Sanrio Boys Series Review: At Least They Tried?

This was always going to be a Sanrio advertisement but did they manage to also make an interesting anime? Let me know what you thought in the comments below.

Review:

The first episode of this anime was quite the surprise. Despite the wafer thin premise which was clearly just a justification to make an anime featuring a range of Sanrio characters and sell merchandise, there seemed to be some genuine effort to craft a story around a group of boys who were struggling against the stereotype that high school boys shouldn’t like Sanrio. There was real potential in this story and the characters. And then it all went very wrong.

I know there are a few people who did enjoy this until the end and really there are some positives to be found. If you happen to like messages about the power of friendship and working with others and you aren’t too picky about overblown friendship dramas, then this actually works quite well. My biggest issue with the story though is that these boys are meant to be in high school and the youngest of them turns 16 during the series which logically means the other characters are 17 and 18, and yet they still need a pep-talk about the power of friendship?

It really doesn’t sit well.

Even then, I probably could have rolled with it, except that the main character really unravels. He starts as a typically aimless high school student who reconnects with his love of Sanrio which kind of inspires him to get involved in things again. That is fine and is one of the positives from early in the series. By the final three episodes, however, he’s throwing temper tantrums and whining about how he wants to ‘sparkle’. I’m wondering when he took a blow to the head and how his character deteriorated that much.

The other real problem I had with this anime is that we open the show with the five boys on stage performing a play with a voice over telling us that we’re going to find out how they got there. So by the mid-way point of the series when they are all together and begin working on the play, there’s nothing left to be surprising. Even the fall-out between the boys as a last hurrah final tension isn’t something you can take seriously because we already know they end up on the stage together happy as can be.

Again, if you love Sanrio characters, if you happen to really like stories focusing on the importance of friendship, or even if you just like the five main character designs and want to switch off for awhile, there’s probably some fun to be had with this show. For me, by the end, I was mostly over it and wasn’t really enjoying the viewing experience. That doesn’t make it an anime to avoid, but it isn’t one I would personally recommend and nor do I intent to ever watch it again.

Episode Reviews:

• Episode 12: If You Want Them To Be Six, Make Them Six
• Episode 11: Kouta Vs His Own Feelings of Inadequacy
• Episode 10: This Has Run Out Of Steam Half-Way Up The Mountain
• Episode 9: And The Boys Go To The Beach
• Episode 8: He Wants To Sparkle Now
• Episode 7: And We All Went To Puroland
• Episode 6: We’re Finally Sanrio Boys
• Episode 5: Seeking An Age Appropriate Plot
• Episode 4: If The Boys Had Been In Middle-School, This Story-line Might Have Worked.
• Episode 3: Angry Sister Character Needs To Disappear
• Episode 2: No Doubt Who This Is Targeting
• Episode 1: So Cute Boys Do Cute Things?

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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