While walking along the hillside near Kifamura village, waiting for the person who her grandmother sent to fetch her from the bus, Tamaki Kasuga comes across a small, white round object with sticks for limbs - and that talks. It runs off soon after, with Tamaki chasing after it. Soon Tamaki finds herself in a place that 'doesn't feel like the world I came from', where she's attacked by three slime creatures. But a young man comes charging in to save her - Takuma Onizaki, the person her grandmother sent to pick her up... Getting the spring season off to an early start, here - although this episode was aired as a preview, with the series not due to begin properly until April. The series is based on an "otome game" - a visual novel for girls, with a female lead surrounded by bishounen ready to fall at her feet, and so it's no surprise that, by the end of this episode, Tamaki has gathered a harem squad of bodyguards to look after her. You seen, coursing through her is the blood of Princess Tamayori, which makes her of intense interest to failed gods (aka ghosts) and other supernatural beings. Similarly, her bodyguards each have some "strange blood" running through them, meaning they're not technically human - although I doubt that will get in the way of the inevitable feelings of romance and angst. THE GOOD: Visually good, and the supernatural is one of those areas that gets bonus marks for piqueing my curiosity from the start. Typically varied cast of harem members, so should be at least one of them that "appeals" (not talking in the ::swoon:: sense here) to everyone. THE BAD: Harem - and the first two members of it that we meet are almost terminally annoying, at that. Not too much in the way of explanation of what's going on yet, either. I've had a growing interest in visual novels lately, but I'm more interested in ones that focus on story than on the protagonist banging their harem. Not sure which category this will fall into yet - and I also suffer from not being the target audience (a bevvy of bishounen is never really going to float my boat). Some of the ideas are interesting enough, though, even if they're not exactly original, so will queue this up for a few more episodes come the proper start of the Spring season.
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