The first episode starts off with a bang; Kämpfer seems like a nice comedy/action series with a little bit of gender bending and even a love story between Natsuru and a soft-spoken girl named Kaede tossed in.
Everything great about this series quickly degenerates, though, so soon as episode 3, when it becomes a yuri love-fest –– male Natsuru, trapped in his female Kämpfer body, stuck between it all.
And that basically sums up most of the series. Kämpfer, to some fans’ delight, started out looking like another Sekirei, but instead resorted to perverted jokes and fan service à la Rosario + Vampire.
Story
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Kämpfer, for the most part, has no story, unless you count the yuri love triangle –– er, square –– that persists every episode, which the anime makes no attempt to underplay. What few battle scenes there are only last a minute at most and are definitely not worth the weeks of waiting that it took to get there. I’m glad I held out and marathoned the last 5 episodes. In my opinion, the most interesting twist occurs at episode 7. Unfortunately, the series ended quite open-endedly, which only hints that we’re doomed to get a second season.
Art
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The art quality from Kämpfer is inconsistent from time to time. The animation can be sharp and glowly during the more dramatic and intense scenes –– I especially like the depth of field effect when a character is near the foreground –– while sometimes there are obvious mistakes in subtle places that people too focused on the fan service may not notice. For example, in one infamous scene, a chair in the bathroom has no reflection in the mirror. These failures in quality control may come as no surprise, though, since this anime is produced by Nomad, who got caught putting six fingers on Suigintou in Rozen Maiden.
Sound
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The sound was okay at best and annoying at worst. Natsuru’s male voice was especially ear-wrenching –– makes sense, since he is voiced by female voice actress Marina Inoue (also known for Chiri Kitsu in Zetsubou Sensei). I’ll admit, though, that Natsuru in female form sounded really cute. You may be ecstatic to hear that Kämpfer hosts a plethora of talented voice actresses, mainly coming in the form of the small Entrails Animals. We have the voice actresses of Kotomi Ichinose and Mei Sunohara from Clannad, and my personal favorite, Yui Horie, plays the role of Natsuru’s friend, Akane Mishima. It’s just too bad that all that talent had to go to waste on a series that most people won’t care about a year from now. The OP and ED theme are pretty good, assuming you like bubbly J-pop music. I found the ED theme quite addicting.
Character
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The characters in Kämpfer are blatantly generic; you would almost think the producers did it on purpose. Akane is a shy and cute meganekko who transforms into a sour-mouthed Kämpfer with no sympathy whatsoever. Shizuku Sangou is president of the Student Council and, despite her harsh demeanor, has deep passion for Natsuru. Kaede Sakura is the most annoying, in my opinion. I hated her from beginning to end. It’s her selfish personality that really bothered me. She only likes the female version of Natsuru, despite male Natsuru’s love for her. Natsuru’s expressions are cute and funny when he’s a Kämpfer, although he still gets embarrassed a lot, even in his male form.
Enjoyment
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You’re enjoyment will depend on how much you like gender bending, fan service, and especially yuri. There is a lot of kissing and groping in this anime, but not so much that it would be considered borderline hentai like Kanokon. If you’re looking for action in this series, you’re going to be quite frustrated by the lack of it. I guess the only way you could enjoy this show is if you have a tolerance for the all the awkward situations Natsuru falls in with his female friends and classmates flocking to get their hands on his/her busty body. I’ll give you a fair warning and say that Kämpfer comes no where near the quality of Rozen Maiden –– one of Nomad’s other anime. In fact, I would say I liked Kämpfer only slightly better than Akikan! because of its gender bendingness.
Overall
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Kämpfer doesn’t break any molds or tries to reinvent the genre. Sure, a guy stuck in a girl’s body is an interesting scenario, but the anime fails to do anything with it, besides having other females literally fight over him…I mean, her. The Entrails Animals were humorous, arguably more than their Kämpers, but we don’t get much of an insight into their personality –– aside from a few one-liners –– until the final episode, which has no relevance to the rest of the series. Kämpfer isn’t necessarily an awful series –– it’s definitely unique from the other forgetful ecchi series out there. The reason it fails is because the first two episodes promise so much potential, but the series totally ends up denying the audience’s expectations, in the end. Kämpfer brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “Don’t judge an anime by its first episode.”
