Busou Shoujo Machiavellianism

When Aichi Coexistence Academy converted from all-girls to a coed model, the female students were so concerned about male misbehavior that they armed themselves! Now the school is ruled by the lovely but lethal Supreme Five Swords, and the boys are forced to dress and act like girls or suffer the razor sharp points of the Swords' anger.

Unfortunately for the Swords, new transfer student Fudo Nomura thinks that sounds like a total drag, and he might just have the martial arts chops and rapier wit needed to slash through the Swords' defenses and carve a new niche for himself in their feisty feminine hearts! It's a whole new kind of slice of life High School Drama, extra heavy on the "slice," as one Bad Boy meets some very Dicey Girls in Armed Girl's Machiavellism!

(Source: Sentai Filmworks, edited)

Amou, Kirukiru Main

Matsui, Eriko Japanese

Tamaba, Satori Main

Nishida, Nozomi Japanese

Onigawara, Rin Main

Takada, Yuuki Japanese

Nomura, Fudou Main

Hatanaka, Tasuku Japanese

Inaba, Tsukuyo Main

Hioka, Natsumi Japanese

Kikakujou, Mary Main

Kitahara, Sayaka Japanese

Hanasaka, Warabi Main

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Kyoubou Supporting

Fujita, Saki Japanese

Mozunono, Nono Supporting

Itou, Miku Japanese

U Baragasaki, Chouka Supporting

Kohinata, Akane Japanese

Tabeya, Masahiro Producer

Ishigami, Joutarou Producer

Katou, Akira Producer

Tachibana, Hideki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Mar 4, 2020

hexashadow13

Recommended

tl;dr: Not particularly strong in terms of plot or depth but has a good balance of cool and stylish moments as well as comedic and amusing moments with a likable cast of characters.

The anime is trying to do two things, be cool and be amusing. It's not trying to have a good plot or deep characters or anything like that. There's a good variety to how both of these are done though and there's a good balance of the two, so it works well in such a way there are a lot of fun and likable characters. For example, the various main characters have a ... cool edge to them in very different ways, and they also all have strange things about them that make them hilarious in different ways, the exception to the latter being Andou who is pretty much just pure bad ass, while the best example of both of those traits is Nomura, who is an incredibly unique protagonist and is pretty much just a steady stream of great one liners, both hilarious or cool, and crazy combat potential, which is also often accompanied by one liners. Some characters do get fleshed out somewhat with backgrounds and such, and there's even some decent character and relationship development, but its not really much in the focus and mostly just serves as a basis for Nomura to drop one liners and seem awesome. The exception to that is centered around the relationship between Nomura and Andou which has some more depth to it and serve as the finale for the season, though while it is probably the coolest of the anime's arcs the story is still only okay which shouldn't be surprising as story isn't really one of the anime's strengths.

A lot of why the anime is so cool is the action, which manages to be impressive in that its mostly grounded but has just a bit that goes beyond being realistic. This assertion may seem strange because all sorts of crazy stuff happens like fighting bears and because the entire setting is crazy with it being a normal school but people randomly carrying swords and getting into near death fights without getting in trouble, but with the tone and atmosphere that's what it ultimately felt like. There's also a steady stream of ability names appearing on screen with fancily stroked kanji which despite seeming dumb actually makes things feel more legitimate, though that's probably only because I don't know jack about actual swordsmanship or martial arts. So the action was cool and exciting. With that said, ultimately things did seem a bit simplistic in that each character only has one thing going for them, even Nomura who only really has one move.

The art style and animation was mostly decent in that designs and framing were good and there were some great scenes, but quality felt off at times. The anime also felt kind of cheap in that there were a lot of points that it felt that it was clearly padding for time which definitely hurt pacing, especially if you're marathoning it. The eye catches were well done. The OP was great both in terms of audio and visuals. The ED was decent enough in both. The soundtrack wasn't particularly memorable.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 21, 2017

