Review: A Bridge to the Starry Skies - Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi

The first anime I watched for my Anime A to Z challenge was labeled as A Bridge to the Starry Skies - Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi on CrunchyRoll.  Now, normally, I call things by their Japanese name, so this one should have technically be an H anime, but since I'm using primarily CrunchyRoll, I figured I will just go by how they label them.   I hadn't really done any research about this one prior to watching, certain animes are easy to read by their cover.

Color-coded heroines, because remembering names is overrated.

Right off the bat, it's easy to see that this is going to be a harem anime, and given the coloring and whatnot, a more lighthearted, comedy based one.  A-okay with me, I do enjoy the occasional stereotypical harem/romance anime.  First thing I noticed was how much resemblance it shared with another certain harem anime with color-coded heroines...

Shuffle, for those that don't know.

So, for first episode plot, we have a young man named Kazuma, whom moves to the country-side with his sickly younger brother.  One sentence in, and we already have the plot of quite a few other animes, but I digress.  Kazuma finds himself lost and winds up running into a girl named Ui.   She offers to show him the way and soon enough we find our hero slipping on a rock and falling face-first into...her face.  Didn't see that one coming, whatsoever. (I will never understand the physics that cause so many people to fall on each other and wind up kissing so often in the anime world, but maybe that's just me) So they share an accidental kiss, which winds up being witnessed by the resident tsundere, Ui's friend Hinata.  Being the resident tsundere, Hinata of course flips shit at Kazuma for molesting (okay, not her words, but still) his friend and from then on makes sure to keep herself between them as much as possible. 

Captain Tsundere, on duty!

Not impressed?  That's okay, to be honest, neither was I.  The entire episode was full of trope after trope, and didn't really have a single ounce of originality.  The rest of the show follows about the same path, without much deviation from other harem plots.  So, why did I like it?   I kind of don't know, myself.   I don't particularly find its lack of originality to be off putting, not entirely, at least.  There's something nice about having a bit of familiarity here and there, in between all of the more cutting-edge animes.  Would I watch it again?  Probably not.   But I do think it's worth a watch, if you need a break from some of the more serious shows out there.  I think of shows like these (also moe shows) as a palette cleanser.  It's not meant to outshine the main dish, but it does help you prepare for other flavors to come. 

Breakdown:

Plot:  2.5/5

Let's be honest, it's campy.  It's cliched.  It's the same as just about every other harem anime out there.  Depending on what you like (and what you have seen before this), it could be horrible or it could be great.  For me, having seen many of the same, it's mediocre, at best.   It could have been decent, if they had made some sort of effort to deviate away from the stereotypical (at least add a little more feels/drama, similar to how Shuffle went about it), but it seems they completely dropped the ball there. 

Characters:  3/5

I liked most of the characters.  They were likable.  But I felt that there was really no character development in many of them, and the few that did open up a bit kinda got shafted in the end.  None of the characters really stuck out in terms of originality.  The main character is your typical harem lead.  We have a tsundere (possibly two, if you count Koyori's tsundere side, rather than her genki girl side), a ditzy girl who eats a lot, a shy girl, a sickly character, etc.  Pretty much, all of the usual tropes.  While they were likable characters, most were very bland.  Their backstories were cliched, and the lack of character development left me feeling not so attached to any of them.  (Although, I will admit that I did like Hinata quite a bit, as the story went along.)

I'll admit that this scene in the opening had me hoping she was the yandere type.

Visual:  4/5

I really enjoyed the art style for this.  It wasn't terribly original, but it the vibrant colors and cute character designs did catch my eye.  The animation wasn't always the best, and some of the facial expressions did wind up a bit derpy here and there, but the environments/atmosphere were usually on point. 

Audio:  4/5

This one is a bit hard to judge completely, since it's been awhile since I've watched it.  But I do remember enjoying the voice acting as it didn't feel overdone most of the time.  The voices fit the characters well, and they did well during some of the more emotional moments of the show.  The opening and ending themes were good, but a bit forgettable.  And to be honest, I can't remember a lot about the music throughout the show, but I do remember it fitting very well in some key places, so I will go out on a limb and give the audio a pretty decent score from what I can remember.

Overall rating: 3/5

If you're looking for originality, look elsewhere.  If you're looking for a mostly lighthearted comedy/harem/romance, go for it.  It's worth a watch if you have time and want something mildly amusing.

I'll just leave this here.