DxD, Triage X, and Grisaia. This season is very strong at the top, and not too shabby otherwise.
The interesting thing about this season is that the best ecchi shows are fairly serious in content.
High School DxD BorN will push though much more story material than before and the PV for the new season has a somber tone of finality and major happenings. Triage X is based on a dramatic action manga that can be excessively serious at times. As we already know from the first season, the Grisaia franchise can be incredibly dark. And the ‘survival horror in space’ themed anime Knights of Sidonia is hardly light-hearted.
Which I don’t know, is kind of a random observation, but it’s interesting. Part of the charm of ecchi anime is that they typically don’t take themselves very seriously, but the headliners of the Spring 2015 season seem to be an exception to that.
Anyway, I broke this preview into categories, sorted by likelihood of having adult content.
Shows where nudity is extremely unlikely, but might be worth following for casual fanservice:
Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru no Darou ka?
J.C. Staff
A fantasy anime that sounds primed for a harem, or at least a mini-harem. J.C. Staff hasn’t drawn a nipple in ten years, but they tend compensate for this pretty well with tamer forms of service.
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha ViVid
A-1 Pictures
The previous Nanoha anime was loaded with ‘barbie doll nudity’ and casual fanservice. A good expectation for this anime service-wise would be Yuri Kuma Arashi from the current season.
Nagato Yuki-chan no Shoushitsu
Satelight
The latest spinoff of the massively popular Haruhi franchise, this is probably the season’s most anticipated anime among Type-A fans. It’s interesting that production is being handled by Satelight instead of Kyoani, though I doubt it will make that big a difference for fanservice.
The original Haruhi anime had some good fanservice moments, and this spinoff will likely please fans of non-nude service anime.
Shokugeki no Souma
J.C. Staff
If you’ve read the manga you know, Shokugeki no Souma is a sure-fire bet to be the sexiest non-nude anime of the season. But not a chance it will be more than that.
Nisekoi:
Shaft
Adding a colon to the name = sequel.
I respect Shaft, but I liked them so much more back in the day when they were maybe the biggest ecchi peddler in the industry. I always laugh when people say so-and-so “sold out.” But Shaft most definitely did exactly that for ecchi fans once they found massive success with cleaner shows.
Still, their ecchi-loving roots haven’t vanished completely, and their artwork is some of the best in the industry.
Wildcards- nudity is unlikely, but these shows have a small chance to surprise.
Etotama
Shirogumi
Etotama is an anime original series featuring a whole lot of cute girls with various animal qualities. The cutesy art style, simple premise and sexy outfits remind me some of Momo Kyun Sword , a show that was 99.9% non-nude but did manage to sneak one in there on BD.
Shirogumi doesn’t have the longest resume and their track record wouldn’t suggest nudity. Not yet anyway.
Punchline
Mappa
An anime original series that has an old Gainax type of feel to it visually. Apparently it has a lot to do with pantsu, as all the girls are shown in their bra and panties in the series PV. Mappa did nudity (albeit barely) in an early episode of Garo , so I wouldn’t rule it out here 100%.
My hunch says this will be a casual type of fanservice show, it just looks too nice to be full blown ecchi. But I thought the same thing about Rail Wars! So I guess we’ll see.
Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo
LIDEN FILMS
The story involves a boy and a girl swapping bodies, there’s a large cast of hot young girls and the PV seems decently ecchi. Not expecting anything too much here, but could be a fun show for fans of casual fanservice. Maybe a small chance to surprise, if the show takes a Haganai type of turn.
Shows for which nudity is either guaranteed or highly likely:
High School DxD BorN
TNK
What’s interesting about this third season is how TNK has suddenly decided to cover a ton of ground in the light novels while remaining a one-cour season. That might be because TNK wants to prepare for this being the last season, or it could simply be a desire to catch up. The light novel has published 19 volumes already.
DxD has been arguably the most successful ecchi anime of the past five years. It’s financial success has been consistent and sustained, and it’s been relatively well received by mainstream anime fans. There are precious few ecchi franchises going strong right now; you can assume TNK will treat this series with great care.
