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「憑依合体！モモキュンソード!!」 (Hyouigattai! Momokyunsoudo!!)
“Spiritual Union! Momo Kyun Sword!!”
Yup, this is a fanservice show. And as a fairy tale, it doesn’t fare well.
Momoka’s Momos
Character designs aside, the promo videos I watched weren’t heavy in the bouncing bosoms, so I thought maybe this wasn’t going to be a full-on fanservice show. Nope! Though in truth it’s not a High School DxD/Highschool of the Dead-level fanservice show by any means. I wish it was! The pervasive male gaze (trope!) was constant enough to feel exploitative without being so over-the-top that I stopped caring. It towed the middle line, and failed for it. It did give me the opportunity to use the phrase “Momoka’s momos” though, so I guess there’s that? Momos are the new melonpan.
Momoka no Baka, Inu/Saru/Kijigami Kakkoii!
Momoka (Taketatsu Ayana) immediately struck me as a naïve, stupid, and vapid lead character, and that…that’s not good. Clumsy or innocent can work, but when I get the feeling that there’s nothing but air between her ears (and all the nutrition certainly went to her chest), why do I care about her adventure? She’s pretty much devoid of admirable traits other than her positive outlook and the morals instilled in her by her grandparents, which is fine, but it lacks choice on her part. She’s not thinking, so I’ve stopped caring.
On the other hand, Inugami (Hatano Wataru), Sarugami (Morikubo Showtaro), and Kijigami (Imai Asami)–them I liked. They’re intellgent, wise, faithful to their friend, they look out for each other, and their character designs are cool. There’s also something about the die-hard, always-with-you companions that I love. It’s hard to find such steadfast partners in crime in real life, friends who are always there and always by your side (as you are by their sides), so I like seeing that in my fiction. That they weren’t anthropomorphized into sexy kemonomimi girls doesn’t hurt either.
Celestial Maiden Sentai Squad
As for the other characters, I have no idea what their names are, nor do I care. Which is a symptom of lumping them all together in a color-coded group and throwing them into the action before they were at all introduced. Honestly, if Momoka weren’t such a dud of a character so far, I wouldn’t be bothered by the side characters because I would be focused on Momoka until they had time to get introduced. But since she’s a few beers short of a six pack, I find myself looking elsewhere, and other than the three gods, I found the characters lacking.
A Phoned In Fairy Tale
The combat was nice, and I liked the fusion angle, with one of the three gods–Inugami, this time–combining with Momoka for a serious power up. That plays into the ‘indefatigable friends’ angle I like, and it makes me want to watch long enough to see the other two transformations (or more, if she can gattai with multiple gods). But is that idle curiosity enough to keep me watching? Because the rest of the tale is empty. Big bad guy wants pieces of this glowing peach thing, that would be bad, stop his forces every week blah blah. It’s a child’s fairy tale with bouncing boobs, and none of that makes sense, along with possibly being an insult to both children and boobs.
Looking Ahead – Battle of the Week
I roasted this show pretty good, but allow me to equivocate – it’s not horrible. The animation is good, the ambiance is consistent, the pacing is fine, and the characters & story are clear, if not terribly interesting. My problem is that it’s so aggressively mediocre so as to engender no feelings whatsoever. I ultimately said the same thing about WIXOSS, and though some of you may disagree with me there, I have a feeling you’ll know where I’m coming from here: I don’t hate this show. I don’t like this show. I nothing this show. It’s so paint-by-the-numbers, so focus-grouped and committee-driven that I’d have to really love the Momotarou tale–or want a show I can watch with my brain turned off–to watch this show. And maybe I will! Sometimes turning your brain off is nice, and I may decide to find out whether everything I’ve said here remains true past episode one.
But probably not. I haven’t even finished this post and I can already feel all knowledge of the episode draining out of my mind. Maybe I’ll get real bored when this time next week comes around, but I doubt it.
tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Momoka is an airhead, & outshined by her companions. A paint-by-the-numbers fairy tale. Momoka’s momos are the real stars #momokyun 01
Random thoughts:
- Seriously? Momoka’s momos need some support. That looks painful.
- Help me Momo-Wan Kenobi, my team is full of dolts. Wait, I think I did that wrong.
Check out my blog about storytelling and the novel I’m writing at stiltsoutloud.com. The last four posts: Disorganized ≠ creative, Don’t make customers regret their purchase, Anchor, and Expectations & different types of stories.
