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「裸体転生」 (Ratai Tensei)
“Naked Reincarnation”
Given the month-long break since I covered the early broadcast premiere of this series, I had totally forgotten that we’re dealing with a samurai high school comedy here. Well this second episode quickly reminded me of that, and didn’t hold back on the action either with some flashy fighting exposition to get things going. Continuing on from the cliffhanger last time with the arrival of Yagyuu Jubei, things pick up dramatically with her laying the beat down on Hanzou, who learns that she’s up against a “master samurai” with a power level of five million. Yeah, forget nine thousand; Jubei’s clocks out at five MILLION. It looks like the only thing that keeps the reincarnation of that master swordsman in check is Muneakira’s cry out to her to stop, which regresses Jubei back to a child-like state with no fighting ability. It also happens to conveniently strip her butt naked by shredding all her clothes, which isn’t a horrible side effect depending on how you want to look at it.
With a quick change in gears following Sen’s arrival, the series showed its first real signs of the romantic side of things, namely Sen’s feelings towards her childhood friend Muneakira, which she doesn’t do a very good job of hiding. During all that, the humor kicked in much more than I was expecting it to, with Yukimura and Matabee’s facial expressions towards the vice president’s childhood romance getting things rolling in that regard. While a bit drawn out, Yukimura and Hanzou knocking heads due to their inability to get along also proved to be pretty entertaining to watch, particularly because Kugimiya Rie has a way with high-pitched trash talking. Gotou Saori wasn’t too shabby either, making me wish I could see footage of the two of them going at it in the recording studio. Matabee getting quickly won over by an outdoor bath added to the hilarity, whereas mention of Yukimura’s feng shui 「風水」 premonition provided something in the way of the actual story revolving around Jubei’s arrival. In particular, she saw images of a dark shadow cast upon Great Japan with Jubei at the center of it.
The revelation wasn’t the most compelling foreshadowing in light of all the silly antics going on, but it did add a degree of seriousness for a (very) brief moment. That moment was immediately shattered when Jubei woke up hungry and started behaving like a child again, though I was completely smitten by the seemingly limitless range that Yuuki Aoi possesses with her voice to even care. For an 18-year-old seiyuu, she sure has made her splash in the anime industry and almost certainly will be on everyone’s casting consideration lists in the upcoming seasons. Needless to say, this girl can act and makes it look effortless. In terms of characters, Sen’s older brother and president of the student council, Tokugawa Yoshihiko (Sakurai Takahiro), made a brief appearance alongside Nia, better known as Charles de d’Artagnan (Koshimizu Ami) by those not so close to her. In addition, Yoshihiko let off that he’s up to something, which isn’t all that surprising since he is the heir to the current shogun (i.e. the leader of Great Japan). More on that will likely come in future episodes, while things ended off here in a fan-service-oriented direction with an inspection of every crook and cranny of Jubei’s body to see if she has the mark of a master samurai. Lo and behold she does, so naturally the next phase is to find out exactly who the heck she is.
Production-wise, I’m still really liking the ink-splatter and bold outline stylistic touches, as it gives a very different feel to the series almost immediately. The humor in this unusual over-the-top samurai setting goes a fair way in changing things up as well. Rounding the package out is the fan-service, which actually isn’t that detracting from the series. I’m almost inclined to classify it as a art style in this censored version because of its somewhat “tasteful” way of going about it. I haven’t seen the AT-X broadcast of the first episode aired three days ago to see if it’s uncensored, but I don’t really care to either as I actually like how something is left to the imagination this way.
Preview
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A Lulz worthy episode. Can’t wait for the next episode.
i thought this was awesome!
have to agree with you Divine, i couldn’t care less about an uncensored version.!
will ink blots turn to blood blots?
i wish those splat ink would disappear in the dvd release. but yagyuu jubei was cool. having a cool fighting style and all
this is really good anime considering you can also feel the intensity and mess of the fight by hearing and seeing the splat. i wonder how the story will develop. and yet another imouto anime this season. i guess the theme this season is Imouto.
