This season’s two headliners are all about epic battles, and the highly inappropriate way in which those fighters boost their powers.
Series not worth expecting anything from, but should be mentioned anyway
Hacka Doll the Animation
Creators in Pack x Trigger
This TV original anime looks to capitalize on the popular virtual diva archetype, and not a lot else is known beyond that. With studio Trigger being involved it seems likely this show will deliver some moderate fanservice and lively animation.
Hacka Doll the Animation premieres on October 2nd
Owarimonogatari
SHAFT
It’s Bakemonogatari. You know the drill by now.
Owarimonogatari is being billed as the final season or at least the adaptation of the ‘final’ arc, but will SHAFT allow it to be? Seems hard to believe they’d just let a cash cow saunter away while it’s still selling strong.
If this is to be the end of this series, then hopefully SHAFT pulls a JC Staff and gets back to their ecchi lover roots just in time to give us all a happy ending.
Bah, who am I kidding. Some things just aren’t meant to be.
Owarimonogatari premieres on October 4th
Hidan no Aria AA
Dogakobo
Some flawed writing hurt the first season, which otherwise had a ton going for it. That didn’t stop it from being a solid financial success. The series was carried by some attractive character designs, good art, a fun premise, and the same leading VA duo who were so good together in Toradora .
I never miss a chance to see a Rei Kugimiya tsundere lead. I’ll be watching this. But fanservice-wise I wouldn’t expect a ton, especially since Dogakobo has taken over animation duties. It’ll have blank boobs and panty shots at best.
Hidan no Aria AA premieres on October 6th
Non-ecchi shows with mature themes
Garo: Guren no Tsuki
Mappa x Tohokushinsha
The first season had a few instances of odd nudity. Garo isn’t an ecchi series, but it’s proven to be unpredicable with adult content.
Garo: Guren no Tsuki premieres on October 10th
Young Black Jack
Tezuka Productions
Black Jack has seen numerous remakes and spinoffs over the decades. Some of them have had nudity, some of them didn’t. This version seems less likely than most to go there, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.
Young Black Jack premieres on October 2nd
So you’re telling me there’s a chance? The long shots:
Lupin III (2015) aka L’avventura Italiana
Telecom Animation Film
This series has had many spinoffs, movies and sequels over the years. Many of them- including the two most recent iterations prior to this- had featured frontal nudity.
Lupin III (2015) takes place in Italy, and I guess as a promotion of sorts this series delivered an early airing in Italy as well. The Japanese airing began in late August, but the Italian airing is now 13 episodes deep in a 24 episode series. You can now find those 13 episodes (in Italian) on nyaa. Episode 14 comes out next week in Italy.
Having gone through the 13 currently available episodes, I’m sad to report that the 2015 series is exceedingly low on fanservice and is nudity free to this point in the show. We get a couple of Fujiko cleavage closeups and that’s about it so far.
That said there’s still 11 episodes to go. Stranger things have happened.
Lupin III (2015) premiered on August 31st (in Japan)
Heavy Object
J.C. Staff
Heavy Object is based off a 2009 light novel of the same name. It’s written by Kazuma Kamachi – who famously also writes the Toaru Majutsu no Index series.
The illustrations for the Heavy Object novel are only occasionally ecchi and mildly so at that. That said, light novels are notoriously open to visual interpretation.
Kazuma Kamachi also wrote two manga adaptations to his Heavy Object novel. The first is just one volume long and was almost 100% fanservice free. It had just one nice shot of Froleytia undressing and it came near the very end.
The second spinoff manga though, Heavy Object S (two volumes out of three can be found on nyaa), has significantly more fanservice including some non-nude bare boobs to the face. There’s also a shot very early in the S manga where Froleytia’s areola can be seen behind some hair.
The first episode of the anime opens with a shower scene that does not appear in the novel or in the manga adaptations, which suggests that J.C. Staff might take some liberties with this series. Normally you’d just assume no chance, but considering the liberties J.C. Staff just took with Shimoneta and the financial success of Prison School , it’s fair to wonder about Heavy Object‘s prospects for nudity. Especially considering the borderline nudity from Heavy Object S .
Heavy Object is a two-cour series (24 episodes).
Heavy Object premieres on October 3rd
Taimadou Gakuen 35 Shiken Shoutai
SILVER LINK
This is yet another mildly ecchi light novel getting adapted for anime, and is one of many series produced by SILVER LINK this season. The series opens up with a clothed boob grab in both the novel and the manga adaptation.
