apart from other harem anime: "heart". Anime News Network's Carlo Santos agreed with Martin's assessment, agreeing with the show's lack of novelty and stating that the highlight of the anime is its comedy, but that its romance is "slowly running the series into the ground." However, D. F. Smith of IGN stated that it actually does well against other harem anime as it "may be ridiculous, exploitative, a simultaneous affront to good sense and good taste, but at least it's good for a chuckle or two". Smith criticized the ending for lacking "intensity"; however, Ellingwood praised it for showing the consequences of avoiding which heroine the protagonist would choose to love, unlike harem anime she had prior. Ellingwood praised the animation quality as "high quality" with "wonderfully lush and vibrant color schemes" used for the character designs. Smith agreed, describing the anime as "colorful" and "sharply-drawn", however in the last few episodes as having darkened the scenes a little excessively. However, Martin criticized the "mediocre" animation noting the "bland" appearance of characters as uncharacteristic of harem anime. Santos stated that the animation was "sloppy" for the secondary characters, however praised the high quality and detail of the artwork. Although Ellingwood described the score as "energetic and pleasing", Smith stated that the music "tends to stick to the background". Martin expressed a similar view stating that the soundtrack "does little to spruce up the production", although he described the opening theme "You" as "a strong, energetic J-rock number worth listening to independently" and as "unquestioningly" the highlight of the soundtrack. On the other hand, Santos described the theme music and at times the music selection as "show[ing] absolutely no originality" but the background music as "surprisingly listenable" and at times "so evocative that it conveys the scene better than the story and characters do." Legacy A 3D virtual world called Ai Sp@ce was developed by the video game developer Headlock where users can interact with bishōjo game heroines from Shuffle!, Clannad, and Da Capo II. Released in October 2008, the world recreates each game franchise on its own virtual island which are linked with a central Akihabara Island where users can interact, bridging the gap between the separate franchises. Users are able to create a customizable avatar to represent themselves in the game, along with choosing one game heroine to live with, which is referred to as a character doll, or