DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyNieA Under 7

REVIEWS

• 

  TAYPH00N

  38/100
  I AM DISAPPOINT VERY DISAPPOINT

  Disappointing, there is no other word to describe this show.
  Maybe “wasted potential“ would be also something that would come to my mind when i think of NieA under 7. From the characters to the broken humor: everything in this anime feels wrong and wasted, but let me explain it by going through it.

  As the main character you have mayuko, a hard working independent young women, who goes to cram school while working two jobs to support her living.
  The other main character is niea, a freeloading alien living in mayukos closet.
  But even if this sounds like a fun idea with lots of potential for the characters to play off each other, in this case it is completely wasted.
  Every serious or dramatic moment is interrupted by niea, every time someone is doing something interesting niea comes over and brakes the flow with a stupid comment or joke.
  In the very next sentence the anime shifts back into the usual disturbed mood of drama and the characters behave like niea didn't do anything, sometimes they completely ignore what is going on.

  To me this feels like someone didn't know how to use jokes,it is like they had a joke quota to reach for every episode, so they randomly inserted them in after the episode was done to get the joke ratio they aimed for.

  As for the setting itself and the atmosphere there are many unexplained things in this show for example: how did the aliens come to earth, how was the first contact, what is with the alien class system and the hate towards aliens without antenna, why is mayuko supporting herself. Nothing is explained even the racism part against niea as an alien without a antenna or a “under 7” as they are called. They use this fact in the anime as a joke, niea gets insulted by other aliens and how does she react? Well, she calls them names and sticks out her tongue. That is how mature this show is. The entire show is about them living together in poverty with bad jokes poorly writing characters and no substance what so ever.

  The art itself is OK, but there are times where it looks like a elementary student made the animation. It is worse than your average bad animation it’s on the same level as kill la kill and this does not help in any way. On top of that these drops in animation quality happen every time they make a joke/slapstick scene. But otherwise it follows the same lain/renmei style of characters and art, so this will annoy you even more if you are a fan of the visuals of serial experiments lain and heibane renmei.

  I would not recommend this anime, go watch another anime made by yoshitoshi abe because this is his weakest work so far.

  Also there is a creepy Indian man explaining stuff in the end of every episode

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• 

  jess4

  100/100
  NIEA WAS GOOD, HERES A REVIEW

  __NIEA_7 REVIEW__

  I don't really use anilist anymore. to be honest I find number ratings very unfun and the site doesn't really help me keep track of shows as much as it used to anymore, however, the only other review of NeiA_7 is fairly negative and I would hope to inspire some of the users of this site to watch this awesome show. (sorry if there are typos and whatnot)

  -
  PLOT SUMMARY

  Mayuko Chigasaki is an introverted cram student/part-time worker driving to get by. Mayuko lives in a Japanese bathhouse that is on the verge of shutting down, living paycheck to paycheck, she struggles to get money to eat and barely survive. The major reason for her poverty is her roommate. The freeloading under 7 alien Niea. NieA_7 tells the story of Niea and Mayuko's eventful summer, in a heartwarming and relaxing way. NieA_7 uses its 13 episode length very proficiently and doesn't overstay its welcome.

  

  __WHY I CAN SEE SOMEONE ENJOYING THIS SHOW__ For starters NieA_7 is a great slice of life show. It's very peaceful and gives enough quick-witted dialogue to keep the viewer's attention. NieA_7 falls under so many categories I don't think the tags give it justice, it's a slapstick upbeat comedy, it hints at a little romance, it's a coming-of-age story, how humans bond with one and another, and it's a sad story. I feel NieA_7 has at least 1 aspect I feel anyone can enjoy. NieA_7 also provides a more serious tone and a story that overarches throughout its 13 episodes run time. It delves into themes of finding yourself, life moving forward, and living in the moment. It deals with these topics very well, and in one of the most human ways, I've seen in an anime (despite the main premise being about aliens). Sadness is always paralleled with random slapstick moments. I hear a lot of complaints from other reviews about these seemingly erratic moments, however, it made me think after I completed the show to try and find humor in sad moments. Always look for the good in certain helpless situations. Also, the soundtrack is phenomenal, clipped and distorted guitars in more folky ost tracks, ukuleles, really unique singing that most anime don't even try to approach with their ost's. Despite all these unique sounds, NieA_7 ost makes you feel as if you are living in the town of Edohana watching the events of the story play out in front of your eyes. Also, it has small little character themes that are super fun and always interesting to hear in the sound design. The animation although aged is also really entertaining. There's a lot of really funny moments in this show as well, most of the alien characters are funny, but this allows me to Segway into the next section - __WHY I CAN SEE SOMEONE NOT ENJOYING THIS SHOW__ Humor is subjective, and this show is riddled with a lot of Japanese slapstick humor. If you're not a fan of say FLCL's comedy side, then I do not think you will enjoy NieA_7 (Vice Versa as well, if you love FLCLs comedy I think you will adore this show) If you are coming into NieA_7 because of Yoshitoshi ABe expecting another Lain, you will be disappointed. This show is not as mind-blowing as Lain; I wish NieA_7 wasn't connected to Yoshitoshi's name because it is a completely different type of show. To truly appreciate NieA you have to realize the similarity's stop between Yotshito's other works and NieA_7 after ABe's name and the similar art style. There's also so choppy cuts that I can see someone viewing as jarring, however, I found them charming

  OVERALL: A RECOMMENDATION FROM ME IGNORE THE NUMBER I DON'T REALLY KNOW HOW TO DO NUMBER RATINGS BUT THIS IS MY 3RD FAVORITE ANIME OF ALL TIME

  
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• 

  PrinceZariel

  68/100
  "It's okay if it's slow sometimes. I'm not always in a rush."

