No-Rin Review

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IncendiaryLemon

Guest


Idol-obsessed farm boy Kousaku Hata is devastated when his favourite idol and dream girl Yuka Kusakabe unexpectedly announces her immediate retirement at the peak of her career. Taking the news hard, Kousaku spirals into a depression, locking himself in his room, which his fellow students at the Tamo Agriculture school try to bring him out of. On the day that he starts attending classes again, Kousaku gets an unexpected surprise as his beloved idol, under the guise of Ringo Kinoshita, transfers into his class. Taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Kousaku decides to get close to Ringo, and uncover the reason for her early retirement.



No-Rin, a 2014 anime adaptation of the series of novels by author Shirow Shiratori, is a show that I suspect has the potential to be extremely polarizing. This might kind-of go without saying, given that comedy is normally very divisive, but No-Rin’s particular brand of sex-based humour is something that I could almost certainly see people turning their noses up at, or totally dismissing out of hand, and I wouldn’t blame them. Whether it be a character being lovingly nicknamed as ‘Tits McGee’ or a lengthy conversation about the phallic nature of Egg Plants (and that’s just Episode 1!), the comedy present isn’t exactly what you’d call highbrow, but I suspect it is the brazen and unrepentant sex jokes that made me love it a whole lot.

Yes, as much as it might make me sound as mature as a twelve-year-old schoolboy, I had a lot of good laughs whilst watching No-Rin. The gags I mentioned before are just the tip of iceberg when it comes to how far No-Rin seems to push the boundaries, and I was really taken off-guard by how far it goes at times, with some quite raunchy jokes that I dare not spoil here. Needless to say, it’s the biggest draw the series has, and if the humour doesn’t sound like your kind of thing, I’d very much advise you to stay far away. However, if it does sound like something that you might like, I could recommend it on the comedy alone.



However, despite the big focus on comedy, No-Rin actually tries to do a little bit more by throwing in a bit of romance too, which, whilst a good attempt, isn’t really too successful. Although I think that the protagonist Kousaku and Ringo have some good chemistry together and there are some genuinely sweet scenes sprinkled throughout, the way the show itself approaches romance and the less comedic elements in general, needs some work. The biggest fault is the fact that all the jokes seem to dry up whenever there is any kind of character or relationship development. I don’t just mean in the moment itself, which would be fine, but in the slightly more character-focused episodes, the jokes aren’t anywhere near as frequent as in the other episodes. This is especially noticeable in the last two or three episodes, where the comedy almost fades out entirely. Granted, I think that actually giving the characters a little bit of backstory and depth is good and might be worth losing a few jokes for, as it is an area that most comedy anime seem to totally avoid, so I have to give it props for that. However I just wish we could have had the best of both worlds, with a few more serious moments whilst not sacrificing the comedy. Another trap that the series falls into is that the ending is inconclusive and rather unsatisfying, but such is the danger of adapting from ongoing source material.



No-Rin’s animation is handled by Silver Link (Fate/Kalied liner Prisma Illya, Watamote, Yurikuma Arashi), who, as far as I’m concerned, might just be one of the most underrated anime studios currently active. Whilst they may not have the unique and distinct style of Shaft or the insane levels of detail of Kyoto Animation, their work is always high quality, and has a ton of energy behind it, and No-Rin is no exception. I also really love how the animation occasionally switches style giving it a lot of visual diversity. From an old school video game to a manga, even an impromptu tribute to Sailor Moon, Silver Link certainly cram in a whole host visual styles, making No-Rin a visually interesting series to say the least.



Funimation UK’s release of No-Rin comes with both and English and Japanese audio, and I’m quite a big fan of the dub for this series. Austin Tindle (Is This a Zombie?, Gonna Be the Twintail, Attack on Titan) voices the lead Kousaku, and does so with boundless enthusiasm, imbuing the role with the energy needed to make a lot of the gags work. In stark contrast to Tindle’s energy, Jad Saxton (Fairy Tail, High School DxD, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid) delivers an excellent low key performance as the nigh emotionless Ringo. The supporting cast is also great, including some relative newcomers such as Lynsey Hale (Seraph of the End) and Derick Snow (Prince of Stride: Alternative) as well as some more established voice actors such as Caitlin Glass (Full Metal Alchemist) and Morgan Garrett (Love Live Sunshine).

