A game involving tearing off swimsuits? Oh, anime…
What They Say:
While Akatsuki and friends participate in a game of Beach Swimsuit Tag, powerful figures in Alayzard hatch a plan to find and retrieve Miu.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With a series like this, there usually isn’t a lot of thought given to balancing out the fanservice and the action/story components. We saw that in spades recently with the whole underwear shopping episode and bits since then that have been more about the silly than the serious. Which to some degree is fine. With this episode though, with it now getting past the halfway mark in the season, the focus is shifting to adding more story to events. Heck, we even get some material early on from the other world with the varied forces that are aligned to hunt down Miu as she’s the Dark Lord’s daughter that they can’t let get away, even if most of those from his domain have gone quiet since his death.
That’s a decent tease at the start since there is some division to be had there. But the show pivots quickly enough to having everyone going to the beach and enjoying some sun and surf. Bathing suits galore of all types that show off plenty of skin even when trying to be demure is there and Miu really goes pretty far to find something skimpy that shows off all of her assets. Which is just one of many as we get the obvious montage bit of various scantily clad girls enjoying the sun there. Naturally, things get out of hand quickly when Akatsuki gets caught up in a game that the beach organizers are running that has him running all over the place as “swimsuit tag” gets underway. It’s filled with bounce, bounce and more bounce. Which is easy to see since the game has him removing all their swimsuits.
In Summary:
While we get some bookended plot here as the various forces are aligning to get Miu since she’s a threat to them because of her parentage, the majority of it is given over to the fanservice fest that is the beach. The story bookends are mildly interesting and would have been more so if it had started earlier than now and been more integral to things. Instead, the show really has been reduced to what most of this is. Tits and ass. Very appealing tits and ass, but tits and ass nonetheless. There’s nothing wrong with it but for a show that started out with more plot, this one lost it as quickly as it lost its clothes and attempting to get it back now just feels forced more than anything else. Especially since we’ll simply be adding a few more female characters to get all fanservicey with.
Grade: C
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
