Samurai Harem (Asu no Yoichi)

明日のよいち! Asu no Yoichi!

Rating:  (4/5)
Released: 2009

Genre(s): Seinen, Harem, Ecchi, Romantic, Comedy

Plot:
After learning martial arts in the mountains for 17 years under his father's teachings, Yoichi Karasuma's father orders Yoichi to learn martial arts with the Ikaruga family in the city, as he has nothing left to teach him. The current head of the Ukiha Divine Wind Style Swordplay school of martial arts, Ibuki Ikaruga, and her siblings gradually accept Yoichi as a freeloader at their dojo. In addition to domestic problems, Yoichi deals with Washizu's jealousy of Ibuki and Yoichi's supposed relationship and his school life and eventually the sensual tension becomes a powder keg. Emotion will run high, and the action is damn near constant.
Main Character Descriptions:

Yoichi Karasuma - A high school sophomore who is also a young swordsman and has moved away from his mountain life to live with the Ikarugas in the city. He is a very active person who actively enjoys martial arts with swordsmanship in particular. Due to his early childhood in the mountains with his father, he does not know the current customs in Japan or to act around a girl. He is very honorable, which is shown when he addresses everyone with the dono honorific. However, due to constant misunderstandings, Ibuki, in particular, constantly attacks him under the assumption that he had done something perverted. He is usually seen wearing a Japanese martial arts uniform and a wooden sword. He is a freeloader at Ikaruga Dojo and is a student of the Ukiha Kamikaze Swordplay (Soaring Wind, Divine Wind Style). He attends the private school Yoku-Ryou Gakuen with Ibuki and Ayame, and he's in the same class as Ibuki. He always gets nosebleeds after unintentionally doing or seeing something perverted, usually the latter.

Ibuki Ikaruga - Ibuki is a high school sophomore who becomes a self-appointed head of the Ikaruga family. She is popular at school due to her beauty. She becomes a maternal figure for the Ikaruga family since their parents went overseas at an early age. She secretly likes Yoichi but is the first to attack him for no reason as well as circumstantial reasons, usually when it involves other girls. She is good at studies, sports, and martial arts. She is the Assistant Instructor of Ikaruga Dojo, which teaches Ukiha Kamikaze Swordplay. There are only five students in her dojo due to her violent nature. However, she treats children in a maternal fashion. It is revealed in chapter 19.5 of the manga that her violent nature developed when her parents left Ibuki to look after her siblings at an early age.

Ayame Ikaruga - Ayame is a freshman in high school and Ibuki's younger sister. She has a shy, tsundere personality and is acutely aware of her small breasts when compared to those of her siblings. It took a while for her to like Yoichi romantically and she tries to help him at times while saying it was for no particular reason. She is bad with household chores in general. She dislikes being compared to Ibuki as she is constantly overshadowed.

Chihaya Ikaruga - Chihaya is a 15-year-old, 3rd year junior high school student and the second youngest (and most sexually frank) of the Ikaruga family. She is also a professional manga writer/artist who uses her siblings and Yoichi as a basis for her manga by manipulating events to bring about satisfying resolutions. She also seems the most knowledgeable about relationships out of the sisters as she flirts with Yoichi while poking fun at the others. She is the only person in the Ikaruga family to wear glasses. Her signature hair antennae are reminiscient of Naru Narusegawa's from Love Hina.

Kagome Ikaruga - Kagome is the youngest of the Ikaruga family and an elementary school student. She is clumsy and does the washing up for the rest of the family. She has a shy personality and is very talented in cooking. Her breasts are bigger than Ayame's, so she binds her breasts to hide them.

Ryu Washizu- Washizu (also known as "Wa-san") is Ibuki's classmate and a famous delinquent. At the beginning of the manga, Washizu was depicted as a loner, and the only friend he had was Torigaya. As the manga progressed, Washizu started being friendly to other people around him. Washizu has a crush on Ibuki and sees Yoichi as a perverted pimp who plays around with many girls, including Ibuki. He despises him because of his misunderstanding of the relationship between Yoichi and Ibuki. However, he occasionally teams up with Yoichi to fight a common enemy. Instead of confessing to Ibuki, He accidentally confessed to Ibuki's sister, Ayame, and they started acting as a comic relief of the manga. They usually think together for how they could get close to their respective love interests (Ibuki for Washizu, Yoichi for Ayame). The "Washizu Fantasy Channel" in the manga and "Washizu Vision" in the anime are Washizu's misinterpretations of the situation, usually concerning Ibuki. They can also be Washizu's fantasies.

Keita Torigaya - Torigaya is Washizu's only friend until Washizu started opening himself to other people. He usually acts cocky and arrogant when he is with Washizu and is very fond of children. In the anime, he unusually (and unexplainably) shrinks, which only Washizu notices. In the end of the anime, he unexplainably reveals that he is a girl, which was extremely shocking to Washizu.

Review: I love the characters, and I love the story! It's definately more geared toward the female audience, but there's ALOT of sexual humor that should be enough(when coupled with the awesome samurai fight scenes) to entertain some men too. ^_~ Review by: Leanore