I've been writing fanfiction for a few years now, and it's always a good practice to get my ideas out on (digital) paper. No Game No Life is a lot of fun to write for as well.
Let me know what you think! :D
Thanks for reading!
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I guess I need to point out first that I am a huge fan of fanservice anime, whether it comes in flavors of harem, romantic comedies or even in an action-orientated scenario. I'm sure I'm not alone either, but some people don't like excessive fanservice, and so I need to advise that if you're looking for a gritty, heartfelt, dramatic series, or something more action-orientated, this probably won't be the one for you.
I should also probably point out that I've not yet read the manga, but as far as I'm aware, the anime starts after a 20-something chapter 'Training' scenario, which apparently looked to be a good decision from the planning department. Fair enough, it's something they might come back to at some point in an OVA or similar, and getting right into the action sounds good for an anime that needs the momentum coming in thick and fast.
If you're looking for a series that appeases towards your ecchi side, and doesn't require to much deep thought and deconstruction, this should work well for the season.
Keijo revolves around a sport that exploded into popularity some years before the series began, and is now played at the professional level. The rules are simple enough. Competitors stand on a float on top of a pool, otherwise known as the 'Land', and try their damnedest to knock opponents off using only the breasts or the buttocks. As with the majority of professional sports, this also requires a level of strategy, physical fitness and strength of character to achieve. Looking past the fanservice, which to me at least, has been absolutely sublime, we should take a look at how difficult it is to get to that Pro level.
From what we've seen from the first two episodes, training involves intense physical development, with daily exercise intent on developing not only the physical attributes (read: Butt-walking) but also aspects of teamwork and academic study.
No seriously, there's a class known as 'Assnomics'. It looks great.
It also shows the 4 main heroines of this story, their unique oddities and abilities, and so far it's kept me interested in who they are, where they come from and why they are so intent in competing for Keijo.
First we have Nozomi Kaminashi, the 18 year old protagonist who seemingly has a simple objective for her fight to become a professional Keijo competitor.
She wants to be rich!
Which is fair enough. Professional competition has always had plenty of fame and riches to attract many athletically-minded competitors. This might come out as a need to help a poor family or something equal as a plot point later on, but for the moment, it appears Nozomi wants the luxurious life after fighting for it on the watery battlegrounds of Keijo.
Nozomi's character is energetic and upbeat, and her optimism rubs well with me. The kind of girl who likes to keep things positive in life, and her accent is adorable. I'm not actually sure where she hails from, but I'm gonna take a wild guess and say Osaka?
Anyway, her abilities so far look borderline Olympian and she seems to have garnered the respect of some of the Elite class. Not to mention, when we left Nozomi in some peculiar exoskeleton get-up at the end of the last episode, she had just used a devastating ability known as the 'Vacuum Butt Cannon', which promptly destroyed all the swimsuits in her local vicinity apart from her own, caused by rapid spins generating pressurized air.
Ass Physics!
Then we move on to Sayaka Miyata, the silver-haired, blue-eyed Judo prodigy aiming to instead become a professional Keijo player.
This one seems to be the most level-headed of the group. A bit of the strong-yet-silent type, but she's not miserable, which keeps the flow of positive energy strong with this team.
She's a bit sensitive about her bust size, but also is able to use it to her advantage. Where opponents may be weighed down by the size of their bazoongas, Sayaka has the advantage in speed, allowing her to use rapid-fire attacks like the Butt-Gatling (an honest to god real name for the move)
Preliminary thoughts, but she also seems to have a thing for Nozomi. It could just be admiration, but I catch a whiff of yuri scent when she's gazing at Nozomi or fondling her ass.
I'm all game for more of this :D
Next up is Non Toyoguchi, the ditzy character who's words become incomprehensible when flustered, with a tinge of accent herself. I'm not sure where she's from, probably missed it when I watched the episode, but she's super cute, and the ditzy characters have always been likeable for me since way back.
Her special ability seems to be having an incredibly soft ass.
And finally, we have Kazane Aoba, another silent type.
Although actually, her silence is hiding her Hiroshima accent that, from my perspective, is what won her my waifu award of the anime. (As well as her ponytail reacting when she's spoken too, it's too damn cute!)
A blunder from Nozomi in the first episode causes Kazane to keep her silence until it's helpfully undone by Nozomi and the team in episode 2. She's still quiet, but at least she says something now. And when she does, we can continue to enjoy the majestic notes that echo from her vocal chords.
Especially when she's angry. It's a thing of beauty.
Kazane's special ability is known as 'Scanning Hand'. She can read wind patterns from what we've seen so far with her abilities, and from my research, can do a hell lot more. But it's spoiler material, so I'll leave it out for now.
