「Weihnachten ~臓物たちの奇跡~」 (Zoumotsu-tachi no Kiseki)
“Christmas ~The Zoumotsu Animals’ Miracle~”

Well it looks like episode eleven is all we’re getting story-wise, so the manga and light novels are the next step for any more Kampfer-related needs. Despite leaving things open-ended (as expected), they provided a climactic finish with all the fights at least. Natsuru also made a decision amongst the girls, which landed him the touted harem ending.

For this last episode, we have a zoumotsu animal story body-swap style, which doesn’t really slot into any time frame of the actual story. It’s more or less a random bonus episode you’d expect with the DVD releases, but it’s been tacked on at the end of the broadcast. The characters are still their Kampfer selves, but the whole issue of Kaede being a Moderator is non-existent here. The biggest change of course is the Kampfer/Messenger body swapping, which I found pretty amusing with the seiyuu cast. I probably could’ve done without Nomura Michiko as female Natsuru, but Tamura Yukari as Akane, Mizuki Nana as Shizuku, and Noto Mamiko as Mikoto were interesting to see and hear. The only semi-downside is that they were still their silly/stupid Messenger personalities, enjoying what it’s like to feel alive for the very first time. Aside from the fact that this is supposed to be a Christmas story (read by parents who look like male and female Natsuru) and the reindeer sleighs at the end, the Christmas title is far from being warranted.

Regardless, I like how they didn’t fail to poke fun at themselves in various ways. Masumi in particular expressed displeasure over being a mere sub-character. They also had the Messengers do and say stupid things as humans, and brought in the nameless class president, vice president, and treasurer to stir things up. The whole “making the Messengers pay for their food with their bodies” bit led to less fan-service than I was hoping, but the zoumotsu animal theme park that Kaede drags everyone off to more than makes up for it. I guess it’s not surprising that the park isn’t popular when it’s designed for masochists and all, but if it means we can subject Kaede to our personal desires and force her to orgasm left and right while tied up, I’m so there. Kaede is remarkably tolerable when she’s restrained and at everyone’s nibbling mercy.

Perhaps this was to make up for Nakajima Megumi not getting any moaning screentime in the previous episode. If that’s what they were trying to address, they sure as hell succeeded, to the point where Kaede had to confess for falling for more girls. Again, this is where you have to credit the class trio for telling her outright that she’s a loose woman (i.e. a slut). I was hoping Kaede would get a good whip cracking for her naughty promiscuous ways, but all I got were silly Messengers experiencing pain for the first time and enjoying it. I’ll admit it was pretty amusing watching them slap one another though, but it was just as entertaining watching them get aroused. I would’ve liked to see more of their human counterparts as stuffed animals, because watching Shizuku stick it to Natsuru for ordering her around was pretty good stuff. Aside from that, we had two very nice eyecatches here, which left me wanting a high resolution copy of the second one to use as a wallpaper.

 

In terms of final impressions, I’ll try to keep things brief for all my shows this time around. I’ve gone into fairly lengthy impressions for my previous posts (since I’m apparently never short on things to say), so hopefully you have a good idea of my thoughts throughout the season. In Kampfer’s case, I mentioned before how it was the only show I was planning to cover after getting back into the blogging swing of things. Well we’re at approximately two and half months later now, and I can say it wouldn’t have been a bad decision to do so. Yes, I realize it’s not a series you’d recommend to anyone and everyone, but it landed well within my initial expectations.

I loved the character designs and artwork from the get-go, plus the awesome cast that compliments them. Those alone probably would’ve kept me watching, but they had some surprises in Shizuku’s forceful behaviour, Akane’s foul-mouthed personality, and just overall action. As far as any series with an above average reliance on fan-service goes, I don’t know if you could really ask for any more than that. Kampfer has been a series that I get the impression a lot of people ended up watching, but many of which were hesitant to admit they enjoyed despite the harem genre’s obviously flaws and clichés. Well I’m not afraid to admit I enjoyed it, so if there’s anyone out there who likes this genre of anime and knows how to set their expectations accordingly, I really don’t see any reason not to check out Kampfer.

It’s been fun. If you’ve been following my posts on a weekly basis, thanks for reading.

56 Comments

  1. Lelouch V Brit:
    I’d say it’s unlikely since this comes off as a series that was planned as 12 episodes from start to finish. However, you can never definitively say as sequels for shows you least expect sometimes come out years later.

