First Impressions – Aoharu x Kikanjuu

It’s time to put ya guns on!

Well at first blush I was expecting C3-bu, only with cute boys instead of cute girls. After the first episode, it’s not far from that, but the road it’s going is very different indeed.

 

I wasn’t planning to watch the first episode of this anime at all. Irene emailed the team, so I checked the promotional image and the synopsis in MAL. When I saw the image, I was brimmed with excitement because bishies! Now let’s see whether the story is as good as the image.

 

 Now tell me if you’ve heard this one before: High-school tomboy-ish girl wearing the boys’ uniform gets mistaken as one, is forced into a males-only club to repay her debt for destroying valuable property. The club’s leader is a blond bishounen who works as a host, and is charming, quite a ladies man, can go off on dramatic tangents, and is constantly into the girl’s face, even without knowing she’s a girl. And also the vice-leader of the club is a black-haired guy with glasses who is good friends with blond guy, and has both a kind and a dangerous side? Sound familiar? If not, stop what you’re doing, go to your nearest anime source and watch all 26 episodes of Ouran High School Host Club. Once you’re done and you have denied your desire to read all 18 volumes of the manga, come back here, and join the rest of us more privileged individuals, for Blue Spring X Machinegun, also known as,  Aoharu x Kikanjuu.

Meet Hotaru, high school student, president of the student council, and yes–a girl. 

Get Ready for Survival Games!

IreneSharda: It’s funny, but I originally looked at this title, simply because no one else had signed up for it. I wanted to know if there was a reason why, so I read the plot summary which didn’t tell me a lot, and with no real PV out yet either, I had to do what I never like to do–read the original material. 🙁

I promised myself I would only read one chapter, and ended up having to force myself not to go on to the third. AxK was just so funny and fun, that I couldn’t wait until the first episode. And I must say, I wasn’t disappointed.

Like I said in the intro,  this is basically Ouran High School Host Club meets sabage. Our tomboy this time, is named Hotaru Tachibana. She has an extremely high sense of order and integrity, and fashions herself to be a protector of the weak and heroine of justice. Student council president at her high school, she stays ever vigilant and has the brawn to back up her bite. She doesn’t fit the classic Japanese female model, but never denies her femininity. If people mistake her for a boy, well, that’s on them. However, her world is turned upside down when she meets her new next door neighbor, the blond playboy Masamune Matsuoka and though a series of unusual events, ends up roped into his boys-only club of sabage players.

Hotaru is an interesting girl. She’s not quite as charming as OHSHC’s Haruhi, however, her single-minded obsession with justice and the fact that she’s got the strength and skill to back up her crusade, gives her a unique edge over probably any other anime female this season. You have to wonder where she gets her skills from, both her physical prowess and her ability to handle guns. Her comments in regards to guns and how Masamune treats them, makes me wonder about her background and her combat experience.

“Miss independent, Miss self-sufficient,
Miss keep your distance.
Miss unafraid, Miss out of my way,
Miss don’t let a man interfere.
Miss on her own, Miss almost grown,
Miss never let a man help her off her throne.“

Hearing her spout her rhetoric over and over can get tiring, though I’m hoping with the inclusion of our two male leads, she’ll tone down a little. The animation here was wonderful, especially during the gunfight. And the sabage games will provide an interesting new setting as well, with as much high adrenaline as if we were watching real survival games with real guns. But the character development between our leads is just as important to me as the action itself. How will Hotaru change the lives of her new teammates, and how will they be changed by her? Also, who will be the first to realize her true gender? She’s never hid it, and yet she doesn’t flaunt it either. So, I guess it will just come down to who is the most observant.

Yeah…they’re not even trying to hide it. 

Man of Fortune

skylion: I would expect most folk to instantly glom onto Hotaru as the best character of the bunch, and most folk would not be wrong. She’s got the tropes down pretty good. We can check off Trap, Good Friend, and Defender of Justice right of the bat. But we can also put a mighty chalk mark down for Easy to Manipulate, thanks to the best character of the show, Masamune. That dude is pure show sealer and stealer.

Quite the charmer.

He’s smoking hot, and chillingly cool. It’s no argument that he wears that swagger if he wanted to pretty boy look down pat. But it’s his chilling amount of assessment that really makes him the character to watch. He’s calm, he’s in control, and knows how to rig things in his favor. A perfect counterpoint to Hotaru as the episode clearly spells out. I should dislike a character like this from the get go, but I don’t, and he wants it that way. All in all, I cannot wait for him to come across a situation where an opponent won’t be willing to play his game, cause that was how he spelled out Hotaru’s downfall. It will be nice to see him get that smile wiped off his face. If only to see him earn it back the hard way.

How can you say “no” to that face? 

“What Have I Gotten Myself Into?”

anaaga: I feel tricked. Watching the anime based on the image and synopsis only, I did not see such plot development coming. I mean, good-looking shota who is actually a female? A host club where one of the hosts play… What do you call such sport again? Gosh, I don’t even know the name of the sport. Heck, even synopsis has nothing to do with the main plot. Such misleading promotional image and synopsis. I was definitely surprised when I finished the episode.

Not exactly the best way to ask for a date. 

Nevertheless, I like the unexpected development that happened. It’s been a while since an anime serviced me with surprising elements, and that’s what this anime gave me. Despite the ridiculous female character, weird host club, unrealistic reasoning of the host’s ability, extremely tolerant host club manager, despicable best friend that cannot be called as a best friend, and many other things, I truly enjoyed it. And I’m not pissed too! I’m actually fine with the bishies and the unexpected plot the way they are. The only thing I didn’t enjoy is the art, since the art in the manga is sharper and more mature than the one in the anime. It’s kind of ironic how the thing that led me to this anime became the thing I like the least in this anime. There’s nothing much that can be said about that though, since there must be reasons why anime studio keeps changing the art style in the anime. Maybe profit? Whatever it is, just feed me with more surprise, and I’ll be more than happy with this anime.

You ready for this? 

Ah Masamune, all that kinetic vision and instinct, and can’t see what’s right in front of his face. But then again, without these contrivances you wouldn’t have much of a story. I’m interested very much in how this will all go down, and how the team will come together. Hotaru, Masamune, and Tooru are a fascinating trio and I’ll be watching to see their team dynamic both on and off the battlefield. Also, the comedy and romance can’t hurt either. All evildoers  beware the combined might of Team Toy Gun-gun! 😀 (Yeah….that name’s got to go.)

Despite of my enjoyment, I’m still not sure whether I’ll continue watching this anime or not. Sure it is surprising, but the main focus of this anime, which is that shooting-shooting sport thing, is just not my thing. I don’t like such sport. I like dancing, aerobics, and sleeping. Outdoor is not my thing. Everything I don’t like is bundled inside this anime. So of course I don’t feel like continuing this anime. Why would I watch the thing I don’t like? The bishies, however, is holding me back. I’m a sucker smokers, and the boys happened to be smokers, so yeah… Besides, the unexpected surprise makes me feel excited for next episode, so I’m not sure whether I’ll drop this or not. Let’s just see how it develops first.

This show should not have been in my interests, but this was a bang up, hard to ignore first episode. Brain’s Base has the material dead to rights, and I only want to see more. The survival game almost seems like a reason just to have Masamune show off…..

Bang…