Kenkou Zenrakei Suiei-bu Umishou

The story of Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho tells of the trials and tribulations of the Umisho Swim Team. The main plot focuses on Kaname Okiura. He is a member of the swim team, but he doesn't partake in the actual swimming. As a child he got into a swimming accident and has feared it ever since. With the arrival of Ninagawa Amuro coupled together with all of the other members of the Umisho Swim team, everything descends to chaos with much fan service. Fan service is essentially the whole point of this show. Stay away if you are easily offended by frequent panty shots ... and the prospect of shaving each other.

The Art style of Umisho is fairly unique with a lot of washed colours and bright landscapes. Although the backdrop is usually a pool or pool area, most scenes are very colourful and easily convey the mood. No complaints from the art of the series, but it certainly isn't special in any way.

The sounds of Umisho aren't spectacular in any way but the background music is fine and the OP/ED are nice. The music is usually very cheery, but in the few "serious" parts the music heats up and helps you get into the action. I'm not a big fan of using the OP as an insert song and they do this one or two times. It makes it feel like they were just lazy more than anything. Voice acting was good, there weren't any standouts as great voice actors but everyone fit their characters fairly well and did a nice job.

The characters of Umisho are all very diverse and each are funny in their own respects. The captain of the team is always off the wall and doing extremely weird stuff, always very funny. The main character, Kaname, is really the only letdown character wise, all of the other characters are funny in some respect or an other, but he is a fairly static character. The large breasted Shizuoka on the other hand is usually very shy, but she gets very excited when she thinks someone is watching her or the prospect of seeing a man naked. Overall the characters for the most part are all very nicely done with well written dialogue for each.

I enjoyed Umisho to the point that I looked forward to each episodes release, but I can't say it is one of my favourites. Overall it is very nicely done and a good quick watch show. With a very open ending I think it is safe to say that we will see more Umisho in the future.

Despite having a nice, aesthetically pleasing, jiggly bunch of both boobs and butts and being little more than pure ecchi most of the time, this anime managed to worm its way into my heart. Think Free!, but with less gay and more comedy. Every episode is doing pretty darn well in comedy departments, it always sticks to the story at least partially and there is enough of fanservice for everyone, which is truly something to commend.

Nice summertime music and quality VA.

The characters themselves are a breath of fresh air, since most of them aren't COMPLETELY one-sided to the point where you can predict ... their every move and some of them have a little something secret going on on the side. The screen time most of them get is also pretty enjoyable, so if you're into finding out about the supporting cast, you will be pleased.

A rare ecchi that's actually enjoyable in terms other than "sexy".

Probably underrated.

You'll love it to death, guaranteed or your proverbial money back.

Ah, another one I watched that I shouldn't have watched, I knew I shouldn't have watched it before I watched it and during watching it I kept telling myself; "drop it, drop it, drop it". I didn't, good anime are in short supply these days so I guess I'll have to watch the bad ones instead.

There was one good scene in this anime and that scene saved it from being a 2. Instead it's a 3, which is very bad. The reason for this bad rating is that this anime was bad. Why? Let's begin with the animation. Animation is basics in anime. This anime ... was made in the year of 2007. The year of 2007 is not a year of the stoneage when fire had been discovered just the other day, it is the year TTGL was made, one of the best animes when it comes to animation and art that has ever been made. Don't get me wrong, I am quite aware that the production budgets for the two animes were on different levels completely. Still in the yar 2007 I would expect better than something made in the late 80's.

Now let's move on to the story. What story? The story of Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho, a great story. A story so ellaborate and complex that I fear nothing is ever going to compare. No but really, there was no real story in this anime. There were some haphazardly loose plot fragments here and there, some girl living on some sort of floating plank construction drifiting in from the sea that didn't really feel like the main female lead, she felt like something thrown in for fanservice. Did I mention the fanservice? There's alot of it in this anime and the thing is, it's not even good. I don't like fanservice in anime especially when it is not called for, if fanservice is required for story development or character development then by all means. If you want to see that sort of thing go watch hentai intead.

Characters are important in anime. Now that short sentence should be sufficient to rate this anime a 3. The characters in this anime were poorly drawn, poorly timed and had very, very, very poor character development. Interaction between the characters felt so fake that I laughed most of the time whenever seeing two characters on screen at the same time.

In conclusion; I don't think anyone should watch this anime, mostly because it's bad, but also because it's really bad. Now I am sure there are fanboys even for this, something I truly can not, for my life, understand.