Masou Gakuen HxH

Category: Ecchi
Rank: Tier 1


Premise: "Suspension Bridge Effect" It's the rapid heartbeat and arousal when in state of danger. Named after it's discovery of friends and/or people of the opposite sex tended to get married right after experiencing a tall bridge crossing. When in danger your biological alarm kicks in as a form of a reality check, All living beings are meant to procreate. The phenomenon released chemicals inducing individuals to fall in love and a need to have intercourse after a hyper sense of arousal on a very aware state.

On Masou Gakuen HxH Episode 01. Hida, Kizuna and Chidorigafuchi are under attack by an alien ... mecha force; the heroine in question on a almost near death situation with an already state of danger both Kizuna and Chidori blush and simultaneously suffered from rapid and increasing heartbeats. All this while Kizuna touches Aine on a erotic manner arousing her and driving her to climax. After the "Heart x Hybrid" takes place the heroine is seen pressing her hand against her chest when Kizuna was talking to both Himekawa Hayuru and Yurishia Farandole on a flirty manner or at least is seen in such manner by Chidorigafuchi Aines eyes.

The name of the phenomenon "Heart x Hybrid" which is later explained by the commander of "Amaterasu" Hida Reiri, Amaterasu being the name of the Japanese force against other world invaders, Reiri says that "HxH" is not be outright lewd and/or actions but a state of synchronization between Body and Soul.The Heart Hybrid Phenomenon is later expanded upon on Episode 02 when Yurishia Farandole achieves this when Kizuna merely places his hand over her left breast, reinforcing that a psychological x danger requirements are a necessity rather then outright lewdness for power up as many can easily misunderstand. This means endorphin s are creating the love state whilst the human body becomes aroused with lust. This directly results on the power up of the "Heart x Hybrid Armor" and / or "Magitech Armor" as it is referenced later on the show. A weapon which is the only weapon for humanity.

Twist: Although "Heart x Hybrid" grants enhanced abilities powered by the synchronization of Love and Lust. It uses spiritual energy as well as fuel, The state and power of "Magitech Armor" it's directly correlated to "HxH Points" who directly affects power output of the armor and ability to protect it's user.

If the Heart x Hybrid points were to reach Zero it would result in immediate death for whomever uses the armor. A fact that only the commander and/or sister or Kizuna "Hida Reiri" and Kizuna our MC knows. this becomes his coping mechanism as he seems to operate under the thought that lewd things and/or Heart Hybrid + Climax Hybrid are nothing more than maintenance and he does it with the outlook of protecting his comrades lives. he becomes vigilant making sure none of his team members Heart Hybrid Points reach the Danger zone which is 15% or Below.

Heart Hybrid participants experience the power up because they all have gone through body modification, They've injected invading alien Mecha core that seems to respond to a combination of Love and Lust. Normal women don't get a power up because they can't since they haven't been modified themselves.

Ecchi Builder: Kizuna must come up with unique ideas to accelerate healing on Heart Hybrid participants by doing lewd actions. This lewd factor absorbs the rest of the genres on a satisfactory way on which the lewdness facilitate battle engaging, Character development towards one another as well as opening up about their individual experience as human experiments growing up in order to fight other world invasion and halt humanity progress towards extinction.

Plot Overview: 15yrs + ago humanity was attacked by another world and was humiliated into submission. Even though the enemies left most of humanity was killed and weren't seen again until 6 months prior to the present of this story. Humanity has been kicked out of their respective countries and have no other choice but to live on "mega floats". Artificial countries floating about on the ocean. most nations and their inhabitants have been killed off and those whom wander the ocean goal is to take back their respective countries.

The surviving countries all have specialized teams that can fend off the other world advanced technology. a team of people wearing the "Magitech Armor" and/or "Heart x Hybrid Gear". aside from the goal of taking back their respective lands, teams of each respective nations such as "USA, Japan, Russia, China etc" must seal inter-dimensional gates that serve as portal from this world to the next as well as to reclaim their land under enemy control.

