Samurai Bride

Title - Samurai Bride
Language - Japanese
Genre - Anime, harem, fighting

Samurai Bride is the follow up series to Samurai Girls  so there may be some spoilers.

After the events of Samurai Girls Muneakire had gone travelling to help get over the final battle, leaving the samurai in charge of the dojo.  The series starts as Muneakira returns to find that the Dojo was running out of money and so, to stop it closing the girls have opened it up as a maid cafe.  Muneakira is not happy with this but is soon persuaded that it is the only a temporary measure until they can make the money to pay off the debts.

As part of the promotion for the cafe Kangtsugu is sent out to hand out fliers, on her way she takes shortcut through the local graveyard where she runs into four strangers. Later these strangers visit the Dojo/maid cafe and reveal themselves to be recently resurrected dark samurai who are looking to challenge Jubei, who they believe to be the strongest warrior around to a fight to the death.  The Dark Samurai then attack the girls but Jubei does not have the ability to transform into a master samurai any more.  The dark samurai believe that Jubei is an imposter and give the girls one month to produce the real Jubei, they put a curse on Muneakira that will stop him raising his arms in battle and if, after the month the real Jubei does not fight them Muneakira will lose his power and none of the girls will ever be able to become master samurai again.

The first few episodes are mainly fan service with the slowly developing story line of Muneakira and the others trying to find a way of getting Jubei her powers back (Jubei lost her powers when she sacrificed herself at the end of season 1.).  Having to have at least the same amount of fan service we now see all the main female cast in maid outfits and we have the introduction of the 4 dark samurai, all of whom are female and one panty stealing monkey,  also who manages to accidentally become one of Muneakira's samurai. This upsets Kangtsugu and leads to a few comic moments. The fan service in the first half of the show reaches its high point when due to the sudden surge of people opening maid cafes in the area the girls decide to hold a competition to find out which is the best.  The episode starts at the final of the competition with the last two cafes being Muneakira's and one open suddenly by the dark samurai (no one knows where it is & we don't think they've ever had any customers).  Muneakira's team are cheating as they see wining as way of boosting their revenue, the dark samurai are using it as a way to find out the strengths of the samurai girls, especially Jubei.

After this episode the story starts to play out properly the samurai girls now have clue as to what is wrong with Jubei and set out to find Keiji Maede the one person they think can help.  There is also a strange creature stalking the streets below the dojo that seems to be linked to the dark samurai.  Muneakira and co have to find out what the creature is and why the dark samurai were really resurrected.  With the help of a de powered Gisen and some information that Yoshihiko Tokugawa has been keeping secret will the girls be able to save Great Japan from chaos and destruction.

Samurai bride takes it's time getting down to the main story using the first few episodes to introduce the dark samurai, the problems Jubei has and to set up some small storylines.  The first half of the series relies more on the fan service than the story which i have no problems with.  I was watching the American edit and can’t help wondering how much of the censorship was for that audience.  I am waiting for the UK edition to come out.  When the story starts proper it is interesting and has quite a few twists and turns in it which kept me entertained (again the fan service also helped) although it was pretty obvious who the bride was going to be.

One of the strengths of the first series was the art style and i was glad to see that this was carried on in this season.

Samurai bride is a good follow on to the first season and if you watch for the story more than the panty shots then stick with it.

If you have seen Samurai girls then you have a good idea what you will be getting into but if you haven’t (& why not) then be warned there is fan service, panty shots & nudity everywhere.

So this is definitely one to watch if you like action fighting ghosts and did i mention the fan service.

Cat Planet Cuties

Title - Cat Planet Cuties
Language - Japanese
Genre - Anime, harem, Sci- Fi

Cat Planet Cuties is part Sci-Fi, part harem, part parody and all fan service.

Kio is at his Grandmother’s funeral when he spots an uninvited guest, a girl with cat ears and a tail and who is not in cosplay, the girl introduces herself as Eris, an alien from the planet Catian who has come to visit Earth.  Kio is not the only person who is aware of Eris’ presents on earth and she is soon captured by the CIA, who are aided by Janes, a member of the Dogisia race.  Kio, aided by his two female friends, Aoi & Manami  race to rescue Eris but are hindered by members of ‘Beautiful contact’ a terrorist group who want to get rid of Eris because they believe that she is not fit to be the first contact Earth should have with an alien race because she does not look alien enough.  Kio and his friends rescue Eris but are soon set upon by the ‘Underside of the kitten paw’ a cult who worship cat ears & tails and who believe that Eris is the ‘divine embodiment’.  The Underside of the kitten paw are attacked by Janes who is determined to drive Eris and the rest of her crew from earth.  After this the kitten paw team up with Eris to help protect the Earth for Janes.

