Inu x Boku SS - Review

A teenage girl struggling with her interpersonal skills; a loyal man struggling with his intrapersonal skills. Inu x Boku SS tells of the tale involving these two troubled persons. Over time, it is inevitable that one will change depending on his/her surroundings. The influences that come from peers and others are undoubtedly strong. To be able to thrive in such environments, one must be able to filter these influences and only be changed by those which they feel will benefit them. In the end, it is always others that do the shaping; one cannot merely wish to be transformed and have it happen. Whether these changes are good or bad is a whole different story.

Art (8/10)
Soothing and calming visuals are few and far between. The light colors, the soft lighting, the detailed facial expressions of the characters - all these make for great artwork. Throw in some chibi drawings of the characters during the comedic scenes and the varying art styles are sure to impress viewers. Even the sparkles which are popular (and often overused) in shōjo anime/manga were moderated such that they didn't feel overwhelming. On the shōnen side of things, the handful of battle scenes and transformations were animated smoothly as far as I could tell.

Characters (8/10)
First off, the supporting characters of the series, though unique and interesting, were a bit underdeveloped. However, the extensive character development of the two main characters made up for this. At first, the female protagonist, Shirakiin Ririchiyo, is your typical, sharp-tongued teenage girl who often unintentionally isolates herself from others. But as the series progresses, she slowly opens the door to her heart, accepting the warmth of those around her while trying to control her tongue. On the other hand, the male protagonist, Miketsukami Sōshi, is a self-despising and deceptive man who knows nothing about emotion and feelings. But, similar to Ririchiyo, he too changes drastically throughout the series. What's most heartwarming is that the two, although having totally different personalities, are actually the ones responsible for each other's development. Ririchiyo shows Sōshi the meaning of emotion and feelings while he proves to her that he will be by her side, no matter what, even if it means being verbally abused. Along with the other characters, the two end up transforming each other for the better, resulting in two solid characters.

Sound (8/10)
The strong point of this category is the elite cast of seiyūs that were part of the project. All of them did an excellent job in their respective roles, with no character having an unfitting voice. The OP was quite good as well - a fast-paced song with gradual progression in pitch. The downside of having multiple EDs is that only the good ones will be memorable. However, the ones used in this series were more or less unique so, even though they weren't exactly excellent material, they were somewhat memorable. BGM did its job well, with some of the pieces successfully standing tall on their own during dialogue-less scenes, while others set the mood well.

Story (6/10)
To put it bluntly, for the most part, the story was boring. Save for the first and last few episodes, the pace of one manga chapter per episode caused the story to be dragged out longer than necessary. Furthermore, the anime original fillers were fairly poor in terms of entertainment value. The first couple of episodes were tolerable given that they were used to introduce the characters and the plot. In the last couple of episodes is where the plot actually picks up from the first few episodes. Those two episodes alone would make for an easy 9/10 as they were both interesting and content-filled. However, with more bad than good, the story gets a 6/10 from me.

Overall (7/10)
Having read the manga prior to watching the anime, I can say that this was a faithful adaption with a couple of original episodes added in. I indulged more in the characters than in the story for the most part which, although not necessarily a bad thing, is slightly disappointing. To be honest, I wasn't quite satisfied with Inu x Boku SS. I felt like it could've been better if more chapters were to have been adapted. With that being said, the possibility of a season two, which I will anxiously wait for, is moderately high given the decent popularity of the show and the remaining non-animated source material. The good thing about Inu x Boku SS is that it has both shōjo and shōnen elements so I would recommend it to virtually anyone looking for a light-hearted romantic comedy with interesting characters.