Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend Flat Series Review

Saekano is an interesting show, despite it being overly sexualized. It has a lot of fan service and a lot of ecchi elements, but that doesn’t stop the story from being a good and amusing one. The thing I appreciate about the show the most is the fact that it goes out of its way to mock the otaku culture and some of its most common stereotypes. Considering that the anime itself revolves around some really dedicated otaku, this is a very bold move. But that is exactly what makes Saekano a very peculiar and unique story.

Let’s get started with our review of the anime series Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata Flat. I hope you enjoy it! 🙂

Synopsis

The story revolves around Tomoya Aki-kun, a high school boy who is famous throughout the school for being an otaku. The interesting thing about him, though, is the fact that he doesn’t only watch anime, play games, and read manga and light novels, but also wants to make his own game. However, to make the game of his dreams he needs the help of the other two ‘celebrities’ of his high school: Spencer Sawamura Eriri and Kasumigaoka Utaha. The two are famous at their school for being beauties, but in reality, both of them are simply otaku! Eriri’s pen name is Kashiwagi Eri, and she writes erotic doujinshi (in other words, fanfic), while Utaha is famous as Kasumi Utako, a best-selling light novel author. Last, he needed a girl named Kato Megumi to join his circle. Kato is your average girl, with almost no presence. She is not an otaku, a gamer, nor a fan of all the above-mentioned things in any way. Nonetheless, Tomoya saw her one day on the top of the hill and decided to make her the heroine of his game.

While the first season of the anime was concentrated on Tomoya trying to get the members get together and make the plan for the game, the second season is mostly centered on the making of the game and all the things that follow the Winter Comiket.

Plot & Story

I have already mentioned in my episodic reviews that Saekano is your regular harem anime, with all the fan service that the modern anime industry is overflowing with. But the second season of Saekano was a bit different. From around the middle of the series, there was practically no fan service, just a couple of jokes here and there. The series became a bit more serious, and with the turn of events, harem/ecchi didn’t really have space in the show anymore. While we got to see a lot of character development, I am very inclined to say that our main character, Tomoya Aki-kun was very boring. He is a simpleton, he doesn’t want to force the members of his circle to push themselves a bit over their boundaries, and this is exactly why I wasn’t surprised to see Eriri and Utaha choosing Akane over Tomoya. I definitely would have done exactly the same.

This season also showed us the relationships Tomoya had with all of the three girls. I don’t know who is your favorite character, but for me, it’s #teamEriri all the way.

Art & Music

I will be honest here. The music of the show didn’t stick with me. After listening to it on YouTube, again and again, I must admit that I’m still not a fan. It does fit the show very well, but it is not something that I’d go out of my way to get and listen to occasionally.

As for the voice acting, even though some of the voice actors weren’t that famous, I’m pretty amazed at the great job they did. But on the other hand, we have Tomoya, whose voice actor is one of the most beloved ones these days, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka. The guy has some splendid voice acting examples: Kirito from Sword Art Online, Sora from No Game No Life, Bell Cranel from Danmachi, etc.

Talking about the art though… This part of the anime was amazing. Nothing was spared. Well, let’s be honest, with the anime itself being about creators, authors, and artists, this was a given. Especially Eriri’s art was very beautiful.

Themes & Trivia

Even though the show is, as already mentioned a couple of times, your typical fan service, ecchi, and harem, there were some things that stood out. Like the realistic ending of the second season. Reality is cruel, and so was the ending. It wasn’t a happy ending, it wasn’t a sad one either though. But it was bittersweet. That’s how life works. Dreams don’t always come true, life isn’t always fun and games. And that is exactly what was shown in Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata Flat, something I am grateful to the producers for.

Making Games is not All Fun

Plus:

The realistic ending.
The character development.
The art of the show in general.
How friends can forgive each other no matter what.

Minus:

The realistic ending.
Overly sexualized show.
The MC that didn’t get pretty much any development and was as boring as it gets.
OP/ED themes as well as the OST.

As you might have noticed I included ‘The realistic ending’ both in pros and cons. While the realistic ending is very touching, this is still an anime, and at that a harem one. Most of the audience is expecting to see a happy ending with the MC being surrounded by all of the cute girls. So it’s both a plus and a minus for the show. Half of the audience is going to definitely hate this kind of an ending, while the other half will love it.

At the end of the day, the anime is over, and there are not many chances of getting a third season. But either way, I think it was a nice watch. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope that you have enjoyed the review as well. Let’s meet again someday! ^_^