Tag: heavy fanservice

Walkure Romanze

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Jousting !

Characters

Mio, our protagonist. Dumb as a bag of hammers, she’s not a jousting knight. She’s attending a completely different department from this jousting high-school, and is terrible at handling horses. So of course a series of contrived coincidences is going to put her on the saddle by the episode’s end. (Well, nearly. But she’s already been challenged to a jousting match.)

Takahiro is just about the only male knight we ever see. Well, except he stopped jousting after some accident, so for now he’s just tending to his temperamental horse Sakura, and angsting about his future. He’s completely oblivious to Mio’s affections (despite all the effort she spends hovering around him)… and doesn’t particuly care about the various top females knights wanting a partnership with him either.

Those include Celia, the Student Council President With Drill Hair, and Noel, her devious self-proclaimed rival.

Bertille is a lower grade of alpha bitch, cultivating her own reputation among her pair of hanger-ons… but being the first to run when Sakura comes charging in. Thoroughly humiliated, she challenges Mio (who just about managed to rein the horse in) to a jousting match.

Production Values

You know a show has its priorities straight when every single female knight wears a (very short) skirt. And panty shots are featured starting right from the OP sequence. Also, the horse keeps eating those skirts, which means that Bertille spends half her screentime in her underwear.

It’s a shame, as the jousting sequences do look quite good ; those cell-shaded CG graphics are impressive.

Overall Impression

I’m watching this so you don’t have to. I’m sure I’ve lost a few brain cells here.

… Actually, I enjoyed watching this one a bit. It’s one of the dumbest shows in a season that’s not really shined for its intellectual prowess so far, and the fanservice is kinda skeevy, but it makes me a lot less uncomfortable than the wrestling one. If I’m going to keep watching a guilty pleasure show, it may well be this one.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2013 – Page 10.

Hyperdimension Neptunia – The Animation (Choujigen Game Neptune: The Animation)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

An adaptation of a action-RPG game franchise that’s very loosely based on the Console Wars. The setting (“Gamindustri”) is divided into four countries : Lastation, Lowee, Leanbox, and “Neptunia”, which doesn’t seemed to be based on any real console.

Characters

Neptune, the ruling goddess of Neptunia, starts off the series by proclaiming a cease-fire with the three other nations in a grandiose ceremony. But it turns out this aura of dignity is just a façade for the masses ; in truth she’s a lazy bum who didn’t even write her own speech. Since she just plays around all day without doing much, her popularity is declining, which is Bad News for Neptunia. So she goes off on a training trip to get a bit better at her job.

There’s a bunch of supporting characters around her, most prominently her younger sister Nepgear, who’s a bit more responsible but not much more competent (mostly due to her much lower power levels). The others probably had more personality and purpose in the games ; here they’re just nagging on Neptune to take her job more seriously.

Noire, the goddess of Lastation, is very tsundere indeed : she accepts to help training Neptune but staying verbally abusive throughout. Not that Neptune doesn’t deserve it, but Noire’s treatment of her own little sister Uni is a bit more questionable.

The other two goddesses, Blanc (for Lowee) and Vert (for Leanbox) don’t get much screentime yet, with Blanc mostly showing up to make it clear she’s a workaholic who neglects her little sisters.

There are some vaguely nefarious people who show up towards the end in shadows to make some ominous comments.

Production Values

Colourful and utterly generic. This fantasy world doesn’t feel like a real, lived-in place at all.

Also, there’s some horribly contrived fanservice in some places, and those transformations sequences don’t help.

Overall Impression

Terrible on every level. Every single character is annoying, with the token attempts at depth for Neptune & Noire falling flat. The plot is indigent, and barely uses the “console wars” premise at all. (A quick glance through descriptions of the original games shows that those sounded slightly more interesting. But not much.) Nothing of any interest happens. The “transformation” gimmick is just baffling.

Maybe the games are fun to play ; this certainly isn’t fun to watch.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2013 – Page 10.

FREE! – Iwatobi Swim Club

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Sports show about FREESTYLE SWIMMING ! Well, whenever they actually get around to restarting the swimming club, presumably.

Characters

Haruka, our lead character. Utterly obsessed with swimming, to the point of wearing a swimsuit (and often not much else) at all times. Unfortunately, his current high school doesn’t have a functional pool, let alone a swimming club. And it’s too cold to dive into the ocean yet. Not that he’s got much competition drive at this point, anyway. If only he got some spark…

Makoto, his best friend from way back. The kind of childhood friend that’s totally comfortable with entering his house, finding him in his bath, and gently scolding him for being late. It’s pretty obvious that Haruka is mostly ignoring him, but Makoto can’t take the hint. He’s the guy who acts as a straight man in all conversations.