    I wouldn’t bother waiting or expecting a sequel in the immediate future though. My advice would be to just look for the next interesting thing to watch. =)

  2. Well, this was a show that met my expectations. Fan service and comedy. It was nice to see Shizuku being voiced by Nana…too much cuteness. The only thing that caught me off guard was the two Natsurus at the end.

    pierce
  3. i still have a hard time picturing how the male and female natsuru’s would get together if they were separate people, because their one and the same

    all i know is there will be a lot of jealous guys and maybe more girls against male natsuru thats for sure

    longshot
  4. So basically a married couple resembling both Natsuru’s read their daughter a Christmas story with ecchi and SM themes? Something isn’t right there.

    Overall I have to agree that I enjoyed to show solely because it gave what I wanted. Stupid comedy and fanservice, nothing more, nothing less. Kampfer entertained me, that was all that matters.

    fragbet
  5. I was hoping for more story instead of some bonus episode thingy but oh well. Though I am thrilled that there is gonna be season 3 for Hidamari Sketch. When they showed the preview for it after the credits I about moe’d in my pants.

    Narutodesu
  6. Thanks for all of the blog postings on the series. I enjoy this anime just as much as I enjoy the light novel. I heard that the novel is near for a conclusion as well, I can’t wait to see what happens in the end.

    お化け屋敷の主人
  7. Thanks for blogging the series divine.

    “Again, this is where you have to credit the class trio for telling her outright that she’s a loose woman (i.e. a slut).”

    Best part of the episode in my opinion…literally almost fell of the seat laughing and thanking the anime gods above for finally telling her how it is! It was definitely an interesting series, and it’s left quite a few people confused after the first episode. Would show friends the first episode or two and they would be like…”omfg, the chick is hot..but doesn’t that make me gay since it’s also a boy…but she looses all of her privates so it’s alright…right…?!” Overall I feel it’s served it’s purpose…which is to provide some fun entertainment, and it’s been great too since I’ve gotten others hooked on it as well. Thanks again divine for the impressions as well, really enjoy your style tbh! ^^

    Akizuki09
  8. I have to agree with an earlier post of yours, Divine. “Harem comedy done right.”

    I had my reservations at first about this show, especially reading the whole “gender bender” aspect, but overall it delivered a punch that won’t heal anytime soon. Thanks for covering this show, since it quickly has become one of my favorites this year. I’ll keep a look out to next season and what it will bring.

    TehJawknee
  9. another anime ended, this is sad im not gonna see them again next week.
    too many animes ended this week and i guess next week.

    divine’s anime load lessens 😀 i guess you will sureley have a nice christmas break ^_^
    thanks for blogging 😀

    Spec
  10. cries. . .

    this final episode makes me feel so sad :S for the wrong reason DX

    well, there goes 1-week’s worth of anxiety hoping for a more x-mas themed, story-related conclusion (ie how natsuru’s holding up with shizuku-sama, mikoto, and akane as his girlfriends)

    overall, loved this anime (and to think, i was shrinking away from it when i read the plot summary!) and hopefully this is a new beginning for harem-ecchi animes to come xD
    i’ll go try and delete the memory of the final episode from my brain now >_>

    dabster
  11. I laughed so hard when the class president told Kaede she is a bitch, even had to pause for a second.
    I like this extra episode. The novel is not done yet, so something like this was expected and I think this episode also showed Kaede’s more favorable side which isn’t that bad.

    And thanks divine for blogging this show, it’s been fun to follow it weekly. I am sure some people start watching Kampfer because of this blog.

    mice
  12. Thks for the blogging~
    But this last ep. did kinda…suck.
    Everyone’s thoughts on if there would be a second season to this anime???
    Liked it alot (except for the ending ep. lol)
    Hopefully there would be a second BETTER season coming out…hopfully~

    HC
  13. I hated kampfer from episode 3/4. Just a bunch of whiny lesbians. However i started to watch again after one of these blog pics. Probably an echi one :P. It was around that time that the student council president really started to shine.
    She made me finish the last couple of episodes. Wont say the show was good. But the somewhat bakemonogatari girl act a like was very enjoyable.

    outcast
  14. Was this final disaster of episode really necessary? It seems only to give the damn plushies’ seiyuus alongside Megumi Nakajima their own chapter for… their not-so-big involment in the series. Shenanigans aside, this was as useless as Natsuru’s brain.

    And as a whole, having in mind that in 11 eps the story summarizes almost 11 novels (up to now), there’s no much story left to tell, which in turn, made a sequel almost impossible. All in all, this could’ve been better released as a 6 eps OVA with no censor.

    SeedStriker
  15. Why are yall complaining, its Kampfer as an anime. They tried to make it as stupid, silly, & lame as possible. This ‘last’ episode is completely within those expectations. This show was mediocre for me, just alot of complaining about Natsuru, the non-plot, & the other bitchy characters who I forgot their names 😛 …& yall want a 2nd season of this mess. Can’t yall see that it’ll just be this same novel-nut-smashing shit all over again. I’m for one am glad they used up the source for now. Sure they can just make up some stuff for a 2nd season, but it really wouldn’t be any different than the keem they threw out there this season anyway.