Music for the series is provided Akiro Matsuda (Sound! Euphonium) and Tomoki Kikuya (Hidamari Sketch), who deliver some pretty great and memorable tracks that do a good job of capturing the general atmosphere of the series. Similarly, the OP, ‘Himitsu no Tobira Kara Ai ni Kite’ by Yukari Tamura and the ED, ‘Mogitate Fruit Girls’, by Yukari Tamura and Kana Hanazawa, who are part of the Japanese cast, also capture the tone of the series, both being full of energy.



Special features on Funimation’s release include commentaries, promo videos, commercials, a textless OP and ED and trailers.

In Summary

No-Rin won’t be for everyone, but I loved its rather unique brand of crass humour and high energy animation. Even if the romance aspect falters a bit, it doesn’t stop it from being a brilliant, side splitting comedy.

Quick Information


Title: No-Rin
Publisher: Funimation (via Anime Limited)
Genre: Comedy, Ecchi, Romance
Studio: Silver Link
Type: TV Series
Original vintage: 2014
Format: Blu-Ray
Language options: English dub audio only
Age rating: 15
Running time in minutes: 300
Score (out of 10): 8

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Good impartial review. I agree it's not a series for everyone. But I loved it and it kinda reminded me of Baka & Test. :)
I listened to the last UK anime network podcast and the guy tore the **** out of it! Genuinely saying f*ck this show and no one should ever buy it. Way to keep an open mind that people have different tastes and opinions :D
 
Jon O Fun said:
Good impartial review. I agree it's not a series for everyone. But I loved it and it kinda reminded me of Baka & Test. :)
I listened to the last UK anime network podcast and the guy tore the **** out of it! Genuinely saying f*ck this show and no one should ever buy it. Way to keep an open mind that people have different tastes and opinions :D
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Thank you! I think comedy is perhaps the hardest genre to review because comedy is so subjective. I mean, all critique is subjective, but comedy especially is always going to depend on the person watching it, so I think acknowledging and understanding that some people will hate what you like is pretty important. I haven't listened to said podcast, but saying that it's irredeemable garbage that no one should buy just because the guy's sense of humour doesn't line up with the show's is pretty poor. I mean, it's actively discouraging people who might actually like it from checking it out based on his own bias.
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
I haven't listened to said podcast, but saying that it's irredeemable garbage that no one should buy just because the guy's sense of humour doesn't line up with the show's is pretty poor.
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Calling something irredeemable garbage is perfectly acceptable in a review. As you say, it's all subjective, and to be less than honest about one's opinions would be doing the review a disservice. But disparaging an audience for liking something that you do not is unacceptable.
 
Insulting people with different opinions and acting as though your subjective opinion is objective is where I stop reading and go to a better review. I joke about my own taste being bad a lot but every single show has its fans and to fail to acknowledge that (even if you personally hate the content, as I likely would with No-Rin) seems sort of ignorant.

R
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
the comedy present isn’t exactly what you’d call highbrow, but I suspect it is the brazen and unrepentant sex jokes that made me love it a whole lot.
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Given that most of the stuff I've enjoyed over the last year has sat on a spectrum that spans "lewd comedy" through "really lewd comedy" (Konosuba, Shimoneta, Prison School), I may also find this unexpectedly enjoyable. Good job, Lemon.
 
It wasn't his 'official' review apparently that'll be on their site in the near future. Just his personal opinions. Should be interesting to compare his review to your own when it goes up :)

Also if you're a fan of Konosuba & Prison School I'd say you'd enjoy No-Rin.

I've yet to see Shimoneta. That was the final straw to me cancelling my funiNow sub as everytime I tried to watch it there was a dead link.
 
Daaaaaamn! Now that's how you start an impartial review ;) "No-Rin is a terrible show and is not worth your time."

I get the feeling if he hated it that much after one episode maybe someone else on their site should of reviewed it...
 
Jon O Fun said:
I get the feeling if he hated it that much after one episode maybe someone else on their site should of reviewed it...
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That's.... not how reviews work. We don't farm around a title until you can find someone who likes it unequivocally, there are marketing-led blogs that will be happy to provide that content for you.

From UK Anime's perspective, we don't force anyone to review anything, but seed titles out to whoever has an interest in watching them. In this case, Elliot was curious about No-Rin having heard a lot about it, watched it and hated it. C'est la vie, and it's just as important and valuable a part of the discussion around a title as the glowing review above.

