Nothing says reverse harem like forcing the young men to live with Tamaki.

What They Say:
The Onikirimaru sealing items continues to be destroyed by the Logos. In order to strengthen the guards of the Tamayori princess controlling the seal of the Onikirimaru, the Shugogo house and the Ugaya house decide to live under the same roof.

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
As the series has progressed and moved into it more serious arc at this stage, the show has moved rather ploddingly when it comes to its pacing. There’s a lot of build up in small fashion with plenty of moodiness and atmosphere that works well, but it needed more before now to really capitalize on things. The positives continue to be mostly centered around Tamaki and the way she handles situations involving Logos, trying to work out things rather than just going right to flight or fight. Unfortunately, while she has bought them some time to figure out what to do, more of the seals have been lost and even one of the forest gods was dealt a serious blow in the previous episode.

With the seals getting weaker, the threats feel like they’re becoming more intense now and it’s starting to impact the group as a whole even as they go through their normal school routine. Something that does admittedly drive me a little nuts since there has to be something they can do. And if not, just going through this kind of routine feels like a poor use of time and planning. One of the things that they do actually plan on is forming up into groups to deal with threats that come so that they can respond as needed to whatever must be done. But they also make the decision that they must all move in with Tamaki at the main residence in order to protect her since she is the one who is most at threat in the end.

Amusingly, the show spends a fair bit of time on the move-in process with how some of them get very, very comfortable with the situation, such as Mahiro who starts putting up posters and getting into the feel of things. There are some cute moments to be had here, especially when we get more from Mahiro about what he wants to do at some point in his life in America, and it makes him a bit more accessible. That said, the danger has to be introduced as well, which is why we get Tamaki having a bit of a feeling and a minor vision to start us down that path. But it’s just a tease, a hint of what’s to come, more than anything else and that keeps it from really moving the show forward. But hey, there’s a scene where most of the guys are just in towels for the bath.

In Summary:
Hiiro no Kakera continues to feel like it’s squandering its promise in a lot of ways. The show has some strong production values overall and the story is straightforward but with some good execution for the first half. Since then though, it’s faltered and feels like it’s just stretching things out, reminding me that there once was a very good reason for six episode OVA series to exist. Hiiro no Kakera is feeling like it needs to be done like that, tightened up and properly executed. There’s things to like here as we get to know Mahiro more and some simplicity in seeing the guys living together, but it’s all by the numbers outside of Mahiro’s dreams, which is the only real salvage point here.

Grade: C+

Streamed By: Crunchyroll

Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.