Series Review – Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji
So, did the prince manage to tame the wolf girl, or was it the other way around?
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There was some worry about this show in the preview, and it was somewhat dispelled in the first episode when Kara and I did the FI. But from there, Ookami Shoujo really kept on the right path, and turned into a show that I really liked throughout the season. |
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I meant to do more with this anime over the past season, but before I knew it, it’s already over OTL. On the plus side though, I have Highway here again to talk about this show and where it went over the season. |
Pitch-Perfect Partnership
Highway// The real key to this show working, I think, was the way that they kept Erika and Kyouya in balance. It was a narrow path that they walked, with peril on either side, but they stayed on it without fail. What am I talking about? Well, they needed to make both of the characters believable, in that they needed to be interested in the other, without making it be slavish devotion, in either direction, for Erika. And they really succeeded. The defining characteristic of Kyouya, throughout the show, was that he was a good person at heart. Even if he said that he could get as many girls as he wanted, he never ever tried that. He rebuffed all the advances from other girls throughout, even when Kamiya was trying to corrupt him. Heck, he even turned Kamiya away from his womanizing, non-committal ways.
And while Kyouya was never very outwardly affectionate to Erika, he made the right move again and again, helping her, encouraging her, protecting her, and eventually openly being in love with her, although still in his reserved way. And he would never just shut her down. When she wanted to give him some chocolate for Valentines Day, he did say he didn’t like candy, but gave her a way to give him something. He went on dates that he didn’t really want to, and even if he was a bit of a wet blanket, he tried. And the change that he went through was obvious to those who knew him, like Takeru, his mom, and his sister, with everyone realizing that Erika was a good influence on him.
But it wasn’t all one-sided in the good writing department, because Erika had a lot of good balance as well. Yes, she fell in love with Kyouya while he was still saying she was just a dog to him, and she chased him a bit. But she also realized that she should try to do something different, and continually wouldn’t let Kyouya go too far. That’s where this should could have really gone wrong, if Erika took too much crap from Kyouya, but she wouldn’t. Even if her image was on the line early, she wouldn’t let that completely override her pride. She walked away from him more than once, and that helped him realize what his feelings were and what she deserved from him. And while most of the first half of the show was Kyouya covering for Erika, that turned in the second half, where Erika covered for Kyouya more, even defending him against his sister. Yes, Erika was a little stuck on things she got from Kyouya, but she always made it clear that she treasured them because they were from him, and symbols of his affection, not because they were shiny.
Becoming More Genuine
Kara// Kyouya and Erika both started off as terrible people. …Or not “terrible” but at least a bit worse off than they were at the end. But it was nice seeing them both change over the course of the anime’s run. Erika still kind of lied, but some of it was to benefit Kyouya. Though I guess the bigger change was her falling in love, which subsequently led to her caring about another person. Not the kind of social standing concern like “what does Aki or Marin think of me” that led to her lies, but she showed concern about Kyouya’s well being a lot. She was more than likely capable of these actions even before Kyouya (and she was kind to Yuu without Kyouya even really being involved), but she showed it more often with Kyouya around. Or overall, this is a change from her introduction in the first episode. Erika also adapted to Kyouya’s sadistic-ness along the way too, by learning not to take his sudden kindness too seriously at times or knowing when he was just putting on a front. This wasn’t a huge thing in the long run probably, but it’s nice to see some character growth. The bigger leap was Kyouya, in trying to cooperate with Erika, but Highway covered that pretty efficiently.
As for Erika’s friends, they turned out to be not so terrible people. Okay, maybe they were still a bit shallow, but they never exactly going out of their way to put down Erika or anything. Aki even brought Erika a souvenir from her summer trip. Maybe that doesn’t mean much overall, but they eventually stopped doubting Erika about her relationship with Kyouya and things seemed to only improve from there. Their friendship was also still pretty shallow, but they seemed to get along. There was a bit of a competition regarding a few things, like what their boyfriends are doing, but again, it was friendly. Maybe it’s not the best friendship, but girls can have friendships like this (guys too, probably, I wouldn’t know). Erika seemed happy enough on where she was (regarding her friends at least), and like when she noticed how happy Aki and Marin look when they’re talking about their relationships, she valued their opinions and outlooks on things. So maybe this isn’t such a bad relationship after all. Erika just needed to be a tiny bit more genuine with them. …Or at least get the boyfriend thing out of the way so she could relate to them a tiny bit more. Highway also mentioned something while I was coordinating this post with him about how Aki and Marin might have been posturing a bit like Erika was. Maybe nothing as outlandish as Erika, but their behaviour before everything in the series seemed to become more genuine might have just been them just acting like that to seem better off. The plot didn’t quite get to the point in the manga where it introduced Marin’s boyfriend, but Erika’s friends aren’t as bad as they first seemed. I always thought that was an interesting plot direction. Especially since just in the summer, we had Ao Haru Ride, which had a kind of similar situation with the heroine starting off with not so great friends, and that plot went in a completely different direction regarding that concept.