Animation: Throughout the years we've seen experimentation of the anime industry to use 3D animation to reduce cost, Keep animated consistency, Facilitate mass producing of more anime and possibly keep more money for better pay while trying to keep the "Japanese animation history" of authenticity. They're tried from fully 3D all the way varying 2D textures on 3D models. Some kinda succeed and some end up like "Berserk". Most anime studios have reached the conclusion to keep 2D characters while just 3D environments. One of the first projects to do this was the anime "Tokyo Ravens" or earlier one like "To Love-Ru" season one when displaying alien creatures and some inventions but as someone who has seen "Kizumonogatari" movie, Shaft has mastered it.

On Masou Gakuen HxH there are 3D modeling but somehow Studio IMS has given a whole new breed on a 2D Fusion with 3D. The result are noticeable on the characters as they seem multi dimensional without feeling boxy like standard 3D. The art feel more fluid and more solid as per substance on the artwork. The enemies keep a higher amount of 3D but it isn't a issue since the main point of the series lies on Erotism. With that I think it was a good call.

It isn't perfect all the time since Production IMS had their hands full the entire season handling "Active Raid" simultaneously. however the episodes that did managed to get through the animation it is superb.

Sound: It puts hentai voice acting to shame, The voice actors /actress do a very good job at the erotic scenes.

Characters: Ecchi / Harem are pretty standard, It's flooded with Tsunderes and some Kuderes. Minus the Yanderes. The writer Kuji has been paying attention to successful ecchi on the industry and has grabbed the best from past / current ecchis.

Himekawa Hayuru: it's a nitpick out of To Love Ru, Since her personality is 88% Kotegawa Yui "The One Yelling Shameless All the time" but twisted on a more assertive fashion and a little less tsundere. Her personality it's well thought out though as it becomes evident why "Shameless" things bother her and ultimately what bothers her is slacking off.

She is very much obsessed with morality and being proper. Himekawa also harbors the need to be competent due to her once arrogant demeanor got many Japanese citizens killed while she was on escort duty to transfer them to the Japanese mega float.

Currently her sense of duty is near an obsession that she is trying to get over with. she is fully aware that Ataraxia is a military school of sorts and to her relationships equals lewd things which ultimately means slacking off. her pursuit to keep people or rather students in check from doing anything it's a damage control of hers trying to keep her fellow class mates from having to experience what she saw when escorting Japanese citizens to the mega float.


Chidorigafuchi Aine: An orphan who lost everything and doesn't know how much she lost. She is cold on the outside and always seems to portray a seemingly god complex to sustain her ego and maintain her constitution afloat of being the best so that she may be useful to the cause.

Her personality is explained through her dark past and how she developed that personality. As an amnesiac orphan who sees her worth strictly correlated to her fighting capabilities. She will do anything to obtain power to maintain her world view of being worth something for capabilities only, instead of her persona. She would offer up her body if need be.

If I had to give you a blend of characters to accurately tell you about her, I would say she has a 46% Senjougahara Hitagi on regards to attitude and self worth. This also is shown on her aesthetic relationship with the MC Kizuna Hida. Then I could add a 34% Xenovia Quarta on regards to thirst of fighting and desire for power and improvement as well as some aspects to sexual matters. The remainder 20% it's up to you guys, Though personally I think is Asia Argento. Which isn't all there is since later on she becomes a different persona upon reaching a mutated state that her silver hair becomes PINK that just gives off and astounding air of confidence.

Yurishia Farandole: This character can only give you one flashback, That is the black haired beauty Akeno from High School DxD. The is a sadist and a tease all the same but on a much open form for interaction. she comes from a wealthy family of America.

An American on the Japanese "Amaterasu" team, former leader of the american "Masters" team. though she posses traits of a sadist she mostly gives off an older sister if not motherly vibe. she has the trait of being very protective of those she cares about and/or those on her team as made evident on episode 2 and sent Kizuna away trying to beat the danger herself and confirmed later on when her conflict with the current head of the "Masters" Scarlet Fairchild was revealed. Yurishia will not hesitate to lie to her peer to get them out of harms way. even if it means getting herself in deeper danger while trying to resolve what she deems great threats herself.