Nagisa, who used to be in the same swimming club back in elementary school, and only just came back in town, joining the same high school. He’s kinda miffed that his old friends aren’t doing any competition swimming anymore, but as the enthusiastic one he doesn’t let that stop him from convincing the two others to break into their old (abandoned) elementary school at night so that they can retrieve the trophy they had left in a time capsule.

Rin, formerly the fourth member of their relay team and Haruka’s rival ; he’s just come back from Australia, but has enrolled into the super-elite school nearby with the top-class swimming club. His mere reappearance (checking in on the buried trophy too) is enough to start reigniting Haruka’s competitive drive.

Gou, Rin’s sister, is in the three others’ high school too. She doesn’t seem to be very close to her brother, and I highly suspect she’s going to be their inevitable swimming club’s manager or something. (Also, in keeping with the running joke that all the boys have girl-ish names, she has a boy-ish one.)

Their new homeroom teacher is presumably going to be important too (club advisor, most probably), as a point is made to mention that teaching was her second-choice career. Three guesses what she tried to do before that, and the first two don’t count.

Production Values

This features KyoAni’s usual attention to detail regarding backgrounds and animation of body language… which in this case means much focus on those young muscled, supple half-naked bodies. But hey, it’s not that much different from your usual testosterone-ladden sports show.

Speaking of testosterone, I love the ridiculously gung-ho rap tunes that start playing whenever Haruka & Rin are in the same room.

Overall Impression

The question was on everyone’s mind after those trailers : is this just trolling, or is there a proper show in there beyond the homoerotic subtext ? Well, the good news is that this does have a perfectly serviceable premise… but it doesn’t rise much above the sea of clichés inherent to the genre. It also has no subtlety whatsoever. (The naming joke mentioned above is spelt out explicitly, for example.)

But hey, I have a weakness for sports shows, and I have no problem watching one that’s in about the same league as, say, Kuroko’s Basketball. (Well, a bit prettier, maybe.) I’m probably going to keep with it, although I really don’t expect it to be great.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2013 – Page 2.

Photo Kano

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Harem romantic comedy, adapted from a dating sim.

Characters

Kazuya, our generic male protagonist. Even he calls himself boring, although he’s trying to change that with his new hobby : taking photographs of everything ! (Daddy has just handed him down his old camera.)

You know how there’s always a perverted best friend ? In this show, there’s a whole club of them : the Photography Club, including a dude who specializes in upskirts, another in cleavage shots from above, the hot-blooded president, and the token girl who’s practically invisible. They want him to join them, of course.

There’s also a “proper” Photo Club right next door, who do all the official photographs. Although since it’s just its president (who ticks all the “potential love interest” checkmarks) and her clingy underling who’s already in another club, they’re not an actual club recognized by the school.

This being a dating sim adaptation, we also get introduced to other potential love interests : the childhood friend, the tomboy, his annoying little sister’s friend, the student council president… (I really hope said annoying little sister isn’t an option, despite her name being in the title.)

Production Values

Perfectly okay. The fanservice level isn’t overwhelming, but there are many gratuitous panty shots indeed.

What did I think of it ?

Exactly what you’d expect from Generic Dating Sim Adaptation #46127 : inoffensive, easy on the eyes, and instantly forgettable. It brings absolutely nothing new to the genre and goes through all the expected clichés, but it does it pleasantly enough that you probably won’t mind if you have some interest in the genre. Otherwise, don’t bother.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2013 – Page 4.

Date A Live

(12 episodes + a bonus OVA)

What’s it about ?

Dating sim mixed with a sentai show. Adapted from a light novel series.

Characters

Shidou, our generic male lead. He’s exactly what you’d expect from a dating sim protagonist : a normal high school boy squabbling with his little sister, he’s got the mandatory perverted best friend, and he’s utterly oblivious about some pretty girls starting to stalk him. Oh, sure, there is some background noise about vast tracts of lands being levelled by “spacequakes” over the last 30 years, but that’s just colour setting, right ?

His life changes when he meets a Mysterious Girl In A Skimpy Outfit at the epicentre of the latest spacequake, which happened right down the block. It turns out that spacequakes are actually the result of MGIASOs landing on Earth, so obviously the authorities are hunting them down on sight. The MGIASO escapes in the confusion before they can catch her.

Origami, the school genius, who was stalking Shidou earlier, is one of the mecha-musume that are the frontline defense against MGIASOs, doing this because her family got killed in a spacequake 5 years ago. She urges him not to tell anyone about this side-job.

Kotori, Shidou’s sister, is actually the commander-in-chief of the local anti-MGIASOs defense force. No, seriously. That’s what her masochist adult subcommander says, so I’ll take his word. They’ve got a spaceship HQ hovering 15,000 km above the city.