AT-X will offer an uncensored broadcast like usual. Check the site for weekly FC videos after each episode.
Triage X
Xebec
Maybe the best character in every true ecchi anime is the super busty hot school nurse type. Ever wonder what it would be like if someone made an entire ecchi manga full of those characters? And that they were ass-kicking action heroes after hours? Well if so, Triage X is for you.
Based on the manga of the same name by the masterful Shoji Sato (creator of High School of the Dead and the mastermind (alias: Inazuma) behind the wildly popular hentai doujin group Digital Accel Works). Shouji’s manga always have an indelible Hollywood action flick feel to them, which is every bit as impressive as his legendary penchant for fanservice scenery, arguably the best you will find in any manga anywhere.
It seems so odd that this show was picked up by Xebec, and handed over to essentially the same staff that did Maken-Ki! Two . How much will Triage X and Maken-Ki! Two resemble one another? The company is the same, the staff is mostly the same (with character designer Akio Takami having a major role in both projects), and the duration of each series appears to be the same (10 episodes + OVA). Takami had previously also done the character design for Kanokon and Ladies versus Butlers . He tends to specialize in girls that are busty but wear a few extra pounds in the process.
If the anime follows the manga, it will be a dedicated action anime that occasionally takes booby breaks. The fanservice scenes in the manga almost always involved showers or baths that happen between battles. If this anime stays true to the manga, I’m thinking the fanservice structure of this anime will feel similar to Gokukoku no Brynhildr , with the story being the focus and a few nude bathing scenes mixed in from time to time.
It will be interesting then to see if they still play games with well placed shampoo bottles and soap to hint at future redraws, or if they’ll opt to avoid to keep things more straightforward and give us longer scenes with typical steam censoring. While the clever use of foreground objects and redraws for nudity made the Maken-Ki! Two TV broadcast very fun, the fanservice limitations of such an approach held the series back on BD.
Triage X is nothing like Maken-Ki! at all, other than loving the sight of fully developed naked women, so I’m hoping the approach to service is also different. Or failing that, at least have the service scenes feel more extensive.
The show is very likely to have specials too. Should be interesting to see what they do there. If there are five volumes, that would basically mean one special per girl in the main cast.
Grisaia no Meikyuu / Grisaia no Rakuen
8 bit
The first Grisaia took 8 bit to new heights of ecchi production. The show experienced financial success and is now about to offer up a well earned sequel. Technically, this will be a ‘trilogy’ even though it sounds like a season plus an hour long special for both the 2nd and 3rd visual novels combined.
The original anime was probably the 3rd or 4th best ecchi anime last year. It is incredible to think that this sequel will probably be only the third best nude-ecchi anime from this season.
Sidonia no Kishi: Daikyuu Wakusei Seneki
Polygon Pictures
The manga had light nudity, and the first anime season did as well.
Lupin III (2015)
Telecom Animation Film
Many past Lupin adaptations have had nudity, including the two most recent manifestations. Based on the past history of this franchise, I’d give this one a 50-50 chance.
OVA releases of note:
To Love-Ru Darkness OVA 6
Senran Kagura: Estival Versus – Festival Eve Full of Swimsuits
Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai After OVA 2
Strike Witches Operation Victory Arrow OVA 3
Kiss x Sis (final OVA)
Suisei no Gargantia OVA 1-2
Trinity Seven OVA
Papa no Iu Koto o Kikinasai! OVA (comes with final papakiki LN)
Code Geass: Boukoku no Akito 3
As you can see, there are a lot of shows to cover this next season. If you have some spare time and want to help by doing screencap reviews of shows you are watching anyway, please contact me at [email protected]. If you contacted me about helping last season and I didn’t get you a show to cover, be sure to contact me again about getting in this season.
We’ll probably start assigning Spring shows sometime next week, so if you can commit to 12 episodes and want to help make this a better place, now’s the time to let me know. We can always use more core members.
