Lots of cleavage, bounce, and near nudity. There’s even a scene with frontal censorship.
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Ending Credits
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- Dat ass.
Before I begin this review, some context:
As everyone knows, Momo Kyun Sword is being produced by Project No.9, the same company that trolled everyone with fake censorship in ImoCho and Ro-Kyu-Bu! . Keeping with tradition, there is some highly suggestive censorship and near nudity in episode one, the kind that would result in BD nudity in most cases, but hasn’t yet for this company.
Further, the overall tone of Momo Kyun Sword is actually kind of family friendly. The girls are cute and innocent, there are animal sidekicks, and the (beautiful) world this anime takes place in is almost Miyazaki-esque. Sure, there is a LOT of bounce (and I heard at least one boob clap), but the vibe of this series is totally at odds with the kind of shows that typically show nudity.
That said, this is Japan we are talking about. Strike Witches had a similar tone and was loaded with nudity, and if you want to go pretty far back there was all of Rumiko Takahashi’s stuff in the 80s (Urusei Yatsura , Ranma 1/2 , Maison Ikkoku ) as well as the family sitcom with boobs anime Maicchingu Machiko Sensei . So having nudity in an otherwise “innocent” anime is not unprecedented, but it’s been a while since we’ve seen it.
Also, Project No.9 isn’t the only production company involved, this anime is also being co-produced by Tri-Slash, a brand new company. As you know, new companies are total wildcards for nude-content, and several noteworthy anime companies debuted with nude-service anime. Maybe Tri-Slash is carrying more creative control than Project No.9, or perhaps Project No.9 will agree to nudity out of compromise.
This series is directed by Shinsuke Yanagi, who also directed Ro-Kyu-Bu! SS and was partially involved in directing the first season as well. Given how much Ro-Kyu-Bu! trolled everyone with bogus censorship in both seasons, that’s maybe not the best sign. Yanagi has spent most of his career working as an animation director on some pretty nice looking anime, so it’s not a surprise that the art and character design for Momo Kyun Sword has been so impressive despite mid-tier production values.
The series composition is being handled by Tsuyoshi Tamai. Being the series composer basically means he’s the guy who plans the anime out, and this is actually pretty interesting considering that Tamai had previously done the series composition for Strike Witches and Ladies versus Butlers .
Now, as far as this episode goes…
There are definitely opportunities to add nipples to at least three scenes should they choose.
The first is the wet clothing scene which has the animal characters reacting in a completely stunned or shocked manner. But then we see Momoko looking pretty much normal and wonder why the reaction. Maybe blu-ray will illuminate us as to the cause.
The second is the Momoko transformation scene during her battle against the ogres. Nipples just barely miss the screen in one shot and are just barely covered up in another.
The third is a blatant case of frontal censorship after Momoko returns to human form. I put this clip under filters and found nothing but opaque fuzz- that censorship is covering up something. It might be covering up a blank boob, but it is covering it. Generally speaking, this kind of situation usually results in BD nudity for most anime. If not for Project No.9’s past history this would be a very exciting development.
There is no possibility of nipple blockage, as we can see her hair and clothing are out of the way. There’s either going to be a nipple on BD, or a huge blank boob, or they won’t change it at all and leave it censored as is, the last of which is pretty uncommon these days. A huge blank boob is a very real possibility, though it’s not very often you see a blank boob shown so prominently.
Dare I say I think we might just get a nipple or two from this anime. But first let’s remember that ImoCho was heavily censored in it’s first episode, before backing away once they got past the would-be materials for the first couple blu-rays. So if in this series we see a lot of suggestive stuff early on only to disappear completely shortly after, I would assume this to just be false-positive censorship again as an attempt to boost the first blu-ray’s sales. I’m going to wait and see how this unfolds before I get too certain of things.
Another thing to remember, Project No.9 is still a new company themselves, and all of their work to this point has involved fanservice. Ro-Kyu-Bu! was based on a non-nude source material and was uber-loli, so avoiding nudity with that anime is understandable (the censorship trolling is a different matter). ImoCho was based on non-nude material and when the live-action movie turned out to be a Pink Film, the mangaka shrieked in dismay that her innocent manga was being tainted by such content. It seems likely that Project No.9 was asked to avoid nudity in their anime version.
So can we hold it against Project No.9 that they try to deceive with censorship? Absolutely. But can we say for certain that they are opposed to animating nipples? I think the jury is still out on that. And for all the bogus censorship ImoCho used to try and generate extra sales, it was a huge failure, as ImoCho has been one of the worst selling anime of 2014 so far. Perhaps Project No.9 came away from that experience believing that it is better to go for nudity than to pretend you will and fail to deliver.
Momo Kyun Sword is based on a light novel with no manga adaptation, meaning that it is pretty much a blank slate for service. We’ll find out what kind of service anime this will be a few months from now.
Okay, but is the anime itself any good?
As far as the anime goes, I like it so far. Definitely nothing hard hitting, but the character design, art, and environments are awesome. This anime doesn’t seem to be high budget, it just seems like a show that stretched it’s dollars with some talented staff.
The story itself is very unlikely to have emotional impact or hold much interest, but the environments and character art make it feel like a worthwhile time investment.
Ayana Taketatsu is almost unrecognizable as Momoko. Her signature soft voice used in roles such as Koneko in High School DxD or Sakura in Sekatsuyo isn’t nearly as evident, instead going for an airhead type similar to Lala from To Love-Ru or Jubei from Samurai Girls . And it totally works. It was also pretty cool hearing Showtaro Morikubo (famous for voicing Shikamaru in Naruto ) as the monkey sidekick, Sarugami.
Obviously, it would be nice if this anime went for nudity, but even if it doesn’t this show looks to be a decent time-waster. It certainly does not lack for charm.
