Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai Review

This is review number one hundred and thirty nine. The Winter 2013 lineup is going smoothly and the rest of the Fall 2012 lineup is still airing so I’m back in the Spring 2011 lineup. The anime I’ll be reviewing this time is a twelve episode anime called “Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai” or We, Without Wings. It’s an anime about three dudes and their romantic experiences or something like that. Let’s read on.

Story

The anime is about three different people living their normal lives. A guy who spends his time in a café, a guy that has troubles with his high school life and a guy who looks for a stolen bike at night. These guys all live a life different from the other but they have something in common despite never meeting each other. It’s a secret not all of them knows.

Taking the Pants Off

This anime is definitely interesting. It gave me a massive headache and it completely wasted its potential. This was adapted from a VN (visual novel) and most anime that sprung from the same medium often has a really messy and subpar presentation. It usually has a weak story and even weaker characters. It’s the typical obstacle of a VN adaptation. It’s just pretty damn hard to give the original a fair adaptation. VN is still a video game and cramming all the good stuff in a twelve episode anime with a twenty minute time limit is pretty damn hard. This anime struggled with the same obstacle but the annoying part is that I actually enjoyed the premise of the anime. It just couldn’t get itself together. It’s such a damn shame. It possesses a rather unique and deep story but the anime just couldn’t present it properly. I’ll put this with the rest of the failed VN anime.

The first impressions of the anime are really bad. The main story isn’t presented fully and it focused on a lot of characters. It already had an established status quo and the characters aren’t introduced. So while you’re watching the anime trying to figure out what it’s about, it keeps bombarding you with generic characters with bland personalities and meaningless conversations that ultimately lead to nowhere. I’ll tell you right now that the main story of the anime isn’t fully revealed until the second half. You’ll have to suffer through six episodes about various characters and three different plot points.

The first half of the anime only gives you bits and pieces of the story but it does focus on three different characters. These are different individuals with separate lives but shares one common thing that the anime presented in the second half. Anyways, the first half has three plot points. The first one is about this guy named Shuusuke Chitose. He’s a freelance writer who hangs around a café called “The Alexander”. He has some perverted conversations with its owner and he screw around with the people working there.

When he is not wasting his time in the café, he is out working for a men’s magazine where he writes editorials about various books. There he meets Hiyoko Tamaizumi who is an author going through the motions. He mistaken her for a retired AV actress and let’s say, it was a bad first impression. Things got complicated when Tamaizumi is now working at the café he hangs around in. Can Shuusuke co-exist with a woman he mistaken for a porn star? That’ll be hard to tell when the girl absolutely hates his guts.

The second plot point is about another dude named Hayato Narita. He’s a jack of all trades kind of guy who hangs around the busy night street of the city’s western district. He’s a night person so people usually call him Dora, short for Dracula. He is a very serious guy who acts cold and speaks harshly to people. The everyday people of the night street know him pretty well though. Naturally, that involves some shady people and downright eccentric ones. When he’s not out chatting with the people of the night street, he is out being involved in some gang related activities or he’s just working hard to earn some money.

He soon accepted a job from a high school girl though asking him to retrieve her stolen bike. He declined at first but after meeting her at night, he has grown accustomed to her and decided to help her find the bike.

The third plot point and the most confusing of all is about this high school kid named Takashi Haneda. He’s a mild mannered guy who is friendly to everyone but let’s them take advantage of his kindness. This plot point wasn’t featured as much but it was established that he has a girlfriend. They are not intimate though, they’re just a couple by title. The other thing about Takashi is that he claims that he is not from this world. He is from another world called Gretagard where he is knight called Cyan Blue Hawk.

The individual plot points themselves are pretty easily to follow but the anime seems to hate its viewers. It plunges you straight into an established status quo so you don’t know who are the main characters and the side characters. It also freely shifts the focus from one plot point to another without notice. I cannot imagine watching this anime weekly because there was no structure and no purpose to some of the scenes of the first half. It also has a lot of clutter and nonsensical events thrown into the mix. The problem is that you’re still figuring out what the anime is about but it throws random stuff at you like a DJ narrator speaking through a radio or a bunch of gangsters fighting despite having no relation to the actual story or a lot of characters introduced together with no way for the viewers to determine their purpose. It’s very intimidatingly bad. I have a very bright disposition for new anime but even my patience was tested by this anime. It has overly convoluted scenes, bland and worthless characters and, the most offensive of all, blatant mindless stupid f*cking mind-numbing FAN SERVICE.

