First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

「ぼーいｘれでぃ」 (Booi x Redi)
“Boy versus Lady”

What do you get when you put the director, character designer, studio, broadcast station, and leading seiyuu behind Kanokon together again? Ladies versus Butlers (…apparently). Here, we get an early special premiere before the series’ official start in January and it looks like Xebec and AT-X will focus a fair bit on the service side again, albeit not nearly as much as before.

Of course, one could easily argue against that when our male protagonist/newly enrolled student Hino Akiharu (Okitsu Kazuyuki) gropes three girls, has one strip for him, and another sit on his face, all in the first episode. Naturally, this is all just one big misunderstanding after another, but the screams of “hentai”, “lolicon”, and “chikan” still resound loud and clear. As for a little bit of background info on how we got there, the story takes place at the prestigious Hakureiryou Academy 「白麗陵学院」, where there are two departments for its students. In the upper department known as Jouikuka 「上育科」, girls from wealthy families get trained on how to be a lady. In the lower department known as Juuikuka 「従育科」 (short for “Servant Training Department”), commoners get trained to be maids and butlers.

After being admitted to the lower department, Akiharu has the unfortunate pleasure of running into Cernia Iori Flameheart (Nakahara Mai) on his first day at school. Unbeknownst to him, Cernia’s been complaining to our other female lead, Saikyou Tomomi (Kawasumi Ayako) about how bored she is everyday, so she decides to call him out as a suspicious person. Unamused, Akiharu ridicules her by saying he doesn’t have time to play mystery games with her blond drill head. Being a prideful student of the upper department, Cernia is insulted and decides to lash out at him. One thing leads to another and Akiharu’s on top of Cernia and groping her breast. Humorously enough, he doesn’t let go until she eventually comes to, leading us to an all-out chase across campus.

In the process, Akiharu causes girls around him to faint, suffocates the loli high schooler Oosawa Mimina (Hidaka Rina), spills tea on a girl and causes her to strip, and gets suffocated by the clumsy maid Shikikagami Sanae (Koshimizu Ami). Things aren’t put to rest until Akiharu runs into Tomomi, who’s been instructed to show him around the school. In front of the angry mob, Tomomi’s able to get them to overlook the incident as ladies, and force Cernia to let it slide by making her unable to admit she got groped. Akiharu however isn’t completely off the hook, as Tomomi reveals to everyone that his childhood dream was to became a beautiful BRIDE and live a happy life, making him realize that she’s the Suzuhashi Tomomi (now Saikyou Tomomi) that tormented him when he was younger.

 

To put it bluntly, this premiere episode was very much in-your-face with the sheer number of characters featured and the relatively high fan-service. In the latter case, it’s still nowhere near the level of Kanokon yet, but I can’t help but feel things will venture that way when you consider the people involved. The character designs alone make me think as such, thanks to the implicit ecchi association I have with them now. While there was some heavy censoring in this early broadcast, this may change when AT-X re-airs this first episode on January 5th. That said, there was no opening or ending themes included here either.

Story-wise, it appears to be your run-of-the-mill ecchi harem comedy, which is pretty hit and miss. It’s hard to say whether this will turn out to be a Sora no Otoshimono or even entertaining for that matter, but I’m not exactly taken in by this first showing. I have nothing against the character designs or somewhat bland style (much like in Kanokon), so it’s really up to the humour and how heavily they rely on the service. Preferably, it’ll be more laughs than breasts, though I have my doubts.

The main appeal for me so far is the cast. Kawasumi Ayako reprises the lead female role as Tomomi here, but we have Nakahara Mai playing the tsundere Cernia. To compliment them, there’s Kugimiya Rie as a butler who I suspect is a girl, Ise Mariya as the school director who’s into BL games, and Koshimizu Ami as the clumsy maid like I’ve never heard her before. I know it’s not a lot to go on for now, but the cast will have me checking back for at least a few episodes to see where this adaptation is headed. If it ends up being a completely ecchi-filled affair, I may continue watching it, but don’t plan to continue writing about it just for potential shock value.