(For my part, I sit between these two poles, in the "Eh, No-Rin was alright I guess" camp)
 
Hanners said:
That fact is implicitly assumed in any review.
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Apparently not Elliott's review

No-Rin’s particular brand of sex-based humour is something that I could almost certainly see people turning their noses up at, or totally dismissing out of hand, and I wouldn’t blame them-He Acknowledges that not everybody will like it.


No-Rin is a terrible show and is not worth your time. There you go, that’s my review-He arrogantly assumes his personal opinion is right and notions that somebody might not share his likes doesn't even dawn on him.
 
Watanabe Ken said:
No-Rin’s particular brand of sex-based humour is something that I could almost certainly see people turning their noses up at, or totally dismissing out of hand, and I wouldn’t blame them - He Acknowledges that not everybody will like it.
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I'm not sure I see the problem there...

Watanabe Ken said:
No-Rin is a terrible show and is not worth your time. There you go, that’s my review -He arrogantly assumes his personal opinion is right and notions that somebody might not share his likes doesn't even dawn on him.
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I think you're not reading that opening paragraph with the levity with which it was written. The entire point of that opener is based on the premise that, although broadly in line with the fact he thinks it's no good (and a good ol' podcast rant to that effect previously), that isn't sufficient to constitute a review - hence the remainder of the piece expounding fully on what he dislikes about it and also pointing to the scant few positives he found.

If this review had seriously been based around the idea that absolutely nobody would, or should, like this show, it wouldn't scored a 3/10 but a 1/10. Y'know, like Hand Shakers.
 
Hanners said:
I think you're not reading that opening paragraph with the levity with which it was written. The entire point of that opener is based on the premise that, although broadly in line with the fact he thinks it's no good (and a good ol' podcast rant to that effect previously), that isn't sufficient to constitute a review - hence the remainder of the piece expounding fully on what he dislikes about it and also pointing to the scant few positives he found.

If this review had seriously been based around the idea that absolutely nobody would, or should, like this show, it wouldn't scored a 3/10 but a 1/10. Y'know, like Hand Shakers.
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Don't see how else I could interpret a negative opening paragraph as for hand shakers not everybody shares you opinion Hand Shakers - Arjash's Review this guy liked it.
 
I think the problem with the use of levity in trashing something is that those who actively like the series are disproportionately likely to 1. read reviews of the show and 2. be upset when they're effectively being accused of having bad taste for liking it right from the first sentence by someone they don't even know personally. Joshing around works in a small community where everyone knows one another, or when you're a celebrity. Randoms stumbling in, however, can have their feathers rightfully ruffled very easily.

(Again, I don't even like the series. I'm just pretending he trashed something I think is incredible instead!)

I read a review of a series I thought was ok on a completely different site the other day, because I thought it was nice it was being reviewed as something from an 'unpopular' genre which it's fashionable to bash or ignore. Big mistake. It was just hundreds of words of venom about how much the series sucked and the reviewer failed to get even basic facts about the show he/she supposedly watched correct. Maybe if I was mates with the reviewer it would seem edgy and funny, but without that context it just made me close the tab and decide his/her writing skills sucked.

Hand Shakers though. I think I'd just not have bothered at all; what a mess of an opening episode.

R
 
Rui said:
I think the problem with the use of levity in trashing something is that those who actively like the series are disproportionately likely to 1. read reviews of the show and 2. be upset when they're effectively being accused of having bad taste for liking it right from the first sentence by someone they don't even know personally. Joshing around works in a small community where everyone knows one another, or when you're a celebrity. Randoms stumbling in, however, can have their feathers rightfully ruffled very easily.
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I would suggest that it isn't a reviewer's job to groom the ego of readers - certainly, if the opening line had read "No-Rin is a terrible show and you are a terrible person if you like it" I would have shut it down in editing even as a joke. As it is, when we write reviews we come to it by default from a position of talking to someone who hasn't seen the series/movie at hand - of course we're aware that people who have watched the show will read it, but our primary goal is to answer the question of whether this show is worth your time (or money), and in Elliot's opinion the answer to that is an unequivocal "no".

I would have accepted criticism had he not elucidated upon why he didn't like the show, but I think he did a suitably good job of that, and also took the time to mention potential positives (albeit with caveats) and dig into the core of what the show tries to do, which should tip anyone who might get something out of No-Rin off that it may be in their wheelhouse. If you see the references to sex-based humour and think "hey, I normally love that kind of stuff" for example, that information may well negate the negative pictured painted by the review (which is why I'm loathe to see reviews reduced to discussion about scores, so this conversation is certainly a step up from that!)
 
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