The Light Novel format tends to be much more open to creative adaptation than manga are, so while the odds of nudity appear to be very low, I wouldn’t rule it out 100% given SILVER LINK’s past history.
Taimadou Gakuen 35 Shiken Shoutai premieres on October 8th
Onsen Yousei Hakone-chan
Asashi x Production Reed
This one is surprising, in that the manga just began recently with only two tankobon currently in release. Yet thirteen episodes have been announced for this series. Perhaps it will feature short episodes?
As the title suggests, this is a story about an onsen fairy, and as you might expect there are no shortage of onsen scenes and naked ladies in the manga, but as of yet no nipples have been drawn.
Given that this series is meant to be more cute than erotic, I’d bet against nudity, but wouldn’t rule it out completely. Because Japan.
Onsen Yousei Hakone-chan premieres on October 4th
Comet Lucifer
8bit
Another TV original series, I have very little reason to suspect top grade fanservice other than it being produced by 8bit, a company which has never really enjoyed a hit anime to date without showing nipples in the process.
Comet Lucifer premieres on October 4th
Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry
Nexus x SILVER LINK
This series would appear to be the designated ultra generic action-harem light novel adaptation of the season, taking the baton from past series like Absolute Duo and Seiken Tsukai no World Break .
Who cares right? Well, the light novel’s illustrations are a bit more on the salacious side, and with SILVER LINK being involved, nothing is impossible. It’s worth noting though that the manga adaptation is pretty tame through the first 18 chapters.
The similarities to Bladedance of Elementalers are striking, right down to the redheaded twintails MC girl, the salacious looking Light Novel illustrations and having production handled by a studio that is anything but afraid of drawing nipples. TNK is well known for doing titty anime, and even put their DxD director/writer duo on the Elementalers project. Elementalers still ended up as a non-nude anime which kind of tells you how long the odds are here for Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry .
Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry premieres on October 3rd
Wildcards. These shows could be AMAZING or they could be soul-crushing disappointments
Anitore! EX
Rising Force
Here’s the series’ premise as stated on myanimelist. Gotta admit, this anime sounds fun:
“Move your soul and body!” Each episode contains a variety of routines, such as push-ups, sit-ups, spine twists, dance, yoga, stretches, trunk training, and taichi. Five girls aiming to become idols will exercise with you, and that troubling body fat percentage will go down by 1000%…!?
If Anitore! EX is anything like Training With Hinako , then it’s a must watch. I’d put the chances of nipples right around 0%, but something about this premise seems Otaku-friendly in a very good way.
Anitore! EX premieres on October 13th
Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen
White Fox
Originally a 2002 eroge, Utawarerumono was adapted into a TV anime in 2006. Unlike most eroge adaptations, Utawarerumono refrained from nudity. Keep in mind though that 2006 was one of the worst years ever for ecchi fans, a year where blank boobs dominated and nipples almost disappeared from anime completely.
A 2009-2010 OVA series helped make things right by providing a couple of nude scenes.
This series seemed dead and buried, but just earlier this week Aquaplus released a Utawarerumono eroge sequel after 13 years of dormancy. To help promote the new game, a new TV anime has been financed, and White Fox is animating.
White Fox proved in Jormungand that they weren’t scared to draw nipples if the source calls for it.
Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen premieres on October 4th
Ore ga Ojou-sama Gakkou ni “Shomin Sample” Toshite Gets♥Sareta Ken
SILVER LINK
A synopsis of the series by manga helpers:
In a hidden school surrounded by mountains, young ladies of good families are taught everything a high class lady needs to know. They are also completely cut off from the outside world, keeping them sheltered and innocent; however, a problem has come up recently—more and more graduates are failing to cope with the modern world after graduation. To deal with this problem, they’ve decided to kidnap a male commoner student, and enroll him as a student. They hope that this will be a gentle way to introduce the girls to the outside world.
Kagurazaka Kimito is chosen for this dubious honor, mostly because he seems utterly average; however, the school leaders also seem to have concluded he’s a homosexual with a muscle fetish. When Kimito hears that the alternative may be castration (to protect the girls’ purity), he eagerly plays along with this misconception. Now he’ll just have to survive the attention of many high class young ladies that are completely out of touch with the world!
