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Digital
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Monday, 09 January 2012 00:00 |
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Page 1 of 2
 Take something like Ikkitousen, remove the outright nastiness and add a certain comedic streak, and you'd end up with something very like Maken-ki!: fights, fanservice and plenty of fun. Or at least, that's what it tries to be...
It's been three years since Ayama Haruko last saw her childhood 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 - he was just interested in the girls, and missed the parts about "fighting", "Elements" and "Maken". Which all leaves him in for a rather nasty shock when, on his first day, feisty female student Himegami Kodama challenges him to a duel to see just how good a fighter he is...
Or isn't, as it so happens. The "Maken" are artefact weapons - there are eight "originals", but also a number of copies that can be used for training purposes, and the students at the school use their ability to control Element to help them use them. Combine Element and Maken properly, and you've got a lethal fighter on your hands - but with Takeru knowing nothing about all this on his arrival, he would seem to have an uphill struggle on his hands. Fortunately, he seems to have some natural talent (natch). He also seems to find it remarkably easy to catch the eyes of the ladies, of which there are many: his childhood friend Haruko, now quite the looker; Kodama, whose electrifying abilities are the first that he finds himself on the wrong end of; genki girl Inaho, who for reasons never explained claims to be his fiancée; singing idol Syria, who also happens to be a member of elite unit Venus; and more besides.
So what we have here is a fanservice-heavy harem show wrapped in a fighting story. On paper, it's nothing special: the idea has been done a hundred times before, and Maken-ki! is light enough in the story department that you really don't have to worry about "plot", while the girls aren't doing much original either. If you're looking to get something of value for the series, stop right now - it's not going to happen, you can go and spend your time on something else.
What it does have is a good sense of fun that, coupled with a good dose of visual flair and a lighter hand on the broadcast-version editing than any other fanservice show I've seen lately, makes it simply enjoyable to watch, in a mindless fluff kind of way. It's in the same category as Girls Bravo, although not quite as good.
Not all entertainment needs to be worthy or deep. Sometimes something that you can just switch off to is all you want, and Maken-ki! fits nicely into that niche. It's not the best example of this sort of show, not by a long shot, but it's one of the better recent ones, and that's enough to get it a thumbs-up from me - but by the same measure it certainly won't be for everyone. Know what you're getting and decide accordingly.
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