Anime: Keijo!!!!!!!!

Review
Okay. Let's start this by picturing girls in swimsuits of the most varied types. Now work on your imagination and put them to fight against each other, but not with punches or kicks, but with their soft boobs and butts. Got it? No? Well, imagine this as a sport if you can, the girls must knock each other from a platform floating on a pool, wearing swimsuits, and using only their boobs and butts. Damn. This would be a fuck*n boom on TV shows... well, that if it manages to slip past all its ridiculous sexualism it is attached to.

Anyway, in here we are talking about the japanese animation industry. A world where anything is possible, legal, and done, or at least most of it. This is Keijo!!!!!!! (with eight exclamation marks, yes), a series about girls practicing this above-mentioned sport, which is called keijo (no exclamation marks needed). Nozomi Kaminashi is a rising star in this sport, joining the most famous school where professional keijo players are forged, and there she will find more about her gift for the sport and the hardships that come with it.

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1. Crazy concept, same old tale
   You know the drill already. Gifted athlete enter the world of a sport, makes friends, learns she/he is made for that kind of sport, kick the asses of enemies, and so on. Although the words "swimsuit", "boobs", "ass", and "teenage girls" are more common to porn material, the essence of Keijo!!!!!!!! is the same as every other generic sports anime already out in the market. There is no twist to the formula at all.
   
   And this works... in a way
   Being so boringly common works to contrast Keijo!!!!!!!'s bizarre idea of a sport. Instead of simply focusing on the ecchi part of the show, you get to see more about the competition essence of the sport, where Nozomi makes friends and enemies while trying to master the art of the Vaccum Butt Attack. It also helps when the protagonist is not in this perverted sport because she is perverted, but because she find it fun and wants to win money from it.
   
   Yet...
   Although Nozomi can be reasonable with her positive attitude, most of her friends cannot. You get the flat-chested loli, the big-boob-and-butt dumbie, and a silent "smart" girl who can actually make some sort of plan before a match. This means the show falls victim to the dere templates typically filling ecchi series, and that can hardly be a good thing.
   
   Ridiculously exagerated and decently fun
   Yup. Training your butts to be weapons of deadly attacks, gaining lighting speed by reaping your swimsuit, using erected nipples to perform takedowns. Gods, the list of ridiculous (and funny) things is massive in here. It's fanservice at its purest form and made and served to those who seek this. Instead of trying to put on some fake face to the show and trying to turn it into a "dramatic experience", Keijo!!!!!!!! embraces its mission and delivers it in a funny way. This is like Shokugeki no Souma with pools and fluffy boobs.
   
   And it's decently made for a while
   Keijo!!!!!!!! starts strong in its animation department. The average Xebec Studio, which made some superb pieces in the past, gives the show a decent identity with thick lines, fast-paced animation, and a solid work. Sadly though, quality decays greatly as the show progresses, leaving behind the thick strokes, relaxing with the coloring, and ending up only being barely decent. A shame, as the cute girls in the start can definitely be an asset to a show aiming horny teens and depraved old men.
   

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Comments
Keijo!!!!!!!! is my guilty pleasure of this season. The second season of Shokugeki no Souma was already bloated with overexploited exagerations and the duelings grew tiresome, so it fell to Keijo!!!!!!!! to use the exagerated concept and sports-like spirit to lift a somewhat boring season.

Of course this doesn't mean it is a masterpiece of a show, on the very contrary, Keijo!!!!!!!! is a simple-minded experience focused on fanservice carrying some typical sports-mantra. It has one-line characters, it never tries to strengthen friendship strings, it hardly ever bother to give background to its busty girls in swimsuits, but it does deliver boob action and ridiculous line one might find funny if on the right mood. Mood, in fact, is a crucial thing here, because if you are not ready for an exagerated take on a bizarre fiction sport, you will certainly have a hard time enjoying anything out of this.

What's that? Were you expecting some kind of third rate show like Shokugeki no Souma? Perhaps something poorly animated like Kill La Kill? Or a thing that's outright crude like Free! ? Well, surprise!

Homing butt missiles, speed boosting wedgies, Unlimited Butt Works, and asses made hard like steel!