This was a different kind of shoujo, I think. It certainly wasn’t that teasing “Will they ever get together?” type of show, and it wasn’t a super rabu-rabu couple. Instead, it was two people who were, beneath it all, good people despite some fairly significant flaws that would have probably pushed away others. And when they were finally getting together, it was the stubbornness of both of them that made them such a solid couple, because it took them so long to get past their initial hesitance towards each other. And while there’s a lot of shoujo that us, the audience are like “What does he / she see in her / him?” because they played both characters so well throughout, there was never that question. You could see the possibility of them getting together from the very beginning, and when they started to, you could see the inevitability, and the rightness of it. I loved the sweetness and cuteness of Ao Haru Ride, but Ookami Shoujo, with its great characters and relentless progress, ending up with a very deserving couple who learned how to love each other more, was a very satisfying show, and really gave a different feel that we rarely see in shoujo anime.
I’m echoing a little bit of what Highway said here, but after so many “will they won’t they (but of course they will)” shoujo out there, that this was pretty new and nice to see. They had the usual cliches of having Erika and Kyouya break up in the middle (or the even bigger shoujo cliche of having a third party try to break them up), but this seemed necessary in this case, given the way the two characters were. Erika probably needed to (kind of) date a nice guy for her to realize that she really was a do-M in love with Kyouya. At first she was with Kyouya out of convenience, but after there were other options, her choice of Kyouya was a conscious decision. As for Kyouya… well, he wasn’t easily swayed by anyone, let alone Kamiya, but it was nice watching his dedication towards Erika grow. Her persistence towards him really made the two work well together. So long story short, it was nice to see things develop without the plot ever getting too “stuck” in one place regarding Erika and Kyouya’s relationship.
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
I didn’t read through the full post because this series is on my backlog (don’t want to be spoiled) as I enjoyed the first couple of episodes.
Good to know that you two liked it, I might get around to it soon! Been on a marathoning session recently (2 summer, 1 fall, and 1 2014 winter show).
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
You should definitely move it up on your list! This was my favorite show of the fall season (it was #5 in my year end APR vote, and ahead of Yuuki Yuuna in that listing), and on top of that it was a great love story, in a different vein than we usually think of love stories. It really feels like one where the people involved get what they deserve, and that’s good.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
On episode 3! Poor Erika , latching onto someone who shows the slightest bit of interest (actually reminds me of a large portion of males who do the same) =P
Theire relationship reminds me a little of Misaki and Takumi’s relationship Kaichou wa Maid-sama!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I’ve watched about 10 episodes of Kaichou wa Maid-sama, and I’d think you’re kind of right with that. There’s a lot more “Erika brings it on herself” tho, and a lot less “Kyouya is a schemer”.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Couldn’t marathon it, but watching it at a slower pace. About halfway through. Erika’s been making me half-cringe half-you go girl. I could never put myself in her shoes. That’s just too much M.
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
Yeah, they done everything just fine. As Highway said, the balance was very important, and they nailed it beautifully.
I remember talking on the FI post about how Erika was an awful person, and seeing this change was amazing. By the third episode, she was a better person already, but she was awesome defending Kyouya from his sister by the end. Kyouya had a turn for the better too, but he didn’t change much on the surface.
I was expecting Erika to ditch her friends at some point and find new ones but it would be too much like Ao Haru Ride. And it’s not like these girls were overly oppressive. I mean, they did say mean things about Yuu, but when she befriended him, they never got out of their way to mess their friendship. It wasn’t like when Futaba started talking to Yuuri.
Overall, it was very good, though with the ending, I’m not expecting a second season. And it wasn’t as remarkable as Ao Haru Ride (which I’m waiting soooooo much for a S2), but it was good in it’s own way.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
The lens of proximity had me thinking this was better than Ao Haru Ride, but then the Aoharaido OVA episode came out and I was all “OMG Yuuri is so cuuuuute!” It’s so much better to think of them as just both great shows that I enjoyed watching and would like to see more of, although as you say, the possibility of a second season of Ookami Shoujo seems very remote.
Like Kara mentioned, the though came to me just at one point about Marin and Aki that maybe some of their big talk about their boyfriends was the same thing as Erika’s. Maybe not as much, but they’re all the same age. Why shouldn’t they have some of the same insecurities and exaggerations that Erika does? Don’t pretty much all people have them? Like you, I liked that instead of having to reject them, Aki and Marin kind of came along on Erika’s road to self-improvement and morphed a little into a much more real relationship. I don’t expect either of them to drop everything to save Erika at any point, not like San-chan would, but there’s definitely more respect going around there.
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
I wouldn’t think it, even if I haven’t watched episode 2 of Ao Haru Ride: Unwritten, and rewatched the first one. Ao Haru Ride left a big impression on me, for the beauty in all moments, and the personality in all the characters. Having the shallow duo here didn’t help either.
Yeah, it’s a possibility, but a remote one. All the… er… proof that they showed about their bfs were pretty consistent. And I don’t think all girls have these insecurities. Erika was shown as a specially desparate case.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 163 comments
Ultimately, I dropped this one.
Yes, the guy is a jerk. And no – I don’t think he ever really redeems himself throughout the series. He remains a jerk.
But that wouldn’t be a problem is the girl was more interesting – and she really isn’t. At the end of the day, there’s just not much to admire in her.
So really, it’s just watching a masochist get stepped on repeatedly, and I’m not really into that.