First Look: Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls

Title: Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls Genre: Action, Comedy, Romance

Summary: The story takes place in Japan in the early 21st century, in an alternate reality where the Tokugawa Shogunate has remained in power. In this reality, student councils are tasked with oppressing schools. Yagyuu Muneakira is a high school student who rebels against his student council with the help of girls who've had the names of famous samurai heroes passed on to them.

First Look: Flashy weapons, flashy weapons, and flashy girls. What is not to love about this anime? Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls has the best art this season and probably top 5 overall. It is literally like watching a finally detailed painting that moves. I really like how they made very bright characters that stand out from the magnificent backgrounds. The bold lines intensify the combat scenes tenfold. More importantly the characters all have their own specialties. Even though they all follow the way of the samurai, their fighting style and weapons are completely different from one another. While some use strategy to get an upper-hand, others blow through with brute force. The story is a bit vague so far. It feels like things are just getting started a quarter of the way through, but I can see it ending in an epic battle. Probably the only thing that is slightly strange about the battle scenes is how the winner is determined. Basically when two girls are fighting the one who comes out on top is the one with the most clothing left in the end. It seems as though the girl who manages to lose all of her clothing is down for the count (I mean, they were the creators of Queen’s Blade after all). Though it is quite logical considering they fight with very sharp weapons, high winds, and have light clothing in the first place, I begin to wonder where they get the clothes? For that matter the exact same set of clothes? But hey, I’m a sucker for a girl with guns (or swords in this case) so no complaints here.

Since the girl to guy ratio is high and the girls wear very little clothing, it should be needless to say it is ecchi. Very ecchi. Nudity is a common thing on the scene, so probably not the best thing to watch with your little brother/sister. Normally I would drop an anime like this, but the art style makes it completely worth it. The use of ink blots to censor out bodies is artistically brilliant.

The soundtrack is fitting. The opening is very up beat and exciting to listen to before each episode. The ending is a flip from the opening. It is more about the hot girls than the action. I guess they were trying to cover both sides of the anime eh?

All of this is topped off by the sweet VA lineup. My eyes are specifically looking at Yuuki Aoi who plays the role of Juubei. Her switch from innocent to evil is one to be noted. I could easily mistake it for two separate VA.

Final statements: I can’t wait to see where this series takes me. Episode three did get a little heavy on the ecchi, but I’m hoping it doesn’t happen every episode (or God forbid get worse). Keeping it on watch and crossing me fingers they don’t ruin a good anime with fan service.