Softenni is Xebec’s latest seasonal offering of fanservice. It’s about a group of soft tennis players who are aiming for the Wimbledon. Needless to say, they don’t make much progress, but instead get caught up in bizarre situations such as riding giant bears, wrestling whales, riding bouncy balls while wearing neko-mimi, and getting launched into the air like rockets by soft tennis balls. There’s also a ton of fanservice.
From the perspective of a plot and character development, there’s basically nothing (well, aside from the last episode, which was more of an afterthought and also the worst episode of the show). Most of the characters are one trick ponies. Kurisu wears costumes and is really good at tennis. Chitose is ridiculously weak, but becomes a monster when food is involved. The ghost girl talks to ghosts (she was introduced in one of the last episodes, so I have no idea what the point of even adding her was). Eli speaks “English”. Massage boy gives massages. The list goes on.
But the focus of this show is on the comedy and the fanservice, and it does a pretty good job at both of these. Its sense of humor is quite random, but I found the show funny most of the time. Softenni has ridiculous soft tennis matches reminiscent of Saki’s Mahjong, yuri implications, hunting and gathering, delusions, cows, and more.
The fanservice is rather bizarre, which at least made it interesting enough that I could sit through it. My favorite parts were everything involving the national champion (cat ear girl shown above) and Asuna’s delusions. She’ll misinterpret things to have sexual innuendos and put sparkles and lipstick on everyone.
Softenni won’t be remembered for a great story or characters or… well, anything, but it was still a fun watch. It’s definitely a vast improvement over Xebec’s recent offerings in this genre, such as MM, Rio, and Ladies vs Butlers, in that it’s not only an excuse for fanservice. (It’s still mostly an excuse for fanservice though.)
- Plot / Script – 8 / 10 – Humorous and kept my attention.
- Characters – 7 / 10 – Quite shallow, but fun and entertaining.
- Production – 7 / 10 – Nothing special.
- Overall – C+
Recommendations – Saki, Tantei Opera Milky Holmes, Galaxy Angel
I think you do a really good job with rating these series. 7.25 is perfect for Softenni.
I’m with you in liking how the service was done. (Is it really OK for *anyone* to admit to the enjoyment of watching service shots of 2D high school girls?)
I was totally surprised this series didn’t include ANY Prince of Tennis references. You’d think with the subject matter and the characters, they’d be mada-madaing with every shot. Curious.
I’m glad to hear someone thinks my ratings are reasonable, when I pick them it feels like I choose them out of thin air.
I’ve actually never watched Prince of Tennis, so I wouldn’t have even known if there were any references.
It is a appropriate rating score, well by my standards anyway. It was enjoyable at times, but also a letdown. Still can not forgive the excessive censoring, but guess that is the fan-service to blame for it. Although, this show would not seem right without it, lol.
Half the fun in these kinds of shows is seeing what they’ll come up with to censor things. 🙂
Sorry, but if I had to give a score to this series would have been 7.25 + 1 = 8.25 only because neko-mimi Shidou Misaki is too cute. 😀
Haha, she definitely helped to inflate my score as well. 🙂
i have a brand new anime or manga featuring a wealthy 64 year old business executive named Adam lee he lives in Tokyo Japan he has two daughters named Jennifer and April who are young adults with Jennifer being a neurosurgeon and April being a college or university teacher. we also meet a woman named Miriam she used to live on a large island filled with all kinds of animals and plants somewhere in the pacific ocean or Indian ocean or Atlantic ocean her parents got in a plane crash and survived with her as a baby her parents got very sick from a virus and died on the island when she turned two years old she would later be raised by monkeys until her ninth birthday she was found by a sailor whose ship crashed on the island he would raise her until her thirteen birthday she was found by a female scientist named Dr Goldie Farmers she would take Miriam to go with her on adventures around the world until her nineteenth birthday as her own daughter she would go visit Japan at the age of thirty she would get several part time jobs at age 33 she would rent a apartment for herself .