Mar 27, 2024
Each episode of this show feels shorter than it is. For the first six episodes, that's because they're so great and fun that time flies by. For the last seven, it's because so little happens that you can't believe it was stretched into an entire episode.
The first six episodes of this ecchi anime are excellent. The final seven (with a slight exception for episode 12) are plain bad.
The show's beginning episodes each craft a tight story with equal parts hilarious comedy, cozy slice of life feels, short and snappy battles, and of course, flagrant ecchi. Each episode flaunts new fetishes / kinks, powered by the
...
main character's personal depravities.
Our main character, Utena, is an evil magical girl who is into BDSM. Each time she runs into the 'good' magical girls, she torments them with a different kink. It's erotic, funny as hell, and explores Utena's fetish with respect and intelligence, while being greatly entertaining.
But in between these erotic battle scenes are plenty of typical comedy slice of life scenes that sew a complete experience together. The jokes in the show are top tier, and the general world is alluring.
The introduction of the second evil magical girl dampers things a bit, as it turns away from sex and towards general antisocial behavior, but then the third evil girl steers us back, exposing us to even more fetishes and ecchi goodness. By episode 6, this anime felt like it could truly be peak fiction.
Then episode 7 happened, and it all fell apart.
For the second half of the show, the tight storytelling we were used to is gutted, and replaced by boring drama, bad and drawn out battle scenes, and, instead of liberal yet smart use of ecchi, the show is neutered into showing only one short erotic scene per episode, each of which is not worth the wait.
Once the show hits the mark where the good magical girls are entirely replaced by the show's true antagonists - the Eviler magical girls - it becomes just not worth it. The clash between Utena and the magical girls was a great battle between Righteous image vs perversion. But when the eviler magical girls come in, it doesn't even become perversion vs perversion, it just becomes boring vs boring.
Episode 12 breathes some life back into the show, before the finale ends on a low note. By the end, several characters in the show have done absolutely nothing and could've been left out altogether, and characters who were interesting are relegated to dead weight following each scene around for no reason.
So that's how the show is. The first half is fantastic, and the second half is just bad. Normally that would earn it an easy 5/10. But damn, those first six episodes were so good it does make the anime still feel special, even after the disappointment.
My only hope now is that by a miracle we get a season 2. Because even if it follows the same disappointing drop in quality that this show currently has, it would still mean we would end up with a full season of peak.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all