Today I review Kampfer, perhaps the least original anime ever made! It fails as a romance, it fails as action, it fails as a comedy. Kampfer is entirely comprised of fail! Instead of "Kampfer", which is German for "fighter" , the series should have been called Scheiße !
Remember how in Ranma 1/2 there was a subplot where a boy would turn into a girl and it would create awkward moments of sexual tension and comedy? That was pretty funny in the early 1990s and it felt new at the time. However, like all Rumiko Takahashi series it ran a LONG time and the premise now feels worn out and tired. Kampfer takes this tired joke and absolutely beats the shit out of a dead horse! You can't have a fucking comedy series based on a 1 joke premise that isn't even fresh! Why do you think the Geico Cavemen TV show was cancelled in 1 season?
To give Kamper some credit, it doesn't JUST do a horrible job ripping off the humor of Ranma 1/2 and other slapstick harem anime of the 1990s like Love Hina and Tenchi Muyo. Kampfer also decided to be the 8 billionth anime to feature a battle royale tournament in which contestants are forced by some mysterious greater power to battle each other until 1 is left. Each "kampfer" is a girl with magical abilities and each has her own doll. Sort of like Rozen Maiden, the much better show about magic dolls that must battle each other to claim the ultimate prize. This type of anime tends to be really popular, so I suppose you can't blame the Kampfer creator for trying to cash in. Anime like Future Diary, Btooom!, and Fate Stay Night are some of the highest rated and most popular anime on MAL. The first huge problem with Kampfer is that it brings NOTHING new to the audience. It simply uses and abuses popular cliches in order to make a quick buck off Otaku that the Kampfer creator clearly thinks are idiots. The second problem is that it it isn't even an entertaining ripoff or mockbuster! The Asylum movies are better than Kampfer! Probably the most creative thing kampfer did was the obnoxious series of grotesque dolls called the entrails animals. Although, even those just seem like a cheap ripoff of the Garbage Pail Kids from the 1980s!
The art is decent, but nothing great. Kampfer isn't one of those anime that is entertainingly bad due to technical issues like laughably bad animation, a terrible dub, or a horrendous soundtrack. Kampfer is the worst kind of bad. Uninspired and BORING! If Kampfer was entertainingly bad like Angel Cop or Mad Bull 34 it would at least have SOME reason for people to watch it.