    As I said before if you think Natsuru was GOD then this anime was SHIT but if you think Natsuru was as useless as a canker sore then this anime was DaSHIT. Too bad I can’t have it as a little bit of both ways 😛

    Megas
  16. I stuck until the end for Shizuku. I wanted to see Kampfer because I loved the way the gender bender was handled in Ranma 1/2 those are good memories but Natsuru managed to destroy the whole thing. Did find some pleasure once I was able to tune him out and focus on the pres. As for a “christmas” story the moderators did manage give love to their true “owner” Kaede. If we look closely they weren’t appreciated by anyone in the whole series, so they got a bit of “tender” BSDM kind of love. In the end the series as a whole was lacking and left a very inconclusive end between the red vs. blue fight.

    Island Esper
  17. Well I must say the fan service was certainly first class, eheheehe…but personally the first thing that came to my mind when I saw that the female Natsuru was a mother and later to see her husband being the male Natsuru was “That one thing was wrong on epic proportions…”

    gawrshness
  18. Well, I enjoyed it and I’m not afraid to say so. In fact at the beginning of the show I found it even a little unfair how much it was panned by some people, and in the end it wasn’t that bad.

    It’s not the best show ever, nor the deepest show ever, nor the most imaginative show ever, but it was fairly entertaining. As you said, if you set your expectations accordingly, it can be enjoyed – and that’s the most important thing in life after all, right?

    Well, the last episode was quite meh, the way it ended was a little meh, but the show itself was entertaining, had decent fan-service and entertaining characters, especially Akane. And well, I found Natsuru a little annoying, (s)he should have behaved like Tomo-chan from Sora no Otoshimono, like a real man, and then it would have been perfect, and probably become a borderline hentai anime, but hey…

  19. Wow, that sure was a silly random standalone episode if there ever was one.

    I think my IQ levels just went down a bit after watching that. XD (Though LOLWTF at Male Natsuru marrying Female Natsuru and giving birth to trap kid Natsuru. )

    BTW, was I the only one that noticed Tamura Yukari (Black Bunny) doing her Nanoha imitation? “Maybe I should cool your head a little…”

    Overall, it wasn’t too bad to stop the series at the harem end, where most of the character relationship are more or less moved significantly forward, meaning there’ll be less baggage to resolve once the second series comes around.

    Kinny Riddle
  20. Haha I gotta agree with your final thoughts on Kampfer. It really is a decent time if you just set your expectations according to what it is, a Fanservice anime with a bit of odd comedy XD

    Good show blogging it all, I enjoyed your posts and thoughts on it through the show’s run. =D

  21. Just a guilty pleasure, there are parts I hate ( like some of the VA cast) and parts I enjoy, but overall I think is a fun series to watch to kill time. At least better than last season Princess Lover.

    tom
  22. Prooof:
    Sure, if you’re willing to spend the time to do that. It would probably be better to use the shot without the “Kampfer” logo then. I’m not sure what would make a good background though. I’d be fine with something similar to what’s already there. =)

  23. this was the worst..AAAAAAAAAAAAAA i was looking foward to an Actual!! episode but we all got a stupid last comedy episode that didn’t have any relevance to anything. And at the end it was like Natsuru married himself ( he became 2 people

    BBBBBB
  24. I was hopping Natsru actually stayed a girl and had a kid with one of the other girls >>; but w/e. I’m glad it ened the damn anime was so moe….and the ending really failed. Then again this is japanese artist’s and authors so….I’ll just read the manga its 100% times better anyway.

  25. Don’t know if anyone else noticed, but there was a part in restaurant where the artists didn’t draw the tiger ears on female Natsuru. Normally I don’t notice such things, but for some reason I picked up on that one.

    duh
  26. It’s creepy that Natsuru’s both the mother and father of that girl. And switching bodies with the messengers is the only way to make Shizuku make those goofy expressions. Stupid extra episode, but I’m happy this anime gave us Shizuku, one of the coolest female protagonists in anime in a while. She has more cajones than Natsuru, that’s for sure.

    samu
  27. I liked a lot this anime, but i dont like much of ending. I liked to say thanks to people has made this incredible blog, it’s a great work of you. The unique problem is the size of the fonts, but this don’t really matter. I wanted to know the name of next anime that appear in the end of credits. I am a Brazillian and understood nothing. Thanks and very success 4 you all. Sorry my english =(

    Dexter

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