Crunchyroll calls this the Pet Girl of Sakurasou, which brings up an uncomfortable imagery. For the sake of brevity, I will call this SPK. This is a highly enjoyable series based on a 10-volume set of light novels. I have not read all that much of the light novel series (the tone of which I found somewhat bizarre and a little conventional), but I found that this series did a phenomenal job of adapting the series.

Animation:

SPK is a beautiful looking series, which is all the most intriguing considering that it has an urban setting. There are a lot of great looking series out there but many of them are set in great looking places like some sort of ocean town. Sola is an example that comes to mind. However, there are not a whole lot of series that manage the act of creating beauty from an otherwise unbeautiful thing: the city. There are places where you just have to pause the video and take in the imagery.

The majority of the characters are memorable with Mashiro standing out most of all. I think Mashiro - who herself vaguely resembles the cats that Kanda takes care of - is the best looking character I have seen in all of the series that have come out of 2012. Considering what she looks like in the light novel illustrations, in where she looks like a pretty ordinary - if occasionally confused - girl, this is incredible. Probably the biggest gap in anime-novel design since the work Akio Watanabe (of World God Only Knows fame) did in Bakemonogatari (Senjougahara in the novel illustrations looked absolutely bizarre). I took a look at the work character designer Masahiro Fujii did in other anime and found him having also done timeless, classic works like Zero No Tsukaima and Yumekui Merry. How about that? You never know where talent comes from. The rest of the characters are well designed in a way such that they are memorable. You will not find yourself wondering as to whether or not you have met this character already. This is a big deal.

Both of this in of itself are not a huge deal. There are plenty of series out there that are very good looking. The standards of the new decade have become such that even the worst of the crap that gets put out into the new season have great looking character designs and scenery. So it means a lot more that this sort of stuff is backed with a great story and performances as it is with SPK.

###Sound:

The character acting is great. Ano Hana’s Ai Kayano does a great job here taking the other side of the temper bar for Mashiro. This is a different role from what she has done for Hyouka, Servant x Service and even Say You Love Me. She takes the same type voice tone in Guilty Crown but … let’s not talk about that again. In SPK, she does a great job. Her Mashiro has a dry boke humor and delivers ridiculous lines in a level tone that is pretty hilarious. And when the mood changes, her voice cracks with a certain twinge of emotion that is absolutely heart breaking. She was the right VA for the role and it is hard to imagine anyone else taking this sort of role.

The rest of the cast is incredibly great as well. This is not a series that requires someone to give the same performance over and over again. People laugh, cry, fall in love, and break their hearts. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka’s Kanda does funny, stupid and angry in all the right ways. His voice is also very distinct unlike how it is with many other male characters. Mariko Nakatsu has a phenomenal voice as the Aoyama. Like Attack on Titan’s Yui Ishikawa, I hope that she is just at the start of her career and goes on to do some other great roles into the future. Natsumi Takamori is completely 100% unrecognizeable as the dour, dark girl from Another (coincidentally also named Misaki). I like to imagine that it is the same Misaki in both series and that she commutes between both stories every other week, taking off her eyepatch and turning into this crazy sounding Genki-girl.

The music is ordinary and not at all that memorable. It does not stand out on its own but supports the story very well. Writing from my own perspective of having watched the series a bit ago, there are no pieces of background music that caught my attention. The OP and ED are great, following the Toradora formula in taking a happy light tone at the start and then transitioning into something darker and more serious in the second half. I especially enjoyed OP1, with an opening hook that reminds you of the pounding heartbeat you get when you meet your first love.

###Story and Character:

I combine these. This is probably the one big series surprise of 2012. In fact it takes on the dream that any author should have with their own work. It starts out with a premise that had the potential of being something real stupid but then unexpectedly transitions itself into something much deeper and more rewarding. But if it were that stupid then this story would never have gotten 26 episodes. The directors knew how to handle this property and they did it well.

It starts out with this premise that Kanda has to take care of this girl named Mashiro, who is an art prodigy. She is great at what she does but otherwise has no idea how to take care of herself in the real world. She is so quiet and foolish that it almost hinges on autistic territory, and I found myself at first uncomfortably taking on these comparisons. Were they aiming to make fun of autistic people? But the best way to fight these sort of comparisons is to deliver a deep, fulfilling and rich story and flesh out these characters from their empty initial husks. SPK did this. Very quickly they advance the story and just as speedily I left behind these thoughts and misgivings.

I read the first volume of the light novel and found it awkward and clumsy in how it handled the story. The author may have been trying to get himself into the right tone and setting. The directors of the anime, well aware that they had the time and luxury to create a great story here, revamped a lot. They were not afraid to mess with the source material to get the best story that they can get. For a non spoilery example, in the novel Kanda is told from the very beginning that Mashiro is a great and famous painter. This is not the case in the anime, where this is hidden from both Kanda and the viewer until the very end of the episode, whereupon it hits you with a lot of force. There was also a whole lot of fan servicey stuff that was taken out from the books, which I think did much in making the story move faster and flow much better.

There are a lot of series that do a great job of creating story and characters on their own terms. For example, my favorite yardstick is always Ga-Rei Zero, which has this ridiculous universe in where you have spirits and monsters but crafts a beautiful, touching and heartbreaking story from it. It just goes to tell you that the best stories happen anywhere. They are great not because of where they are set, but because of the way that bring out our essential humanness. For many series, they have to create this universe and brings us into it. Very few series try to bring a great story into our own world. Even fewer succeed. SPK does. This is the most “real” series that I have ever watched since Hataraki Man (which was depressing in its own way). Barring the ridiculous premise of an art prodigy and what not, it is not hard to imagine a story like this happening in our own real world.

The directors knew from the very beginning what sort of tone and theme they want to hit with SPK: that of growth and togetherness of family. No series does a better job of talking about family and togetherness than Full Metal Alchemist but this is a close second and I give it honorable mention because FMA created its own universe. The challenges and tribulations that these characters go through - which I think people can sympathize with so closely - that there are times when I am not sure whether or not they are talking about the characters or myself. We have all gone through disappointments, failures, and uncertain futures. SPK’s characters do the same. They try their best, fall short, and sit in the dark, setting sun wondering whether or not that they are good enough in this world to survive. Just like any of us. These are the same real world disappointments that we all have to live through. It is just part of being human. The way that these people get past it and live to live another day should inspire. They are lonely, bizarre souls lashed together in the midst of the turbulence of a cold, cruel world. Only by holding to each and one another can they survive. Same should be for us.

I believe that SPK has a great story. It is a story that will catch your attention. You will love these characters and want them to succeed. You will keep tuning in again and again to see if they do.

###Value and Enjoyment

This is the surprise of 2012 and worth the time to watch. Unfortunately it did not seem to be such a huge hit and this is probably the last we will see of SPK. This is eminently disappointing because the story at the heart of this series is better than much of the crap that we see dumped into the market. There are a lot of series that make first choice for recommendation but I think this is a good dark horse choice for those who want to see something different and unconventional.