Majikoi is a 12 episode anime about military power, fighting and a hint of politics. Unfortunately this also fits into the bloated ecchi-harem genre, one that I hate with a passion. And I won't let this one get away either, however, this anime happens to be better than the average ecchi-harem. Though that doesn't take much. The music is top-notch so give the OST a go, if you don't watch this one. I also actually laughed during the first 6 episodes, though that might have had something to do with my attempt at drunk marathon-ing this anime. It still contains the terrible ecchi-harem tropes.
For animation quality, this anime was made during recent years where quality has peaked and is no longer a problem. The style isn't unique however and the ecchi content has me divided. The first episode gave me the impression that there wasn't much ecchi at all and any fan-service would be jusified. However, the next few episodes proved my prediction wrong. There is actual nudity, though genitalia is censored of course. In one case a guys genitalia is censored by pixelation, however his swinging balls can still be made out. Episode 5 is the worst culprit however due to it being dedicated to a festival about penises. And I'm not joking, there are literal cock-fights too. This alone will drag the animation score down a lot. There are very few ecchi scenes justified by context, like a chick trying to sleep with a dude.
The best bit of this anime is definitely the sound. While, the first episode lacks a proper intro and outro, there is still epic battle music. After hearing the intro/outro and backing music from the second episode, I immediately went to download the soundtrack. Just as all the best sounding anime have a variety of good music, the same can be said for this anime. Awesome rock tunes and epic orchestral scores really help to both entertain where the anime itself fails and also enhance the action.
One note for characters, most of the female characters are initially tsundere and unnecessarily abusive with few exceptions. The protagonists are all sort of adopted into the Kawakami family and are are all high school students aswell. The main character is Yamato Naoe, who excels as tactics, but is terrible at actual combat. He eats a lot of popcorn and like hermit crabs, even having a couple as pets. All that is mentioned of his parents, is that his father left Japan due to it being a bad country? He has noble intentions, wanting to be prime minister to change the world since none of the current political parties are worthy in his opinion. A second reason is that the girl he confessed to (resulting in rejection), will only go out with him if he gains that power. This being an ecchi-harem, he is also at the center of it. He refuses any advances towards him made by the girls and is once again a typical gutless harem character who doesn't take his chances. There are repeated times where a girl tries to bang him, yet he always refuses. This could be seen as him being faithful to the girl he confesses to, however he is a pervert having stashes of 'illegal imported porn.' It's absolute bullshit that a perverted guy would prefer watching porn over taking his chances having sex with a real chick. The typical, gutless and indecisive (possibly) harem protagonist trope then.
Momoyo Kawakami is the big-breasted, blood-thirsty martial-artist who Yamato confesses to (at the start). A misconception is that they are siblings, which would make it all sorts of wrong, but it is shown that they aren't blood related and they refer to each other as siblings as Naoe is technically adopted into the Kawakami family. She is the anime trope who likes to eat a lot and loves to start fights with strong opponents. She always picks on Yamato out of boredom and it becomes apparent that she actually prefers women to men.
Kazuko Kawakami is more of a sibling to Momoyo than Yamato, due to her actual adoption as a member of the Kawakami family. She is a martial-artist like her sister and is constantly training by running around while dragging a tire, often with people riding the tire. A relatively flat-chested girl and there's nothing more to say about this person.
Christiane Friedrich is a foreign girl, hailing from Germany and is a swordfighter who wields a fine rapier. She is not very knowledgable about the Japanese culture but enjoys it thoroughly and is shocked at the more, perverted aspects like the dick festival. Possibly the most tsundere of the girls, when it comes to Yamato. She loves to eat fried tofu riceballs.
Possibly the most 'adult' character, Miyako Shiina is the extremely perverted and sexually aggressive archer of the group. Miyako is the exception to the tsundere bunch, showing her love for Yamato from the start and instead tries hard to make Yamato perv over her, going to such lengths as replacing all of the faces in his porn magazine with her own and employing various tactics in attempts to have sex with him. Of course nothing ever happens, since Yamato is an average, gutless harem protagonist, who'd rather watch porn than get some.
Yukie Mayazumi is another swordfighter who is rather shy and has developed a unique trait as a result. She has a toy horse, Matsukaze who speaks with Yukie's voice. Matsukaze is a very outgoing character and says and does crazy things that Yukie wouldn't do. Yukie also tends to make 'Bento' lunches for Yamato too.
The other characters aren't worth mentioning, but the primary antagonist is a powerful and well developed character with more backstory than any of the other characters and also happens to be lesbian, having a relationship with her underling. This anime also has the absymal trope of the old man pervert, who, thankfully, barely appears. Yamato has a robot who can both fight and serve named Cookie
The story is surprising good for a harem ecchi, despite the tremendous amounts of filler. There is a lot of twsts and turns in the plot progression concerning the primary struggle and even a bit of socialcommentary/subtext on politics and war. No doubt the first episode was the best. The worst episode is definitely the severely graphic dick festival episode. The antagonist wants to bring down Japan as a nation, due to their hatred and of course the protagonists must prevent this. The fights are action packed and intense, though a bit cheesy as Momoyo often shouts the name of the technique she is using. Of course SPOILER< The harem is never resolved, Yamato doesn't choose a girl by the end, not even Momoyo >SPOILER the ending is a bit disappointing with too many loose ends, even with the post credits scene.
Overall this anime is a lot like HoTD, where a decent story is ruined by ecchi bullshit, but still has great music. If you are like me and hate the bullshit of the ecchi harem genre, I can only recommend the first episode. Maybe a drunk marathon could be possible for the rest of the series. If you are a perverted adolescent (or have the mind of one), who enjoys this genre, then this is definitely one to watch, since it actually has story. For most, I'd also advise on skipping episode 5, the dick festival episode for obvious reasons. And because of going to far in respect to ecchi, the score takes a bit hit.
Family-friendliness Rating: 5/5 Dick festival. Nuff said (lower is better)
Overall Rating: 4.5/10 (Higher is better)
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