Maidens in your savage seasons is one of those easily overlooked gems. At first glance this anime looks a lot one of those basic Ecchi shows that just focuses on lewd dialogue, sex jokes, and random sexual shots of girls and boys inadvertently walking in on each other undressed. However, this show differs in that it does all of this with exceptional dialogue and execution, it is the difference between some basic otaku pandering Ecchi show and highbrow erotic art.
The characters in this show all are young high schoolers who are sexually repressed, as they are youth, in what is a fairly sexually conservative society. As the story unfolds each girl has their own backstory given to us through their interactions with the cast and some flash backs. Kazusa has a childhood friend who they realize they are in love with when they inadvertently walk in on them pleasuring themselves. Hongou is an aspiring writer and tries to “seduce” a teacher in order to learn more about romance and improve her writing. Momoko is likely gay but is having a hard time coming to terms with it. Rika is an uptight reserved girl who actually is just jealous that she is missing out on sex and romance, so she copes by looking down on people with fulfilling love lives. Finally, Niina has had a fairly fucked up view on romance as she was mentored by an obvious lolicon for most of her childhood but developed some weird sort of Stockholm syndrome for him and is actually mad that he did not molest her. These girls are all crafted wonderfully with lots of nuance through interactions with other characters, foreshadowing, and their internal monologues which greatly humanized them and made them very likable.
While the plot execution does take a wild turn in the last few episodes, it actually is preferable to similar shows where cast falls apart due to backstabbing and fighting over each other’s boyfriend. The writing is very good, far more than one would ever expect from a show with this premise. Short comments by side characters, lines from the novels the girls were reading, and dialogue early in the show foreshadowed most of what happened in the story, but it isn’t obvious until the viewer finishes the show. This show is definitely worth a watch not just once but twice, one time to see it unfold and a second time to see everything that was overlooked and carefully foreshadowed the first time.
Another aspect about this show that was great were the production values. Visual directing is hard to master for action shows, let alone a rom com coming of age anime. The show has great framing and cinematography, excellent effects, and clean animation when it counts, these things are normally lacking in most low brow Ecchi shows. The sound is also quite impressive, although the opening does pale in comparison to the fire fighting anime, the sound and animation still place it in the top 3 for me this season, the background music and effective change in pace during confessions were also quite exquisite.
Finally, and most importantly, the overall message of this show is delivered perfectly. Love is a complex thing, most of our media revolves around it, most people in our society seek it, and it is something that is hard to define. This anime encapsulates love and carnal desire from the point of view of teenage girls in a serious manner, something most anime will tend to shy away from doing. It tells people that girls are sexual beings just like men and they have to come to terms with their sexuality, while understanding that everyone is an individual who may have a different approach to coming to terms with themselves.
