Reviews in Brief: Sukisyo! by Riho Sawaki and Yuzu Tsutae, Anime

Sukisyo! began as a light novel that was developed into a video game and an anime, and is one of the more delightful things I've run across lately. Just to give you a hint as to the character of the series, the alternate title, Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shōganai!, translates roughly as "I like what I like, so deal with it!"

High-school student Sora Hashiba has been hospitalized after falling out of a fourth-floor window. Fortunately, his injuries were relatively minor, except that his memory of his life before the fall is, at best, patchy. On his return to the dorm, he is awakened in the night by a stranger, who identifies himself as "Ran," addressing him as "Yoru." His childhood friend and classmate, Matsuri, identifies the boy as another childhood friend, Sunao, who is Sora's new roommate. Sora doesn't remember Sunao, doesn't like him, and has no idea who Yoru might be. Things are complicated by the fact that Ran and Yoru are lovers who tend to take over Sora and Sunao's bodies arbitraritly, leading to situations that neither boy really wants to find himself in with the other. The main story line follows Sora's quest to restore his memories and solve the mystery of the alternate personalities inhabiting Sora's and Sunao's bodies. It comes complete with guilty secrets, betrayals, and a mad scientist.

The first part of the series is somewhat episodic, revolving largely around Matsuri's money-making schemes, particularly the "Do-It-All Team," composed of himself, Sora and Sunao, which takes on all sorts of tasks. Valentine's Day turns out to be an especially busy time, as the team finds itself delivering gifts for boys too shy to make their own love confessions. It also gives us a run-down on some of the other relationships in the school, chiefly that between Kai Nanami, the school nurse, and Shinichirou, the math teacher, who live together quite comfortably, and both of whom have some involvement in Sora's past; and Nagase, manager of the chemistry lab and his assistant, Ichikawa, who worships him -- although Nagase seems to be a somewhat shady character with some connection to Prof. Aizawa, the villain.

Oddly enough, I found that the series became really absorbing after about episode 6, when the focus begins to fall more and more on Sora's lost memories and the mysterious Prof. Aizawa. I wasn't really expecting that at all.

There's a thirteenth episode, "Let's All Go to to the Hot Spring," in which the whole crew, including Sei, Ren, and Fuuta (the Chibis, three children associated with Sora, Sunao and Matsuri); Nanami and Shinichirou, Ichikawa and a reformed Nagase; Soushi, Shinichirou's brother; Ayano-chan, older brother to Souchi and Shinicirou and his adopted son, Kano, heads off for an outing. This one is total fluff, and very funny.

As I noted, the story became much more absorbing than I had expected, and if you can accustom yourself to the cotton-candy character designs (yes, Sunao really does have pink hair, while Sora's is blue), it's a lot of fun for a few evenings.

I watched this one as a fansub online. It's licensed by Animeworks, part of Media Blasters.

Staff

Director: Haruka Ninomiya
Scenario: Mamiko Ikeda
Music: Naoki Sato
Original Character Design: Yuzu Tsutae
Character Design: Mami Yamaguchi
Art director: Chikako Shibata

Cast:

Hikaru Midorikawa as Sora Hashiba
Souichiro Hoshi as Ran (anime only), Sunao Fujimori
Juurouta Kosugi as Aizawa (ep 11)
Akira Ishida as Kai Nanami
Atsushi Kisaichi as Ichikawa Gaku
Chiro Kanzaki as Honjou Matsuri (Child - ep 13), Shiina Ren
Daisuke Sakaguchi as Hiromu
Hiro Yuuki as Chris (ep 13)
Kenji Nojima as Hano Yoshihiro
Kouki Miyata as Sei Hashiba
Madoka Akita as Sunao (Child)
Michiru Yamazaki as Kano
Motoki Takagi as Shiina Ren (adult - ep 13)
Rika Higashino as Sora (Child)
Ryotaro Okiayu as Kai Nagase
Shinichiro Miki as Shin'ichirou Minato
Susumu Chiba as Matsuri Honjou
Takahiro Sakurai as Kitamura Fuuta (ep 13)
Takehito Koyasu as Yoru
Tetsuharu Ohta as Okami (ep 13)
Toshiyuki Morikawa as Kozuki Ryouya/Ayano (ep8, 9, 11)
Yu Kobayashi as Kitamura Fuuta (child)
Yuji Ueda as Soushi