The secret of a great show rests not only on the villain but on the protagonist. Sure, it's great when your villain is hissable and so badass that you wonder how the hero is ever going to take them down, but you have to have a protagonist that you want to root for.
Which brings us to Kadokawa Pictures/FUNimation's Heaven's Lost Property (Sora no Otoshimono in Japan). Based on Suu Minazuki's two-year-old manga, the series got the chop after 13 episodes and it's not hard to see why. Despite what could have been a sexy premise, it fails to achieve lift-off due to the inclusion of what may be the most annoying hero since Miharu from Nabari no Ou.
Kadokawa, FUNimation Presents Heaven's Lost Property, Based on Suu Minazuki's manga
Tomoki Sakurai is your basic 15-year-old panties-obsessed pervert who just wants a life of peace, quiet and opportunities for discreet voyeurism. However, several people get in the way of Tomoki's plans. There's his childhood friend Sohara Mitsuki who regularly karate-chops him when he gets out of hand (not enough, in my opinion), Eishiro Sugata who is obsessed with a portal to a new world that's currently orbiting the Earth, and Mikako Satsukitane, the charmingly sadistic school president with Yakuza ties.
Further complications ensue when he discovers a mysterious winged woman that just fell to Earth. The spectacularly-endowed angel - who calls herself Ikaros - informs Tomoki that she is now his servant and must do whatever he commands, and can bend time and space in order to do so.
Now you'd think this would be the setup for some X-rated hijinks but Heaven's Lost Property is more of an ecchi anime as opposed to the more explicit hentai. For some reason, Tomoki has absolutely no interest in Ikaros despite the fact that she has massive mammaries and is more than willing to let him touch them - in fact, when she strips naked for him in one scene, he reacts with revulsion. Tomoki would much rather use her powers to sneak around and look at other girls' panties.
Yup. Like Rosario + Vampire, this anime is very panty-obsessed: one episode features Sohara being unable to keep her panties on, resulting in a funny sequence where all her panties fly through the air in a V formation. But those touches of humour are sadly rare in this series, and a large part of the reason is due to the protagonist.
It speaks volumes that I was ready to drop-kick this DVD set within half an episode, and the biggest reason is due to Tomiki. He spends most of his time in chibi (child) form having some form of tantrum, which gets old in very little time. A large part of why I didn't enjoy this anime was because he has almost no redeeming qualities yet he starts to amass a harem, which includes another angel named Nymph.
Heaven's Lost Property Blu-Ray/DVD Extras
The only extras are the textless opening and closing songs, but whoever decided to place them on a separate disc deserves a visit from the Slap Fairy.
Annoying Hero Sinks Heaven's Lost Property
Sure the animation is solid and there's plenty of fanservice for the ecchi enthusiast, but when you can't stand the hero, watching this series ain't a lot of fun. It gets a 1.5/5.
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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