Photokano - Review

Maeda Kazuya is the type of guy who can't stick to a certain hobby. However, after receiving a camera as a gift from his dad, Kazuya begins to take a liking to photography, even more so than the other actives he has tried. With his new found hobby, he begins to see his social life start to improve, using it as a gateway for finding people to model for his photos and becoming friendlier with them.

Story

The introduction to Photokano was the main "story" for the series, but really that introduction was drawn to be moot, when we got to the romance. It lures you into something that became a slot machine of girls and the only connection we have to original plot is Maeda Kazuya and his camera.

With the romances of most girls last a single episode a girl, you never really got that accustom to each one; leaving the development stunted as we are taken on a slide show of Kazuya solving womens problems, like he was some kind of love hotline operator.

This style of anime isn't really that common, but there was one anime that did a better job integrating a story into the one girl after another thing, which was Amagami SS. The sad thing is that the same company that made Amagami SS, were the people that also did Photokano. Photokano really did have the potential to be something better, and I found it to be pretty entertaining on some girls arcs; however, the story itself is severely lacking -- I will give more detail to this in the character section.

Art

There isn't much to say about the art itself because it is pretty standard anime style. However, because it is photography centric, there are a bunch of stylized shot -- both erotic and artist -- that does make up for that kind of look. In general, there isn't much there to influence people -- that really like pretty anime -- to watch, but I guess if you really like breast and butt shots, you could have a good reason to watch and admire Photokano.

Characters

• Maeda Kanon (voice: Ise Mariya)
• Maeda Kazuya (voice: Shimazaki Nobunaga)
• Masaki Nonoka (voice: Saito Chiwa)
• Misumi Tomoe (voice: Sawashiro Miyuki)
• Muroto Aki (voice: Nakahara Mai)
• Niimi Haruka (voice: Itou Kanae)
• Sakura Mai (voice: Kanemoto Hisako)
• Sanehara Hikari (voice: Mizuhashi Kaori)
• Yunoki Rina (voice: Oogame Asuka)

As far as characters go, because that strict format of one episode per girl, there wasn't much depth to the characters. However, you can very clearly put them into specific personalities, that try to appeal to the many males preferred niche.

And I do have my favorites, in terms of appearance and the plot they gave for the girl -- that being Muroto Haruka and Misumi Tomoe, respectively. However, there was one girl that probably would have been the most interesting, who would fit nicely into to initial plot without having to cram all these separate female fantasies -- that being, Uchida Yuuko. I can't get into too much detail, or else it would spoil the mystery of this character, but if Photokano focus on her, or at the very least one to three girls, it might have made the anime resonate with people more.

Younger sister to Kazuya. Kanon was the final arc that really wasn't that interesting to me. Enterbrain seems to always include the imouto arc and it isn't really that great in my opinion. There isn't much personality that went into Kanon until her arc cames up, so you can assume she's the typically younger sister with not much variation.

The person who is the center of the whole anime, but doesn't have much character to him beside his new found love for photography and the fact that he is nice. Kazuya is, like most male characters adapted from dating sims, a catalyst for other men to relate to and simple insert them self into the world.

The sports playing tomboy of the group of girl. Nonoka the ace pitcher of the softball club, and the only girl to give Kazuya silly nicknames based on his current hobbies, like "Darts'un".

Tomoe is probably the best arc of the girls. She is the shy one that doesn't like to stand out much, and as a result doesn't have many friends. Can't really say too much about the arc itself, but it felt much more thought out than the others, and was basically the finale, but the sister arc got in its way.

Aki is the Student Council President, who is very strict when it comes to following the rules of the school. Her arc was one of the few that actually tied into the introduction, but really the only thing I liked about her was her looks.

Childhood friend of Kazuya, Haruka was most likely the "main girl", because she was the only girl that got more than a one episode arc. Even with the advantage of being the most developed character, she really didn't stand out that much. All the characteristic of the typical childhood were there; Haruka was popular, very kind toward Kazuya, and pretty much good at everything she did.

Friend of Kanon and gymnast, Mai. Despite being in a sport, she is very feminine, yet mischievous. She was also one of the first to allow Kazuya to take picture of her, due to the fact that she knew his sister.

Apart of the alternative photography clubs, Photo Club. Hikari is quiet and tends to take pictures of landscapes, rather than people. You could consider her to be the loner of the bunch, but really the only girl to share that common interest -- with Kazuya -- of taking pictures.

The school idol Rina has the nickname, "Wife of the Academy" because she can cook and her voluptuous body. However, despite the talent for cooking, she is very clumsy.

Overall

Photokano had one of those cases where it was entertaining, but there wasn't much to it. If they would have focused more on the females that were interesting or had some kind of personality, rather than try to appeal to everyones niche moe, there could of been a much better series. The potential was there all throughout the first few episodes, and began to deteriorate as the series continued with the disposable girl type of episodes. I wouldn't recommend this to people unless they like to be disappointed by wasted potential, but it had its moments of fun every now and then.