Gokukoku no Brynhildr

I liked this show, but it could have been so much better.

It starts with Ryouta Murakami, a high school student who misses his long lost (girl) friend who he thought died in a freak accident when they were kids. Then one day a girl who looks just like his old friend, and even has a similar name, transfers to his class. He confronts her and she says she isn't his old friend, but he finds out she is a witch. He then goes on to meet other friends of hers who are witches too. They are being hunted down and murdered by the secret organisation that made them witches and Murakami helps them escape.

This show is kind of dark, with plenty of grisly deaths (most of which were censored in the copy I saw), but it also has some light-hearted moments, either to keep it from being too serious or just for the sake of being weird (is there such a thing as too weird in anime?). I personally would have preferred it to have taken the serious route, but it still works this way as the light-hearted stuff was mostly ecchi anyway, which isn't so bad. The story line was interesting and the characters were well developed (for only a 13 episode show) and the animation was great. So overall, I say, enjoy!

An excellent premise ruined by poor character development and pacing; slow and laborious initially and breakneck at the end.

Too little is answered; if Neko was unsealed how does she lose her memories at the end?

What actually is Valkayria and Neko; true witches or gifted humans?

What are the aliens? Who are all the girls who are made witches? What makes them attain the various powers they posses?

What actually happened to Neko during the 10 years that passed?

See what I mean?

If you are still inspired to see this series; you are truly a connoisseur of the genre, painstakingly separating the chaff from the wheat!

And this series, my friend is just that; chaff.

The story concept was really interesting however the execution was imperfect and the "Fan Service" was distracting enough it kept detracted from the story. If they had left a few of the secondary characters subplots centering around their loneliness and desire to experience the joys and pleasures of youth before death it would have been enough, the cheesy tropes and random naked girls subtracted from the promise and depth.

Pros:

• Solid Music.
• Good concept and some challenges were believable.
• Character concepts were interesting.
• Sacrifices and losses.
• One of the few shows a harem makes sense.
• An anime actually used basic lifesaving techniques.

Cons:

• Excessive "Fan Service".
• Predictable.
• E10's loss and mid-show resolution was poorly handled.
• Male protagonist is clueless beyond reason.
• Disappointing ending.