galacticdude7

-Story-

Maken-ki! is an anime that was never really sure what sort of show that it wanted to be. It started out as a ecchi harem anime, that tried to change into an action anime, but it ultimately failed at this. I did not find the story of the show to be all that interesting to begin with, mostly because I have seen the premise before done a whole lot better. It tries to do the "magical" harem show where all the girls have some sort of power with the guy either not having the abilities or really sucks at it. This has been done in both Maburaho and Sekirei.

Another aspect that didn't work with the show was that the ecchi moments were far too often and they did nothing to contribute to the story at large. Sometimes calling them "moments" is inaccurate as the ecchi never really stops. Maken-ki! is another one of those shows that tries to cover up a bad story with ecchi, and it fails miserably.

It also seemed that the explaination of important back-story was rushed and glossed over, making the story elements that rely on it to not work at all. If you are going to make you characters interesting by having a good backstory to portray them, you need to take the time to properly explain it.

I also felt that the so called "climatic ending" was rushed and didn't really make itself known until about the 10th episode, which just introduces the main villian and does not explain any motives. Motives are also glossed over heavily, and we go from episode 11 being part of an pretty episodic feel the show has to episode 12 where we are pretty much thrown into the middle of the climax. Its like it tried to become an anime with a series long story arc at the last minute, when up until that point the show was episodic in nature.

Despite all of this there were some elements of the story that worked for me. There were some moments where they point out the fact that the show is a typical harem by one of the characters hanging the lampshade on the show. There were also a few moments that I thought were funny and that some of the character's relationships were interesting, but overall they do not make up for all of the problems this story has.

-Animation-

For the quality of the story that was delivered, the show did look pretty good. It wasn't a masterpiece of animation, but it was pretty good. I found the stylistic choice of censoring the naughty parts with bright lights was pretty interesting, even if it did make it look like the girls had thermo-nuclear vaginas and tits.

-Characters-

Since Maken-ki! is a typical harem anime, you got pretty much all of your typical harem charatcers. You got your wimpy male lead, the childhood friend, the tsundere girl, and the ditzy girl who claims to be the guy's fiance. Lets start with Takeru, our male lead.

Takeru is your "normal" high school guy, hes a total wimp and you already know all of the cliches that go with it. He gets a lot of girls liking him for seemingly no good reason. His character could have been a lot deeper if his backstory had been better explained.

Haruko is Takeru's childhood friend. Its no secret that she secretly like him and whenever it is brought up she quickly denies it. She also would be a much deeper character if her backstory was better explained.

Inaho is the girl that claims to be Takeru's fiance, and she litteraly appears out of no-where. Its bothersome because no one ever brings up where she came from or anything. She has no hope of depth because she does not have much of a backstory other than a memory of Takeru that only she has.

Kodama is the tsundere girl who like Takeru but is mean to him anyways. There never really was much backstory explained for her and she seemed so flat and dull that it was boring to watch her. The only thing that really sets her apart is that she is one of two characters who don't have boobs that are unrealistically huge.

The side characters are really boring themselves and they don't do much for me or the story. They are bland and flat and there really is nothing that makes them special and they are ever so forgettable.

-Overall-

I did not enjoy Maken-Ki! much at all. The story is terrible, the characters are boring, and the whole experience is pretty forgettable. I would not recommend this anime. There are much better harem animes out there to watch.