She often stresses herself being protective and like many on a position of being a care giver she deeply wishes that someone would take care of her as well. this is what opens up and new section and allows for her to become the "receiver" or "masochist" since she is into BDSM and / or S&M. as she can get into either role but harbors desire to be the one receiving the punishment since it allows her to escape all the burdens she places on herself.

Hida Kizuna : He is the troyan horse of this kind of anime and this anime in particular. At a glance it would deceive you to think he is yet another generic main character who is as dense as condensed milk and as thick as an oak tree.

[Note: I can guarantee that if his design were different and he posses another hair color many would go gaga over him.]

As they say, Looks can be deceiving and this is the case for Hida Kizuna. Masamune Kuji really gave this a thought and gave us an MC with abandonment issues. As a child he was deliberately orphaned by his mother once he proved useless to her on regards to human experimentation and saw her son would prove little as a utility and wasted no time in discarding him as a ragged cloth. since he would no longer present any form of advancement for her experiments and weapon development.

This aspect would prove useful so that he would always seek improvement and a sense of duty to protect his peers. As prude as he is, he disregards it under the shadow of being discarded once again and he feels bound to be useful and often will be angry when told to do nothing. This quality unifies our MC with our heroines who at first went after him lusting for power. this bond with different forms of troublesome pasts that would come crucial on Heart x Hybrids which are literally Love and Lust. All born from self preservation and desire to survive. creating and ever evolving bond between our cast and deepening trust among themselves.

To reiterate the "power" he was lusted after or depending on the countries respective team is lusted after currently. it is because "Heart x Hybrid Points" takes up weeks in going back to normal and time isn't a thing anyone of this world can spare.

Eros his "Magitech Armor" is capable to refill anyone armor restoring in one go their fighting capabilities and capacity being god sent to the teams that wish to triumph and survive. Eros is also capable of mutating any magitech armor increasing power output and granting higher tier weaponry. the weaponry in question can be absorbed by eros granting him any variable weapon he "Climax Hybrid" with which would be the mutated state of the magitech armor after surpassing the limiters of recovering regarding "Heart x Hybrid Points". many disregarding what lewd actions and sentimental proximity needed for it to happen. However understandable why Chidorigafuchi Aine and/or other women from other "Heart x Hybrid" teams want to meet Kizuna and/or stay on his good graces. Kizuna represents an unprecedented advantage for humanity and certainly a trump card that can make any team who has him more resilient in battle and power in comparison to those who wait maybe even months to get back to normal once their "Heart x Hybrid Points" are spent.

Hida Reiri is his moral compass and support so that his inner demons don't take over and to remain relevant and useful as his sister fulfilled his mothers role. fulfilled a role that was abandoned after he was discarded by his mother shortly after vanishing altogether.

"A persons value isn't decided by their abilities but on how they live" -Hida Kizuna

A quote that Kizuna always says to himself and that he has found useful to say to many other people to comfort them as his sister has comforted him and gave him hope and his feeling of being useless and ultimately possibly discarded once he becomes useless once again.

If I had to give this character a blend to give you an analogy of who he is or where he stands. I would say he has a 26% Yuki Rito on a degree of pureness and prudeness, Followed by a 54% Basara (Shinmai Maou no Testament) on a sense of duty and desire to protect people or at least help out. The rest is unknown but the direction he is taking is that of Akatsuki Ousawa (Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero). He grows more confident as time transpires and less disturbed by lewdness as time goes on. Needless to say he can get the job done where many MC would have frozen in time.

Overall 9.60: Masou Gakuen HxH creates atmosphere for a good lewdness factor absorbing and not getting on the way of the other genres native to the Tier 2 Ecchi. Such as Date A Live, Infinite Stratos, Hundred, Rakudai Kishi no Calvary and Gakusen Toshi no Asterisk. The characters on Masou Gakuen HxH are designed to chemically open to one another and when it comes to designs. Kuji made the right decision getting the legendary "Hisasi" the Doujin artist do his/her characters.

