Nice episode. It’s a good thing to see that the creators are delving into the past of the characters early in the series, especially if the series is only going to take up 13 episodes. This episode was all about the friendship between Canaan and Maria, with nice effects now that Maria has learned the darker side around Canaan, and having her actually see her killing someone.

It’s good that this series knows how to keep this series diverse. The first half of this episode was much lighter than the previous episode, the second was much darker. Since this is a series that seems to be going for the entertainment level, it’s good to see that this episode kept me thoroughly entertained this way.

I’m interested to see whether this series can pull off a good and well-rounded storyline this way. After the first episode, it’s definitely shown that it’s capable of directing great action scenes, but there are many potential pitfalls. Like, this series having blown most of its budget on just that episode. I can also see Minoru growing on my nerves if he doesn’t get some development or background. Right now, I’m the most curious for Alphard’s background: there’s too much mystery around her right now for her to be a successful villain.
Rating: * (Good)

For this review, I want you to try something. First, visit Yoiko’s MAL page and read the description. Then, take a look at the OP:

While this is also a good opportunity for me to test whether or not embedded Youtube videos work on this site, I now want you to imagine what kind of series this is going to be. It sounds like a heart-warming slice of life series in the same veins of Mokke, doesn’t it? A nice and quiet series about a small child who lives in a grown-up body; an innocent tale of growing up. That’s what I thought, at least.

So yeah… where to start?

Yoiko is a series with twenty episodes of 10 minutes. Every single episode starts with a nude shower scene and a full close-up of Fuuka’s boobs. Every single episode ends with Fuuka’s brother making a masturbation joke. The rest of the series isn’t any different: chockful of fanservice jokes, boob-shots, masturbation jokes and arousal jokes. This series has no sense of shame, and the worst thing is that this is supposed to be a series about elementary schoolers. Time and time again you see grown adults of all sorts of ages getting horny over a 9-year-old who happens to have the body of an 19-year-old.

However, this isn’t the case with most fanservice shows, where I can just label it as crap and get it over with, like To Love-Ru and Kanokon. Yoiko definitely has its merits. For one, I laughed like crazy during a fair number of the episodes. A lot of the series’ humour comes from seeing what borderline of taste the creators are going to break this time, and that results into a number of absolutely hilarious situations and a fair number of actually good sex-jokes.

The other source of humour in this series comes simply from watching elementary schoolers and their usual antics. Despite the huge amounts of fanservice and the creators who keep dancing on your grave because you became aroused by a 9-year-old, this series can boast a charming cast of typical kids and their simple minds. While there are a few stereotypes here and there (like the horny teacher, et cetera), the cast somehow works.

Part of the reason of why the characters are enjoyable is the cast of voice-actors, who do a terrific job of bringing the cast alive. Especially the above-mentioned horny teacher is greatly voiced, but the rest of the cast also sounds awesome, and really like their age.

Granted, this isn’t the best comedy out there; there are a number of dull episodes in which the humour doesn’t work as well as it should have, especially in the second half of the series. Still, this series never gets too dull to just start dropping. There also isn’t really an ending. The show just stops after 20 episodes, without really concluding anything (not that there was anything that needs conclusion, though; this series did avoid going down the emo road in its final few episodes). This series does well in its characterization, but in terms of character-development it doesn’t go much beyond the introductions of the different characters.

What baffles me the most though is that this series was directed by Omori Takahiro, a powerhouse of a director who also was behind awesome series as Baccano, Jigoku Shoujo, Natsume Yuujinchou and Fancy Lala. I guess the best thing this series can be compared with is if you take Fancy Lala, remove the idol bit and any sort of serious storyline and symbolism, let the lead female in her adult body 100% of the time, remove every single border of taste and add in lots and lots of boobs. And then some more.