Tenshi na Konamaiki

Tenshi na Konamaiki does a good job capturing your interest in the beginning. It has a solid cast of characters with excellent voice acting who deliver well executed comedy for the most part. However, becauseTnK runs for so many episodes, I found it becoming repetitive, which lessened my interest, until the ultimately disappointing series finale. TnKused the premise of “the main character is a boy stuck in a woman’s body” for Megumi to coerce and manipulate others, and more often than not it was quite entertaining and funny. The other characters consist of the basic personalities of all possible characters. You have your delinquent, cool acting samurai, a completely normal character, and your pervert. Each shows a different form of love toward Megumi, covering the entire gamut of possible relationship angles. The seiyuu do a magnificent job with each character especially Hayashibara Megumi as Megumi him/herself.

The problem with Tenshi na Konamaiki is that it can’t handle balancing its plot and comedy. The first half does a nice job of introducing the characters, showing how Megumi is slowly accepting him/herself as a female while keeping the scenes comical. This builds up very nicely to about half way into the series, and then it all falls apart. The plot stagnates for too many episodes leaving nothing but comedy to keep the viewer’s interest. In trying to move the plot along, the only plot deviceTnK relies on is a constant barrage of fights with delinquents, bodyguards, or whoever. It gets tiresome when, for several episodes in a row, all they do is fight these kinds of people just to prove some characters are manly men. As a result, the dramatic points of the series lose their effect. It also doesn’t help that the ending for the series is rushed as the whole plot is resolved in less than two minutes.

The art doesn’t compare well to other anime in 2002 and it could turn off some viewers in that regard, but luckily, around halfway through the series it improves. It gets crisper, more defined, and generally more attractive. It’s not a huge turn around from the quality of the first half but it does get noticeably better.

Tenshi na Konamaiki is a very good comedy and it contains characters that are believable thanks to their seiyuu. Unfortunately, TnK lost its control over the management of comedy and plot, and that resulted in a sloppy second half and a bad finish. This series has its pros and cons, but unless you’re willing to plow through 50 episodes, you might not like this anime.