Oh boy, this anime butchered its potential by throwing Ecchi scenes and stupid panty shots to compensate the lack of direction in the stories. The annoying part is that at the start of every episode, it features a fluff fan service scene where characters from all three plot points meet and just do perverted things. I thought it was an important moment in the anime but it was actually just stupid fan service. What was the point of opening the anime with bland characters doing naughty things? How about actually strengthening the overall plot or introducing more pieces of the overall picture? Instead, we have panty shots, boob grabbing and other mindless clutter the anime crams in to try and save the story. It doesn’t! It just over complicates an already complicated setup. It also damages the credibility of the story because when you were expecting the anime to get serious, it suddenly gets a loli to expose her panties. This really irritates me. It has blatant fan service that ruins the potential of the anime. This is also one of the reason why VN adaptations are a f*cking nightmare. Most VN are hentai that includes a lot of this sh*t but also has a stable story. The anime tries to capture the VN’s spirit but the end result is shameless muddled adaptation. All we got is a bunch of bland characters flashing their panties. Huzzah!!! That’ll make me tune in more.

Anyways, the three plot points are all unrelated to each other and they even focus on different characters but they share a common thing among them. I won’t spoil it because f*ck you, watch the anime. There is an overall story that completely ties all the plot points together and I actually fell in love with it. It’s a smart premise and one that holds a lot of potential. The three plot points soon merge together and it soon became clear what the story of anime is about. It’s a bit hard but you really need to pay attention to the events of the first half to fully understand the second half. As if all the dots finally connected and you soon understand what a freelance writer, a jack of all trades and a high school student has in common.

Despite the big reveal of the main plot in the second half, there still isn’t much about the anime that I truly enjoyed. It still featured bland characters and heavy Ecchi scenes so this anime truly just squandered its potential. The problem is that even though there was some relief in the anime, there really isn’t much for viewers to emotionally invest in. The messy storytelling coupled by the blatant fan service and the bland characters doesn’t really have a big impact on the audience. The anime had a premise I fell in love with but it just couldn’t execute it perfectly so the result is very bad.

It’s very sad but I have never seen an anime squander its potential so magnificently before. The individual stories were charming and cute but the overall appeal of the anime is weak and forgettable. I can forgive bland characters and weak storytelling but the massive middle finger was overly presenting the Ecchi. I am truly pissed that such a lovely premise is ruined by so many negative elements.

Sight and Sound

Character design is pretty plain and just like their personality, they’re bland. The three main characters all have polished personalities though but the rest of the cast pretty much looks the same. I was particularly confused during the first half where ten or so characters were introduced at the same time with little differences in their facial features.

I do admire the details in certain settings though. The urban setting was nicely established with busy crowds walking all over and tall buildings engulfing the area. The outfits of the characters also nicely match the rowdy urban setting. The night streets were nicely featured as well. The café shop had a nice ambience to it and it looks pretty proper. The fantasy aspect of the anime was nicely captured as well. The outfits that remind me of RPG outfits were presented nicely in the anime. I also admired the different uniforms. It was simple yet nice to look at.

The fan service in the anime is certainly an A plus. They were perverted but they were detailed as well. The constant censor also give sit a nice teasing appeal. It ranges from simple panty shots and boob grabbing but it went overboard on some scenes. There are scenes where girls undress for no reason, there were pointless bikini scenes during the opening half of the anime, and there was even a motor boating scene. The anime was heavy with censors so if you’re in it for the Ecchi then go grab the uncensored version. There is so much perversion in the anime that it’s one of the anime’s strongest aspects. It’s unwanted but it’s strong nonetheless.

The anime’s OP is “Spread Wings” by Aki Misato. It’s a pretty generic song and Aki Misato’s voice was OK but nothing really stands out. The nice romantic message of the song was pretty sweet though. The OP sequence loosely features the story of the anime and it introduces all the characters. It features each and every one of the characters both important and not.

The anime’s ED song is “NEVERLAND” by Miyuki Hashimoto. There are also some special ED songs on some episodes of the anime but the main ED is this one. This is a very catchy song with a nice chorus. Miyuki’s voice was lovely in this song. The song still feels a bit generic though but I personally liked it. The ED sequence features the main girls of the anime being cute and stuff.

Overall Score

5/10 “Wasted good story with heavy handed fan service that muddied the already convoluted anime.”

It’s a damn shame that the anime couldn’t execute its story more effectively but it is what it is. It is an anime with a lot of fan service, weak characters, confusing story and some forced jokes thrown in for good measure. I still love the premise and I bet it was fantastic in the VN. This anime, however, is just bad.