  NieA_7, pronounced like 'knee-uh under seven', is a 13 episode long comedy series about a hard-working girl struggling to get by in life and her relationship with the alien that lives in her closet. Comedy has never been my favorite genre when it comes to anime. My experience with it has mainly been series that have chosen to forgo plot, character development, and worldbuilding, aspects of media I hold dear, for the sake of a few jokes I usually don't find funny. However, I saw that NieA_7 was partially made by Yoshitoshi ABe, the man who made my favorite series of all time, Haibane Remei. (Please watch that show, it's amazing.) Because of this, I thought that I'd give the anime a shot; maybe it could change my mind about comedies. Unfortunately, the first three episodes reaffirmed my viewpoint. There isn't really a rhyme or reason to these episodes. Things just happen to happen. The energy was cranked up to 100, everything was super loud, the art style was all over the place, and jokes were being pumped out one after the other, each failing to make me so much as chuckle. It was at this point that I had had enough and decided to drop the series. Luckily, boredom is quite the motivator. Having literally nothing else to do, I continued the series and was pleasantly surprised with the rest of the episodes. The show slowly becomes less of a straight comedy and more of a drama with comedic elements. This is when NieA_7 reveals what it's truly about: the passage of time and the impermanence of life.

  These slower episodes are the anime at its best. Not only does its style change almost completely from the earlier episodes, but the series feels as if it has gained a sense of purpose. The story and themes are a lot clearer and the characters magically become better written. They don’t talk as much as they did previously, but a lot is conveyed in their silence; especially with the main character, Mayuko. Her transformation was amazing to watch. NieA, the alien, is a little less deep but she still has her moments. She’s the one making most of the noise in this series as it seems that her sole purpose in life is to annoy everyone else. But, every now and then she’ll get real quiet and that’s when her true character shines through.

  But NieA_7 is still a comedy, right? So, what is the humor like? The characters in the show are super expressive, their faces often contorting, stretching, etc. This is probably due to the REALLY simple art style. It allows the animators to go wild with what they can do to them. The weird faces and art are a big part of the comedy and this show. If it was just that, it’d be one thing, but it’s also coupled with some pretty annoying sound effects. These are the sound effects you’d hear in old slapstick skits like Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, and a bit of The Flinstones. Even though this anime aired in 2000, those effects still had to be dated. Some of the humor is a bit dated as well but that’s to be expected. It gives the entire anime this extremely low-budget feel. I also feel like when the jokes are spread out, they land more often. In the first three episodes, which are basically only jokes, their bombardment gets old pretty quick. On the topic of art, there are also a few different art styles used in this show. Some of the jokes have a very different style to them. And the title cards remind me a lot of the show Crashbox. Seeing these different styles is cool because it also is another avenue for the animators to be even more creative.

  Even though I’ve been praising the second half of the series, I still have a few problems with it. Due to the anime’s initial focus on comedy, when it becomes more of a drama, there isn’t really enough time to flesh out the world or even some elements of the plot. This leaves the viewer with a lot of unanswered questions. Some are more trivial but others are larger problems. The point could be that we don’t need all of our questions answered, that we don’t need to know everything. There’s that whole ‘impermanence of life’ thing after all. But it still feels award to not address some of the things that come up. In my opinion, it makes the series feel slightly incomplete.

  And finally, the music and characters. The music in this show is really low-key. I feel like a lot of the time people might not even notice there’s music playing. In some scenes, it is so quiet and in the background that I thought that it was coming from somewhere else in the building. The music isn’t bad, however, just extremely chill and relaxing, albeit, a tad bit simple. Some of the characters receive a lot more attention than others. A few of them feel like they’re only there for the comedic part of the show like Karna. She really doesn’t add anything to the plot; she’s kinda just there to be annoying. When the show takes its characters seriously, however, they are very fun to watch. Mayuko, Kotomi, Genzo, and Chie were always a blast to have on-screen. The story could have gone a little bit further to explore their relationships with each other though.

  So, should you watch NieA_7? I’d recommend it. My sense of humor is very strange so there’s a big chance you may find the comedy in this show fine when I didn’t. There are other anime that tackle the more serious topics in this show better but NieA_7 doesn’t do a bad job at it. If you liked these serious elements, I’d recommend Haibane Renmei and Kino’s Journey.

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