The big twist is that the mecha-musume corps isn’t quite cutting it (the MGIASOs have way too much firepower), so our heroes have to resort to a new strategy : have Shidou romance them ! (Why him ? I have no clue.) Cue dating-sim training montage…

Production Values

It’s a bit hard to judge from the eyebleed-o-vision, but I’m not convinced this has much of a budget. The CG is obvious, the character designs are beyond generic, and the animation’s no great shakes.

What is clear is that the fanservice level is noticeably high. We get a bit too much focus on Kotori’s panties for my taste, and these aren’t the only buttshots in this episode. Also, the camera is very interested in the MGIASO’s breasts.

Overall Impression

Well, I’ll grant it that : for a show made exclusively out of stock clichés, it actually manages to put them together in a way new enough to be distinctive. It’s a joke that gave me a chuckle.

Is it actually good ? Good lords, no. It’s impossible to take the rare attempts at emotional impact seriously, given how stupid the premise is. The characters are one-dimensional cardboard cutouts, and none of them look like they’ll rise above their archetypes. (Although I’ll admit the not-nurse is fun to watch.) It’s a show with one joke, and I can’t see it lasting for 12ish episodes without becoming tedious.

In another season I might have given this a bit more of a chance for the fun trainwreck factor, but I just can’t be bothered.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2013.

Vividred Operation

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

The war on pants is back.

Characters

Akane, grand-daughter of the mad genius who invented the free, clean energy generator located nearby. As perks, she also got a flying bike, as well as the means to fight the bad guys.

Grampa, though, seems to have had a falling out with his former associates, as they don’t seem to be getting much money from the generator’s operations. And he buries nearly everything he’s got into more random mad science projects, leaving his family barely pennies for the food.

(Said family seems to be limited at this point to those two and a little sister, who’s the one who hunts bargain bins and has to resort to creative cooking.)

Aoi, Akane’s best friend, is returning to the island the series takes place in after a long absence. Just in time for her plane to get caught in the crossfire between the authority and a giant mechanized war machine suddenly attacking ! Akane saves her just in time.

Production Values

From the director of Strike Witches ! As you’d expect, the show uses the tiniest excuses to have characters in bloomers, and the camera loves ass shots. It’s more than a bit distracting, especially as the show is quite good-looking aside from that.

What did I think of it ?

Urgh. The plot and the characters aren’t interesting enough to make up for the tediousness of the constant ass shots. Even ignoring that, it’s fairly generic anyway.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 6.

Senran Kagura

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

A modern-day school of ninja. Also, boobies.

(Adapted from some fighting game.)

Characters

Asuka, our feather-brained protagonist. She’s coming back to the school after some training and “exam” away (which she narrowly passed). Presumably there’s a reason for her being the focus of the show despite being overshadowed by all of her classmates, but it’s not apparent yet.

Said classmates include the serious one, the pervy one, the deadpan-one-with-an-eyepatch, and the childlike one. All girls, obviously : the only major male character in sight is their old teacher, who tends to abuse smoke bombs a bit too much. (In a rare bit of equal-opportunity fanservice, he gets to eat suggestively one of those cylindrical cucumber things like everyone else.)

Homura, a random girl from another school that Asuka makes friends with. OR IS SHE ? (Come on, she’s so obviously evil it takes all of Asuka’s density not to see the obvious assassination attempt.)

The plot of the week involves a random assignment to subdue some delinquents, which turns out to be a trap by Homura’s schoolmates. Not that any of our girls is perceptive enough to notice them, though.

Production Values

Very fanservice-heavy, from the pervert camera to the what-were-they-thinking costumes to the that-must-be-causing-some-back-pain mensurations. If you’re willing to overlook that, the fight scenes are actually quite nicely done, dynamic and never confusing.

Overall Impression

Oh, look : crap. It’s far from the worse of its ilk (the tone is quite pleasant and fun), but there’s just nothing of any interest there. The characters are one-dimensional and terminally dumb, while the plot is beyond generic and an obvious excuse for action sequences.

Don’t bother with this one.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 4.

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic

What’s it about ?

A fresh take on the Arabian Nights.

Characters

Alibaba is our point-of-view character through most of the episode. At this stage, he’s a snivelling coward barely ekking out a living. (Yuuki Kaji should voice more snivelling cowards, as he’s very good at it.) Still, he’s got some shreds of decency left under the smarm.

One day he meets Aladdin, a strange kid who was eating his merchandise. Kiddo’s got an awesome flute that summons a giant powerful djinn, but he only uses it when Alibaba shows some spine and does the right thing.

