madeline39 - 2013-05-22 03:34:45

Hatsukoi Limited was good but it was not great. I would say it's worth mentioning but in all honesty, there are other anime that I would recommend over Hatsukoi Limited. When I saw the first episode, I immediately compared this anime to Amagami SS and I can see that many other people have done the same. I will have to agree with everybody and say that Amagami SS is better than Hatsukoi Limited. That doesn't mean that Hatsukoi Limited was not a good anime. I just felt that there was room for improvement. Let's start with the negatives and we'll work our way to the positives because despite having some bad points, this anime is worth it for me to leave you, the reader, with a positive impression of it in the end.Negatives:I felt the storyline was very typical. Much more typical than other romance anime. What I found unique was that each character had her own story and in the end, it all tied together. Everybody's story tied together; however, I felt that the point of the anime started to stray off it's path and onto a different path. When the anime starts off, i felt that I was going to enjoy it because I get to learn about each character, go through their lives, their struggles, the love. However, towards the end of the anime, or about 2/3rds through, I felt that the anime started to focus more on one couple. Not only did it start to focus on this couple more but it was the most typical of the couple. You had the school's prettiest girl who starts off as shallow with a boy that constantly tease her. Both seem to hate each other but the tables are turned towards the end. I'm not going to even consider this a spoiler because it's extremely obvious and very predicting. I was quite disappointed that the anime started to focus on this couple towards the end rather than to stick to a broad focus on all the characters. Speaking of the characters, this is one of the anime that I've watched that had quite a handful of characters. This isn't a bad thing and I actually liked it; however, I was left disappointed with the character development. I felt that the anime rushed through some of the characters and spent more time with others. The anime made it clear that these people were the main characters, but then next episode it seems to just drop that character and move onto another. I wanted to know more about girl A or I wanted to know about the past of girl b. One girl that showed up quite a few times didn't even get a storyline nor a sweetheart. In fact, they introduced her as the older sister as one of the other main girls but they didn't even bother mentioning her name. They probably did mention it, but I don't remember it because they hardly mentioned her yet she showed up quite a few times and even interacted with all the characters. The creators put her on the cover with all the main girls, they put her in the opening, the closing, yet me as the viewer don't even get to know anything about her? What's up with that? One of the boy characters seemed to also have an interesting past yet they explained nothing of his past. All you know is that he is feared, he gets in a lot of fights, and he wins a lot of fights. However, I want to know why he gets in these fights, why is he like this, why do people want to beat him up, why is he undefeated? None of those questions were answered, he simply showed up as someone who is scary, can fight, and loves one of the girls. In one of the scenes towards the second half of the whole anime, one of the girls go "you're fast right?!" and she makes him run. I thought "why is he fast and how did you know he was fast?" Again, the question was left unanswered. One last negative was that one of the girl was shown as to having a boyfriend already; however, she did not start with the boy. The anime eventually explained how they met up but I felt that their story was the most rush as all this happens in approximately 1 episode. I want to know more, I want to know more of this girl's past and this boy's past. The character development was probably one of the worst aspect to this anime. I felt so empty from some of the characters. Positives:Despite some of the negatives, I felt that it did not really hinder the overall enjoyment of the anime. The stories were cute and very sweet despite being quite typical. One of the first story you are introduced to is a straight up copy of Beauty and the Beast. The title of the episode is even called Beauty and the Beast. However, despite being a story we all heard before, the way the creators tackled it was cute and very funny. I enjoyed the large amount of characters and I'm glad they all had their own story and their own love interest. Some of the stories were much more unique than others and that's okay since the anime is composed of a bunch of short stories. One of my favorite aspect to the anime is that in the end, everyone's story ties together. Despite having some predictable scenes, it was still very cute and got me smiling when the scene came. EXAMPLE: Sure, you can watch an anime and say "they're going to kiss" but when the scene actually happens I can't help but still smiling due to how the creators really tackled it in Hatsukoi Limited. Each character is drawn very well and I just absolutely love the art style. It resembles the art style of Amagami SS which I think gives a very mature and real-life atmosphere to the anime. The art style didn't really exaggerate all the love in the air of the anime which really made everything so much sweeter.Overall, I give this anime an 8 out of 10. It would have gotten a 9 if the characters were further developed and the stories kept going but I felt that some stories were just too short and some were just too rushed. I would still recommend this anime to all your romance anime lovers but if you haven't seen Amagami SS then watch Hatsukoi Limited first, then watch Amagami SS. I would definitely rewatch Hatsukoi Limited but I probably wouldn't watch it more than twice.