Kekko Kamen Review

story 0.5/10

From the mind of Go Nagai comes Kekko Kamen, a series that proves that that man ABSOLUTELY CANNOT GET LAID. Seriously folks, over the years I've watched a lot of Go Nagai works, and every single one seems to follow the same kind of format. Super ecchi, super inappropriate at times, and never very good. Kekko Kamen is a new low as far as I'm concerned, not just for Go Nagai, but for any other series out there that's really, really damn close to hentai but doesn't quite hit the mark.

The supposed story revolves around the Spartan Institute, where young girls are frequently practically raped if they do poorly in class. I'm not watching hentai willingly, so showing the "punishments" of the girls getting tied up, their clothes ripped off forcefully (all while screaming "no"), including more conventional hentai things like tentacles of sorts molesting breasts and probing, really didn't do it for me. I rarely label things offensive, but I found no point to this series except to pass off something as not being hentai, even though it's really damn close. Indeed, maybe it's the fact that I'm female that I never, in any circumstances, see girls tied up and practically raped. I can appreciate ecchi sometimes... even Papillon Rose, which is very, very borderline hentai as well, was still entertaining to some extent because of how ridiculous it was. But then again, Papillon Rose was borderline because they showed actual (consentual) sex, weird sexual devices and such... not high school girls tied up and pseudo raped. Rape/molesting/sexual torture just isn't funny to me basically ever, so the "you should have been amused because it's so over the top ecchi" type comment won't work with me.

Seriously though, why are things like this ever made, if it's not hentai? What kind of a guy sits down and thinks "hmm, it's been 2 minutes since my last masturbation session.. maybe I should write another series involving all the women being naked, pseudo rape, and sketchy men who get off on it?" I have the answer, folks: GO NAGAI!

It's a parody of superhero shows, it's full of nakedness, and it's almost as bad as the clumps I scoop out of my cat's litter box. I couldn't find any value in this even for "wow, it's so overdone" purposes. And a personal message to Go Nagai: MY GOD, PLEASE BE STERILIZED! Oh wait, it obviously doesn't matter because if you make stuff like this, you must not be getting any in the first place! Oh, I also forgot to mention this has a very unfulfilling ending, since you don't get to see who Kekko Kamen really is.

animation 7/10

Even though the series was complete ass, I do admit that the visuals were well done. This isn't a DVD review but you can tell the graphics will be good just based on the R1 box cover and insert. The colors are crisp and bright (with the naked skin being bright, not dull) and Kekko's face mask, for example, is a brilliant red. The demon headmaster is a nice blue.

The character designs are very Go Nagai-ish, which is good in some cases (the demon headmaster) but very ugly looking in other cases (Mayumi's friends, for example). Many of the girls look like men, which I never enjoy. All the girls are extremely well endowed, thus proving again that Go Nagai has no experience with real women. Great animation, some pitfalls, but overall good.

sound 7/10

The intro and outro song I believe are the same, but are hilarious. If you watch the credits and read the lyrics it's quite amusing, talking about Kekko Kamen and her nakedness. Even though I thought the show was terrible, the lyrics definitely make the song hilarious anyways. This song is played often throughout the series as well, when Kekko is on the scene. The music the rest of the time is typical synthy fare.

The voice actors did a good job, though the dub is a bit questionable for some of the characters (the muscular hunk, for example, his voice doesn't fit very well compared to the Japanese VA).

characters 1/10

The characters are very stereotypical, but not in a good way. The lecherous headmasters are perverted to the point of creepy as hell, making me wonder why no one stabbed them in the crotch with a knife yet. Mayumi is totally helpless and idiotic when it comes to trying to save her clothes from falling off, and Kekko Kamen is a ditzy superhero who runs around with her clothes off for god's sake. She has a special move where she jumps and sits on the person's face (always male, of course), which is humorous as far as the "wow, this is over the top" mentality, but ridiculous at the same time.

Literally the only character I liked was Mayumi's friend, who actually stuck up for her as she was getting exploited in front of the entire student body, and or pointed out that the behavior was really uncalled for. Everyone else just sucked, like the story. And did I mention we never even find out who Kekko Kamen is?

overall 1.5/10

If you want to watch hentai, you could check this out. If you want to watch ecchi, watch something else that's better. If you want to watch a parody, check out Assemble Insert or any other number of them. If you want anything with substance, please, for the love of god, don't watch this! Kekko Kamen has almost nothing redeeming about it besides the animation and music, unless you really enjoy watching near-rapes of girls and nakedness 24/7 (again, hentai??).