Reviews

Nov 25, 2013
Every once in a while you come across an anime that is so far outside the realm of normality that you simply can’t help but be amazed. This can be either for better or for worse but regardless of which it’ll generally leave a more lasting impression.

When it comes to Seikon no Qwaser, it made me feel progressively stupider while I was watching it. This simply has to be the strangest concept I’ve ever seen for a story, but it somehow makes it work. First off I would like to say that this show is NOT for everyone. The term ecchi is nowhere near enough to describe the extent of SnQ. I’ve seen plenty of quite borderline H anime in my career, but this has to take the cake. The strange thing is that despite that, the way the show uses its extreme perverseness is actually secondary. In reality, Seikon no Qwaser is an action/super power series and shouldn’t even be classified as neither a romance nor a harem series. It just so happens that all the supernatural abilities in the show are powered… by sucking breast milk from women.

The story is very simplistic and cliché; you’ve got your male protagonist surrounded by heaps of women and they’re constantly being targeted by bad guys as everyone is competing over trying to find a lost artifact which supposedly can grant its user the power of god… or something like that. The characters are split into two halves; you’ve got the “Qwasers” which are the supernatural guys who get their powers from sucking breast milk, or “Soma”, from the other supporting half, where the donators are called “Marias”. As absurd as it is, it’s pretty straightforward once you’ve finally accepted just what the hell you are actually watching.

The fights themselves are pretty interesting though. Every Qwaser is unique, as he/she is connected to a specific element on the periodic table, allowing him/her to manipulate said substance at will and use that in any which way thinkable for fighting. The amount of energy available to do so is based on the strength of the Qwaser and how much Soma he/she has digested beforehand.

The character cast is at first glance pretty damn stereotypical. You’ve got the standard harem situation with the protagonist surrounded by a tsundere, an airhead and the silent but loyal and obedient old friend. The protag himself however is not exactly your average one, as he’s a cold hearted, mechanical and revenge driven young lad. Actually when I say young lad I really mean it, he’s basically a shota compared to the heroine cast, and is also a pretty huge tsundere himself. Last but not least, the final two main characters are a bit more standalone… as they share the wonderful combination of a lolicon/yuri/BDSM coupling, and quite frankly they were easily the most interesting duo to watch throughout the entire series, especially the pseudo-gothic twintailed loli dominatrix Katja voiced by Aya Hirano. They also had some extremely borderline H scenes together, unlike the mere constant breastfeeding throughout the anime. As far as side characters go though, they were pretty damn forgettable.

Visuals and audio weren’t anything particularly memorable. The whole idea of basing super powers on chemistry allowed for quite a lot of unorthodox action scenes to take place, but even so the animation wasn’t anything really worth praising. As far as the soundtrack goes, neither the OP, ED nor overall OST comes to mind either. In fact I can’t even remember what either sounded like even now, right after finishing the series. The seiyuu cast and performance was pretty good though overall, albeit somewhat varied in individual quality.

By far the best part about Seikon no Qwaser though is its entertainment value. Coming into this, I was somewhat prepared for that it would be a very strange experience, but as far as the actual enjoyment went, I have to admit I was really positively surprised. I had a ton of fun marathoning through all of this. Even if the crazy amount of boobs plastered all over the screen isn’t exactly my type of thing, in this particular case I somehow didn’t really mind. It’s such an abstract show that I couldn’t help but feel interested in it for the wtf-factor alone. SnQ isn’t an ecchi anime meant to turn you on. In fact, 90% of its sexual showings will most likely creep you out more than anything, but before long you will stop thinking about it as anything more than a supporting aspect of what is in actuality an action series. Hell even the girls themselves don’t seem to act like its anything out of the ordinary.

Overall, despite its creepiness and absurdity, I wholeheartedly enjoyed this anime a lot more than I had expected coming into it. Admittedly though, it’s pretty damn hard to rate, and I can see pretty much any score for it being understandable given how extreme it is, but in the end, the reason people watch anime is for entertainment, and in that aspect at least, Seikon no Qwaser manages to deliver well above expectations.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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