Spring 2014 ecchi preview: robots, dragons, and super powers

kenzen-robo-daimidaler-tna

Trying to predict which kind of anime will be up our alley here at Fapservice isn’t as easy as it used to be.  Shows like Ikkitousen, High School DxD, and Samurai Girls did very little to hide their real intentions, but in very recent times ecchi series have been forced to take a more surreptitious path.

So keep in mind that this is some very half-assed guess work on my part, and I should add that several 2013 series surprised us with unexpected nipple sightings, so there’s always a great chance that some nice service could appear out of the blue.

With that said, here are the things that determine nudity with the highest correlation:

  • Production company track record
  • Did source material (manga, etc) have nudity?
  • Demographic.  Seinen works are significantly more likely to have nudity.
  • Does the anime give the “vibe” of a nude fanservice series?

With that in mind, here are the Spring 2014 series that give us the best chance of being worth watching for nude content:

 

Kenzen Robo Daimidaler

 

kenzen-robo-daimidaler2

Production:  TNK  ///   Manga nudity?  Yes.   ///   Likelihood of anime nudity?  Guaranteed.

If there is one anime this Spring season that is worth betting money on for having nudity and even disc specials, it’s Kenzen Robo Daimidaler.  Not only is it based on a manga with nude fanservice, and not only is it produced by TNK- a company who’s biggest hits have almost always been nude fanservice anime- but it even has the same staff (Director, Character Designer, Writer) that made TNK’s hit ecchi classic High School DxD.

The promo art hasn’t been very subtle either (see above), and there was even this image which served as a cross promotion between High School DxD and Kenzen Robo Daimidaler.

TNK has a pretty strong track record with airing their nude ecchi series uncensored on ATX, and in the recent case of High School DxD such a strategy didn’t stop them from raking in big blu-ray sales, so I wouldn’t expect them to deviate from the formula here.

Every season seems to have one series that is money in the bank for showing nipples, and this season, that show is Kenzen Robo Daimidaler.

 

 

dragonar-academy

Production:  C-Station  ///   Manga nudity?  Yes.   ///   Likelihood of anime nudity?  Considerably High.

If you’ve never heard of C-Station before, it is because Dragonar Academy is their very first leading venture into anime production.  Less established companies are more likely to draw for nudity than prestigious upper tier companies are, so this lack of a track record is usually a good thing.

While it’s conceivable this anime could be non-nude, the manga doesn’t shy from showing nipples at all, and the plot basically revolves around fanservice and naked girls.  It’s possible it might have a non-nude TV run, and add nipples later.

 

Gokukoku no Brynhildr

 

gokukoku-no-brynhildr

Production:  ARMS  ///   Manga nudity?  No.   ///   Likelihood of anime nudity?  Moderate.

Every now and then, ARMS will make a non-nude anime just to remind us that they are capable of making more than faptastic tits and ass showcases.  I haven’t spotted nudity in this manga yet, and on numerous occasions full frontal fanservice moments are blatantly censored even in the “uncensored” tankobon editions.

That said, anime nudity comes down to what the anime producers want to do and if ARMS thinks the fanservice scenes should be less tasteful then they’d hardly be the first company to give us a nude anime based on a non-nude manga.

And if they do give us nudity, there will be a lot of it.  Reading the manga, there are lengthy bathing scenes constantly providing plenty of nude fanservice that unfortunately just stays censored for some reason.  If ARMS decides they want to add nipples, this series has very strong potential.

Which is kind of odd (that the artwork abstains from nipples), since the manga is fairly shocking and shocking seinen series rarely avoid nudity.  ARMS most famous and best received anime, Elfen Lied, had some similar elements to Kiwaguro no Brynhildr, and of course, Elfen Lied was full of (weird) nudity.  Then again, it’s not like the Elfen Lied manga needed any spicing up.

Even though the manga does not have nipples, it has so much nearly nude fanservice that I struggle to see a company like ARMS holding back with all those bathing scenes.

 

Blade & Soul

 

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Production:  Gonzo  ///   Source nudity?  Only if you had the fan-made patch for it :3  .   ///   Likelihood of anime nudity?  Decent.

The promos for this anime remind me a lot of Burst Angel.  Lots of action, lots of super hot girls in revealing clothing.  Burst Angel was not the best anime though- it was mindless, non-nonsensical and boring.  It was pretty to look at though.  Oh, and guess who made it?

Gonzo has a long history of animating nipples, including the most commercially successful nude fanservice anime of all time:  Strike Witches.  Though I don’t know if there has ever been a TV anime series based off a video game to show nipples, if it ever were to happen, I can’t see a company like Gonzo standing in the way.

This will probably be a very sexy anime, but just based on the history of previous video game adaptations I’m guessing nipples will be out of the question.  Regardless, this is an anime worth monitoring, especially if we see obvious censorship tactics in the early episodes.

 

Break Blade

 

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Production:  Production I.G.  ///   Manga nudity?  Yes (!)   ///   Likelihood of anime nudity?  Low.

Before you get too excited, the manga does not have a TON of nudity or anything, but it does show a slight willingness to go there.  Break Blade is a mecha anime, and for whatever reason mainstream mecha anime and uncensored bare boobs have been the best of friends going back decades.

Production I.G. has not shied from animating nipples in the past, though it is a bit uncommon for them.

Update:  Apparently this series will be mostly a re-packaging of the Broken Blade movies, which were non-nude.  Added nudity is possible but not expected.

 

JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Stardust Crusaders

 

jojo-2

Production:  David Production  ///   Manga nudity?  Yes.   ///   Likelihood of anime nudity?  Low.

 

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is exactly that, a strange seinen manga from the 90’s that has somehow endured and spawned multiple anime adaptations over the last 14 years.  The latest adaptation, JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Stardust Crusaders, is made by the same production company that produced the previous Jojo series a couple years ago.

While the manga did have nudity, and the first OVA anime adaptation way back in the day had a scene with nipples in it, David Production’s previous JoJo adaptation was nipple free, even if it had some very close calls.  Further, David Production’s resume is loaded with tease anime series (Ben-To, Book of Bantorra, Hyperdimension Neptunia, etc).  To the best of my knowledge, they’ve never spearheaded a project that showed a nipple even once.

Given the source material and genre, as well as the “close call” nature of the fanservice from the previous series, I would not be shocked if this second season went where the first season did not.  Every now and then you see a series go for nudity in season two when it didn’t happen in season one.  That said, the likelihood of nudity in this series is pretty low.

 

Date A Live second season

 

date-a-live

Production:  AIC+  ///   Light Novel nudity?  No.   ///   Likelihood of anime nudity?  Very Low.

The word “nipple” has yet to appear in the translated light novel, none of the light novel images have nudity, the first season flirted with showing nipples but didn’t, and AIC hasn’t shown more than a token nipple sighting in one of their productions since 2012.

But, as said before, sometimes shows go non-nude in season one and then throw us a bone randomly in season two.  AIC has a very strong pre-2013 history with nudity in anime.  I’ll be honest, if this series shows nipples I would be both thrilled and very surprised, but there are reasons to think it is faintly plausible.

Update:  Apparently season 2 is going to come with blu-ray specials of some sort.  This raises my optimism just a little.

OVA titles to watch out for this season:

Queen’s Blade – Vanquished Queens OVA 3