Maken Ki! Two is going to deliver. Will anything else?
Maken-Ki Two aside, will there be a single anime from the upcoming lineup of shows to show nipples on broadcast or BD? I’m kinda leaning “no.”
Though to be fair, there are always surprises. Just this past season we saw a show based on non-nude material turn into quite the spectacle (Yuushibu). And who saw the service in Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge coming? I sure as hell didn’t. Will there be any surprises this season? Probably not, but here’s a run down of the candidates:
(credit: images taken from RandomC.net)
Super Sonico
You know how in the old Mario Kart games… if you hit accelerate at the right spot in the opening countdown you got a nice rocket boost right at the start? That’s pretty much what happened to White Fox when the second anime they ever produced happened to go by the name Steins;Gate. Since then, they’ve had an uneven track record but still have the sheen of a top company.
They’ve never animated nipples so far as I know, and I don’t expect them to start here. I do expect Super Sonico to be a blatant fanservice series, and if it does end up nude, it would be the biggest pleasant surprise for ecchi fans since Kanokon in 2008.
Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiinda ga.
Imouto? Check? Long sentence of a title? Check. Super pervy manga source? Check. Non-prestigious production company? Check.
In many ways, Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashiinda ga follows the same imouto harem formula set by recent anime like OniAi and Nakaimo. Those animes surprised us with added nipples on BD.
Now the bad news: the manga source is nipple free. It is ecchi as fuck, with no shortage of boob play and bare butts- it even has a running gag with a chastity belt- but the one thing you won’t see are nipples. As said before, sometimes non-nude manga become awesome nude anime, and it’s not as rare as people think, though it’s still an unlikely occurrence.
Made by Project No.9, their only previous animation production was the first season of Ro-Kyu-Bu!
Nourin
Another anime that falls into the Nakaimo or OniAi styled romantic comedy formula. Silver Link has only done nipples once before, in OniAi.
It’s worth noting that ecchi series often compensate for unpopular material by loading up on seiyuu talent, and Nourin has maybe the best Seiyuu cast of the season with plenty of nude ecchi veterans (Kana Hanazawa , Marina Inoue, Emiri Kato, and Chiwa Saito).
I’m guessing Nourin will keep things non-nude, but it’s worth keeping an eye on just in case.
Wizard Barristers
Will this be a rare non-nude offering from ARMS? Probably, even with the director of mainstream hit hentai movies like Kite and Mezzo Forte, I’m expecting this to remain PG rated material. I think this anime is an effort by ARMS to break into the “mainstream” of the Otaku fanbase instead of just trying to get by with the much smaller group of dedicated ecchi fans.
But hey, it’s ARMS. We shall see.
D-Frag
Premise wise, there is promise. Four girls, one guy… a harem plot would seem likely.
That promise is smothered in it’s sleep by Brains Base’s pillow. Brains Base, the company with acclaimed hits like Durarara and Baccano on its resume, has done many productions but has never animated nipples. They are no stranger to teasing us with everything but nipples (Spice and Wolf II, Kamisama Dolls) and recently had the most egregious case of false positive censorship in all of 2013 (episode 7 of Blood Lad).
Nisekoi
Extremely unlikely, though it would be awesome to see SHAFT return to their old nipple drawing ways. Expect this series to be ecchi, but don’t expect nipples.
Neppuu Kairiku Bushi Road
Probably nothing to monitor, but it’s mecha, and whenever you see mecha there is always a small chance. It kinda looks like Samurai Girls too art-wise, though that’s probably meaningless.
Buddy Complex
Another mech show, this time by Sunrise. Sunrise hasn’t animated nipples a ton, but when they have, it’s seemingly always been in their mecha series (Code Geass, Outlaw Star, Gundam SEED Destiny, Valvrave (sort of) ).
The key visuals for this show make it look very shonen, so I’m guessing the odds of having nudity here are in the single digits.
Nobunaga The Fool is another mech show but seeing as it’s being made by Satelight- one of the better animation companies, I’d put the odds at slim to none.
Space Dandy
Probably not, especially since the creators of this series are trying very hard to market it to the USA. And honestly, I kind of hope not. Weird nudity does me no good.
Pupa
I hope not.
Strange+
I know nothing about this series, other than how it gives off a pretty strong seinen vibe. Not predicting nudity here, but it’s on my radar.
Mahou Sensou
Seems extremely unlikely. That said, Madhouse has not shied away from animating nipples when the source material has them, and in this case it’s a light novel adaptation. A bit of an unknown, but wouldn’t be totally shocking if it ended up with a token nude scene given Madhouse’s track record. That is, if the source material calls for one.
Mikakunin de Shinkoukei
Slice of life genre. So this would be extreeeeeemely unlikely. I only mention this show because it was animated by Dogakobo, a company with a non-negligible history of animating nipples (Koihime Musou franchise, etc).
Maken Ki! Two
Hiraku Kaneko to the rescue. I truly feel that this series has a very good chance to be the best season of a nude ecchi anime yet.
With there being a noticeable lack of works by dedicated ecchi companies (ARMS, AIC, TNK, etc) this season and some recent shows being announced extremely early for Spring releases, it looks to me like there were a few ecchi productions afraid of getting crushed by Maken-ki when it came time to sell blu-rays, so they pushed their series release back one season.
I don’t know that for a fact, but it certainly looks suspicious. I guess if we end up with one titty anime this season and six next season, we’ll have our answer.
