「「貞淑寮」騒乱」 (Teishuku ryou, souran)
“The Chastity Dorm Riot”

If there’s one thing to say about Busou Shoujo it’s that it sure doesn’t know how to slow down. Plot revelations, serious story reveal? That’s for sucker shows, what real men want is fighting, and by hell are they going to get it. Stealing the hearts of maidens, whipping the lolis juniors, making panty colour a running gag, just another day’s work for our wholesome, persevering hero. Yeah there might not been any sign of challenge yet, but I imagine that’s not too far off either.

To be fair, however, Busou Shoujo is forming—sort of—a purpose for Nomura’s actions. The guy wants to leave school grounds because freedom (probably), but conveniently cannot until he takes that permission card and gets all Supreme Five Swords to literally stamp off on it. Given the parodic undercurrents pulsing through the show this shouldn’t be a surprising feature to anyone. After all, it gives Nomura a reason to confront the Five Swords, a reason for them to continue fighting against him, and slots in nicely with the off the cuff premise at work here. Like with the school setting, the card introduction meant to provide purpose to all that horse play, not seriously explain anything—looking for a deeper meaning is doing it wrong. Yeah, there are wafts of some greater purpose here (i.e. Nomura’s backstory, Rin’s demon mask, or the whole situation concerning the Empress), but at the moment this story is all about one man’s desire for peace and quiet.

Helping keep things amusing are the character interactions too. Rin of course is comedy central number one, going full tsundere trying to rationalize away her first kiss—see, told you!—and Nomura’s actions. Nomura’s carefree attitude, however, completes the scenes. There is no hesitant stammering, no apology for every little thing, just off the cuff remarks about cuteness and seeing Rin in “normal” (hue) clothing—did I mention the horn blowing in the background? Cannot forget about U Choka—Uchoka? Uchoka—either, who definitely has meshed the best aspects of cultural appropriation and naming convention with a quaint take on the Celestia look. The double team may not have been as great as Rin’s thrashing last week, but I’ll certainly take the delicious aftermath. Gives Rin something else to mull over in her new supervisory position.

The main issue for me going forward, however, is repetitiveness. Busou Shoujo has a neat concept running here, but if the entirety of the show is duels for stamps it will wear thin after a while. The show will need something else to keep things fresh, whether that be elaboration on the backstories or developments beyond the fights themselves. I’m already sold on the comedy, now Busou Shoujo just has to sell me on the experience. While I’m still mulling over whether to blog this one through, there’s no doubt I’m coming back for next week. After all, it’s time to see how France fares against our resident body bender.

 

Preview

12 Comments

  1. The show feels very nostalgic. Literally no pretense of any deeper story, just an absurd premise as a vehicle to facilitate the martial arts fights between the chill as fuck main character and all the cute girls around him. Did I mention vast amounts of exposition as well just for shits and giggles? It’s literally a ‘battle’ ‘harem’ in its purest form. And dare I say, it’s all the show needs as long as it keeps its character interactions fresh.

    That being said, I at least hope the animation quality is better for the main confrontations with the Five Swords.
    Oh and Satori is perfect. I love me some batshit crazy women.

    Five
    1. The explanations aren’t for shit and giggles. The author is a martial artist and generally knows what he’s doing, all of the goken’s style are actual japanese Koryu and uses actual techniques from said style, except Mary who uses fencing

      Donto
    2. The explanations are factual, but the way they’re used here is definitely comedic. The starting situation is already messed up, and throwing legitimate martial arts on top just makes it all the more hilarious. It’s probably why I’m liking this show so much.

  2. While this was a fun episode, there seemed to be a change of pace in comparison to the first one. Maybe it slowed down on the gags or there were to many serious elements for an absurd comedy. Right now still enjoyable, but I got the feeling the show could become repeatable or boring.

    jf
  3. Will the anime have time to introduce the plot tieins to Shinakoi, the author’s previous work?
    Cuz someone mentioned last week the Shinakoi connections are the foundations for the plot arcs after the 5 Swords stamps battles.

    zztop
  4. I’m not a fan of Prison School (test drove the manga before anime aired & an easy decision to pass), so I was hesitant to try this out. Fortunately (for me), while there’s some similarities with the basic premise, this ain’t Prison School.

    I went in with no expectations and to my surprise, kind of liked it. It’s not AOTS/AOTY nor does it delve into deep, philosophical stuff, but I did find it entertaining. Characters help here. Nomura’s a pretty good ML IMO. Panties? No *BLUSH!!!* “OMG!! GTWTAVRHNJSNHPH!” Instead, a nonchalant, amusing (IMO) running joke. He’s got a bit of rogue to him, but seems to be a decent guy as well. That works for me. I also like Rin as well.

    While not every joke hits, there were some funny moments for me. Another plus. Battles/action are not exemplary, but not bad either and I did find some the martial arts exposition interesting. Not sure what to say other than, for what it is, it worked fairly well.

    Pancakes does make a fair point about the plot & potential repetition. Short term, the plot is fixed – go collect the 5 stamps via battle with he 5 Swords. There’s probably also a showdown with the “Empress” as well I imagine though perhaps not this season. So yes, there potentially is a risk of repetition as things stand, but good execution including comedy can alleviate that.

    This isn’t high on my list this season, but I’ll probably stick with it. As long as I’m enjoying the show, why not?

    daikama
  5. Maybe it’s just me, but I really don’t like the direction they took for the art design. The characters look too cute or plush, whereas the manga the MC looked like a real jerk and the girls had a more menacing feel to them.

    ion42

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