Anime of the Week: Maken-Ki

I've been watching a shit ton of Anime lately and thought, "you know what? I should share this info with others." That is what we do here, share info and opinions and such. With that said, I'll be picking an Anime each week that I'm either watching or have just finished watching and telling you about it. It's not a review, more of a spotlight or some crap.This week is Maken-Ki! But if you search for it in America you better add "Battling Venus" to the end of the title. Funimation apparently feels that American audiences won't understand the title if they don't add "Fight", "Samurai" or "Boobs" at the end of it. I found the program on Hulu, although I'm sure there are several Anime outlets such as Crunchroll or even the Anime Network that you can also find the show on.

The gist of the show isn't 100% original, but it made me laugh and entertained me. I call this genre, "Average boy with too many girl suitors." The story begins with a boy named Takeru attending his first day at a new school. He's enrolled at the school because it's just opened up as co-ed. He figures there won't be as many boys at the school so he'll be knee deep in pussy. He's reunited with his childhood friend who happens to be a mega-babe that wears black stockings with her school uniform. The basic trend of this show is that all of the girls skirts are too short and the camera angle is always pointed up their skirt. Takeru is the typical clueless male, his clueless nature is the viewers gateway into the world. Essentially, as he learns about the world so does the viewer.

The thing that I found different about Maken-Ki was the fact that Takeru is a major pervert. Usually in the "Average guy with too many girl suitors" genre the guy is extremely nice and never takes the opportunities present to him. With Takeru, he too doesn't take the obvious opportunities, but he chases glimpses of boobs and the magic "V" constantly. In fact he meets his first male friend while peeking at the girls taking their physicals. Sure when women throw themselves at him he does nothing, but he's throw into daily situations in which he walks in on women changing or half naked. This is of course due to the fact that he lives with three female classmates.

Yup, pretty much.

There is also a very dark side to the story that really is barely touched up on in the first twelve episodes and to be honest the comic book was much better. Even still I really liked the show and basically watched the entire thing in two days. I will say that if you watch it on Hulu, strap in for the commercials. The first six episodes I was forced to watch three commercials each break. If you're familiar with Japanese cartoons then  you know that after the opening there's a break so you're basically stuck watching five commercials off the bat. Who watches the opening each time, no one.

There you have, my Anime pic of the week. Got something you think I should watch? Let me know in the comments. Until next week-- Space Cowboys.

Comments

[Dustin Cabeal]

One Piece? What the hell are you taking about? Those are undies on his face!