The Summer 2014 season looks to be the weakest season for ecchi in a long time. Maybe a very, very long time.
None of the titles this season appear “likely” for nudity. In fact, there aren’t even that many shows that appear likely to be fanservice based. Of course, every year there are a few anime that surprise us with unexpected nudity. But barring a surprise, this season looks pretty likely to go fully non-nude.
This made me wonder, when was the last time an anime TV season went completely without nudity with its TV series? I went back and checked each season eliminating each one if I could identify a TV series from that season with at least one nipple sighting.
So how long has it been since a complete shutout? The answer might surprise you. The last time it happened was the January-March “Winter” season of 2002, a season that occurred over twelve years ago*. Which happened to be a really strong anime season, as it turned out.
That’s right, even during the height of the blank boob craze during the mid-oughts, there was always at least one anime in each of those seasons that stepped up to the plate and delivered at least once. Though there were certainly a few close calls along the way (non-ecchi anime Paradise Kiss** saved it at the last instant during the Fall 2005 season, as did Akikan! in the Winter 2009 season).
I guess the glass-half-full way of looking at this is to say that if it’s been over twelve years since the last fully non-nude season, odds are at least one anime will step up, even if it’s not an obvious candidate.
So with that in mind, here are some anime that are kinda sorta worth keeping an eye on, maybe?
Note: This preview missed on Rail Wars , which ended up being the best fanservice show of the season, hands down.
Momo Kyun Sword
When the best fanservice prospect of the season is produced by Project no.9 (ImoCho, Ro-Kyu-Bu!), you know you might be in trouble.
This anime retells a popular Japanese folklore tale, though in this case the male lead has been replaced by a voluptuous young girl. Given the combination of shonen genre fanservice and Japanese mysticism, the closest comparison for this anime is probably Mushibugyo, a massive blu-balls fanservice shonen anime that was constantly putting boobs in your face but never showed nipples.
Project no.9 owes us big time after trolling us so hard in their previous works, but I’m not expecting that trend to change any time soon. I fully expect the first couple episodes of Momo Kyun Sword to be heavily “censored” only to find out it’s all bullshit three months later.
This very well might end up as a decent anime, but I’m not going to get my hopes up too much for the service given the past history of Project no.9 .
Probability of nudity: Lower than it should be.
Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance
Based on the light novel by the same name, this TNK produced harem comedy is probably our best hope.
Nudity is actually much less common in light novels than it is in manga, so it might not mean too much when I say that the light novel is (flirtatiously) non-nude.
The early chapters of the manga spinoff are loaded with bathing scenes and near nudity, but there always seems to be hair draping down to block the most interesting parts. That said, the manga is still very early in its run and has yet to receive a tankobon scan, so nudity for the manga is still possible.
This is definitely an ecchi series at heart, and TNK has had a lot of success going all the way with ecchi series lately, having produced shows like Ikkitousen Xtreme Xecutor, High School DxD, and Kenzen Robo Daimidaler.
But until I see even so much as a hint of a nipple in the print materials, I can’t really hold out more than a 50/50 chance of hope for this series being more than the tease-ecchi variety.
Edit: As has been pointed out in the comments, this series features the same director/writer duo that did High School DxD and Kenzen Robo Daimidaler. Given the track record of those shows, that increases my optimism significantly.
Probability of nudity: Decent, TNK would have to take some liberties. Though if the writer/director have their way, they probably will.
Himegoto
Of all the manga to get anime adaptations this season, Himegoto is the most ecchi of them all. There’s just one slight problem. The seemingly hot loli MC that keeps showing her “boobs” is actually a guy. Yup, the driving force of this anime is a way too convincing trap character.
The ecchiness of the manga is pretty strong, and there is a considerable female cast that will likely turn harem at some point. As an example, Asa Made Jugyo Chu is also based around a “trap” lead, and the manga / OVA for it is super-awesome despite that drawback. So I wouldn’t say it is completely hopeless by any means. No expectations here, but if this turned into a solid nude-ecchi series it wouldn’t be completely out of the blue.
Probability of nudity: Decent.
Akame ga Kill!
White Fox gets a lot of flak, but I respect them for taking on all kinds of projects and generally staying true to the source material. Given their popularity at the time, I was surprised that they added quite a bit of nudity to the Jormungand blu-rays, proving that they aren’t too high and mighty to draw nipples if the source material calls for it.
As far as I know, the Akame ga Kill! manga is non-nude, though it does have a lot of near-nude fanservice. For an anime that is sure to go for a “hard R” kind of feel with heavy violence, it’s slightly possible they might toss some nudity in too to help enhance the adult feel of the anime. Doing so would mean taking some liberties, and I’m not sure if White Fox is that kind of company just yet.
Probability of nudity: Low.
Majimoji Rurumo
This appears to be one of the more committed fanservice series of the season, though unfortunately it was produced by J.C. Staff, who haven’t animated nipples for almost ten years now.
A casual glance at the manga shows no signs of nudity either.
Probability of nudity: Highly unlikely.
Psycho-Pass New Edit Version
Production IG is doing something pretty damn cool. They are releasing the Psycho-Pass anime with roughly a full season’s worth of new footage. Instead of having twelve 24 minute episodes like before, the series will be eleven one-hour episodes.
The original Psycho-Pass was TV original: it wasn’t based off a light novel, manga, game, or visual novel. TV original stuff can sometimes have nudity, as was the case for Code Geass, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon II.
Psycho pass was non-nude on blu-ray, but it was far more erotic than I was expecting and came very close to nudity on several occasions. The anime wanted to create an adult atmosphere and was willing to go pretty far to create the right mood. Almost far enough for nudity.
Who knows what these added scenes might give us. That’s a lot of filler…
According to Wikipedia, a sequel season is planned for October, and a movie will follow suit in 2015.