Masou Gakuen HxH though giving the feeling of cramped, It's well set up since the very beginning. all characters are well knit into each other and each episode can reinforce past episode and/or set up the next on a satisfactory way.

Stiff and inconsistent animation with 90's quality computer graphics; monotonous, boob-obsessed fanservice; vapid characters who yell and clinch their fists a lot to create the illusion of emotion where there is none.

Masou Gakuen HxH is an uninspired clone of better anime that was produced with an appropriately low budget. It takes the premise from Infinite Stratos about the one guy with an ability to help attractive female fighters, and mashes it with the master-slave relationships from Shinmai Maou no Testament using a big tit-shaped sledgehammer. HxH lacks the fun of the former, and the sex appeal of the latter.

On the positive side, Kizuna, the main ... male character, wasn't an obnoxious gynophobe or raging pervert typical of harem anime. He was usually composed and diligent, and had no qualms with engaging in lewd sexual acts. On the negative side, he didn't have any memorable personality traits to elicit empathy from the audience. In nearly every scene he only provided one of three things: exposition, generic words of encouragement, or listless pseudo-sex with a girl from his harem.

The female characters weren't any better, who, in their bulky "hybrid gear" attire, looked like balloon animals in shitty cosplay. They were nothing more than eye candy. No depth. No agency. Just walking body parts to be gazed upon, groped, and even humiliated.

HxH would have been more enjoyable with deeper character personalities, smarter designs, and better sex. It usually takes more than a breast and ass massage to get a girl off. They somewhat figured this out at the last episode, but by then it was too little too late.

I'm sure a lot of people wrote this show off without even trying it simply because of the synopsis, the cover and the genre tags, and while I can't really blame them for doing so, I'll be the first one to admit that Masou Gakuen actually had potential. It really did. It had potential because it had a premise which promotes a lot of actual sexual interaction between its characters rather than merely relying on suggestive camera angles and such. Other than the general lack of originality, my main gripe with most battle harems is that they try to have some sort of serious story ... whilst simultaneously having a lot of ecchi aspects, but ultimately they end up not really succeeding on either front. Masou Gakuen however had a real chance of at least succeeding with its sexual elements, which could very well have been enough to make it an above-average ecchi anime. But unfortunately it never manages to live up to that potential, largely thanks to an abundance of severe execution errors.

The premise itself is about as generic and uninteresting as it gets: some alien invaders more or less conquered Earth and humanity is on its last ropes. The story then takes place at a remote high school where the students are trained to fight the extraterrestrial invaders. Sounds reasonable enough, except that humanity's last hope now rests on a group of teenagers in needlessly skimpy mecha suits powered by eroticism. Because you know, that sounds like a very reliable solution when the actual worldwide military's missiles, lasers and artillery shells evidentially weren't enough to stop them.

In any case, we have our protagonist Hida Kizuna being sent to this school one day by his sister, with the purpose of literally fondling all the girls in it. Basically, the mecha suits in this show, called "Heart Hybrid Gears", can be artificially powered up by sexually stimulating its wielder, enabling them to actually stand a chance at victory against the alien threat. And that's more or less what the anime is about: the MC consistently ends up in erotic situations with various girls and makes them orgasm in order for them to be able to help protect mankind. Perfect.

Now I just want to make something very clear here: ending up with consistent sexual interactions is by no means a bad thing on paper. It's been proven many times in the past. The problem primarily lies with the underlying reason for why those scenes actually happen to begin with. Let's be real here, almost no one actually cares about the generic story when watching an anime like this. We're in it for the tits and ass and nothing more. So I have to ask, why do you need to go to these ridiculous lengths just to set up a scenario where sexual encounters can happen on a consistent basis? There's no reason it should have to be this complicated. Just look at something like Kiss x Sis for example: almost the entire anime revolves around two sisters lusting for their stepbrother and ending up in borderline hentai situations with him all the time. Why? Because they love him. That's literally all there is to it. We didn't need some alien invasion or mumbo jumbo ero-power or anything like that; all it took was affection, and it worked out great. But in Masou Gakuen we end up with a scenario where literally everything except for the ecchi scenes is absolutely terrible, and as a result it ends up severely dragging down the enjoyment of said ecchi scenes as well since they become so far-fetched and forced in the process.

