Title: Heaven’s Lost Property
Alternate Title: Sora no Otoshimono
Encompasses: Season One
Published by: Madman Entertainment (Australia/New Zealand), Funimation (North America)
Based on: The Manga Series written and illustrated by Suu Minazuki
Genre: Drama, Fanservice, Fantasy, Harem, Romantic Comedy
Audio: English and Japanese Dubs
Subtitles: English
Runtime: 350 Minutes
Classification: MA15+ for Strong Sexual References
Cost: $59.95 for either DVD or Blu-ray
Special Thanks: Madman Entertainment for kindly providing me with a copy of this title for review
The hormonal, heavenly hijinks continue in Heaven’s Lost Property: Forte! Tomoki’s life was normal until a wish-granting angelic android named Ikaros fell from the sky and started calling him master. Things got even crazier when Ikaros’s fellow android, Nymph, came fluttering down to join the fun. With the winged vixens adjusting to life on Earth, you’d think Tomoki’s dream of a peaceful existence might finally be coming true – but you’d be wrong! With his teenage impulses and dirty mind, Tomoki’s wishes are causing more chaos than ever before. Plus, there’s a curvy new android on the scene – Astraea. She definitely looks as angelic as Ikaros and Nymph, but there’s a chance the beautiful blonde newcomer is up to no good!
Welcome to the sequel of a “ fanservice inspired series following your everyday run-of-the-mill pervert who almost always has boobs and panties on his mind or to keep it simple… a shameless pervert who is often on the receiving end of a girls boot or fist”. These sorts of fanservice laden, harem creating anime series have always been pretty much a hit or a miss with me, but despite the high degree of fanservice in the first season – it actually proved to be a pretty enjoyable watch earning an overall score of B from me. Once again we have another single-season run of Heaven’s Lost Property which attempts to merge as much over-the-top fanservice in with a serious plotline.. and usually attempting to merge the two concepts together is quite difficult, but they somehow managed to pull it off again. Although it still remains that each episode is either a hit or a miss in both regards.
The series begins some time after the first and retains the same character cast of the “New World Discovery Cast” which as proven from the previous season is a rather diverse and fun collection of the pervert, the “girl who beats perverts”, the smart one, the sacrastic scheming one and two Angeloids with completely different personalities. This season introduces a brand new Angeloid “Astraea” from early on who is eccentric with her own personality points (Namely powerful and social but a clutz) and while it is a bit harder to appreciate her addition into the gang, turns out to be a pretty enjoyable character given she like Nymph is originally sent down to kill Tomoki and the others. The overarching storyline is solid, introducing new concepts such as the Dive Game, second generation Angeloids without the issues the other three have and a few additional plot points which help keep the storyline fresh – alongside the whole “High-up Angels in the Synapse are evil are sadistic and cruel” continuing plotline from last season. While it is enjoyable, just like the first season it would have benefited from more focus as you do have the occasional plot-important storyline mixed in with more prominent fanservice-inspired episodes which leaves the overall experience feeling inconsistent and not up to potential.
The degree of fanservice in this release is comparable to the first season, usually with episodes themed around one aspect of fanservice. They take the time in the earlier episodes to use Astraea’s mission to kill Tomoki as a plot to deliver early-on fanservice including a sumo competition, snowball fights of epic proportions and a fishing contest with a few hints of bondage in the water. These dedicated episodes are also complementary to the fanservice-laden main storyline episodes so it never really steps too far away from its target audience. Unfortunately not all the fanservice and comical elements worked in this season, sometimes making whole sections of an episode skippable in my books. Although they do work with what they have – so the interactions and actions of Mikako and Sugata are always enjoyable and an odd memorable highlight…. Tomoki’s talking penis who interupts his train of thought with chants like “You Rang?” every time sees or does something erection-worthy…. random by hysterical at the same time.
There is nothing exceptional about this season in terms of storyline however at the same time there is nothing much to dislike about it. The cover artwork, series synopsis and most probably any preview or review you read of it will evidently show that this is a fanservice anime with storyline…. and if you are watching it for that purpose I think it is a pretty good option.
In a surprising decision, the first season of Heaven’s Lost Property was released on Blu-ray and DVD whereas this season was only released on DVD. The design quality however was not noticeably different between the two seasons and many of their design quirks remain. The two new primary characters in this show are well designed to the point where they suit this series – Astrea is purposefully designed as a blonde well-endowed character to stand in contrast to the designs of both Ikaros and Nymph as well as cater to a greater variety of visual aesthetics when it comes to fanservice while primary antagonist for this season Chaos maintains a creepier apparel as a small girl in a nuns costume. By the end Chaos transforms into a more mature version of herself which looks equally creepy – although this is just for visual effect and doesn’t really reflect her character at all. For a full review of the design for this series, read my original review HERE.
When I first started watching this season I was curious as to if they would continue the trend of each episode having a unique ending sequence… which they did. While these ending sequences vary in quality from being enjoyable to downright weird, it is a nice touch with most of them being relevant to the episode and fulfilling my requirements for a good ending sequence. Oh… and they match the flying panties ending of last season with a festival run by moving eroge magazines. In terms of opening sequences, the series begins with the same opening theme as the first season “Ring My Bell” only this time sung by Tomoki’s Japanese VA Souichiro Hoshi. This is followed on with a new opening theme “Heart no Kakuritsu by blue drops” which unfortunately doesn’t meet the same mark as the original.
In their new roles, Carli Mosier as Astraea and Carrie Savage as Chaos both do suitable jobs dubbing their characters respective personalities and emotions.
In terms of extra content over the two discs, they have put together quite a nice assortment of goodies including:
- Episode 4 Commentary with ADR Director Christopher Bevins, Greg Ayres (Tomoki) and Trina Nishimura (Sohara)
- Episode 9 Commentary with ADR Director Christopher Bevins, Jamie Marchi (Mikako) and Carli Mosier (Astraea)
- Textless Opening Songs for both Ring My Bell (Tomoki Ver.) and Heart no Kakuritsu
- Textless Closing Songs…. all 11 of them
- Heaven’s Lost Property Trailer – English Dubbed
- Heaven’s Lost Property Forte Trailer – English Dubbed
- Trailers - For Okami-san and Her Seven Companions, Yamada’s First Time, Strike Witches, Rosario + Vampire, My Bride is a Mermaid, Black Butler, Dragon Ball Z and Funimation.com
To conclude, this season contained pretty much the same sort of stuff as the first, although perhaps lost a bit of the storyline quality by being side-tracked far too often. Either way, people have called this a guilty pleasure series to watch… and I am not going to be denying this as this holds true for me as well. Overall however, it was enjoyable and I do hope that Funimation decide to license and subsequently dub the OVA episode which was released last year along with Season 3 which was announced earlier this year for airing in Japan in the near future.
Oh… and I suppose they could try and focus a bit more in Ikaros…. she seems to be pushed to the sidelines a bit too often for a main character.
Final Score
Storyline / Character Development: C+
Design: B+
Music/Voice Acting: A-
Personal Preference: B
Extra Content: B
Overall Score: B