Probability of nudity: Unlikely, but not completely out of the question.
Kantai Collection
The massively popular ‘KanColle’ finally gets its own anime after inspiring numerous other loli-transforming-battle anime. Though never connected directly to Strike Witches and Vividred Operation, KanColle nonetheless still falls into the same category of ultimate Otaku-panderer.
What set Strike Witches apart from other entries in this genre is that it was so over-the-top, it was basically unabashed Otaku-porn (that could literally be fapped to). Vividred attempted to ride the coattails of Strike Witches with a similar approach. Kantai Collection will probably march to the beat of its own drummer, but if they decide to go balls out like Strike Witches did, it could make for a very interesting anime.
Probability of nudity: Unlikely, but worth keeping an eye on.
Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?
Another Silver Link ecchi-comedy directed by Shin Oonuma (Baka + Test, Nourin, Dusk Maiden of Amnesia). Oonuma loves fanservice and his anime works are consistently solid, but he has yet to animate a nipple and I wonder if he ever will.
Similar to JC Staff, when I see Shin Oonuma’s name attached to something I assume we’ll get quality work that is nudity free.
Probability of nudity: Unlikely.
Francesca
Francesca is an anime adaptation of the eponymous undead idol character. I don’t know much about this anime, but it’s kind of sexy and looks pretty weird, and sometimes weird anime do weird things, like show boobies for no reason.
More likely though, this show will be like a Tim Burton version of Super Sonico.
Probability of nudity: No idea. Probably very low.
Tokyo ESP
Any time you see Seinen genre anime you should pay attention, though I have yet to find any nudity in the Tokyo ESP manga through seven volumes. There is a little bit of near nudity though.
Few companies have animated for nudity more than Xebec has over the last six years, and they’ve shown with Rin – Daughters of Mnemosyne that they aren’t afraid of nudity in a serious, seinen genre anime.
Still, expecting nudity from this series is probably a stretch.
On the plus side, this manga loves borrowing the likenesses of several recognizable Hollywood actors/characters, among them King Leonidas, Yoda from Star Wars, John Travolta from Swordfish and Samuel L. Jackson from some random 90s movie. It’d be cool if we see those characters pop up in the anime too, just for the sheer weirdness of it.
Probability of nudity: Pretty low.
Shirogane no Ishi Argevollen
Another anime by Xebec, so everything that applies to Tokyo ESP applies here as well. Additionally, it is worth noting that Shirogane no Ishi Argevollen is a mecha genre anime. Mecha genre and nudity have been two peas in a pod going back decades. Not expecting nudity here, but since mecha is by definition so otaku-fanservice centric, nudity-fanservice never seems like too big a leap, so it’s usually worth keeping tabs on shows like this just in case.
Probability of nudity: Pretty low.
Zankyou no Terror
An anime original series about terrorism in a slightly futuristic world, I expect this show to carry mature themes and it’s possible nudity could be a part of that.
Probability of nudity: Pretty low.
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Tokyo Kushu
Another serious anime that may possibly try to increase it’s mature bonafides with nudity.
Probability of nudity: Pretty low.
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Strange Plus season two
A jousei genre gag manga animated into 3-minute shorts, the original series from earlier this year was actually loaded with nudity. The male kind. Because naked guys are funny. Naked girls are something else entirely.
This anime is extremely silly and compares pretty well to Excel Saga. The final episode of Excel Saga was willing to use female nudity as a source of humor, maybe season two of Strange+ could go there too.
Probability of nudity: Pretty low.
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Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 2wei!
This bizarre super-loli spinoff was a lot more sensual than most people would have guessed, but then again otaku LOVE their loli’s so I guess it shouldn’t be too shocking.
It’s probably a total pipe dream to expect this series to take the next step and show nudity, but at the very least we can expect very heavy fanservice from this series yet again, which should appeal to loli fans who don’t mind tease service.
Probability of nudity: Very unlikely.
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Space Dandy 2
Well, technically Space Dandy did have nipples.
Probability of nudity: Uncertain. But if so, it will only be to gross us out.
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Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Crystal
Barbie-doll nudity is a tradition with this series, so I’m not expecting anything more than that. If it did go there, minds would be blown.
Probability of nudity: “Longshot” would be an understatement.
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Sword Art Online II
No chance. It would be awesome though. The negative reaction from the online fanbase would be epic.
Probability of nudity: It’d be a cold day in hell.
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There are a couple of OVAs of interest this summer at least. One of them being the final Queen’s Blade OVA set for late July. Additionally, the excellent lolicon-ecchi manga Mujaki no Rakuen will receive a tankobon-bundled OVA on August 29th. Definitely looking forward to that, as the manga is a lot of fun to read.
*(Technically speaking, even that Winter 2002 season had some nudity, it just wasn’t from any of the TV series. Canvas: Motif of Sepia released as an OVA early that season and not only did it contain nudity, but it spawned a TV series sequel down the road. If you count Canvas as part of the Winter 2002 season, then the streak goes back even further.)
**(Multiple sources have claimed the existence of nudity in Paradise Kiss, but having watched all of the episodes from the R1 DVD and the second half of the series on the R2 DVD versions, I have yet to see any. Back in those days it was not unheard of for companies to release added scenes only to very specific disc releases, and the nude scene described in Yahoo answers never occurs at all in either of the two currently available DVD rips. If anyone can confirm seeing nudity in this show, I’d be curious to know.
One other series from the Fall of 2005 did have nudity, it was a brief OVA series called Lingerie Senshi: Papillon Rose, which within a year would total six episodes. Also from that same season was Canvas 2, which for all intents and purposes was a non-nude anime, but it did technically have nudity in the first episode.)