LIQfilms

Mixed Feelings

If I had to describe studio Silverlink in one word, that word would be ''mediocre''. They're perhaps the most "okay" studio working in the industry today and none of their shows I would consider being all that good, with the exception of a couple maybe, but, even then, those exceptions are still nothing all too remarkable. They always make shows that sound good on paper, and, when read, sound like they could be good shows, but they usually lack the creative talents and efforts to carry this through and their shows always just end up feeling either downright terrible or just "meh" for lack ... of a better term. Nowhere is this more evident than with their latest title, Busou Shoujo Machiavellianism, which, with a narrative and idea this silly, could have made for a good rule of cool show if it had more energy put into its animation, but it feels, like most of their work, that they wanted to create something really cool and cinematic looking, but didn't have the necessary talent or creative force to do so. Despite being a relatively fun show none the less, the anime needed much more charisma in order to carry itself along for the entire duration and the shows just falls short of reaching that rule-of-cool aesthetic and vibe it was so clearly aiming for. In that regard, the show feels very much like a previous Silverlink show, Chivalry of a Failed Knight, which, despite being vastly greater than most other light novel adaptations and is all around a decent show, also falls just short from being good due the studio's general lack of creativity in visuals, while, at the same time, having a decent script with decent characters, something that Busou also carries on as well. Either way, let's dive into this insane, nutty show!

Busou's narrative as a whole is one that is incredibly linear and straightforward. The show will not surprise you with any grand plot twists nor does it bring anything new to the table either, and it doesn't really have much direction. What I mean by that is that the characters don't really have anything in the way of a 'goal' or a motivation in the narrative, other than the main character wanting to collect five stamps from a group of five girls, all of whom carry swords. Oh, did I forget to mention that? Yes, for some reason, the school has allowed each one of the girls to carry a weapon due to the once all girl's school, becoming co-ed, allowing boys to join and, out of fear, request to carry said weapons as a means of protecting themselves. These weapons range anywhere from a sword to a whip to even a giant, damn bear! This aspect of the show is incredibly stupid, but the show as a whole is so tongue in cheek and takes itself so lightly that this aspect feels like a part of the world that is presented to us and doesn't feel all too jarring or even strange. Since the show doesn't take itself so seriously and more so laughs at its ridiculous setup, I can excuse this obvious dumb stuff. Due to each one of the girl's weapons, and general scary nature, the boys who do attend this school are put to humiliation and are forced to wear girl's clothing as a way to blend in with the school. Enter our main character, a cocky, bad-ass asshole, by the name of Nomura, who goes against the demands of the girl's at the school, and the rest of the show sees him fight against five girls, who are called the Five Swords, a group who are the strongest, and most skilled with the sword, who go around correcting problematic students and the such. And that's about it for an overall plot, but the show carries this narrative with such a silly over the top atmosphere and tone, that I find it a lot of fun to watch the battles carry out and the characters feel dynamic and interesting enough in personality to carry the weight of the show.

The anime is incredibly dumb and stupid in a lot of ways, from sumo wrestling a giant bear to the plethora of various battles and fights, but, at the same time, the show also feels self-aware enough to know that the entire thing is incredibly dumb, and fully embraces all of it. Whenever the characters are in battle, bold white text will appear on the screen showcasing the name of their attacks, akin to something like Kill la Kill, with plenty of close-up shots of the characters reacting to certain events while they gasp. Both of these elements help to sell the show's rule of cool vibe it is aiming for and helps to make it fun and fairly entertaining for me personally. However, there are some moments in the show that I feel are a little too stupid for its own good. One such example is when the main character is attempting to hide behind a bear, a pet of one of the members of the Five Swords, which also happens to be female, as he accidentally touches her breasts. Instead of being funny, which is what I believe the writer was attempting, it just comes across as being strange, jarring and uncomfortable to watch as well. Another example that may put some people off is when he fights one of the girls naked in the bathing areas. It can be distracting, and some may even consider tasteless, but I found the fight fun enough to carry the scene, and the nakedness of the girl is part of her tactic for winning the fight and adds on a little bit of characterisation for her character. Some other criticisms about the show may stem from the amount of blood and edge the show does try and convey, especially near the end, and I can understand why. It can seem kind of jarring to go from simply hi-jinks to a complete bloodbath as shown in episode ten, but, on the flip side, at the very least it provides some narrative stakes for the final fight and makes the villain out to be much more menacing and threatening too. The use of blood never really came across to me as being forced since it at least made sense in the context of the battles since all of the characters were using razor sharp blades. Another troupe that I wasn't too fond of, is that two of the girls fall in love with our main character and end up acting catty and bitchy to each other as they fight over him. I've always disliked this in anime since it reduces the female characters as nothing more than petty women, but here it didn't feel as bad as what I have seen before, and for the most part, there is an actual reason why these girls have fallen for this guy, as opposed to them simply wanting the main guy's dick just because the plot demands them to. This doesn't make this element any better, just a little bit more bearable in the long run.

