B Gata H Kei Anime Review: The Ecchi Quest Continues

Since I started watching anime I have always tried to maintain my distance from ecchi. I had this image in mind of bouncing titties and cheesy jokes and always skipped on it thinking I should rather watch porn. I have had several friends recommend it to me repeatedly so I had to finally give in and decided to find out what the hype is all about. Recently I watched Golden Boy and loved every bit of it. But then I quickly realized that that was a rare gem and I am probably not gonna find anything like that again. So now I am watching a more conventional kind of anime that fits a bit more into the general ecchi image. But it was enjoyable and funny nonetheless and did have a moving story and meaningful characters. Let's get into the review.

B Gata H Kei is about Yamada, a 15 years old virgin who goes on the quest to make 100 casual sex friends. She is exceptionally beautiful but at the same time is highly self-conscious about her body and thinks that her vagina looks weird. She thinks that an experienced partner will tease her about her weird vagina and thus wants her first partner to be a fellow virgin. She meets Kosuda Takashi, a very generic looking guy. From his generic looks she deduces that he must be a virgin and thus begins her quest to seduce him. But due to her lack of experience she has no clue of how to go about it and thus begins the journey of Yamada and Kosuda.

When I read the plot summary my first impressions were like isn’t this a bit too much? But then I thought what am I afraid of (I had already watched those toilet licking scenes in Golden Time) so I decided to give it a go. And surprisingly the anime isn’t nearly as crude as its plot summary. Instead I found it to be quite light hearted and easy to watch. It contains a proper storyline and somehow makes the lead character believable even with all her craziness. This is not your typical romance(like in Bakuman, for example) and finds a new and unique way to present it. Even someone like me who is quite impassive was rooting for Yamada and Kosuda actively throughout the show.

The best thing about the show is Yamada herself. Rarely do you get in a show made mostly for men a female character as crazy and open as Yamada. She has no idea about how the world works but her libido level is so high which leads her to doing crazy things. Her mind is completely filled with perverted things but she is still a shy girl who doesn't like it when her true feelings are out in the open. She wants Kosuda to always take the incentive to begin things. Kosuda is equally clueless about what is going on as he is as inexperienced as her. On top of that he is not that good looking so he lacks confidence. This creates a situation where neither of them can express their feelings and thus begins a chain of events where they try to take there relationship forward but fail at it miserably. But those are the scenes where the comedy lies. Just their thoughts and expressions while they are on date and are in uncomfortable situations will make you laugh out loud.

Other characters include Kosuda's neighbour girl and the "ideal housewife" Miyano. She is his childhood friend and secretly loves him. I found her adorable and felt really bad for her when she found out that Kosuda loves Yamada. Then there is Yamada's rival Kyuoka who is too perfect but she is not interested in other boys and only likes and wants her brother(lol). There are more side characters like Yamada's best friend, her little sister, Kosuda's elder sister and more but the characters which steal the show are the Ero-Gamis(Sex Gods). They greatly enhanced the comedy and helped give quick uplifting to the show in some of the slow scenes.

The show has average music but happens to have a great opening and ending song. I completely watched the opening without skipping in almost all the episodes. The opening has that cute feeling and I found it to be strangely addicting. Its the same with the ending but I think the opening was better. The animation is also fine and I didn't feel any problems on that part.

The anime has 12 episodes with no second season. But this is one of those anime for which I want a new season. The ending is not really conclusive but is satisfying. If you find yourself yearning for more you can go read the manga(although I don't plan to) which is complete. The anime had a decent beginning but got slow in the middle. But in the last two episodes you will find yourself laughing like crazy so do watch till the end as you will be missing a lot if you don't! Overall its a cute little anime you should not miss if you are a fan of ecchi.

Golden Boy Anime Review: Ecchi Comedy

So I am only recently starting to get into ecchi anime and was looking for an ecchi comedy and this title came forward in the top recommendations in my search. I must say I wasn't disappointed. This anime is hilarious!

Golden Boy is about a 25 years old, easy going, job hopping, part-timer Kintaro Oe who loves to observe people he comes across on his journey. And of course he meets a lot of women along the way and somehow ends up seducing them(you gotta love ecchi for these crazy plots :p). Character of Kintaro is of a very simple minded yet super intelligent boy who is kind hearted and loves doing new things. I found him quite similar to Onizuka from GTO(except for the intelligence, of course) and this kind of character fits quite well in a comedy setting. We see him going job to job meeting new people and learning about several professions. He is always taking notes which mostly are sketches and measurements of women he meets and occasionally his observations about people. He seems to have a fetish of toilets and really gets turned on by cleaning toilets while imagining women sitting on them(those scenes are hilarious xD). The only thing that always stays with him is his all time partner, his bicycle. He rides it everywhere using it for jobs and we even get a complete episode with his bicycle in the limelight. As the show is episodic, the side characters aren't very complex and mostly include non-important people working at offices with one main female lead in each episode whose life Kintaro dramatically changes with his charismatic personality and surprising actions.

At only six episodes, the anime is very short and is actually a OVA series. Each episode has a separate story but we do get a finale episode which features characters from all six episodes. Half of the episodes are complete crazy with unnatural plots and other half are kind of more serious. You will get plenty comedy in all of them though. I personally liked the crazy episodes more. The anime features mature content with occasional scenes that involve female nudity, orgasms and a lot of sexual settings so parent guidance is recommended. From what I read, the anime is actually a toned down version of the manga, which almost seems pornographic. But I was surprised at the amount of detail it showed in some of the professions it featured.

Art and animations is typical 90s style animation but like most classic anime it just works. I never felt anything lacking on that part. Classic animation has its own taste and can sometimes feel better suited in some settings. The kind of expressions that you get in this anime, the quick transitions from poker faces to surprised perverted faces, I doubt they would come out this good in modern animation. So I don't really have much complains on the animation part.

Music is also on point. There are several OSTs for different situations and all of them work really good for building up and preparing you for the scenes to come. Sometimes sexy peppy songs with english lyrics will pop up in really weird situations that will make the scene even funnier. There is nothing special about the opening track but it works according to the vibe of the anime and even without any lyrics will prove to be memorable and is sure to give you that nostalgic feeling when you listen to it after a while.

Overall Golden Boy is a great anime and is very well written specially for an ecchi. It is short and will keep you gripped. You will find plenty of hilarious scenes with high rewatch value. Watch this anime if you want to lighten up your mood and get a big freakish perverted smile on your face. This is surely a memorable one. Highly recommended!