Anime Review: Invaders of the Rokujyoma!?
Satomi Kotaro’s father has gone abroad on business, but he’s staying in Japan to attend high school. Their family is not well off, and to stretch his living allowance as far as possible, Satomi jumps on Room 106 at Corona House because it costs the equivalent of $50 a month. Turns out the reason it’s so cheap is because the apartment is reputedly haunted, but Satomi doesn’t notice anything the first few nights.
Shortly after he takes a bad fall at an archaeological dig and has a vision of a goddess talking to him, Satomi is confronted by Sanae Higashihongan, the cute ghost girl who haunts Room 106. Turns out he’s a very heavy sleeper and all her nocturnal hijinks failed to make any impression. Sanae wants Satomi out, but he’s already paid his rent, thank you. Just as they get really heated in their argument, a new girl comes up through a trapdoor.
She’s Kiriha Kurano, a priestess of the Underground People, and this room happens to be a sacred site of her culture. She needs to rededicate it as a temple of power so that the Underground People can take over the surface world. Neither Satomi nor Sanae likes that idea! The new round of argument is interrupted by a glowing gate appearing in one of the walls. Satomi tries to block it, but only gets a faceful of girl for his troubles.
Enter Theiamillis Gre Fortorthe,, an alien princess, and her faithful servant Ruth. Seems that Theia must gain the loyalty of the primitive lifeforms at the “randomly selected” coordinates which happen to be Room 106 in order to be considered in the line of succession for her Empire. Once again, everyone else objects. And then yet another girl trips in through the window.
She claims to be Rainbow Yurika (aka Yurika Nijino), a magical girl here to protect a powerful magical energy in Room 106 from evil magical girls, and she’ll need everyone to clear out so she can do that. Ghosts, mole people and aliens? Fine. But cutesy magical girls just break everyone’s suspension of disbelief, and Yurika is unanimously declared to be an overenthusiastic cosplayer (a fan who dresses up as a favorite character.) She strongly objects to this characterization, and is about to show off her magic while the others quarrel–
When Kasagi, the young landlady appears, kicks all of their butts with her ki-powered martial arts, and forces them to sign a contract agreeing to abide by Corona House rules. With violence no longer an option, the claimants on Room 106 must find a new way to resolve their property dispute. Let the wacky hijinks begin!
This animated series is based on a series of light novels titled Rokujyouma no Shinryakusha!? by the team of Takehaya & Poco. It’s in the “harem comedy” subgenre (the main feature of which is a young schlub who inexplicably has a bunch of hot women fall for him and maintains the suspense as to which if any he will hook up with going as long as possible; the reverse harem is an average woman getting hot guys.)
What makes this series a little different is that the women don’t in fact start out by all being interested in the same man, but in the apartment he happens to be living in. And by the time the women do start warming to Satomi, it becomes evident that he’s romantically interested in yet another young woman, Harumi, who appears to have nothing to do with the Room 106 shenanigans.
It soon becomes evident that Satomi is anything but normal, and that everyone’s backstories are much more connected than they ever could have guessed. However, the anime is only a “best hits” compilation of the light novels, so the full story is not yet legally available in English.
Of the characters, my heart goes out most to Yurika, who is clumsy, unlucky and generally treated like dirt in the early parts of the story. Her heroics go unnoticed except by her enemies. Harumi shows her good qualities by being the only person who’s kind to Yurika in the early episodes.
Things that are carried over from standard harem comedies: a moderate amount of fanservice, although the first episode is the worst about this with breast jokes and underwear exposure. Also, Satomi only has one male friend “MacKenzie”, who is also the only other maile character of any consequence in the series, and exists primarily to get Satomi in trouble.
This series should be fun for junior high viewers on up who enjoy harem comedies, though the backstory stuff not being available may annoy those who prefer everything spelled out. The complete season of twelve episodes is available on Crunchyroll as of 2014.
