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

In the biggest surprise of the spring season, I actually enjoyed Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai (We Don’t have Wings). In my initial preview, I called it “terrible even by the already low standards of perverted harem shows.” I decided to drop it after a little girl started making dirty jokes and showing people her underwear. A few weeks later, I decided to give the second episode a shot, and I was hooked. So what happened?

The first episode was indeed terrible, and my opinion of that hasn’t changed. I was a misguided attempt to hook the viewer and introduce all of the characters at once, through heavy use of fanservice. But from the second episode on, things really get going.

First of all, the dialogue, scripting and pacing in this series is spectacular. It doesn’t feel like a moment is wasted, and the conversations are always witty, informative and non-repetitive. This show just has a ton of energy behind it which transfers over to the viewers. The excellent dialogue in turn results in strong characterizations, especially the male leads. The supporting cast is extensive and well-developed as well. Also, the fanservice in this show is quite creative and random. This is the kind of fanservice I can live with.

Many shows of this ilk suffer from the weak male protagonist syndrome, where the male lead is a loser who is surrounded by a bunch of interesting female characters who are in love with him for no apparent reason. Oretachi does not suffer from this problem at all: in fact, I would argue that the male characters are more interesting than their female counterparts. They’re assertive, witty and suave, which is quite a change from your usual harem protagonist.

Last but not least, the creators managed to arrange a harem where the main character has mutual romantic interests with multiple girls while not being an indecisive man-whore. They deserve mad props just for this. I won’t spoil it, but suffice to say that you’ll be quite confused for the first half of the show trying to figure out what’s going on, until everything just clicks. Interestingly, one of the main characters doesn’t even make an appearance until the fifth episode. In this regard the creators managed to introduce some element of a mystery into the show as well.

Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai comes highly recommended for its intense and original script, its strong characters and its all-around uniqueness and creativity in the rather stagnant harem / galge adaptation genre. Don’t be put off by the first episode like I was (actually, you might want to just skip it).

• Plot / Script – 10 / 10 – Fast-paced and witty.
• Characters – 9 / 10 – Superb male leads in a genre dominated by terrible ones.
• Production – 8 / 10 – Nothing that really stands out, either positive or negative.
• Overall – B+

Recommendations – Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, Durarara

Welcome to the Space Show is about a group of children who meet an alien dog while at summer camp and travel across the universe, smuggling wasabi to fund their travels.

If that sounds silly, it’s because it is: still, the movie comes together surprisingly well. It’s action-packed and doesn’t leave time to be bored. There’s something for everyone: action scenes, some light comedy, creative new worlds and some drama. This movie is targeted for families and children, so it’s not my usual cup of tea, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

The movie’s strongest points are its fantastic setting and gorgeous animation. The setting here is very creative: there’s a huge variety of interesting kinds of aliens. Many of these only show up in the background, and it looks like the creators put effort even into them. The children travel to multiple planets, and each has its own idiosyncrasies. They have to go through customs and acquire a passport to travel in space. They travel on a faster than light caterpillar train where furniture grows out of the walls. In general, there’s just a tremendous attention to detail in the setting.

And this attention to detail is brought out by the animation. The backgrounds are beautiful, drawn in tremendous detail, whether they’re showing Earth, another planet, the inside of a ship or the dark side of the moon. But the strongest point is that there’s a fluidity to the animation: everything is in motion. Exotic aliens walk past in the background, lights flash, vehicles drive by. There’s just so much going on in every scene, that the world feels full and chaotic. It isn’t just the main characters out there. I wasn’t surprised to discover that the production team was also responsible for Kamichu, and this is the movie budget version of that same style, which was great even in a TV show.

Welcome to the Space Show’s biggest weakness is its villains. Their motivations never make much sense. At the end (spoiler alert) their goal turns out to be to acquire the wasabi as fuel for the “Pet King” to combine the little sister and the bunny rabbit into a new artificial being. But this is wrong because only the strong should survive. I’m not sure this is the best message to be teaching kids.

On a side note, this movie motivated me to look up wasabi on wikipedia. I didn’t know this, but apparently it’s really hard to grow, so much so that in the West what we call wasabi is usually a mixture of horseradish, mustard and green food coloring. I love the fake wasabi, so now I really want to try the actual thing. I guess the difficulty of growing wasabi is why it became extinct in the rest of the universe.

• Plot / Script – 8  / 10 – A fun adventure story, with an excellent setting.
• Characters – 8 / 10 – The main characters are solid, but the villains are weak.
• Production – 10 / 10 – Great visuals and attention to detail.
• Overall – B

Recommendations – Kamichu, Summer Wars, Spirited Away