First Date Review: Omamori Himari

Vital Statistics Title: Omamori Himari JP Title: おまもりひまり Studio: ZEXCS Director: Shinji Ushiro Based On: Matra Milan's manga of the same name

Release Information Licensor: Crunchyroll Airs: Thursdays Episodes to date: 1

The Story

Some guy sleeps in on his birthday, and some girl who lives next door gets upset and tries to wake him up, but he molests her in his sleep, so she sics her cat on him. Surprise reveal: he's allergic to cats. So of course within the next five minutes he has acquired a cat demon bodyguard, based on some vow the bodyguard's family cooked up when one of the guy's ancestors saves one of hers centuries prior.
 
Turns out the guy is becoming a major target for demons because the charm he got from his grandmother mysteriously wore off, hence the need for said cat demon bodyguard, who also molests him frequently, to the ire of the next door neighbor girl.
 
Sound familiar?

The Review

Disclaimer: Honestly, I didn't go into the show in the best of moods. But it definitely didn't help pick me up.

Omamori Himari is basically Kanokon, but with a cat, and maybe more monsters. And throw in a bit of Spice and Wolf, because Holo seiyuu Ami Koshimizu voices our resident catgirl bodyguard, Himari, with a very similar old-fashioned Oiran flavor to her dialect. But honestly, if you've seen any shounen romantic comedy with a touch of martial arts and/or supernatural in its story, you've seen Omamori Himari.

There is not a single original aspect to the story or characters, and I found myself completely bored. When I got halfway through the first episode I actually thought it was over, it had felt that long. You guys know that I'm usually pretty forgiving and optimistic about shows, but..geh. There was just nothing for me to cling to as a possibility. There was no irony or wink-wink-nudge-nudge in the familiarity, just straight out everything we've seen in every show like this since the '90s.

I will give the animation team credit, however, for doing what they could by incorporating a couple of visual tricks to jazz it up a little bit.
To be honest, it's not like the show's aiming for Shakespeare or anything. But it's neither ironic in its kitsch, nor earnest in its attempts to present something fun and funny. It just kinda...wasn't. As I said earlier, my mood may be affecting my ability to find redeeming qualities here, but I'm squinting as hard as I can, believe me.
 
I suppose if you're someone who genuinely enjoys a lot of the second-tier shounen rom-coms-- Ah! My Buddha, Akikan! (early episodes, at least), Nagasarete Airantou, Kanokon --then you're probably the sort of person who'll be able to enjoy Omari Himari, too. But if you're not...well, you can probably just skip it over entirely.