59 Comments

  24. Yeah, there’s just no way that they will broadcast this uncensored. They want to make money by selling the DVD’s.
    I’ll check out the first episode. The main guy here at least doesn’t seem to be as useless as the Kanokon one.

    bobara
    Reply

  27. Dumb.

    I stopped watching when the ol ‘fall and grab girl’s breast’ routine got pulled. It’s almost like a tell-tale sign of a bad comedy-romance anime now a day. Kind of like smelling smoke in the forest, the best choice is to get the F**K out of there before you’re dead.

    Remy
    Reply

  31. Just read the first 2 chapters of the manga… most of this stuff is original material and the original work is a lot more graphic than this show.

    I wish that they would have kept the artwork from the manga though. It’s really well done.

    Samurai Pumpkin
    Reply

  34. omg so much hair! I just can’t feel it for that twin drilling yellow things. All other characters were fine; but that hair is ugly. will watch a couple and probably wiat for the dvd version.

    Island Esper
    Reply

  37. I have to say it and I hope I don’t anger anybody, but, every serie that comes has to be a fanservice???
    WTF is happening in the anime industry???
    Lately all is about boobies, asses , ladies in underwear…
    And everytime the image of women is increasingly degraded.. (?)
    Where were the good animes??
    I miss them TT_TT

    please! don’t get mad, it’s just an opinion! and I respect the others too!!

    bye and happy new year!! 🙂

    Kanji
    Reply

  40. I wonder about the effect of Queen’s Blade on the wave of fanservice we’ve had in anime lately. Obviously it’s difficult to impossible to top that level of fanservice, but other studios keep trying anyway. Over-the-top nudity is only OK on AT-X I guess, but gropes, pantyshots and even face-sitting is easier to get away with and are everywhere. Even Brotherhood gave Winry automail implants for her chest. It’s odd, the more disillusioned people become with the ready availability of free Internet pr0n, the heavier the background hum of titilation broadcast by the media becomes.

    Now, I like fanservice as much as the next guy and I’ve come to expect at least a minimum from most shows, but even I have noticed that it’s gotten a lot more heavy-handed lately. There also seem to be more shows that’re about nothing but fanservice (again, like Queen’s Blade). Now I did enjoy QB, and not just for the 3 or 4 naked chicks/episode quota, but eventually you have to wonder if anime boobies are going to just start losing their appeal. Ah well, the animes I’ve watched haven’t really been sacrificing story or humor for the sake of tits, so I don’t mind if they’re there as a copious bonus. 🙂

    Guardian
    Reply

  41. You know folks,

    As I mentioned earlier this is based on an existing manga. They are not exactly making this up as they go along. The manga is a lot more graphic but the anime puts a lot more time into scenes which will pass the censors. That’s all.

    Samurai Pumpkin
    Reply

  44. if you really want more funny stuff, and you are not a fan of the character design of the anime, you should stick to original light novel. Though I can’t say the storytelling is better (since the anime isn’t even officially aired yet), but the characters definitely look much better in the sketches of the novel.

    お化け屋敷の主人
    Reply

  47. I love Ayako-nee san’s character! So far, I’ve heard her Ai Yori Aoshi, Fate Stay Night, Ichigo Mashimaro and Kanokon’s voice. This is a welcome change!! Bring on Yandere Ayako!

    Jayars
    Reply

  51. Something is wrong with Japanese people, 8 out of 10 animes they make have 90% fan service and 10% plot, they need to make more animes with good plots like code geass, gundam 00, Special A, Black Butler, Kurogane no Linebarrels, Busou Renkin, Full Metal Alchemist, Full Metal Panic, 11-eyes, Gurren Lagann, Naruto(unfortunately and fortunately this series actually has a plot and almost no fanservice), and Negima(great plot but a bit less fan service time is good).

    Miso Supi
    Reply

  53. @Miso Supi

    I would say that it is a lot easier to draw something than it is to come up with something that is brilliant and original.

    I mentioned earlier that the anime seems to focus a lot more on scenes that didn’t get censored out. The readers here *Have* read the manga at the link I posted above right?

    The original work has a lot more fanservice than the anime, yet is a bit more tasteful about it. That’s kind of hard to come by nowadays.

    Samurai Pumpkin
    Reply

  54. @Miso Supi
    Everyone has their own taste. You being don’t like fan service doesn’t mean that others don’t. CHOOSE wisely about what you watch, it will save you lots of complaint.

    お化け屋敷の主人
    Reply

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