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Meanderings
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Tuesday, 25 October 2011 12:24 |
It's been three years since Ayama Haruko last saw her childhoof friend Takeru Ooyama, but now he's transferred into her school (a welcome relief for him, after three years at an all-boys academy), she's looking forward to seeing him again. But it seems that he hasn't quite done his research about what sort of school he's moving to...
Like Mashiroiro Symphony, I can start this by writing that the basic premise of this - "boy at an all-girl high school" - does very little for me to start with. From there, fortunately, things diverge a little. Takeru has signed himself up for a school where fighting, specifically for the possession of one of the "eight Maken", is expected - and he's the laid-back, "Whee! High-school girls!!" type who never bothered checking up on this beforehand. So: lots of cute girls: check. High fanservice level (and with minimal TV-edit censoring): check. Harem: check. There are shades of Ikkitousen and Freezing here (fighting fanservice, with hints that killing may be a genuine option), but also the light-hearted feel of ye olde AIC harem shows like Dual!.
THE GOOD: Oooh, pretty, in both general look and character & outfit designs. I'm also partial to fanservice, and this pitches it at a good level without spoiling the fun with (much) steam or lensflare.
THE BAD: To quote that Mashiroiro Symphony First Thoughts again, criminal lack of originality in pretty much every department.
But the sense of fun you get from a show's initial setup and characters can make all the difference, and that's where Maken-ki! stands out. Might wear thin after a while, depending how the "story" plays out (and I suspect that'll be wafer-thin), but worth sticking with for a while at least.
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Backbites 
