Hananoka Gakuen is a girl’s boarding school situated in the heart of the city. A good school with achieving students, Hananoka Gakuen is one of the best school’s around. But this year’s spring festival is going to introduce something a little different to the school. In a test to see whether or not the school could function as a co-ed school, a selected class of male students from the countryside Kanenone Gakuen school have been invited to study there for a week. Of course most of the girls studying there aren’t to happy about this, but what can they do?
Takasaki Yuusuke is just one of the guys who will be attending classes at Hananoka this week. A chance encounter at the festival with a cute girl known as Chitose Midori has meant that at least now he knows someone from this strange environment. And while the other girls shun their new male counterparts, Midori still makes an effort to speak to him.
But things aren’t looking to friendly for the boys this week, especially since the perverted Bacchigu and Ichibanboshi seem intent on causing all kinds of mischief. And to make things worse, someone is now stealing the girls’ panties from their rooms at night! If the boys can’t clear their name, then they are going to have to face a lot more hostility than what even they can handle.
It would seem that boys will be boys after all.
This one-shot OVA was released as a promotional DVD for the Green Green erogame. Green Green revolves around the Hananoka Girl’s Academy who suddenly has to accept some students from the male Kanenone Academy as part of a program to test a possible future as a co-ed school. From there on in the story follows the fairly predictable and standard boys versus girls in high school plot. Much of the humour relies on the perverted antics of the boys and the subsequent responses from the girls. The one-shot also throws a little bit of depth to the story by focusing on the possible development of a relationship between Yuusuke and Chitose.
The animation is pretty good for most close-up scenes, but there is a terrible sense of proportion when it comes to drawing the characters from a slight distance. To see what I mean, refer to the boys’ bath scene. Nevertheless, the girls are all cute and the boys come off perverted enough to make the story happen. The colours are bright and vibrant, fitting the tone of the story. The voice acting and musical score for this one-shot is of surprisingly good quality, especially when taking into consideration that this was produced to be released with a game. Come to think of it, the whole package is of surprisingly good quality when one thinks of that.
The story is pretty simple and pretty predictable. It won’t keep you guessing and it probably won’t pull too many laughs. And unfortunately that is all that this title, aimed mainly at boys, aims to deliver. Low on ecchi and low on laughs, Green Green is probably best viewed in conjunction with playing the game. Still it’s not that bad if you have a 30 minutes or so to waste.
(Historical Note: This was written back in October 2004. Thankfully my writing has improved greatly since then.)
Related Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Green_(anime)