Our villain of the week is Budel, a generic evil merchant and slaver Alibaba is initially working his debts off for. Of more interest is his boss Jamil, who exudes more charisma in a single minute of screentime than his underling over the whole episode. Presumably he’s going to be important.

There’s also a redhead slave that our heroes make token efforts to break free throughout the episode. In a dark bit that I hope is intentional, they completely forget about her at the end as they ride towards the sunset.

The overall plot involves “Dungeons”, big inexplicable towers full of traps and treasure that are sprinkled all over the place. Aladdin found his flute in one of them, and wants to “free” more of those djinn containers. Alibaba’s perfectly happy to tag along with the kid, because treasure ! (And it’s probably safer to stay with the kid who managed to successfully infiltrate one of those.)

Production Values

I’m not too keen on the way our heroes’ face contort round when the show goes for comedy, but it can’t be denied that it’s not afraid to use distinctive character designs.

What did I think of it ?

This is fun. It takes a while to hit its stride, but there are some nice gags, the stakes are reasonably high, and Aladdin’s use of his deus-ex-machina djinn feels appropriate enough.

I’m game for more.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2012 – Page 5.

Ixion Saga: Dimensional Transfer

(24 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Loser gamer is somehow sucked into a fantasy RPG world. The usual jokes ensue.

Characters

Kon, an avid MMORPG player who suddenly gets sucked into the game (or something) after falling for a honey trap. The guy is a despicable moron, and only survives the episode from a combination of dumb luck and dumb luck.

He stumbles upon the adventuring party of Ecarlate, very young princess chased by the baddies ; Sainglain, badass sword-wielding knight ; and Mariandale, gun-wielding maide… wait, that’s a dude ? HOW ?

It’s never properly explained why the baddies want to prevent Ecarlate from reaching her destination and marrying the prince of whatever, but it’s not like this series cares about the details much. It seems much more concerned about making horribly bad puns, such as the Big Bad’s initials being short for “erectile dysfunction”. (Also, the “DT” series acronym is apparently also short for Kon’s virgin status.)

Production Values

Remember how I said before that Brain’s Base bring a baseline of quality to every project they touch ? Well, this is the exception. It looks like crap throughout, and the fact that it’s probably on purpose isn’t an excuse.

What did I think of it ?

Sleep deprivation must be making strange things to my taste, because I don’t immediately want to drop this, despite the shoddy production values, the lame story and the stale jokes. Am I so easily amused by Jun Fukuyama playing a drag-queen with gusto ? Or is it just the basic lampooning of RPG clichés as our “heroes” beat up everyone in sight so that they can take their stuff ?

Despite my better judgment, I’m at least giving it a second episode.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2012 – Page 5.

BTOOOM!

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Battle Royale with bombs.

Characters

Sakamoto is one of the world’s top players of BTOOOM!, an online FPS whose distinguishing feature is that your only weapons are bombs (of various types : contact-triggered, timed, etc.). The downside to his virtual fame is that, well, he’s a bit of a complete loser : unemployed for two years and spending all his time in front of his computer. Bonus points for verbally abusing his poor mother, who has the audacity to keep trying to find him a job, any job. (He’s got his eye on an opening at the game company producing BTOOOM!, but if he really believes he has a chance, he’s deluding himself.)

One day, he wakes up stranded on a tropical island, without any clue as to how he got there. (An eventual flashback shows that MIB seem to be involved, always a bad sign). His starting inventory : his grocery shopping from just before he got abducted, a starting set of 8 timer bombs, and a jewel incrusted into his hand that seems to work a bit like the sonar feature in BTOOOM! (except a lot less accurate).

The first dude he meets on the island’s beach never bothers to introduce himself, and point blank refuses to explain what’s happening to the n00b. Instead, he just attacks our protagonist with impact-triggered bombs.

Later on, our hero stumbles on another participant, a girl washing herself in a small lake. I suspect she’s his briefly-mentioned in-game wife, although if this show has any sense of humour that was probably the earlier dude. Anyway, she doesn’t even get a line of dialogue yet ; the next-episode preview suggests it’s entirely devoted to her backstory. (Are we having rotating point-of-view characters ?)

Production Values

Perfectly alright, although the girl’s character design is very fanservice-y indeed. Let’s hope she doesn’t poke anyone’s eye out.

What did I think of it ?

How can you hate a show so refreshingly honest about its nature that it’s called “BTOOOM!” ? This is a thoroughly dumb premise that’s fodder for nicely tactical action sequences and lots of explosions. The unsubtle bits of social satire aren’t unwelcome, either.

Ontological mysteries can often get a bit silly, and with only 12 episodes for an still-ongoing manga I doubt we’ll be getting many answers, but so far I’m tentatively enjoying the ride.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2012 – Page 3.