Keijo!! plays less like a sports anime and more like a traditional battle shounen... only with butts being the weapon of choice, of course! A spunky main protagonist with promising talent is dead set on being the best of the best. They enter some sort of training ground and are swiftly enough dealt with by a stronger opponent that remind them where their place lies. Instead of being disheartened by defeat, they get back up and train harder for the next encounter. They then continue pushing themselves to their limits and prepare themselves for the upcoming presumed tournament. A straight forward and simple setup, just like what you've seen before from the genre (tropes included). But what makes Keijo!! notable and quite sharply separates it from the rest of the usual schlock, is not necessarily what it does well, butt simply what it doesn't do wrong.

There is no bait and switch tactic, no grandiose pretentious speeches to mask the lack of a substantive narrative, no infantilizing melodrama, ect. Certainly the otherwise eye-rolling yet attention grabbing premise has the more cartoony aspect of it put to full use and steadily ramps up it's absurdity with each episode. All, surprisingly enough, with good pacing and a lack of streamlining of it's ideas. It does away with all the unnecessary contrivances precisely by sticking to a simple plot structure and thus creating a strong foundation. And while it pulls it's absurdity with a straight face, Keijo!! as a whole is not at all serious. Much like it's characters, it strays away from being mean in spirit. After the battles the characters all prove themselves to be amiable, always coming back to show their enjoyment of the sport. Along with it's outlandish butt and breast slapping glory, it is also splurged with ridiculous but totally engaging dialog. It maintains a consistent level of quality uncommon in shows within it's own genre. Plenty of episodes end on a perfect note, too, sincerely keeping you craving for more. This is indeed something even your average anime routinely fails to achieve. That aside, there a few dips in the quality of the animation itself, and the characters are largely animated with thin to thick sketchy outlines. Obviously, the limits of it's budget are in display, butt it more than makes up for it with the occasional savory anatomical precision of the gluteus maximus!

Speaking of which, quite contrary to expectations, should you be an ecchi enthusiast, you might actually be disappointed to know that Keijo!! does not offer the kind of service you've become accustomed to. It's fanservice is still ubiquitous, but quite tame especially when compared to it's lewder counterparts. In fact, it seems like the kind of show that should've aired at least half a decade ago. And even back then we had shows like Queen's Blade, Panty & Stocking with Garter-belt, as well as another show by the same studio like To Love-Ru, ect. All of which are raunchy-er than keijo!!! by several magnitudes.

But Keijo!! doesn't care to fulfill your gratuitous-nipple quota, much less for what you think. It launches it's menacing butts in your general direction with the sole intention to obliterate everything in it's path... and it is glorious to behold! Keijo!! is not fool's gold, it is a shining example of how ecchi should be done. If more ecchi followed Keijo!!'s example, perhaps the genre as a whole would at least receive less negative reception and not be treated with little more than passing apathy. You don't have to be an ecchi fan to submerge yourself in Keijo!!. If you are willing to sacrifice nothing but a modicum of comfort, Keijo!! should prove itself to be a refreshing endeavor with the usual elements working harmoniously for once.

It might just be an ever so small gem, but it is to be cherished. Anyone who says otherwise should be thoroughly dismissed, for one cannot simply deny that Keijo!! is both sexy, and awesome!

Not unless, of course, you happen to be a... dishonest cretin.

Keijo is one of those anime that ends up being similar to a social experiment which will test the viewer's tolerance to change. This sport/fanservice/shonen anime is where females play a sport called Keijo where they must use their buttocks and cleavage to knock each other off a platform called a land and into the water. When people took a look at the premise or viewed the first episode, they were immediately appalled and called this one of the worst anime ever. However, if you have watched at least one anime with nonsensical gibberish (one of them being Big Order) then this will be nothing new; you will see it as another of those fanservice or echi anime that you have seen time and time again where there will be no plot and simply just be there to punter the otakus. On first inspection, Keijo may look like just another throwaway fanservice anime, but as a whole, it is a bit more than what people make it out to be. The reason I say this is because Keijo does have an actual plot and although it is basic and simple with nothing deep or mature, it is at least trying to differentiate itself from many of its kind.

