After a far too fun of a season back in 2011, Maken-Ki! took a few years before coming back for another season. With the original manga from Hiromitsu Takeda still ongoing at the time, it wrapped up with twenty-four volumes total after being serialized in Monthly Dragon Age. This season didn’t get quite the same size order as the first as the main show is just ten episodes, but we did get an OVA with it as well which really, really, embraces the fanservice side of things. And really, that’s what I want out of Maken-Ki. The first season set up the basics of the show well enough with the setting, the abilities, and the character dynamics, so this season just goes right into actually simply having fun. There are stories to be sure with what’s going on here but it’s all in service of the fanservice itself. And while I do thoroughly enjoy my serious shows, I also love series like this that just embrace what they are and run with it in a big way.
What this season wants to do is really just get it all out there even more. We had plenty of nudity in the first season, at least on the home video side of things, and this one just takes it up a few notches. What helps is that the show doesn’t skimp when it comes to animating it all. They know that the appeal is in high-quality titillation, not the cheap junk kind of approach that you get in a lot of hentai. They obviously won’t go fully hentai here but damn if they really push the boundaries a bit with the sexuality. Pushing those boundaries is also the appeal because we do have so many shows that play coy and cute with it. When you get a show that not only provides some incredibly well-designed lingerie and underwear but lets it be a part of the show as long as it does here as opposed to a quick glimpse, you know you’re dealing with people who enjoy this kind of material as much as you do.
The main focus is still on Takeru and his attempts to work through the school year while being close to a whole lot of women – even if some of them don’t want him to be. At its core, it’s about the relationship between him and Haruko as the two really are quite right for each other. I enjoy the other incidental pairings that get underway with Takeru so we get the variety to it, but a good part of me would like to see a series of him and Haruko actually dating and exploring what it would be like without the kinds of restrictions they place on themselves here. He’s cautious with all the girls to some degree since he knows he’ll get a beating if he goes too far and Haruko really is trying to stay untouched in her own way. But at the same time, she really is coming to the understanding of how much she desires him and wants to take that to the next level but ends up very conflicted about it all.
The stories are familiar as goes along with the Maken abilities adding their own spice. We run the range from a lingerie thief in the opening episode to a festival later on that involves cosplay, manga, and doujinshi circles that go awry. They actually do a lot of great costuming here that I didn’t expect considering how dicey that can be at times. One of my favorite episodes involves Aki’s mother getting both Aki and Takeru onto a private island alone for an entire episode as she believes the two should be together based on what she was hearing. This leads to all the usual uncomfortable moments when it comes to bodily functions, and Aki is in skimpy outfits far too often considering the position imbalance, but they really just have so much fun with it as he tries to do his best to be on the right side with so much temptation in front of him. Temptation that he’s literally chained to with about a foot between them. Watching that strain play out with her own obliviousness at times just makes it all the more amusing.
It naturally leads to him getting closer to the other girls as he presents himself as Takeru’s cousin Takeko, and because it’s an OVA it’s pretty much non-stop nudity. When it gets worse as the girls get drunk along the way with all sorts of hilarious awful sexual games in the mix, Takeru really just goes with the flow and ends up in all sorts of compromising positions while also getting one hell of a meal along the way. It’s the kind of OVA that doesn’t hold back and again embraces it completely – and in a way that even the TV version couldn’t do. It’s a simple premise, Takeru turns into a girl, which we’ve seen other shows do before. I can’t think of any off the top of my head that embraces it as wholeheartedly as this one did though.
Call it a guilty pleasure if you want. I won’t. Maken-Ki is pure pleasure from top to bottom. So many people just want to have “prestige” storytelling all the time that they miss out on the things that are just fun. While shows like this may not be something that a good chunk of the anime audience wants, there’s enough of an audience that does and this kind of series caters to them perfectly. It sets out to be a pervy trip that doesn’t hold back and in a sea of series that feel like they’re being too safe these days, even when they’re attempting to push the envelope, this one sails right past them and just embraces itself – and everyone else – along the way. It’s not a wide audience show to be sure but those who connect with it and what it wants to do will absolutely delight in it from top the bottom and everywhere in between. I know I did!
Please note that this was originally scheduled for a late 2024 posting but we missed that window because the show distracted us too much.