I’m looking for an artist for some commission work. If you’re a talented illustrator, email me at stiltsoutloud(at)gmail(dot)com with some samples. If I like what I see, I’ll explain what the job entails. (Or if you’re just really curious.) And yes, this is a paying gig.
OP Sequence
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OP: 「Momoiro Fantasy」 (桃色ファンタジー) by 千菅春香 (Chisuga Haruka)
Preview
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Obligatory “Stilts is the ecchi blogger” joke.
I’m inclined to agree with you though, pretty boring premiere overall. Not enough of.. anything really.
Mighty Bouncin’ Oppai Rangers yay!
Ying Yang?
Looks like I wasn’t the only one that saw the Yin Yang lol
DAT PLOT
Fanservice version of the tale of Momotarō?
all i could think was: “how the hell doesnt she hurts her back caring those 2 huge momos ?
That reminds me of that episode in Manyuu Hikenchou, when Chifusa’s manyuus had become so big she couldn’t walk normally anymore…
I think it’s all the jiggling that’s got to hurt. My sympathies to Momoka, for so many reasons.
Meh, nothing great, nothing horrible. Looking to be one of those more “typical” fanservice-y anime of the season. I guess I’ll stick with it a little longer to see where it goes, and for more fanservice, lol.
Apparently this is adapted from a light novel series which is based off of Japanese folklore hero Momotaro except everyone’s a girl now.
Any assumptions that this anime won’t push the fanservice into our faces are now completely obliterated.
Hey, that second paragraph is incomplete!
Huh, that was weird. Thank you, fixed~
This show has nothing on Dragonaut, anyone that has seen a bit of that anime, know’s what I mean, though it seems it’s at least a bit better than that abomination of show.
Well this is only one ep in, more giant bewbs could still appear to rival Dragonaunt.
I am disapoint. I expected the fanservice because they genderbent momotaro, but for it to be most of what the show has to offer…
The Spirit Union isn’t enough to redeem it. The only thing I laughed at was the staring (Ggggggggggggggggggggg). I always laugh when characters do that.
I like the spirit pals, but they don’t redeem the show either. Two episodes left before I drop it ;/.
Man, that was so cliche I actually found it kinda funny. Felt like a stereotypical trashy 80’s/90’s anime, music and all.
This could be a good Friday night – watch while drunk show, but even that’s not certain.
Oh wow, it’s rare to see you destroy a show that much in a post. Not that I disagree – this show really does feel like it was made by a bean counter in some smoky boardroom. There’s not a spark of creativity to be found here. Even among fanservice shows there’s way better stuff, especially as the fanservice is pretty terrible anyway. This is really one of these shows you immediately ditch after one episode and never look back for me.
Disagree with you on Wixoss though. It was nowhere near a masterpiece, but at least it did do some interesting things while working out its premise. If you really want something aggressively mediocre from last season, I’d say M3 fits the bill. That show is such a whole ball of absolutely nothing, it’s impossible to care about anyting happening in it.
But oh well, I suppose the next magical-girl-ish show is worth watching (Prisma Illya) at least.
I rarely roast shows–I prefer to damn with faint praise–but when there’s little to praise, I give them what I must. There’s shading and then there’s lying, and to give this anything but at least a mild beating would be a lie.
As for WIXOSS, I don’t necessarily think it’s bad, I just felt nothing for it. M3 too, but I don’t even think of that because I dropped it after one episode. I only pushed through WIXOSS because Zephyr, Zani, and others told me I ought to. Didn’t work for me, but ah well.
BLOG THIS!!!!
so it’s kind of like Inyuasha, but the main character is Momoko. She has to gather all the peach pieces.
You know I may watch it just for the animation quality and the fighting. I don’t know how they got the budget to be able to animate it that well. It was honestly better than the fight scenes in Soul Eater Not!. Also the transformation scenes, though it reminded me too much of sailor moon, I quite liked it. At least the design. I’m interested to see what the other ones will make her look like and what other type of powers she may gain from it.
I’m liking this so far tbh :3
Is at least the blu-ray worth a watch or was there no censoring going on anyways?
Lately, Taketatsu Ayana is getting all those crappy fanservice heroine roles, e.g. the Boobs wrestling anime. Sad.
It was fine for a first episode, the service is always the worst in the first one in shows like this. It’ll probably tone down going on. I honestly liked it quite a bit, and even my female friend found it more enjoyable than she thought she would. We both want to see female characters be brave and fight, and Momoka certainly did that.
During the 10min i watched of this. I felt both embarrassed and ashamed……..and i was the only one in the house…wtf?!?
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