 

On the surface Cat Planet Cuties is a fun, mindless fan service.  Eris, Aoi & Manami are all romantically interested in Kio.  All the aliens are female and the Catian’s use weapons that use quasi anti-matter, a substance that disintegrates any non organic matter it comes into contact with (normally clothes) and there are many reasons to get the main cast into skimpy out fits (including the almost mandatory ‘beach episode’).  There is a good amount of action with Eris and friends squaring off, first against the various agencies that are after her and then against Janes and her army of robots but, because of the use of the quasi anti-matter the violence is more fun than dangerous.

 

If you start to dig a bit deeper into the stories you find that there is a cleverness to Cat planet cuties that could easily be missed.  The series parodies and plays homage to a number of other TV series with the opening scenes of almost all the episodes parodying those of other shows but also covering subjects like how people would react to androids and intergalactic politics.

 

Cat Planet cuties is a fun series that well worth a watch but not for kids due the nudity and Boobs.

 

Sekirei season one

Title - Sekirei season one

Language - Japanese

Genre – Anime, Sci-Fi, Ecchi  

“The Sekirei Plot has begun”

Sekirei is a ‘Harem’ anime and the first few episodes focus on the female Sekirei, introducing us to the different characters and their powers.  Most of the Sekirei are ‘moe girls’ that is big eyes, big breasts and certain hair styles and during the fights between Sekirei one of them normally loses at least some of her clothes.

There are certain types of female characters that appear in anime and manga and most of them are present in Sekirei, for example:

There is the fighter

Twins

The computer geek

A young girl

Someone in a maid’s outfit

Characters with animal ears & tails are missing from Sekirei but there is a lot of fan service in the series which is ok if you are a fan (& I amJ)

Sekirei is a fun series that doesn’t take too much thought and is well worth a watch but be aware that it could be classed as ‘Ecchi’ so may not be suitable for younger viewers.

The first season of Sekirei is a 12 episode anime.  In the first episode we are introduced to Minato Sahashi who has just failed his college entrance exams for a second time.  On his way Minato hears someone show and looks up just in time to have a girl land on him, before he has time to recover they are attacked by two more women who are firing lightening out of their hands.  The girl grabs Minato and they run to get away from the attackers. When they are safe the girl introduces herself as Musubi, a ‘Sekirei’.  Musubi is not sure why she grabbed Minato when she escaped as she was could have got away quicker without him and he was in no danger as the two attackers, who are also ‘Sekirei’ were after her because she was ‘had not yet been winged’ and should have been an easy kill.  As the first episode continues Musubi realizes that Minato must be her ‘Ashikabi’ and when she kiss’s him she gets her wings.

As the series continues we learn that the Sekirei were found on board a crashed alien spaceship by Hiroto Minaka, head of the MBI, a large and mysterious company. 108 Sekirei have been turned lose as part of the ‘Sekirei plan’ which is a battle royal of the Sekirei with the prize that the last surviving Sekirei and their Ashikabi will be able to stay together forever. The series starts during Phase one of the ‘Sekirei Plan’ where, although the Sekirei can fight with each other the main objective is for them to find their ‘Ashikabi’ who is a normal person who is genetically linked to the Sekirei. Once a Sekirei is linked they will gain more power and fight for and to protect their Ashikabi.  Some Sekirei count themselves as their Ashikabi’s legal wife.  An Ashikabi can have more than one Sekirei but a Sekirei can only have one Ashikabi.

As Minato is drawn into the world of the Sekirei he meets other Ashikabi’s and their Sekirei, some are friendly while others just want to fight.  There is also a ‘un numbered Sekirei’ hinting that there are more than the 108 that have officially been set loose.  Minato also learns the different way’s a Sekirei can meet and be joined with an Ashikabi.  The normal way is that a Sekirei will find their Ashikabi by accident and it is hinted that the MBI have arranged for people they know to be Ashikabi’s to be in the city for the Sekirei to find.  A Sekirei can also try to find their Ashikabi through their dreams and help the Ashikabi to find them. A Sekirei has one Ashikabi they are meant to be with but once someone finds out that they are an Ashikabi they can take a Sekirei by force.

As the series moves on the Sekirei plan enters phase 2 where the city is cordoned off by the MBI and no Sekirei and Ashikabi are allowed to leave, this is where the battle royal is meant to fully start but some Sekirei do not want to fight and Minato and his Sekirei try to help one pair to escape.

The tone of the series gets more serious from this point as the level of danger rises for the main characters but, as it continues the main themes of the power of love & friendship is built upon.  If these themes were covered in a different way then Sekirei would be a different show and would probably be classed as a romance but with the comedy playing of the Sekirei fighting over Minato and the many times the characters lose their clothes this is definitely one for the guys. The end of Sekirei ties up most of the series plots but there are still some un answered questions not to mention ‘To be continued’ so I’m looking forward for season 2.