First impression – Maken-Ki

Now with more melons for everyone to enjoy!

So yeah, Maken-ki. We already know it’s gonna get whatever the anime equivalent of the razzie award is. It’s going to suck, but you know what? I’m an ecchi fan and I could really not care. Fosh, let’s talk some Maken-Ki impressions!
Oh hey look, Maken-Ki got released! This series looked kind of like a generic copy of Freezing. I think every new season brings us these random ecchi themed series, aka girls with crazy powers fighting in short skirts with plenty of panty shots to go around. Now it’s time for Maken-Ki to bounce around for us, yeah I’m with you on this all the way, Jrow! I never ever expect these shows to do anything more than pushing DVD sales and kill us with censor bars.

Plot for the first episode follows the childhood friend Haruko visiting her friend Takeru because he is late for school. Takeru soon discovers that his school has merged with a girl’s school and on his first day, witnesses two girls fighting outside. These girls appear to have some type of special power; Takeru has a run in with a girl named Himegami who later challenges him to a duel. Before Takeru gets pounded into dust by Himegami; a mysterious girl jumps in and saves him, claiming to be his wife. Afterwards, Takeru gains three new female roommates.

Haruko- “I get the feeling I should have worn a longer skirt.”

So we begin our boob filled adventure with Haruko walking down the street to visit Takeru, and like any ecchi anime we get the normal low camera shot and our first of so many panty shots. After Takeru says hello to Haruko after grabbing her chest and receiving a kick, they head to school together where Takeru gets very excited, while Haruko explains things to him about the girls school.  Haruko runs off leaving Takeru to fend for himself as he witnesses two girls fighting. Well that’s just how the girls at this school communicate with each other through random battles.

Takeru- “Hello there boobs er… I mean fancy meeting you here, Haruko…”

Takeru-“Pink pantsu! Vital to the hardcore plot of this anime.”

Takeru watches in shock as these two girls fight with their strange power and he sees a girl hanging from a tree named Himegami. Yes she doesn’t even notice that she’s totally flashing him without a care. That is until she falls landing right on top of Takeru where she gives him a kiss by mistake. Because we all know kissing in these series are either a) an accident or b) unlocking more power. I will go with plan A on this one. Himegami runs away and Takeru joins the other students as the principal as she explains how things work at this school, basically all the girls are special and each use various elemental powers to fight.

Takeru’s one lucky bastard to feel so much in a day…

Principal- “And no they are totally not real! Don’t ask ever again please.”

During this orientation, Himegami challenges Takeru to a fight. Why? Because she wants to force him to forget about her panties and that KISS! OH NO, NOT THAT KISS! Anyway she promises Takeru she would go easy on him, but she changes her mind and goes all out with an electric attack. It appears Takeru has as odd mark on his body *cough*Samurai girls*cough* and before he gets shocked to death another girl jumps in to defend him. This girl is Inahou Kushihachi who happens to double as Takeru’s fiance! Well, Haruko is not amused by this and decides to confront Takeru after school.

Haruko- “Whoa! I think we might have caused our fans to go blind.”

Kushihachi- “I totally ripped this arm right out of S-cry-ed.”

Pink! It’s the new striped panties for 2011!

As Haruko enters Takeru’s room before he can give her a warning, she discovers for herself that Kushihachi and Himegami have now taken residence at his place. Haruko forces herself on them and decides to move in too and the girls chat about sleeping arrangements. Congratulations, Takeru! You have gained three possible love interests that can all kick your ass. Oh boy! This series suddenly feels more like a hentai than an anime series…

Takeru- “You are too late, Haruko! I already invited the whole damn school to move in.”

Takeru- “Dude…I want…to…die….”

Extra pantsu fun

Takeru’s special elemental power? X-ray vision!

Himegami- “OHHH YA, I OWNED THAT GUY!” What I flashed him again?! DAMN IT!”

Jrow! We need to trade places with that bear…

Haruko- “Help! I have fallen. My chest is too heavy…”

Sorry! But you have to wait for the uncensored version, but go ahead and use your IMAGINATION! Wooo!

