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Review: Tsugumomo E.01-02

By Dustin Cabeal

Holy shit, they still make anime like this? My god is this shit dated. The gist is that a teenage boy with no special qualities has a magical elf looking girl show up in his life. At one point she was the silk tie for the boy’s mother’s kimono. His love for his mother became infused into it and brought her to life… which is kind of fucked up when you think about it. Mostly because she’s always nude, wants to sleep with together and is the physical embodiment of HIS FEELINGS FOR HIS MOTHER!!!

That and the animation is super dated. I had to keep checking that this was a new anime and not something that I stumbled upon on accident that only had two episodes, but everywhere I looked… it said it was new. The designs are early 90s at best, which makes sense, it is based off an older manga. Which also suddenly makes the story make sense as well.

This 100% the formula that the 90s and early 2000s used for all their harem, ecchi comedies. On the jokes are either sexual or food related, and of course, every girl wants the dude. In fact, in the first two episodes, evil spirits possess objects and attack him because of the feelings two people have for him. One is apparently a dude wearing a wig to look like a girl. The other is his childhood friend and the class rep that beats him daily for being a shitty student. Yes, I can see why all the girls and apparently guys want him.

I have to go back to the art which is in bad form for a review, but it just struck me that while this show is incredibly dated looking, it actually has a budget for CG. That’s right… there’s fucking CG to this thing, at least in the second episode in the library, even if it’s only for a moment. There’s staying true to the source material, and then there’s handcuffing yourself to it. The animation could have done with some updated designs or at the very least better coloring, so it didn’t look so flat, in the end, it just looks bad considering its 2017.

Again, it’s hard to believe that they’re still making anime based off of older source material. It must have been super popular originally, or someone just needed something to fill a time slot, and this was good enough. If you’re looking for retro style anime to remind you of the good old days of Toonami, then you might like this, but otherwise, you’re better off skipping this predictable, dated mess of a show.

Score: 2/5

Tsugumomo E.01-02