Special A

this... was strange.

Okay so, i've been fighting a nasty cold for a few days so i was resting in bed... and since i couldn't read thanks to water eyes i decided to watch anime.

Now when i ordered this i couldn't remember if i had seen this or not.
I mean... i think i have... some parts had massive Deja vu moments.... but then iwasn't sure if i was confusing scenes of this with other "more special then other students so you get a place to essentially drink tea all to yourself" (which sounds specific but i can think of one other show with that EXACT plotline)
and what makes it even stranger is that i had the deja vu with the english voice acting... not the japanese...
and Sentai only licensed this in 2013.... and i know for a fact i didn't watch it in 2013....
but according to My Anime list i have watched it before...
and i feel like i've got a fever coming on.

i'm going to get to the bottom of this cause i have a hunch where i saw it based on the year it was made.

now 2008, unless i'm really off timewise, is around the time ADV disbanded... they broke off into many companies... two of which i know are "Section 23" and "Sentai"
Adv/S23/Sentai have an online video platform that also had a On demand channel with my cable provider... they would post 1 episode of a show bi-weekly and they would almost always air it with the dub.
while i don't think i had the on demand via tv anymore... i'm pretty sure i checked out on demand online
maybe it was posted there? it's the only way i can make sense of why i know the dub...
i just don't know anymore... and i'm too sick to really care.

Anyways... tangent aside i remember why i forgot about ever having seen this show.

Wow is it lame...
and kinda sexist...
but mostly lame.

Is it bad? no.... is it special? not at all.

The story is Hikari is always coming in second place to Kei and spends the entire time trying to beat him at something... anything.
as mentioned before they and 5 other gifted students are in a special class where they don't ever have to study or take classes or tests yet they are always the top 7 of the entire school... this allows them to chill in a pretty conservatory and drink tea.
But of course this is shoujo so we have to add romance to it... Kei is madly in love with Hikari but she is too dense to notice... even when it is outright told to her... multiple times... and she even has her own feelings towards him but doesn't understand them.

oh and they are all rich (except hikari) and kei is also able to pretty much run one of the most powerful groups in the world and be a student.

While it is nice seeing a shoujo series where the guy desperately pines over the girl.... there are a few things that do not work.
the biggest thing is that we are just kinda told right off the bat he likes her but they don't really go about showing how he started to like her... it's just out there and we must accept... personally i would have shown the flashback to them meeting as children and then another flashback near the end of the episode showing the event that made him start to like her.... instead they wait till the last episode which makes what happens in that last episode less meaningful... cause we don't have context for why it's so important to him.
Kei is too perfect, he can quite literally do anything without breaking a sweat... this makes for a rather dull character cause... we he can get out of any situation... and he can get hikari out of any situation she's in with no effort at all... i get why he has the trait but it makes for boring and forgettable character development.

I see a lot of people feel that the show is Sexist or mysoginistic and i don't know if i would personally go that far... it does have a lot of "oh silly girl you will never be better then me" but thats because in this world she's been trying to beat him at something and never has... it's the only plot thread...
Besides when you use those worlds you are implying a women hating mindset and i think the female characters are rather strong in this. could they be more developed? yes all the background characters could have been but the characters are fine and able to do plenty of stuff on their own.
on the other hand the amount of time kei saves the day and does his best to protect his girl cause she will obviously just get in trouble is a bit annoying... at the same time she never stops trying so yeah... maybe it's a tiny bit sexist but i think it's moreso just dull then anything else.

But even though it's dull i can't say it's bad... i've just seen better titles that coudl fall in this genre.
Ouran high host club for example is a million times better and way funnier then this.... i mean SA has some chuckles but Ouran had me in stiches the first time i saw it.

Still i got it on sale and it padded out my order to the min threshold for free shipping so it's all good and fun.
I still can't believe i completely forgot that i saw it.

The good:
uh.....
it does have some very sweet and sincere moments and i did chuckle.
.... yeah

The not so good:
No one really gets an arc (or at least none of them have one that makes sense and develops them further... except Yahiro.... he is easily the most interestign character.... but the story isn't about him so oh well.
the art... it's that kind of long and lanky character design that CLAMP really likes but it's not done by clamp.
The sound... so many stock sounds.... it's almost like this show had no budget or something.

The bad:
Kei
Seriously if you are going to have a 'perfect' character he still needs to have some kind of tangible weakness or he'll just end up dull... and don't tell me hikari is his weakness because that isn't good enough and if it were true he would lose to her.
Theres this effect that is used and in the early episodes it really distorts the image... they tone it down later on and it works adding this colourful clouded effect but early episodes it just looks so dumb.
Forgettable... my memory isn't the best but if i did see this last year (it would make a little sense... i was watching Persona 4 around the time it would have gotten on there) then i completely forgot it... and i think i'll end up forgetting it after this as well...

not bad... just kinda dull... go watch ouran high instead.
Or lovely complex... thats a good show about someone just not taking a hint.
but yeah.... oh well, to those in canada... happy thanksgiving
to myself tomorrow.... Happy birthday~

for now time to go enjoy some turkey! and pie.... i love pumpkin pie

EDIT:
I knew i had seen this before... ADV did put out a dub on anime network on demand back around 08 or 09
i knew it! i knew i wasn't just crazy or something.
it makes sense since i did have the tv version of that at that time.
good... i feel better...  everything makes sense now
the show is still pretty dull...