Z/X: Code Reunion TV Episode 08 Special Edition Fanservice Review

Cute girls in bloomers and tight-fitting uniforms and living in a dorm with an onsen that somehow, someway got off the fanservice track…

Special edition fanservice review.  Read all about it…

Anime

Z/X: Code Reunion is a Fall 2019 anime TV series with full-length episodes.  It’s related to Z/X: Ignition but it is more of an Alternate Universe than a sequel even if the main pair of girls is the same.

Plot summary from AniDB:

* Based on the Z/X manga series and collectible card game by Broccoli and Nippon Ichi Software.

 

The signing of a peace treaty has secured a tenuous ceasefire between mankind and the Zex, beings who emerged from space/time rifts connected to mysterious, distant worlds. Partnered with a Zex named RigelKagamihara Azumi must shoulder the fate of her own idyllic world. The unlikely pair head to newly established Fujimisaki Academy, but what destinies await them once they arrive?

 

Source: Sentai Filmworks

Tags from AniList:

Adventure, Fantasy, School, Sci-Fi, Shounen, Primarily Female Cast, Yuri 

 

Episode 08

Title and summary from HIDIVE:

“Summer Vacation!”

 

Summer vacation is here at last, but that doesn’t mean the team can rest on their laurels.

 

It’s a special edition fanservice review of one episode.  Even with an onsen scene.  It’s probably best to let the images and video clips speak for themselves without going into a lot of detail for an anime that may or may not be reviewed again.

OP

EP

ED

Episodes 01, 02, 04 & 06

OPs

EDs

WebM Album

Thoughts

Z/X: Code Reunion likes to change small parts of the OP and ED some of time so I included some of the new art in a separate section.  Interestingly enough, some of the ED art is repeated but with a different “camera focus”.

The beach episode is a terrible time to have an art and animation crash.  Talk about deplorable timing…  Not only did the art quality go down significantly, there were a lot more stills than there should have been.  Including the one and only onsen scene!  Grrr…  The saving grace is there was no drop-off in the ED art and the art is still decent to good in a lot of the closeup scenes.

Wasted potential.  Especially when the natural, casual fanservice of cute girls was the main thing this anime had going for it…

And what a waste of an onsen too.  The main girls were in the only dorm with an onsen and they only used it in episode 03 when it first appeared.  Never again.  Which makes no sense.  Anime girls who do a lot of training and fighting need to bathe often.  To make matter worse, the onsen scene in this episode was a single still shot that is slowly zoomed out.  Cheap shot…

Same for the yuri vibe.  Cute but slow but slow buildup yet still tame at the end…

Z/X: Code Reunion started off being better than Z/X: Ignition, especially for fans of anime girls and fanservice, but it wound up being worse.  Z/X: Ignition got better as it went along and Z/X: Code Reunion did not.  Such as shame…

The beach episode isn’t terrible but it could have been a lot better.  Still there is some nice artwork and nice fanservice of cute girls here and there.   And the girls look great in swimsuits when the artwork looks decently good…

I’ll remember Z/X: Code Reunion for the quality of the art of the ED more than the actual show itself.  It was fun making media for a couple of the episodes even if some of the stitches were a lot more time consuming that I would have liked.  But I had to make as much media from the ED as I could.  Had too…


Check out the links to AniDB and AniList if you want to learn more about the characters and story.

What I remembered from Z/X: Ignition was that it wound up being better than expected but there were sure a lot of males in the show.  And some hot females too.  Just not nearly enough.  So it was a pleasant surprise to watch Z/X: Code Reunion and see that the cast was predominantly female.  Not only that, the character art and background art was pretty good.  Especially in the ED.

The original series was based on a card game but this spin-off is based on a manga which was based on the card game.  So far, it seems to be an improvement over the original especially when it comes to cute girls and fanservice…

Z/X: Code Reunion might be a spin-off but it’s a bit of a throwback when it  comes to fanservice.  Causal and no big deal but spread out throughout via tight battle uniforms, bloomers, changing scenes and an onsen scene.  A girls dorm with an onsen is a great idea.  The girls should use it as much as they can though…

The art in the ED is really pretty.  Way too good looking for anime nowadays.  What a pleasant surprise.  Easy on the male gaze too…

The artist for the ED seems to be Takuya FUJIMA.  He’s the artist for the Z/X: Code Reunion manga.  And he’s credited with being the creator on the Z/X: Code Reunion anime:

He also seems to be a long-time pro who is credited with original character designs and original art on a number of anime and manga including:  Dog Days, Lagrange, Nanoha, R-15, and Weiß Survive.  And he’s credited with a number of end card illustrations too.  No wonder his artwork in the ED is so easy on the eyes…  Here’s Takuya FUJIMA’s art for Z/X Zillions of Enemy X as found on yande.re.  He seems rather fond of drawing lolis too…

Notes

This review uses a combination of jpgs for display images and pngs for link-to images in order to be more mobile friendly and speed up page load times.

For details on how to access and/or download the original media, or something close to it, see the Notes section of Kanata no Astra TV Episode 05 Special Edition Fanservice Review.

For details on how to access and/or download a GIF instead of a WebM, see the Notes section of Cosplay Complex OVA Episode 1 Fanservice Review.