Originally a light novel and later adapted into manga form, the light novel has some light fanservice moments and even some blank boobs (a good indicator from a light novel given the content restrictions). A manga adaptation has been running for some time now and has MULTIPLE nude scenes throughout.
Normally a show like this could go either way depending on the company involved, and in this case SILVER LINK makes for a promising production company. Based on the print materials, premise, and insanely long name, it’s tempting to draw comparisons here to SILVER LINK’s best fanservice anime, Oniichan dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne! aka OniAi.
I’m guessing SILVER LINK wouldn’t screw this up. Should be fun.
Ore ga Ojou-sama Gakkou ni “Shomin Sample” Toshite Gets♥Sareta Ken premieres on October 7th
Shows for which nudity is guaranteed. Hooray for boobies!
Shinmai Maou no Testament Burst
Production IMS
It’s here! The sequel season to the surprise hit of 2015. It takes over where the previous anime left off, meaning some intense scenes for Chisato, Zest and Kurumi are likely on the way. Not to mention some big demon lord sword battles.
What’s interesting is that despite maintaining the same animation crew and having only a short 6 month layoff, the character design and animation style seems significantly changed from season one. Hopefully that means we get more consistent animation quality this time around.
The format of the series remains the same, with a censored TV broadcast and ‘directors cut’ scenes added on BD. There’s some question about whether or not this TV series will go ten or twelve episodes. Nobody seems to know for sure at this time, though some indicators seem to point at it being ten (there’s only five BD volumes listed currently). It’d be nice if this wasn’t the case, as ten episode series always feel too short.
Boring details aside, this season will show us just how far Production IMS is capable of taking things, as the upcoming Testament light novels get insanely risqué. Are they capable of animating a full blown sex scene? Group sex? Maybe not, but all the same expect this season’s succubus pact power-ups to be more intense than ever.
Shinmai Maou no Testament Burst premieres on October 10th
Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid
ARMS
Senran Kagura was among the first ecchi anime to directly tie into a mobile game franchise. Due to the fact that these handheld gaming devices ban nudity, it made sense that the Senran Kagura anime would also be non-nude.
That changed earlier this year when Senran Kagura unveiled a new business model where the non-nude game tied into a nude OVA. The result was a game that sold over 100,000 units and a BD/DVD that sold over 4,000 copies. I’d say that worked out for them.
It was only a matter of time before another anime project jumped on this business model, which offers great financial security in a time when most anime struggle to break even. Even if the anime bombs, if the game sells well, it all works out.
Other ecchi series such as High School DxD , Monster Musume , and To Love-Ru have mobile games, but these are cases of the game cashing in on the anime, not the other way around.
It’s fitting then that when this ambitious new game / ecchi anime hybrid did come along, it’d be co-created by the same guy who created Senran Kagura – Kenichiro Takaki. This series also brought in legendary ecchi director Hiraku Kaneko to direct. With animation handled by ARMS- a company that is capable of incredibly good animation when given a budget. And by appearances this will not be a cheaply produced anime. Perhaps Valkyrie Drive will have some money flowing into it from investors who were encouraged by Senran Kagura‘s success.
The fighters, who all seem to be female, power-up by transforming their weapons into girls and having yuri experiences with them. It’s also said that Kaneko intends to create a new type of erotic experience in this anime that pushes the envelope in some sort of unspecified way.
Valkyrie Drive is the most ambitious ecchi anime in what has been a landmark year for the ecchi genre. There’s a bit of a ‘dream team’ feel to this project. If it is successful, and it probably will be, we can expect to see this series franchised with multiple seasons until it isn’t profitable anymore, much like Queen’s Blade , DxD , or To Love-Ru .
Valkyrie Drive has already confirmed nudity and will even air uncensored on AT-X.
Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid premieres on October 10th
OVA releases of note
Hantsu x Trash (October 10th)
Triage X (November 2nd)
Strike the Blood: Valkyria no Oukoku-hen (November 25th and December 23rd)
Queen’s Blade: Grimoire (Fall 2015. Bundles with the latest QB Visual Combat Book.)
Overall, the Fall 2015 season seems to be above average for ecchi fans. Testament and Valkyrie Drive are a lock to deliver, and I feel really good about the chances for ‘Shomin Sample’ and Utawarerumono contributing nude service as well. Cavalry will probably be decently ecchi with or without nudity, and Anitore Ex! feels like it has huge potential for fun.
It’s not quite as strong as the Spring 2015 season (barring some surprises), but it’s fairly comparable overall.
