Shomin Sample is one of those rare ecchi harems which actually feels genuinely original and refreshing to watch. Not just because the setting is somewhat unusual, but it has a likable harem protagonist for once, and that it's actually really funny. Buried under the pile of fantasy school battle + harem ecchi, this one is truely a hidden gem.
In a hidden school surrounded by mountains, young ladies of good families are taught everything a high class lady needs to know. They are also completely cut off from the outside world, keeping them sheltered and innocent; however, a problem has come up recently—more and more graduates are failing to cope with the modern world after graduation. To deal with this problem, they've decided to kidnap a male commoner student, and enroll him as a student. They hope that this will be a gentle way to introduce the girls to the outside world. Kagurazaka Kimito is chosen for this dubious honor, mostly because he seems utterly average; however, the school leaders also seem to have concluded he's a homosexual with a muscle fetish. When Kimito hears that the alternative may be castration (to protect the girls' purity), he eagerly plays along with this misconception. Now he'll just have to survive the attention of many high class young ladies that are completely out of touch with the world! (Source: MangaHelpers)
The story seems utterly ridiculous and makes no total sense. But being a comedy anime at its core, common sense is not really something to be bothered about. The idea of having an all-girls high school for rich young ladies and then letting a lone male student transfer into it is indeed nothing new, happened frequently in so many anime. But for the ladies to be completely and utterly clueless about how the world of ordinary citizens works, and for them to have a misconception that the protagonist is actually gay and has a serious fetish for muscle men; that one is unheard of. Instead of heading towards the more ecchi and fanservice esque route, this series chooses to focus more on the development of the relationship between characters. As for the comedy, it manages to done a really good job by offering a wide variety of different kind of jokes; from your normal rom-com, to making real life references to muscle fetish jokes. I can't help but laugh at how aesthetically the protagonist trying to describe his thigh fetish like it was some kind of modern art; it was a moment to savour. The pacing feels somewhat rushed, especially when it's heading toward the end. The ending itself makes the viewer crave for more, since there is so much story yet to be told. The whole premise of the anime itself feels more like a promotion to its original sources, but all the hilarious comedy and wacky characters made it worth it.
The cast features generic yet likable characters overall. The protagonist is a breath of fresh air; Kimito Kagurazaka is not really your average dense and goody two shoes characters you often see in harem anime. He actually has my sympathy for being forced into a school and get labelled as someone with raging homosexual with a muscle fetish just because misinterpretation of his normal everyday life. Because of that, he has to put up with all of the other characters who have attached themselves to him all while hoping he'll still get to keep his precious asset in his pants or get snipped if found guilty. He can be a huge troll sometimes; since the girls are not only clueless but also about as gullible as it gets, he time and time again tricks them into learning things about commoners which are complete nonsense, and then watches them make fools out of themselves before springing the truth upon them a bit later on. It might be considered rude, but it's done in a very light-hearted and comedic fashion, and it rarely fails to make you laugh as a result. But I'll have to give him some credit in that he's actually rather nice and helpful to the girls and doesn't ogle them—usually; this is because he has a thigh fetish, so most of his ogling is focused on the thighs and going on monologues about them. Of course seeing as this is a harem, the anime still hinges on the likability of the main heroines. First we have Aika, the so-called "Tsun-pure" girl of the series. She is a loner who has a very hard time making friends with the other students, but desperately wants to be popular on the inside. She is also mind-bogglingly easy to trick as she believes literally anything Kimito tells her without a second thought. Secondly there's Reiko, one of the most respected ladies in the school and pretty much your stereotypical Ojou-sama character, albeit a lot less haughty. Thirdly we have Karen, a beautiful black-haired woman who carries around a katana. She's also a pretty hardcore lolicon of all things, which becomes very noticeable in the presence of the fourth girl: Hakua. She is the emotionless loli of the series who is supposedly 14 years old but looks quite a lot younger than that. She's also a genius who has her own laboratory in the school where she helps resolve serious issues in the fields of math, science and engineering. And fifth, there is the school's head maid: Miyuki. She is quite emotionless as far as her facial expression goes, but on the other hand the words coming out of her mouth are incredibly blunt and rude, with reason I suppose. There's also a sixth girl called Eri who is Kimito's childhood friend, but we don't get to see her too much in the anime as she is not a student in the school, however she works as a voice actress and you can see Kimito playing games starring her sometimes. None of the characters are perfect. They all have their own fair share of flaws and problems which made them cute and likeable.
In term of art and animation, it is mediocre at best. It is not great, but not too bad. There is some sloppy art, and blocky animation here and there, but not enough to actually hinders the experience of enjoying the anime itself. The colour palette used is colourful enough all the background scene drawn are decent. Nothing special or too bad about it really. In term of music, the OP is really catchy and have my attention with all the wacky randomness and manly muscle man appearing here and there, while the ED is much less upbeat yet not too bad either. The OST used in most of the scene fits with the situation, and all the sound effects are decent if not mediocre.
Overall, Shomin Sample sample is actually a decent and fun comedy anime despite its mediocre art, animation and sound. Should you watch it? Well, it is not that bad, and it is a fun change of air among all the other action-heavy anime in the current season. You won't miss anything at all from not watching it, but it is worth a shot. It's funny, it's cute, it's original and it doesn't feel forced at all. And for an anime of this type, that's about as much as you can ever ask for.
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