Angel's 3piece

Summary: >

While Kyo should go to school, he's refused to attend for quite some time. Instead he stays shut in his room, composing music and releasing them online to a nearly non existant audience. Three girls take an interest in his music and ask for his help. While they're very young, they have phenominal talent as a band. Currently they live an orphanage which may shut down if they don't find a way to raise money. Perhaps Kyo may be the key to promoting them and saving the orphanage, but how is a social shut in who has virtually no online presence either going to accomplish this?

Thoughts: >

So... underage fan service.

Even if you're pretty indifferent to that, Angel's 3peice will be hard to choke down. It doesn't get sexual directly, but certainly crosses a line with fan service I didn't like, to the point where it's obscures the better qualities of the show (which it has). In the end it will be hard to recommend Angel's 3peice because the after-taste, and will probably what you remember most about it.

All that aside, it's a simplistic anime where a socially awkward guy interacting with cute young anime girls. It's a formula which isn't super bad if it were content with keeping things... appropriate. The girls are indeed cute (enough to carry the show) and the story works for what it is, which is annoying since the sexualization isn't needed. Aside from lacking realism in how these girls have miraculous musical talent at that age, the music aspect works well. It's expectedly cute, reflecting the performers; but the animation combined with the songs is quite good, and not just generic still-screen shots with occasional hand movements. These girls actually seem to be playing instruments.

Angel's 3peice almost stumbles into a formula which would have been great if it kept going with it. Aside from the three young girls, there is an older girl named Sakura at the orphanage who is a classmate of Kyo. While she tries to play it cool, she obviously has a thing for him. During a camping trip, the younger girls discuss a rumor that if a boy and a girl "sleep together", they'll have a baby (not understanding what "sleeping together" entails). So they hatch a scheme to get Sakura and Kyo in the same tent, with the expected comedy results. Keeping the girls out of the realm of romance while innocently pushing Sakura and Kyo together could have been a formula spanning the entire show and not getting old (to me anyway). An odd side story which faired quite well was Kyo and the girls traveling to a remote Japanese island for a concert. This introduces yet another young girl with a very weird story to go along with her. It almost feels out of place, but I appreciated the change in direction.

To some extent the basic concept of the anime works, but if you need to try very very hard to put up with the young girl fan service thing. Ignoring all that doesn't leave much, making it feel like mostly filler. Disappointing and better to skip.

Screen Caps: >