Maken-Ki! Two is finally here. It takes on an old and familiar re-draw formula for presenting fanservice, but does so in a way that is especially suggestive, while attempting (poorly) to feel like an anime that is about more than boobs.
One thing I’ve talked about a lot on this blog is that not very many anime sell well, and nude ecchi in particular seems to have a harder path to making sales than most. A few major nude ecchi franchises have had success, but most nude ecchi sell so little that it’s hard not to lose money even with relatively small production budgets.
I think the unique approach taken by ecchi over the last few seasons is a tacit admission of this new reality by anime companies. High School DxD New made waves by adding 3+ minutes of extra footage to every episode on blu-ray. Infinite Stratos added roughly 15 minutes of new footage to their first blu-ray episode, meaning that nearly half the episode didn’t air on TV. DxD sold well, Infinite Stratos sold very well.
It’s not just the heavy hitters either. Shows like Yuushibu and Walkure Romanze relied heavily on BD re-draws to add nudity where it didn’t previously exist. FREEZING Vibration and Sekatsuyo did things the old fashioned way but compensated by getting extra slutty on BD specials.
And now we have this, the long awaited debut of Hiraku Kaneko’s envisioning of Maken-Ki. It stands out not because it aired censored, but because it aired with nothing to censor in the first place. No beams of light, no dark rooms, no random cartoonish drawings (ravens in Air Gear, locks in ImoCho, wooden mules in Majikoi, etc) to obscure the nudity. In a lot of ways, the fanservice here is exactly the same as so many non-nude fanservice shows out there. There’s just one big difference- we know pretty much for a fact that this anime will deliver on BD.
There’s several obvious opportunities presented in this episode for nipple re-draws or inconvenient objects being conveniently removed. That’s pretty obvious, but I’d take this one step further. You can definitely sense the door being left open for some DxD style added scenes. I’ll tell you what I mean by that in just a bit. But first, here’s a breakdown of the first episode’s highlights:
Some suspiciously placed beauty products.
Haruko’s towel falls off, except she just barely catches it in time. We saw this exact same method in Yuushibu’s 8th episode, and she didn’t catch it in time on the uncensored version.
Notice how Kodama’s panties are visible quite plainly through her see-thru nightie. Now look up a bit. See a bra anywhere?
We should be starting at her nipples here, but they aren’t there. Easy chance for re-draw. I’d be shocked if they missed it.
Not really expecting changes here, though the view is still quite nice.
This scene happens as the boys describe their boob scanning abilities, so those nipple blocking triangles actually serve a purpose, and I wouldn’t expect them to go away completely. But will they remain completely opaque? Doubt it.
Minori’s nipples were criminally neglected in both the first series and it’s manga source. Kaneko’s Maken-Ki Two OVA added some nipples for her that did not exist in the original manga. Hopefully that becomes a trend.
These “older” women characters in these kind series are almost always the hottest, and Aki is maybe the best example of them all. She was not neglected in the first series, but a big service boost for her could vault Maken-Ki Two into the fanservice stratosphere.
A villain of the week casts a spell over Haruko and Chacha, hypnotizing them into removing their clothing (and copping a good feel in the process). Not only is there ample opportunity to add the outer edges of nipples here, but if they wanted this would be a good spot to add a brief extra scene, ala DxD New.
As far as harem masters go, Takeru is actually a pretty solid lead. He may look like a nerd and be a shameless perv, but he is quite powerful in combat when given the chance to be a white knight. Here he obliterates the 2nd story of his school taking out the bad guy, and we are treated to some subtle foreground censorship.
Followed immediately after by some far less subtle foreground censorship. Haruko’s gargantuan hooters take up about 70% of the screen about a second after this screen shot. They hang around for a good 3-4 seconds (this pic was taken in mid-pan down). Should be glorious on BD.
Redraw is likely here. Nice potential.
This comes from the ED sequence. If they want to redraw for nipples, they could. It’s unlikely to see that in an ED, but not unheard of.
Anyway, back to the title of this article. You can see some concerted effort by anime companies lately to make their nude ecchi series feel more like typical soft-service series that tend to be better accepted by the mainstream fanbase, which is generally uncomfortable with nudity in an anime context.
That’s exactly how this first episode felt. The fanservice here wasn’t really any more R-rated than what you see all the time in shows like Bakemonogatari or Senran Kagura. That allows these shows to expand their fanbase just a little bit more with the mainstream anime fanbase. Will it work? I guess we’ll find out. In the mean time, I expect to see other high budget ecchi series pretending to pose as non-nude shows. Not only is it classier, it might be better for business too.
It also has the added benefit of making the blu-ray feel more essential than ever. And because they took this route, you can now watch censored ecchi anime without feeling like the censorship makes the TV broadcast unwatchable (Samurai Girls, To Love-Ru Darkness received a lot of complaints in this regard).
Personally, I’m a huge fan of re-draw nude ecchi series, as they make for sexy juxtapositions in my fanservice compilations (My first Yuushibu video is a good example of this, as is the Ultimate Girls video I’m finishing up tonight).
