As someone who recently packed / disposed of my childhood trophy collection, I cracked up at this:

I guess I shouldn’t have thrown half of them out after all.

Softenni is Xebec’s seasonal excuse for drawing panty shots, but it’s still been surprisingly enjoyable so far. The fanservice is toned down compared to their other recent exercises in the same vein, and the humor is spot on.

This season’s been marked by a pretty decent crop of fanservice shows, as far as these things go: I’m enjoying Softenni, Dog Days, 30-Sai, Hen Zemi and Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai. That’s four or five more than I usually like. The first four I appreciate mainly because of the humor (which the fanservice complements well). Oretachi came as the biggest surprise for me, as I decided to drop it after the first episode, watched the second a month or two later and was hooked. It takes a unique twist on your usual harem, which makes “one” guy having multiple girlfriends somewhat plausible. Oretachi also has a great sense of energy and a tight script.

We still have the usual mix of mediocre fanservice shows (Aria, Astarotte, and A Channel: I’m looking at you), the extraordinarily mediocre (Hoshizora) and the beyond terrible (Qwaser). I can’t help but wonder if this season might be the beginning of a trend for the better, but the cynic in me says it’s just an outlier. Let’s hope for more Oretachis and less Hoshizoras in the future.