But lets just say her abilities that follow cemented her position as best girl for the series.
She also reminds me slightly of Sun Seto from My Bride is a Mermaid. Her hair, eye color, and accent remind me of the mermaid daughter of the Yakuza, though the personality difference is vast, not to mention that although Sun and Kazane have accents, they're from two different parts of Japan.
Still cute though :D
So far, the anime is looking good. The critics are undoubtedly going to attack the fanservice and a plot that doesn't seem to want to get too complex, but I think that it works in its favor. This series isn't trying to be anything difficult to understand, and doesn't want the reader/watcher to spend hours after the show deconstructing the reasoning as to why character A did this, or why character B didn't do that.
It wants the audience to sit back, relax, laugh and enjoy sexy girls doing sexy things with their sexy parts whilst improving themselves to reap the rewards that will come in the end of their struggles. It's an enjoyable story so far, and I look forward to plenty more.
Which reminds me, I need to get started on the manga asap.
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Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this post, and want to help support the cause, check out my Patreon!
And the tension-filled wait as TeamFourStar release their nominations for the #TIBA Finals.
Do I think my team and I have made it in?
I hope so [Yay, optimism!]
We're already up to the 21st finalist and have had a couple of honourable mentions and honestly, whether we get in or not, I'm proud of the work our team put in, and happy that we made people laugh with it. If you're curious, check it out below:
We also released a Director's Cut:
As well as a manga dub with Tsuyu Asui as the star:
As much as the tension of TIBA excites me as an abridged contributor towards Team Plus Ultra, I'm also looking forward to the latest anime incoming from our beloved Japan.
And saying that, 2016 has been a pretty interesting year for anime.
My available time has unfortunately caused me to miss out on certain series, but there were definitely a few that stood out, as I'm sure they did for everyone.
We were blessed with KonoSuba's anime incarnation, which made me laugh endlessly and gave us the ball of exploding kawaii that is Megumin!
And as a huge To Love-Ru fan, we got an OVA and should be expecting another one in December:
And the list goes on, with gems such as Koutetsu no Kabaneri, Kono Bijutsu Bu ni wa Mondai ga Aru, Masou Gakuen HxH, Macross Delta, Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu, Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta, Mayoiga, obviously My Hero Academia and god knows how many I didn't get around to watch. For the ones that I have seen, I'm going to review them, hopefully both as a blog post and as a vlog. As for the others, I have some extreme anime catching up to do. Not to mention a ton of manga as well.
I will say as the highlight of the year so far was to be able to finally see Kizumonogatari Part 1. Abridging the Monogatari Series, it's safe to assume I'm a big fan of the story and all of the awesome characters. But Kizumonogatari just blew me away. I'll write a proper blog post on that soon as well, but after watching the first, and having read the book beforehand, I can honestly say Shaft have done justice with their opening act on the adaption of the light novel. I literally would trade several high-value organs to travel in time to see the next movie if I could.
And it looks to be shaping up as just as awesome, if not more so than it's predecessor:
I could bombard this post with everything that I loved about 2016's anime lineup, and I haven't even mentioned what's to come in the Fall season. I'll probably save that for the next post though, I feel like I haven't procrastinated enough today.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have finally got off my lazy behind and started writing a blog!
When it comes to any kind of affirmative action, it takes me a very long time to get the willpower to do things. But I do eventually find the strength, and today, I've decided to start a blog dedicated to anime, manga and various games.
Yaaay! Another goddamn weeaboo blog!
Not like there isn't a sextillion of those already, but talking about it is a good outlet for me, and may provide ideas for future endeavours. I have a bad habit of starting projects, yet never finishing them, so I'll have to keep that in check (damn you ADD!) but to the fans who feel like a little more insight into how my brain works, this is dedicated to you. To those who are new to what I do, I'm currently directing an abridged series of Bakemonogatari, which you can find below:
Creating an abridged series is definitely a lot of work, but provides a good experience. Not only are you learning new skills, which include video editing, graphic manipulations, screenwriting and directorial efforts, but you get to meet new people.
For a shy guy like me, this will help me clamber out of my wonky clam shell of isolation, and with the added social interaction, I hope that my efforts will be reflected in my work, especially when it comes to writing scripts, which is definitely my weakest point in regards to abridged anime parodies.
So, with that out of the way, I would like to say its a pleasure to meet you, and hope that we have fun together exploring the insane world of anime!
If you like what I do, and want to help contribute or check out what else I do around the Interwebs, here are links to my Facebook Page, Patreon, Ko-Fi and DeviantArt.
Any donations help towards production to new and original content. As well as being able to afford more beans for my toast, and, of course, coffee!
