Kuragehime Review

It's unusual for me to review such an up to date series especially when it was only released in 2008, but I will break my rule today because I planned a review for Elf Princess Rane and I now have to watch it again because it made no sense in English, so instead I will review Kuragehime.

The show begins with an old fashioned dormitory consisting of a number of otaku girls of various ages and interests referring to themselves as "Amars" which translates as nuns. While on a routine walk home from the store, lead character Tsukimi notices a Jellyfish placed in the wrong tank with another deadlier Jellyfish in which she attempts to save despite the store closing, she is then helped out by a stylish looking woman named Kuranosuke who helps Tsukimi and saves the Jellyfish, however after spending the night at the apartment, Kuranosuke is revealed to be a cross-dressing man. (He definitely wins the award for most convincing cross-dresser)
A problem occurs when the apartment building is brought up for demolition, and not wanting to see a nice old building go down, Kuranosuke uses Tsukimi's knowledge of Jellyfish to make fashionable dresses in order to buy the building off the owner, all the while helping Tsukimi get in touch with her hidden beauty which results in an unusual relationship with Kuranosuke's brother.
Now as many know, I hate anime about otaku but this one does more than present us with a few otaku with poor social skills, it actually takes the word "Otaku" and applies it to everyone, so lets review.
Tsukimi: Jellyfish Otaku
Kuranosuke: Dress Otaku, (which is why he cross-dresses)
Chieko: Doll & Kimono Otaku
Mayaya: 3 Kingdoms Otaku (Good Choice)
Banba: Train Otaku (Although I challenge anyone to find me a female trainspotter)
Jiji: Old Man Otaku (Played better by Negima's Asuna)
Shoko: Sex Otaku
Shu: Unknown but seems obsessed with being boring
Hanamori: Mercedes Otaku (Only Reason for being a Chauffeur)
even the Prime Minister has some uncomfortable habits.
The point I'm trying to make is that it doesn't matter if you come from different sides of the spectrum whether it be normal things or geeky things at the end of the day we are only human.
Many times during the series and the manga the characters are frequently taken out of their comfort zone and seem to do just fine.
In fact the message I read is that normal people are just as fragile and nervous as the Amars, while the Amars are just as confident and popular as normal people. Knowing that message does make it frustrating to watch especially when it's 100% clear that Tsukimi is beautiful, and the ending doesn't quite give us what we want, the manga is still going though so we just have to wait.
Final Verdict: It's message is a powerful one and the characters keep things interesting but where the show falls down is a failure to give us the ending we so want. Other than that I'd say give it a try.

End