This is old news if you read the various blogs, but I figured I’d bring it up just in case. A Japanese blogger broached the topic yesterday and since then it has been confirmed at the anime’s own website.
Even though Walkure Romanze is based on an eroge from the same creator as Princess Lover!, honestly, I never expected nipples from this show. It’s fanservice is pervy, sure, but tame, and there hadn’t been any obvious censorship. Given that Princess Lover! had BD specials, perhaps we can hold out similar hope for this series?
I’m not sure if this kind of thing is a regular occurrence or not, but this is the first time I can ever recall where a non-obvious nipple sighting anime advertised it’s nudity on it’s website prior to releasing it’s first BD, basically to give all the pervs a heads up. First, thank you 8-bit for telling us.
Second, smart move. At least now if the sales bomb for volume one, you can’t blame it on an uninformed customer base. I would not have guessed nudity for this series based on the total lack of censorship, and I think the decision to leak this image probably had a lot to do with their worries that they didn’t drop enough clues that nudity would be coming from the TV series. Lately nude anime have been exploding in popularity and have done fairly well in sales, with a few massive hits among them. It’s not an accident that we’ve seen production values for ecchi series going up and up the last couple years.
To recap, there are now at least 3 series from this season with confirmed nipple sightings: FREEZING Vibration, Unbreakable Machine Doll, and now Walkure Romanze. I’m 99% sure I uncovered nipples through the TV censorship on Sekatsuyo, and it would be a major upset if Yuushibu didn’t upgrade it’s massive number of skin nipples into the real thing on BD, not to mention the extremely suspicious censorship. There’s a very strong chance we could have FIVE ecchi anime with nipples this season, which might be the most in a season ever.
Add to that the massive director’s cut style added footage for Infinite Stratos 2 on BD (season 1 had nipples), and the flirtatious Kill la Kill (admittedly, a long shot). Regardless, what an awesome ecchi season it’s been. I can only hope this is the new normal.
Speaking of Infinite Stratos 2, Walkure Romanze gives us increased optimism for some IS2 nudity. The reason being that both are animated by the same company (8-bit), and until just now, 8-bit had never helmed an anime project with nipples in it. Now they have. Walkure Romanze basically popped their ecchi cherry. Will 8-bit continue to add 15 minutes of bonus footage per episode on BD and somehow not include nipples, even though season 1 had them? Seems a lot less likely, now.
Another reason for IS2 optimism. The nude scene in the picture above, well, here’s the original that aired on TV. It’s not exactly obvious that was going to become a nipple sighting, was it? That means that every episode of IS2 will now be cast in a new light. Just because there isn’t censorship or steam doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be nipples on BD.
