This was the first Japanese Cartoons I ever actually watched for more than a minute (that style of drawing just...freaked me out for so long...) so I have a special relationship with it.
I remember being perversely fascinated by this show which I discovered through wikipedias list of Ecchi media (you know: basically Hentai you can watch in front of your grandma. If you had a really perverse relationship with your grandma).
The premise is pretty cool and they got some interesting stories out of it. They're off the wall zany though they did get pretty formulaic. A lot of it is a very bizarre power dynamic where the boy (Yoshitaka is his name. Isn't that fun?) leches on the (adolescent) girls and frequently gets negative reinforcement from the older one who is still technically his employee and in his debt and has "some of the more difficult (and pointless) task bestowed on her". That was a quote from the Wikipedia article from years ago. It's funnier than any gag in the show.
Izuma is sort of the protagonist I guess. There's nothing really to her but a generic older sister who is sentimental and really prudish. I really didn't feel too sorry for her.
However, I still kept wishing that Yoshitaka would have some kind of redemption during the whole thing. I don't need them to be a couple but there is a lot of room for character development that just never happens.
It's incredible how lewd, bawdy and often downright soft-core pornographic this show got (I mean, no one has sex, but up till that point...) and yet, they seem to want to make it some kind of tear jerker. There is this sweet leitmotif with a descending piano scale for moments they think are poignant. I have no idea if it is meant to be some kind of ironic joke or serious.
Looking back, the plots don't make too much sense. They fall back on contrived contests, Mitsuki's fanclub and a strange obsession with Izumi's body way too often. Seriously, can no one just buy a girly magazine in this universe? Both the crocodile and her father are attracted to Izumi. It's amazing how casual they are about this. Even her mother takes her harassment in good humor.
I stopped watching for a while after the beach episode when Izumi is trying to become an idol (so they do have erotica in this universe...). It just annoyed me and perversely fascinated me and then annoyed me again because it doesn't make much sense...I might make a spoiler review of that episode to explain myself one day.
The whole thing looks pretty good however. The interior design of the mansion and the locations they go to are very immersive and although like most Japanese cartoons they cut corners at every turn, you eventually learn to see that as part of its grotesque charm (like the strings of a marionette). The voice acting is also quite incredible from the choleric Izumi, the dog-whistle pitched Mitsuki and the pubescent boy-genius, Yoshitaka. (By genius I mean that he is rich and can sow really well). You just have to sort of run with the idea that he has a libido and that's bad despite the fact that anyone watching is probably someone how admires buxom 14 year olds. Except me though. Totally not me...
I haven't mentioned the bisexual predator that ensures Izumi isn't even safe when she's bathing. This show is very much of its time...
That title sequence gave the impression of such an optimistic, revitalizing show...never mind. The theme song is pretty banging for a Japanese cartoon though.
