Mashiro-iro is one of the pleasant surprises of the season. While disguised as yet another typical harem with five girls and a dude, this work goes above and beyond others in detail, character development, and pacing. I find it strange to say this, but this series is actually brave in trying to present a plain harem. That's right, no mecha, magic, or busty fighters here, just a guy and some girls at school learning about friendship and love. That being said, this series will alienate those who are looking for action, excessive ecchi, or politics. Though it's not a masterpiece, fans of school-based romance will find this an engaging (and refreshing) series.
Animation:
I will admit that I picked this one up due to the catchy character designs. This is indeed a harem where you can't mix up the girls; you have green, blue, red, yellow, and violet(ish-pink?) for hair colors; though it does result in impossibly different looking siblings. In addition, the animation is particularly good at depicting facial expressions and reactions; absolutely critical in a series that focuses on subtle emotions rather than blatant take-off-the-shirt antics. This was used extremely effectively to convey lots of the story without a single word (or brain voice) being used.
The other characteristics aren't bad either. Backgrounds are nicely detailed and color/lighting are all decent. There isn't much action in this series though there is some ecchi moments where god rays are employed (pretty much once per heroine). The ecchi in this series is more of the innocent/accidental nature though interestingly it is often timed with an actual story event; i.e. it actually has a purpose rather than just being pure fan service.
The only element that is unusual is the use of an unidentifiable wild creature turned school pet called Pannya.
Sound:
The OP and ED are probably the weakest elements in the entire series IMO. The OP is a calm piece that lacks a catchy melody and the ED is a slightly uplifting piece that is just a bit too slow paced considering how fast this series moves. The BGM isn't very memorable, possibly due to the overly-wide range of bland instrumentals composed of piano, violin, and flute.
The VA cast is a mix of some veterans and some fairly new VAs. Noriko Rikimaru (who played Mashiro *wink wink* in Tayutama) and Ryouko Ono (who also voices a blonde, student president in To Heart 2) are the standout VAs here. I was surprised by Noriko who gave sempai Miu a much more reserved voice than as Mashiro. The performance in general is quite good though I give a lot of credit to the animation for lifting the character emotions.
Story:
Here's something that we haven't seen in a while, a harem that actually resolves with the main protagonist making a choice. And we're not talking Amagami style where we can rewind time to choose all of them one at a time. What's more, multiple girls are actually viable candidates and so it keeps you guessing. Remember those things called arcs? There not as well defined as in other series. While the focus does shift between different girls, it isn't discretely delineated by episodes; Shingo shifts a lot between the girls and an episode that starts with the leading candidate being girl #1 may end with girl #2 being the most likely candidate.
So what's this actually about? The setting is a plain old Japanese town where the all-girls high school (Yuihime) has decided to try to integrate with the other high school, which obviously has boys. Our protagonist, a normal looking dude, is in the lucky test group at Yuihime. There he encounters a maid, a student council president bent on thwarting the integration effort, an animal-loving sempai, and a tsundere girl who has Inu in her last name and follows the animal-loving sempai fittingly like a dog.
I liked the story's somewhat non-linear progression, despite the fact that there are many traditional harem elements still used resulting in situations being fairly predictable. The story moves pretty quickly; to me, the story seemed to have multiple climaxes where the girls realize/acknowledge their feelings for Shingo. I also liked the story's final message, which is that anything is possible in the future. Thus they color the future white since it can be stained any other color, thus the "shiro" element in this very decently orchestrated symphony.
Character:
There was good cadence in the character interactions in the series. Each of the girls, imouto aside, develops some unique feelings for Shingo throughout the series, some of which develop into TV-friendly romances. Yes, I said develop, which means that Shingo actually has to do something during the series to gain the girls' attention and admiration, unlike many other harems or sudden gf shows where the main character is gifted with a solution to the hardest part of a relationship. I'll give Shingo some credit, unlike a lot of simply nice but clueless guys, he actually seems to have a grasp of what's happening around him, and the ability to manage relationships around him.
The only major qualm I have is the naming of two characters. You have an Inui Sana and a Sena Airi. There's points where Sena and Sana will be thrown around a lot and it can be a bit confusing.
I will admit that certain characters seem extraneous to the story, and that it is strangely odd that none of the girls from Shingo's old high school (apart from his sister) are remotely worthy of attention.
Value:
I'll admit that the story didn't go the way I thought it would, but that the way it did go was also highly plausible. Despite it not going the way I envisioned, the interactions and progression was highly entertaining. I'm a sucker for this kind of show so I definitely enjoyed adding this to my collection. This series exceeded my initial expectations and proves that you don't need crazy elements in order to make a decent harem.