I was honestly surprised at how much I enjoyed the show and found myself actually excited and immersed during the action scenes, especially during the final fight. The series is so over the top and so dumb that I believe it does work from an entertainment standpoint alone, and while I wouldn't consider the entire narrative and characters to be terrible, it certainly needed a lot more work to make the show good.

Each one of the characters has a stupid obvious gimmick whether that be in design or personality, but, at the very least, many of the characters at least have some depth, no matter how little granted, to make them feel a little more like actual people than bland archetypes. The main lead, Mamoru is essentially a better version of Glenn from Akashic Records, in that he is far more consistent and does the whole bad-ass cocky bastard rather well. I genuinely liked this character, and his back-story, unlike Glenn didn't feel as if it were included just for the sake of evoking cheap emotion from the audience, despite how generic and by the numbers this back-story actually is and how little of it we actually get to learn. A character like this holds up well for a silly narrative since he simply a lot of fun to watch and complements the silly nature of the show, although I wouldn't call his character good by any stretch. He fills his purpose fairly well, has some decent comedic moments and is a fine character. Rin's character has a massive hatred of men and wears a death god mask over half of her face since her mother called her ugly when she was a child and made her wear a mask over her face at all times when she went out with her. This back-story is quite dumb and rather, again, silly, but at the very least it provides an explanation into why this character acts the way that she does and the purpose behind her mask, rather than it remain a silly gimmick like those presented in Hand Shakers for example. Mary was a lot more generic than these two previously mentioned since we barely learn anything about her past and just assumes the "girl with big boobs" role while also carrying around a dictionary since she is Le François. She can be pretty annoying due to her attitude and general stuck-up-edness (that's not a word, I know) but otherwise, she is pretty forgettable. One of my favourite characters in the show is Satori, not only for how well her voice actress conveys her messed up mentality and rather sadistic sword fighting but because there was a decently executed plot twist in episode nine. It's not something to blow your mind, but I felt it was a decent twist none the less, and I did enjoy every scene she was in. While she doesn't necessarily see much development (as does the rest of the cast) she still gets some decent characterisation. The other two members of the Five Swords, Warabi and Tsukyo, were also likeable, and Tsukyou especially manages to pull off the strong swordsman character rather effectively, and that's one thing I can praise the show for. The main character, while very strong, still isn't able to blow through all of the girls with ease and finds himself cornered more often than not, having to think up some clever way to win. While this isn't on the same level of tactical fights I've seen in some other shows, it at the very least, creates some narrative tension and stakes and makes the girl characters feel more like fighters than in your typical light novel series where the girls are all presented as being weak without the help of the boring male self-insert character. The final villain was decently executed and I felt a genuine sent of excitement seeing the main character and her fight in the final episodes, with a decently explored back-story explaining their rivalry and the reason why it spawned in the first place giving more weight to the scene. The character interactions were fine but often the dialogue feels very simple and trite, with two characters just yelling how great they are, and sometimes the comedy between certain characters could fall flat on its face.