What I am wondering is the whole contract thing… did Jubei formed a contract with Muneakira or something? It should be interesting in the later episodes…
Overall, this show is definitely better than I have imagined 🙂 Love the ink spots…
forget over 9k, over 5kk on the scale!
lulz for the comedy side
so Nia is the western-style swordsman from the opening, I presume?
and the action scenes were worht of the over 5kk rating!
ink blots are a stroke of genius, solving censorship and giing messy feeling to the fights!
Kugimiya Rie is probably the best voice actress in anime as well as my favorite. She has so many amazing well known characters including Shana (Shakugan No Shana), Alphose Elric and May(Full Metal Alchemist), Nemu and Karin (Bleach), Endo and Izuna (Kurogane No Linebarrels), Melona and Rana (Queen’s Blade), Mizore (Rosario & Vampire), Tiaga (Toradora), and Louise (Zero No Tsukaima). Those are just a few of the series I can remember off the top of my head.
One minor correction: May Chang’s played by Gotou Mai.
Oops forgot a word. It should be Shoo May (the panda).
i think its Shao May
Interesting watch. o: It definitely has a different feel to it, which I like. It looked kinda funky at first though.
“It also happens to conveniently strip her butt naked by shredding all her clothes, which isn’t a horrible side effect depending on how you want to look at it.” I’d give you a box of cookies just for saying that. Seriously, D. LOL
It was a fun episode and the action at the start was fantastic. I just sorta wished Jyubei didn’t turn out to be a kid-like persona when she is out of her “berzerk/action/entranced/whichever” mode.
I would love to see the cast in studio working on an episode such as this. I’m sure it would be a riot.
too bad that cellphone in this anime exist outside, they only used ordinary telephone…
The AT-X version is censored as well (much to my chagrin).
Oh well,gotta wait for the DVD/BDs then for those eager to see raw action.^^
I actually like the ink blot censors though. It feels artistic and appropriate for the show. At least it doesn’t feel obnoxious like steam and light censorships.
Still love where this is going, and Jubei is pretty moe so that helps. Sen was also in “dere” mode this week after Muneakira pretty much pushed every single one of her buttons, which was nice cause it’s about time he got a male lead that knew how to handle a tsundere. Yukimura and Matabei’s faces really were priceless in that scene.
wtf. I go on the randomc homepage and I see this anime’s thumbnails full of naked females.
Seriously, have people’s standards dropped this low that an anime can only attract viewers or sales by forcing ecchi everywhere. Moe and Ecchi are becoming a plague in the anime industry.
Since we hardly see any innovative or well written anime these days.
Too much ink splatter, even at the fight scenes where it was clearly not needed. It just got all messy looking and all over the place. I think atx has it censored as well but Still it was entertaining.
I find the fact that these people are so skimpily dressed to be disgusting. This isn’t even hentai, yet they are wearing less clothing than people do in hentai before they strip down. Like for instance, who the hell wears a sailor blouse that is two sizes two small which is cut in half and tied at the front, as well as wearing what appears to be a terribly made loin-cloth. Seriously, writer these days could only attract viewers with their shitty fan service. Once the shounen trinity ends, the anime industry will have a really deep plunge.
I’ve watched the AT-X version and I don’t really see a difference. It isn’t like what we have seen High School of the Dead where we had much more of the fan service compared to the other channels. Overall I do like the artistic design it shows on this anime. I personally think it has a uniqueness to it.
Hmm, the ED is a bit different from the pre-airing / episode 1?
Chibi Jubei got clothes, instead of naked, in that
“sitting looking at the sunset”.
I’m not not feeling those ink splatters all over the place, and I don’t mean just the censorship ones, they’re always annoying.
god damn ink splatters…they ruined most of good “parts”
i like the art style and rie. so its gg either way.
It was over 20 million…