From the past few episodes I knew this series would be around the 70’s rating range for me.  I’m not such a huge fan of harem series however Saenai hits a lot of the right notes in being unconventional.  Based on a light novel series hat leads to collection of successful witty narratives between different female tropes about doujin creation.  If only the creators took the time in developing some kind of tie-in to how a dating sim game is created.  Perhaps they should have taken note from Bakuman was with the manga industry and how it had gradually shifted nicely between making serialization deadlines to timeframe of artwork and writing chapters.  I hope that the second season rectifies this glaring issue for me.  Aside from that the pacing in this is gradual, something that director Kanta Kamei knows really well on how to achieve after seeing his work on Usagi Drop.

The music score by Hajime Hyakkoku is toned down in the impact and yet a lot of the pieces throughout Saenai‘s episodes end up being up-lifting.  Tons of keyboard compositions.  Similar to his other works on K-On! and Gugure! Kokkuri-san.

This is much better than his directorial disaster on Nanana—  I believe that show had a poor scenario writer and planner.  Saenai for most of its run was very funny–  introduced its trope characters of Utaha and Eriri with just enough background that is familiar in this genre and still remains a refreshing contrast to Tomoya’s drive for anything that defines him as an otaku.  His room illustrates this point greatly.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: [73/100]

—