For most of the first four episodes, story was the front and center focus of this anime, with fanservice both sparing and downplayed.
The first major life-and-death conflict comes to a close early in this episode, while also solving most of the mysteries posed back at the start of the series.
Then very suddenly and without warning, the characters whisk off to a co-ed onsen, I guess because that’s what you do when you get wet walking in the rain. Corny fanservice music starts playing and ARMS does its thing. Thank goodness.
Not only do we get nudity from this scene, but the way it’s handled is fun too. Once in the bath, Kazumi taunts and teases Ryouta, talking about a “boobie fee” even before he accidentally checks her out. Her flirtatiously coercive nature- always looking for tricks to play to earn forced favors- is reminiscent of Nabiki from Ranma 1/2. While being much sluttier, of course.
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I took a look at this entire bathing scene with filters on, but only the first shot has a clearly shown nipple. A few of the other shots had dark splotches in suspicious places, but nothing I would consider strong evidence. Of course, the first shot alone is enough to confirm nudity, and this is ARMS we are talking about. They are the last anime company I would ever suspect of false-positive censorship BS.
I wouldn’t complain one bit if this series jams a bathing scene into every other episode.
Of course, if you are actually watching this anime, none of these girls are particularly good bets to live to the conclusion of the story. Maybe they find a way to save Kuroha, but this show is very likely to kill off characters at some point. Which kind of puts a damper on scenes like these, but I figure that’s part of the existentialist message of this anime anyway.
