The Wallflower

This title turns the harem genre on its head, with amusing results. Four bishonen men who are freeloading off a middle aged rich women are assigned an impossible task; take her scary,unkempt goth niece and turn her into a lady....or else pay rent. This is from Wantanabe, the famed(or infamous) director of Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemy, and much of his trademark humor is to be found in the Wallflower(though the raunch is dialed down considerably), he also displays some depth by finding humor in the characters, but in a surprisingly sympathetic way, don't get me wrong, there is very little seriousness to be found here, but beneath the madcap silliness, the exaggerated metro sexuality of the boys and ghoulish goth hijinks of the lady in training, there's a respect for the characters that really goes along ways for the series. That being said, while the Wallflower is funny;sometimes riotously so, the humor gets extremely repetitave and many gags that should have been used once or twice get replayed ad nausem. Another detractor is the low-budget animation, which takes some getting used to, especially the excessive use of SD characters. In the end The Wallflower doesn't reach it's full potential, which is a shame, but is still a quirky, funny show that hard not to like.

Grade: B

Reviewed: episodes 1-25(Complete) Format: English Dub, DVD