The animation consistency was fairly good with a lot of character movement and attacks but the art consistency took a large hit as a result of this. It's good enough in conveying the action on screen and some moments can look downright great, but overall it's just fine. I liked the character designs themselves and the general colour design too, and the opening is catchy as hell! While in terms of visuals, it's just a bunch of random fights, each one flows into each other fairly well. The music is fine and does its job but is ultimately rather forgettable once you've finished watching the show; nothing all too remarkable aside from the opening and ending tracks. Overall, I believe this anime did achieve what it set out to do to a certain extent. While it is an overall decent show, I would be lying if I said that I didn't have fun watching this show and I would recommend this anime for anyone looking for a dumb, easy ride, although I doubt this show will be remembered in a few months.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 21, 2017

CrimsonWanderer

Not Recommended

Let me tell you a Story, a Story of a man that gets into a high school, just to find out that this school is ruled by "feminism". that school was once a female school. But then they decided to open it to male population. but guess what? the nation of "feminism" stroke down, and the whole school turned all their male students into females boys in order to make the girls feel "safe"

TL;DR: Overall Section

if by this point you don't spot any red flags dancing around your mind, then you should stop reading (btw, if you are going to get salty, avoid my profile ... and grow up, after all this is my opinion). but if you feel that the whole Idea is ridiculous then keep reading. be aware of spoilers

Story 2/10:

Story, story... What story? all we got is that Nomura got transferred into another school just to find out that the school is full on whimsical girls that for whatever reason have a problem against all men ("feminism"), and the school rules consist on turning boys into girls so they can get all along. (then what is the point of even including males into it?)

Nomura just wanted to chill on his new school, but apparently if he doesn't agree with the shitty rules that the school has, he is forced to a fight against the "5 swords" or any other girl that has something against men. the whole argument of this show is a convenient plot device that serves purpose as how idiotic the high school rules can be and how low the girls fall on this show. then, if our MC wants to chill he has to defeat all the 5 swords and get a "pass" to leave the school.

*spoiler section*

sometimes we get some of the past of Nomura, he constantly remembers one of his "friends" that he used to hang out with... sadly the pure essence of a Yandere awakened on that friend and decided to beat the fuck out of him... guess what happens next?

*End of spoiler section*

Art 5/10:

Your average budget for a generic setting, it was nice to see some attacks coming from some fights, as for fan service, it was a relieving distraction for the pain this show is

Sound 5/10:

I always wonder why good sounding OPs are to be found in generic anime, is a total waste, but it accomplishes as a relieving distraction. I don't find anything really outstanding, so overall is okay

Character 2/10:

Aside of how strong the feminism essence is on the girls, they are also a bunch of generic annoying girls. if you have seen this setting before, its almost obvious that every girl eventually will like the MC. well this time is more in a masochist way, they all start liking the MC after all of them received a beatdown (a really relieving beatdown I must say) so lets give them some points for showing us another way to get a Harem.

I don't really have a problem with anime girls overall, unless they are a bunch of useless airheads (Chitanda from Hyouka for example), but this show went too far making almost every girl annoying in a way. and I'm talking about that green haired girl that gets on my nerves each time that she appears, I don't know how people do like her, but I haven't seen someone that annoying. I actually wanted her to suffer a lot, (gladly she did, and it was extremely relieving) aside of the 99% of annoying girls, there is 1% that is quite acceptable, there goes Onigawara, and the Bear girl with the HIO HIO HIO laugh, but nothing more.

*Spoiler section

Oh yes, Give Nomura some credit for defending the male population, it was really relieving seeing how he succeeded against the girls beating them down one by one

*End of spoiler Section... actually it was obvious that he would most likely to succeed*


Enjoyment 5/10:

Enjoying this show is like watching a fight on the street between someone you don't know, against someone you dislike so much, the relieving factor of seeing how that someone you don't like get beat down so hard makes you feel extremely relieved. if it were because of how Nomura beats down each girl and saves male population of becoming female boys, I would have rated this higher than 8. Sadly the "blood bath" ending I wanted didn't happened. not even the final moment with Onigawara. Everything turned into a cliché and bullshit plot device around Amou that no one asked (Like hey, lets make a past for the MC but lets never touch it until the very end so we create a really convenient finale). well, at least I didn't ask for it, that should be more accurate if the ones reading this are burning their salt into really high temperature ready to burst against me...

Overall 3,8/10:

TL;DR: school transfer ends wrong, girls trying to punish a male because he is a male that won't become a female, he fights against school rules, saving all the males from becoming females, he creates a harem, and a plot convenience comes to claim him as her unrequited love from the past because jealousy

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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