I borrowed from my library and watched the start of the anime Maken Ki season one today. This is what’s known as an ecchi anime, basically meaning Hentai (pervert) with a small h. So, not exactly pornographic, but getting there. It’s a peculiarly Japanese phenomenon in anime and manga where it’s okay to have explicit pantie shots of young girls (sometimes so explicit there’s some camel toe!) and very big boobies just a’hangin’ out. It’s okay because the boys who usually amass these harems of girls, and who sexually harass them, are always given some comeuppance for their dirty deeds. When I first saw an ecchi, which was the second season of Maken Ki, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Why were the boys’ noses always spouting blood when they were around girls? Was it a metaphor for you-know-what? Have we time-warped back to the Seventies when Benny Hill was King? Admittedly, some of it was crazy funny: especially an episode of MK season two featuring a lecherous German-accented Teddy Bear (‘My goodness, these are Zeppelins!’ he shouts when a well-endowed girl hugs him to her big breasts). There is actually a story here, and there’s character development, and some of it’s even sweet, but season one is shaping up to be even more lewd than season two was. Call it a guilty pleasure and just leave it at that then, shall we?
I finished the anime Maken Ki season one last night. It never really let up with the lewdness, and the story wasn’t much chop, and it wasn’t as funny as the second season, but it satisfied my curiosity about the first season (yes, I watched it the wrong way around). One thing to note, I watched both shows in dub form, rather than my usual subs. I’m a sub guy mostly, but I watched the second season in dub and it made sense to keep that continuity. The American cast did a good job, especially the guy who did the voice of the main character, Takeru. But I thought the voice of the main female character, Haruko, didn’t fit. She sounded too whiney, where I imagine Haru’s voice should be sweet. You notice these things more when it’s the dub. Another reason why I don’t like dubs generally. The original Japanese voices are either always perfect, or you just don’t notice it so much. There was an extra disc in the set that featured a series of ridiculous lewd exercise videos. Each girl from the series was demonstrating sit ups or squats and other exercises and complaining how the viewer/camera seemed to be perving on their naughty bits. Which it was/we were. I’m not sure why I like crossing this weird cultural divide of ecchi anime. Maybe it’s because I can, or maybe I just get sick of Western Wokeness. I-I can’t explain. I have no words…Forgive me.