The story is about Kaminashi Nozomi who quit gymnastics to enter the world of Keijo. She enters the academy of Setouchi and makes friends with Aoba, Miyaki and Noba. Together, the girls train in hopes of becoming professional Keijo players and eventually they graduate to become Pros. Surprisingly, there is an actual story going on where the main heroines of the story are progressing through the ranks of Keijo which gives the story a sense of continuity and natural sense of flow; there are never any times where the story sidetracks and becomes something it is not. Keijo sticks to its premise and goes with it unlike many fanservice anime that go nowhere. However, characters wanting to become the top of their sport is something seen hundreds of times, so this anime is generic in that regard. Overall, Keijo has a basic generic story going on, but don't expect it to be mature or mindblowing

The characters are two dimensional simple airheads at best, a few of them have backdrop stories but it is nothing special. Most of the characters are based on tropes seen many times before; Noba being the clumsy chick, Aoba the shy one, Miyaki the friendly rival and Kaminashi the underdog who aims for the top. Although the characters are basic in personality, they are likable but this is mainly due to the fact that there is nothing to hate about them. Overall, the characters were mediocre with a little bit of characterization, development and personality.

As for the production values, because this is a fanservice anime, the artwork is the main priority. As such, the artwork is good and didn't dip in quality during the show's duration; the females stand out and don't look generic. However, the animation could have been much better; most of the battles had still frames with some fluidity in between, but at least the special effects, whenever the females were using their techniques, was decent. The music was nothing special; the opening and ending are nothing memorable. Overall, the production values were passible and helped make the fanservice stand out but nothing visually fancy.

One aspect of Keijo I can praise it for is having a sense of originality; a sport where the females use their cleavage and buttocks to push each other off from a platform into the water has never been thought of before, so I can appreciate the original manga author for creating an original sport that suites his deviant desires. It is because of this originality is what you will probably end up only remembering Keijo for; this in essence makes you care less for its story and characters and as such hurts the story and characters' credibility.

The fanservice mainly revolves around cleavage and buttocks being revealed through the swim suit fetish; at first this may be unbearable but as the show goes on you will eventually become immune to it. Although at some points, the fanservice can be unnecessary and badly executed (such as when the magician girl was defeated and her cards flung out from the wrong end...). Speaking of fanservice, this show also caters to shonen viewers; throughout Keijo, many characters will use techniques that references other shonen; the Buttock on Titan (Attack on Titan), Butt Gatling (One Piece), Combine (Dragon Ball)...and there was the final opponent who had an alternate personality that gave her a tremendous boost in strength...what does that remind me of (insert Tokyo Ghoul joke here).

Because Keijo is a sport, you will be expecting battles to take place. To my surprise, the battles are actually thought out and made sense; sometimes, the battles were over-the-top. The characters didn't only just use their brawns, they also used their brains such as using the platforms to their advantage or figuring out the mechanics behind their opponents' techniques so that they can change their strategy or exploiting their opponents weaknesses. There were even instances of teamwork used. This is something you rarely see in modern shonen anymore so it is a breathe of fresh air to see strategy, tactics and teamwork in Keijo. I also find it ironic that even though this show is mainly about ass which many people complain about, none of the characters asspulled their wins.

So in actuality, the cleavage and buttocks that is reviled is eventually glossed over due to the over-the-top tactical battles that make shonen references, which means the buttocks and cleavage of the females simply become background decoration that is apart of the sport.

To sum it up, this isn't one of the worst anime ever, but it certainly isn't good either. Keijo is about a simple coming of age that has continuity where simple characters do battle on the water to strut their stuff in a not-overly sexualized manner so that they can achieve their goals, utilizing average production values to present this. However, at its core, Keijo is a fanservice sport anime where its original sport and well thought out over-the-top battles that reference several shonen are the only things you will care about, praise and remember since this show will never have a grandiose story and deep, mature characters. Keijo is a fun, little anime to waste your time on since you will never be left bored due to the well thought out over-the-top creative battles and the characters using their brains and teamwork in these battles rather than asspulling their way to victory. So there is worth in watching this show at least once and since it is fast paced you won't need to wait very long for something to happen; although events happen too quickly (such as the main characters immediately graduating and being flung into the world of Pros) and the fast pacing is due to this show being a bad adaptation which is another reason I don't consider this show to be good. While this anime will never win a bronze, silver or gold medal in story telling, Keijo is one of the better fanservice sport anime out there.