Another huge make-or-break factor for ecchi/harems is of course the heroine cast, and this anime is is also a big disappointment on that front. They're all extremely shallow and stereotypical, and pretty much solely exist for the sake of being someone for the MC to get his hands on. They're the kind of girls whose entire characterization can be summarized by their breasts, and speaking of which, more than half of them also have these horrible physics-defying watermelon boobs which I'm getting seriously fed up with by now.

One comment you end up seeing fairly often from ecchi haters is that "ecchi anime is useless since you could just watch hentai instead", and while I don't agree with this logic since there are multiple other reasons to watch ecchi anime beyond just to get off to them, in Masou Gakuen's case I'm almost inclined to say it'd probably be true. Because seriously the ecchi scenes in this anime are not seductive, creative, fetishy or anything like that; they're basically censored porn. Like they're not actually having sex but we pretty much get finger banging, cunnilingus and more, and the girls are evidentially orgasming as a result of it. I mean it's literally the kind of explicit stuff that belongs in hentai, merely that we don't get to see genitalia directly. On top of that the girls are treated like nothing more than sexual objects rather than respectable characters, which is also something you'd expect to find in hentai instead. They're like walking manikins whose sole reason for existing is to be molested. Honestly I find it genuinely disrespectful, and I bet feminists would have a field day with it if they gave this anime a shot. So whenever I was watching one of the "bonding" scenes of Masou Gakuen, I just couldn't help but feel like there really wasn't much point to it given the available options.

On top of those scenes though, the anime also has some more generic and lame ecchi content such as the aforementioned skimpy mecha outfits they're all wearing. I've always wondered whether anime creators expect their viewers to be masturbating or being hyped when they put these half-naked anime girls into life-or-death battles so often... you can't both have the cake and eat it after all. Also sometimes it feels like the anime is seriously trying to enforce ecchi content when it really shouldn't, for example there's this one scene where the bad guys have captured one of the girls and are supposedly going to torture her for information, so what do they do? Of course, they decide to strip her and try to make her climax in the hopes that that'll make her talk. Not only does this make no sense from a logical standpoint, but also do you really expect me to be turned on from some cringeworthy and irrational torture scene? Like seriously?

Ultimately I just can't understand what the actual intention is behind anime like this. If they're trying to turn people on, why does the mecha fighting and cringeworthy plot elements even exist? And if they're trying to create an exciting post-apocalyptic action show, there's obviously no need for all this facepalm-worthy "ero power" crap. If you wanted to come up with an ecchi anime where the MC has a legitimate excuse for doing sexual things to girls on a consistent basis, you could just do something like a show with a normal guy in a normal high school who one day gets cursed so that if he doesn't do something erotic with girls on a frequent basis then something bad will happen to him, or something like that. I'm not saying that would be an amazing anime, but on paper it already sounds a lot better than what Masou Gakuen is doing, and that took me like 5 seconds to think up. The bottom line is: if you want to do a show revolving around sexual encounters, just keep things simple. Just do enough in order to make the scenes not feel forced and leave it at that. Proper execution of the ecchi scenes is literally all most of the viewers actually care about after all. Doing things the other way around is just naïve and ignorant.

So is there anything good about Masou Gakuen in the end? Well the OP and ED were both pretty decent so that's something at least, but that's hardly enough to carry it. I guess if you're a diehard fan of all things ecchi and don't care about execution quality at all then you might want to give this a shot, but otherwise I really wouldn't recommend it.


Oh and as the cherry on top we get an inconclusive cliffhanger ending followed by “To Be Continued”. Could it possibly get any better?