and Ryoshi, the double date episode tops my list because we saw Ryoko’s true side even for a while and we saw Ryoshi’s manly side when he meets Shiro for the second time.
Even with that light hearted-ness of the plot, there is still something mysterious in the plot, to be exact, Ryoko’s life before entering Otogi Academy with Shiro. It is the part of the series that was never given much needed focus. We only got the idea about her life before in some quick flashback scenes.
Shiro was an interesting character in the series but because of his lack of screen time, we never see much more of his character. The only time we saw much of his character is at the finale episode in which we saw him fight against Ryoshi and saw some of his psychotic tendencies.
The only thing that lifts the series is the heartwarming moments that this series has. The entire Ringo focus episode with her sister is one of those episodes.
As for the animation, it felt like I am watching Toradora! due to the quality of the animation, heck, even if the character designs screams like Toradora! There are some instances that there is a problem in terms of animation. There are some instances the frames are a bit delayed especially the battles scenes especially the finale episode!
Another problem that I see in the series is the lack of a proper conclusion. Sure, the source material is still going on but can they at extend the series in a volume? Or place a filler written by the author himself like what The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya did.
Overall, the series was good if you watch it by weekly or one episode a day for you to have a better experience in the series. In terms of the plot, it was fresh, but it has some loose ends in terms of the Ryoko and Ryoshi love story and it didn’t have a proper closure on some characters, giving me an impression that there would be a sequel in the near future.
The length of the series was also the problem, if the series has more episodes, it might give the viewers a better conclusion on the plot. Oh well, let’s hope JC Staff will produce a second season once the series is well received.