End Thoughts:

It’s easy to call Maken-ki the worst of the season. Everything it does, it’s put on a tee, and that’s only from people looking at the picture, let alone bothering to read summaries and seiyuu cast listings and downloading the episode. Of the AIC shows this year, this is easily the worst. Bokuwa is extremely better looking, and P4A is going to get great attention to key animation; most attention in Maken-Ki is paid to the panty shots, which will look nice in a few months. And yeah, I mean the girls all have nice bodies and stuff, but I only really found the girl with the bandage on her nose to be hot. And thru this, I learned that she is voiced by Misuzu Togashi, who will be the main dude Yuki in Mirai Nikki. If the song in the PV is the opening, then I at least do like that.

Pantsu shots are going to be in abundance, with even Takeru referring to one of the censorships as a “white sky”. Haru-nee’s wet & bare breasts make an appearance after the credits, which after such a boring and cliche ending theme animation, I’m shocked I sat thru it without Command+Q’ing or whatever your media player. Every chance I get, I will throw credit Samurai Girls’ way for being a decent ecchi anime with a unique visual style and TV censorship that actually took effort to make and was effective, although it blocked my eyes from Senhime-sama’s body. More people should watch Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls… anyways…

It’s an ecchi/harem/action show that’s going to follow formula. It’s not going to be even unique within its own genre. The idiots like me that follow this stuff are gonna throw caution to the wind and dive head first into some boobies. But in this age of anime, we tend to wait until the first volume BD comes out. I tend to be a couple seasons behind when it comes to ecchi. For example, Oretachi aired this past Spring and BD’s are still coming out. R-15 just started with BD releases, and Fosh & Kyokai said that the show was at least funny early on. Those shows actually seem to have some value to watching (Majikoi also shows a half-decent sign of being interesting), while shows like this will really only be seen on a Sankaku post for the guy who has taken the time to screencap the many uncensored shots.

At least the episode ended! So, did I like this ecchi episode for Maken-ki? Well, part of me really did like it and the other half was really bored. Like I said earlier, these series really hardly ever do anything new or different. Character designs were decent and yes almost every girl has the same design style minus the obvious hairstyles and colors; the only non humongous boob chick would be Himegami for now and no she isn’t the loli but she does have a tsundere attitude and the popular twin-tailed hairstyle.

I did enjoy watching the first fight scene showing off the special powers. Damn that was very cool to watch, and sure all of the animation was spent zooming in on the girl’s panties that flashes us every chance they get. But when it comes down to the actual fighting I enjoyed it and yes I know we only had one real fight scene between the redhead and that other girl. Oh I’m so with Jrow on this one that redhead wow! She is one of the better looking characters and of course that red hair of hers, which happens to be one of my favorite colors on most anime girls. Besides the redhead, I did like Kushihachi’s character and it helps that I really love her voice thanks to her roles in Kore wa zombie as Haruna and Mirai from Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi. She seems to always play the hyper active girl doesn’t she? Well, I do enjoy those types of girls in most anime series.

Nothing left to really explain on other than the really generic anime plotline and the usual character types ranging from childhood friend, random fiancée, tsundere and plenty of others. So how many saw that ending coming way before the series even started? I know I was like let me guess, all of the girls Takeru has run into will move in with him. Oh well, I might watch the rest of this fail series just to see where things go. I think Maken-Ki will fall into my mindless entertainment folder for this season because we really should not hold our breaths for it being anything but mindless.

Preview

Yes these girls are awesome! Because they can own you.

Takeru and friends explore more fighting and of course expect tons of panty shots next episode too.

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We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
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22 Responses to “First impression – Maken-Ki”

  1. akagami says:

    The manga was mindless fun, but when I heard there was going to be an anime, I just cringed. It’s not a series that will adapt well beyond being mindless fan-service.

    This on my list of shows to check out (I’m slacking, I’ve only gotten through four shows so far ><) but I'm honestly not expecting much. I figure since I'm reading the manga I owe it to someone to see how bad this will turn out.

