Search - The Wallflower: The Complete Collection, Part One on DVD

Crazy anime from the creator of Excel Saga

J. Snook | Wales | 11/17/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Shinichi Watanabe, the director of Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemy is back with another insane anime, The Wallflower.
The basic story for this anime is that 4 beautiful men (Kyohei, Yuki, Ranmaru and Takenaga) who live in an elaborate mansion are given an offer they can't refuse by the owner of the mansion. If they can transform her niece Sunako into a respectful woman, then they can live rent free...however, if they fail their rent will triple. Sounds straight forward...well they haven't met Sunako yet. The boys agree to this challenge and the Aunt goes away to let them complete their task.
To the boys' utter horror, sunako; despite being the niece of a rich and elegant Aunt, is a scruffy, visually unflattering, goth who likes to banish herself away in her bedroom and watch splatter movies.

What results is a hilarious and insane anime. I was laughing all the way through these episodes. Like Watanabes previous comedy installments, this anime is totally nuts, with loud and hyperactive characters. I also particularly love the way this anime humours itself by including some serious moments, only to ruin them with something hilarious happening.
The wallflower stands out from other animes as it does not stick to the usual stereotypes. In fact, it goes in the complete opposite direction and what we get is an anti-harem comedy or bishounen anime, that is an extreme Japanese version of 'my fair lady' and 'queer eye'. Sound wierd? Well it is. Aside from being totally hysterical, this anime is often bizarre, creepy and just downright odd. All the women in this anime have the hots for the 4 boys, so expect nose bleeds a-plenty and lots of high pitched squealing. Just what you'd expect from the drector of Excel Saga

The animation is simply superb, and quite surreal at times, but if you are used to the style of Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemy, you should feel right at home with this. Though I must admit that the wallflower is no where near as crazy and insane as them. This set contains both english dub and Japanese with subtitles. I have only watched the english dub and I must say that the voice acting is spot on, with some well known anime voice actors. ie Vic Mignogna (Full Metal Alchemist, Dragon ball Z Movies), Greg Ayres (Chrono Crusade Gantz), Chris Patton (Guyver bio boosted armour, Gantz). The music is pretty good as well with mixture of classical music and hard rock.

If you are a fan of Excel Saga, you will absolutely love this. And even newcomers will enjoy this. The Wallflower is pure nonsensical fun...and lots of it! ^^
"

Great Anime set

Candice Gross | Shawnee, Kansas | 08/13/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I loved this anime set. I bought part 1 and part 2. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt lol. I could watch this over and over and laugh everytime."

My thoughts on the Wallflower anime.

Tiffany Anderson | Monrovia, Ca USA | 07/11/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I've not really been into much shoujo series lately. But ever since I first read this series online I've basically fallen in love with it! And not for the "bishies" or the sappy romances or whatever, but because of Sunako! She has got to be (in my opinion) one of the most unique shoujo heroines out there! And not to mention the hilarity that ensues as she constantly scares the living bajeebers out of the four "radiant creatures" who are currently living under the same roof as her in each episode! Sure, the four other guys are kinda cliche in some sense and "unrealistic", but in a series like this it's almost like those traits are used as a joke! (at least that's what I got from it.)

However, the production quality of this anime series didn't really live up to the kind of expectation I had set. The voice recording quality of the Japanese version is pretty poor, like it was recorded in a studio with bad acoustics. And in some cases the background music almost seems to over power the dialogue. The English dub really wasn't that bad, but really could have done with out the corny lines that sometimes come up. The animation quality wasn't as well done as I had hoped for. And the few scenes where the male characters had "chibi" bodies while their faces were normal really struck me as, well, how do I put this? It just didn't look pleasant. (or funny)

But in the end, the characters and laughs I get from each episode over shadowed my disappointment in the production quality and really made it worth the money and time I spent on this DVD collection!"

If your on the fence, don't be

Hydromorphone | 04/14/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was on the fence about buying this - it was suggested to me because I really liked Ouran Host Club but since watching it haven't found anything as funny or entertaining.

Get off the fence and pick this up - unlike alot of animes i've seen that really aren't that 'funny' this one really is. Yeah so the guy's animation looks kinda....fruity...but don't let that deter you because it makes sense once you start watching it.

Pick this up, I bought it with REALLY low expectations, and would have to say this is now in my top 3 animes of all time - and i've seen alot of anime :)"