Otaku Review

Akikan – Episode 2
Studio: Brains Base
Air Date: 1/10/09
Genre: Harem Comedy

Silly me for thinking that this series wasn’t going to get any worse.

The Story

In the second episode of ‘Akikan’, Daichi has decided that he doesn’t like Melon sitting around at home all the time. After begging for a favor, Melon is admitted to the same high school as him despite her very loud objections. In the meantime though, a hidden secret from Daichi’s past will come out and Hidihiko Otoyo and his assistant Airin Kizaki from the Ministry of the Economy have returned to explain their interest in Melon and other akikans.

Good and the Bad

Thinking back to episode one, the characters were what bothered me the most. The story was bad enough but I could have gotten past that if there had been likable characters. Sadly this doesn’t seem to be something that the staff behind this series is overly worried about. From the first moments of this episode beginning however, Daichi reminds the audience just how unlikable he can be with his comments and suggestions.

Making up for this slack is the supporting cast but honestly they aren’t much better. Najimi certainly fills the cute best friend role well and her perverted moments are worth a laugh. As of yet though, she’s yet to be anything more than a two dimensional (pun intended) space filler. On the other side though, Otoyo and Kizaki are stepping up as a better comedy duo than Melon and Daichi. Playing off of each other well, these two do a great job of filling the episode in with physical comedy that is actually funny (i.e. using a chainsaw to get through someone’s front door).

In this episode though, a new wrinkle is thrown in the mix with the revelation of what is awaiting Melon. I’m going to keep the spoilers here to a minimum but basically they want to host a tournament where Melon will fight against other Akikans with a winner eventually being crowned. First off, I can already see about a half dozen different plot twists that the staff could be planning to throw in along the way. Maybe the tournament is rigged? Or maybe the prize is something else entirely? Perhaps these two are in fact… evil? I’d like to give the staff the benefit of the doubt here and assume that they have something clever planned but after spending two episodes with this series I think ‘clever’ may be giving them a bit too much credit.

In terms of the animation drop from episode one to episode two, I actually didn’t notice that big of a change. Melon’s energy attacks were certainly nowhere near as pretty as the first episode, there is only one transformation sequence and there aren’t nearly as many flashy effects but in terms of overall quality, the animation seemed to only take a minimal drop. Going through the episode, I tried to pay attention to the finer details of the characters as they traveled around the school and daily lives. The colors remained bright and the scenes all transitioned well from one to the next.

Music

With this being the first “full” episode that I have gotten to view, I can finally update my thoughts on the themes for this series. The opening theme (“Miracle Plan ga Dekichatta!” sung by Charmmy Queen) really seemed to fit the series well. The lyrics have a very sweet quality to them as well. The music that accompanies those lyrics however gives the song a very bubblegum pop quality that isn’t helped by the constantly climbing electronic scales in the background. Still, don’t be surprised if you find this song stuck in your head after listening to it a couple of times.

With the second episode, the ending theme (“Koisora Recycling” sung by Nomiko) will feature a new character, Tsubumi Grape Juice, doing guest vocals. Completely loli in appearance and sound, this makes it one of the most grating songs I’ve heard in a long time. The song itself is fine really but the rapping introduction made me want to hit stop almost instantly.

The background music in this series continues to sink into the background in almost every scene. It’s very rare that any music playing within scenes manage to be noticeable but it does happen. In particular the scene in which the big plan for the Akikan tournament is being laid out is accompanied by a tragically serious theme. Seriously, the plan being laid out is stupid without the music but with this serious tone added to it, it just makes it sound that much worse.

Cast

As mentioned previously, the closest thing this series has to a bright spot currently is Megumi Toyoguchi (Winry in ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’, ‘Claymore’, ‘Ride Back’, ‘Viper’s Creed’) as Kizaki and Ryotaro Okiayu (‘Bleach’, ‘Clannad After Story’, ‘DNAngel’) as Otoyo. While the dialogue for these two can be less than impressive in some cases, the interplay is really strong and manages to at least get a chuckle if not a full laugh from their scenes.

Overall

Getting ready to settle into the third episode, ‘Akikan’ is progressively getting worse in as many different categories as the staff can think of. There are worse anime out there but with a never ending string of unlikable characters, a loose story and jokes that constantly fall flat this one is shaping up to be one of the worst this season. I’m going to stick with it for awhile longer with the hope of eventually proven wrong but if you haven’t started by now you can probably miss this one without thinking about it too much.

Final Grade: C

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