    • Foshizzel says:

      Yeah I think I will end up spam reading the manga once this series wraps up, I didn’t really get to excited for this because I know it’s going to be censored to hell. Yeah mindless fan service xDD

      Yeah I wouldn’t expect this series to do anything amazing! Better off sticking to something you actually have fun watching.

  2. Toori-chan says:

    A girls school that turned co-ed? I thought we had this in Mashiro?

  3. Dan-go says:

    I never used to force ecchi into my lineup, but for the last 3 seasons i’ve had somekind of ecchi there. it just doesn’t feel right. You guys don’t seem to think it’s worth it though…so i dunno. i guess i’ll try it, it looks funny enough to appeal

    • Foshizzel says:

      I will watch for luls and stuff, Freezing was the same thing for me sure fan service was nice in that series but that’s about all it had going for it at the time.

      Maybe the fights will get interesting later!? Ah well we can dream!

    • Jrow says:

      I’d recommend Majikoi over Maken-ki. It lacks in panty shots, but did have a bathing scene in episode 2 and I likee Majikoi’s action and ensemble cast much more. I’ll talk a bit more about it when I get the ep. 2 blog of it up tonight.

  4. BlackBriar says:

    Aiyaaa!!! So many First Impressions!!! This looks like another school fighting anime like Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! but with extra fan service, fan service where Maji may be lacking but just as dangerous in the fights.

    You don’t need to tell me twice about using my imagination. Takeru is one lucky bastard to have so many encounters in just a few short hours of his school day.

    • Foshizzel says:

      We love our first impressions muhahah!!

      Yeah lots of schools and fighting going on this season, I think for “action” I will stick to Ben-to, Horizon and maybe Maken-ki for uh ya fanservice <.< LOL I know right? Nerdy guy living with three girls ah the life, then again I can see him getting his ass beat every episode for peeking or walking in on them changing! Seriously he better learn to knock....

      • Jrow says:

        They’ll do that stupid thing where he gets beat up so much he can’t remember seeing them naked. I always feel bummed out for those main characters (even if they’re dumb and blind to the fact that girls obviously love him).

  5. Elyon says:

    As if these harem leads weren’t lucky enough to have girls fawn all over them all the time, it’s like even gravity is on their side. How on earth do you trip and grope somebody’s boobs AND have a girl fall on you and kiss you in one episode? HOW DOES THAT EVEN HAPPEN?

    • Foshizzel says:

      Lulz I know right? DAMN YOU ANIME! They get all the guys hopes up, oh yes ecchi gravity for the win right? The power of anime that’s how it happens xD

  6. Jrow says:

    Big ups Fosh on the captions. I do wanna trade places with that teddy bear. :3

  7. Amuro1X says:

    Alright Jrow. You know me. You know I like stupid shows along these lines just as much as you do.

    My problem is that Maken-ki was utterly bland in every respect. The music was piss poor, the characters were boring, and the plot was paper thin. The ecchi can only carry this so far, and with awful censoring, it’s just not worth it right now. I will say that I hate when someone hates on this type of show because of what the show knows it is and it’s trying to do. However, this show is just bad at all those things.

    If you do stick it out with this, though, lemme know how it turns out, and I might give the inevitable blu rays a shot.

    • Foshizzel says:

      I love them too! I know it’s going to be dumb and boring but…ya….stuff…

      Yeah I am with you there Amuro, compared to what fall has to really offer most people are better off passing on this for now. But if you really are into these shows for the service then like you said they are way better off waiting for the goods.

    • Jrow says:

      I don’t even care about the BDs. Me noting the date of release is just a go-to line I write or say when ecchi is discussed.

  8. Sabine says:

    I have to say Dragonball to those little chibi lightning dudes!! X”D The best part of the show! (nothing else.. comes to mind right now)

  9. […] “Nothing left to really explain on other than the really generic anime plotline and the usual character types ranging from childhood friend, random fiancée, tsundere and plenty of others. So how many saw that ending coming way before the series even started? I know I was like let me guess, all of the girls Takeru has run into will move in with him.” – Metanorn […]

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