bettye54 - 2017-07-07 20:35:54

Checked for spoilers because I will be explaining events within the manga in a sort of comparison review to try to explain what exactly was attempted here in this comedy spoof and why it pisses me off so much, so if you care, go read the manga first then come back. I wont spoil anything major, just general plot stuff. No major character deaths will be spoiled or anything like that.

Litchi Hikari Club is a manga I’m a big fan of. It’s an amazing psychological horror and it draws me in as much as it pushes me out and perturbs (and even disgusts, at times) me. I’ve read it multiple times because to me, the art and characters are captivating. This comedy series is almost nothing like it, and sort of takes a big fat shit on the entire mood and idea of the original subject matter, really.

Litchi DE Hikari Club is more akin to someone trying to comedically summarize the series in 50 words or less to their friend, really. Character personalities are squashed down and altered in a really almost disturbing way? Having read the original manga and seeing some of these character’s behaviors and personalities, the way they are twisted into comedic archetypes and are really nothing more than a cast of punchlines is just kind of upsetting in its own way. It’s very bizarre to see something try and portray these characters in this way and I don’t understand why it happened at all.

The basic plot of the original subject matter is that these kids created a club with the goal of making a robot to abduct cute girls. The cast you see are all members of the club, the robot they created (Lychee), and the girl they successfully kidnapped. Needless to say the original subject matter is much darker, and when there is an intruder in their base horrible things are done to them.

This adaptation removes every part of what made the manga interesting and captivating, leaving the viewer with a bare bones yet bizarre comedy series. The characters and the world they are in as well as the situations depicted remain just accurate enough that anyone unfamiliar with the manga would be left confused as to why this specific and odd cast was thought up for such a bland comedy series, so it’s a very bizarre experience in general.

The manga contains kidnapping and molestation, mutilation, murder, gore, cannibalism, depiction of underage sexuality, religious themes, domestic abuse, and questioning sentience and humanity as a whole, and the characters depicted were created as victims of these topics. So what you have here is a setting and a cast of damaged and disturbed characters with comedic, campy dialogue.

The manga is much more than just some sort of “intruder of the week” skits, and this series seems like something that would not be enjoyed by fans of the manga nor people who had never heard of the Lychee Light Club. I’d much rather prefer that this had never been made, and in my opinion the only positive affect it had was perhaps pulling more attention to the original manga and creating a few more fans, but I have a feeling very few people out there are fans of this. It is a waste of time. However, it is what introduced me to the original manga, which is now one of my favorite psychological horrors, so at least it sort of works as an advertisement.

If you’re a comedy fan, you wont like this, nor the original manga. If you’re a psychological horror fan, you won’t like this, but maybe check out the Litchi Hikari Club manga.

mfay - 2014-07-15 18:17:18

(Sorry but for some reason the formatting in my review is mucking up. It is a bit uneven at times and I will be sure to fix that at some point and in my later reviews)

Gutten Morgen! Every now and again you come across an anime that makes you question why you even watch anime in the first place. Sometimes this is a good thing and you come across a new answer like me when I started watching Neon Genesis Evangelion or Avatar the Last Airbender, other times it is when I watch Litchi DE Hikari Club. Now keep in mind I have not read the base material of the manga (which to be fair according to my research this is supposed to be a comedy spoof but I am basing this solely off the anime) and that may have been what made me consider this to be one of the WORST anime I have ever had the misfortune of watching. 

Story: 4/10

The story wasn't awful, it was mostly a bunch of "slice of life" almost type of setups, like them deciding how to punish a random intruder or them going to the beach. There was no real connecting plot lines and the short three minute episodes didn't allow for much to really happen other than random and nonsensical "funny" moments. 

Animation: 6/10 

For me the best part of this series was the animation. I rather enjoyed the way it was animated and for what it was "trying" to do it at least had the look to back it up. Creepy and kinda funny to look at.

Sound: 1/10

The music/background noises were completely forgettable, most of the time I notice when there is an awesome opening song/closing song or even a notable piece of music in the middle, such as with Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood's first opening or Neon Genesis Evangelion's opening.

However Litchi DE Hikari Club failed to even make an effort on this front. There were no sounds during the show other than the annoying dribble that constantly spurted from the characters mouths. Along with a very mediocre opening and ending that bears not even a passing mention on the street.

Characters: 1/10

I apologize for going back to NGE so often but when your characters have less characterization than Rin from that series you've got an issue. I understand that eight three minute episodes isn't a lot to do with anything but you could have given them a simple character trait like they're a compulsive liar or they love ramen. Something. Instead we got a fleet of carbon copy characters with one character whose main trait is she is nicer/eviler (it's complicated) than everyone else. In short was very unimpressed with this show's even barely memorable characters.

Enjoyment: 1/10

I really don't know what kept me going other than I've watched an episode of bad anime before and I at least watch 20-24 minutes of an anime before I call it quits. More of it was a "lets see if I can't get through this" and how many drinks it would take for me to get through this (just kidding never mix bad anime and alcohol).

Overall: 1/10

This was bad, although I could see some types of people potentially liking this sort of thing, I would never ever recommend it to another human being. I would suggest watching something, really anything, else other than this terrible piece of programming.