30-sai is about divine intervention trying to help two 30-year-old virgins hit it up, quite literally. The divine intervention is in the form of a pair of sex gods, two per virgin. Underneath an unbelievable amount of ecchi content and references you'll find a very light romance. Throughout the show, though, I kept wondering whether this show is actually trying to serve as a helpful guide under the guise of comedy, or whether this show is just making fun of the topic of sexuality.
This is quite a unique series. Apart from wondering how this ever got on TV, you'll also notice a very unique flavor of comedy. I found some of these references humorous, but quite a few of the others in bad taste. This is an ecchi-comedy with a slight romantic development, and a random, short divergence to action-land. If you willing to sift through the ecchi overload, try out the first two episodes to see if it piques your interest.
Animation:
The animation of this series is, again, unique to say the least. The character models are a bit simplistic and often go into comic-mode (no backgrounds, few character details). Backgrounds are also very simplistic and solid-colored (no detailed shading). There are also portions where the animation style is purposefully grotesque (really ugly drawing style or dis-proportioned figures).
However, most noticeable of all would be the ecchi. The show is full of endlessly censored frames. It's sometimes feels random as apparently french kissing by fake lips is filtered while a banana with two small tangerines next to a mango sliced in half is apparently totally fine. The main point in the show is to have the sex gods teach the virgins how to date and do things that follow a date, therefore, you should expect this to be very explicit at times; i.e. this is most definitely NSFW.
Sound:
The OP is energetic but I don't particularly like the voice. The ED is a rock song with a fairly decent melody, and a fairly interesting sequence (shows the virgins as they grow up). Surprisingly enough, the BGM is actually quite memorable in this series. It plays a very significant role as many of the scenes are more visual-oriented than sound-oriented, there will almost always be some BGM playing.
The VAs do a decent job but Imagawa really does sound like a scary creep at times. You will also get a lot of bleeped out lines as they can't say *** or **** or any other words that I also shouldn't be posting here.
Story:
The story is told from the viewpoint of Imagawa and Andou, two virgins who now live with sex gods who refuse to leave until the former are no longer virgins. The two virgins eventually encounter each other and slowly learn how to date and grow closer through "lessons". Some of these lessons are simple dating tips while others are attempts to get them more to be more comfortable with explicit content. These lessons form title screens that divide each episode. These somewhat spoil what's coming up so I'd recommend not reading the subs for these. Even without the lesson titles, the story is very linear and isn't terribly deep. The focus is definitely on the comedic aspects, with a plot existing to support the comedic events.
Character:
Imagawa is completely creepy and sleeps with a blow up doll, while Andou is just embarrassed and ends up turning down anyone who approaches her. Though there is development as the virgins do learn eventually to interact at some level with the other gender, it feels artificial as the characters themselves don't have much depth. You never really get to know the actual virgins as the show primarily uses them as "dolls" to bring across the point of the lesson. Despite this, some of the character interactions are fairly humorous. Just don't expect the same warm fuzzy feeling that you'd get from something like Amagami SS.
Value:
This is a short, light show that emphasizes that hanging out with the other gender can be fun. It gives some potentially useful dating tips as well as a whole lot of sexual references, most of which doesn't really serve any meaningful purpose. It was decently enjoyable but doesn't really have quite enough depth of characters. The end message is actually probably a good way to finish this off: "If you do nothing, there will never be a chance!".
