I gave this series a chance and have reluctantly watched all episodes and read all manga chapters.
This is one of those series that is basically porn for porn lovers, not for anything else other than to sell sex by disguising it as a girls-love and a magical girl action show. It’s really not, nor is it anything different from the many other magical girl/fantasy ecchi series. It is one of many series that is blatant commercialized bullshit with little substance that uses yuri just to bring in the money. Before you watch it, understand that it is low budget softcore ecchi porn and a magical girl parody with the occasional laugh. It’s not wholesome. It’s not very funny. It is more of a long commercial/meme than anything. Also keep in mind that the entire show involves the explicit sexualization, subtextual rape and molestation of the characters, including two loli characters. That’s not the reason behind this review, but something the casual viewer should know. It’s not “a little here and there”, it’s the whole show. Whether you’re into BDSM, loli, rape, molestation, tentacle play, ect, this series probably has something that would interest you…for a moment. But, the fetish slapstick stuff gets old very quick. Now, I’m not passing judgement if you are watching this series just for that reason. There are just better ecchi and comedy series out there. Also, if you like magical girls, I cannot recommend this. It’s not a magical girl anime with ecchi, it is an ecchi with magical girls.
STORY: Plot in the anime is almost nonexistent. Plot in the manga is decent, but after many chapters of fetish nonsense, you forget about it. There is some lore (in the manga) and the characters develop some, but nothing extraordinary. Each episode has relatively the same pattern. No, the series is not unique. No, it is not a good representation of sexual awakenings or BDSM play. No, it is not a good example of yuri.
CHARACTERS: The main character, Utena, is simply unlikable. She’s ugly. She’s mean. She’s obnoxiously meek in her civilian form. She is one of those “lead protagonist but the bad guy” characters, but really never becomes likable as she constantly does off-putting things even to her allies. Every time she does something that redeems herself and she grows from it, I am left disappointed the next time. MC should be likable, not some ugly creep otaku. As for yuri, this series is a slap in the face to it, as mentioned. The relationships are very shallow, and are put in only to fetishize girls’ love. Even in the manga, the relationships are so dull and never develop, except for when it calls for porn. One character loves the main character very much, and the MC just plays with her feelings and leads her on with her insecurities. It is frustrating. As for the other characters, they are mostly cliches and nothing really stands out about them.
ART: The art in the anime is significantly watered down from the manga. Almost every frame is a cheap redraw of the manga pages. The anime art style is frankly ugly and dull. Most characters have boring, lifeless eyes. Utena is particularly ugly with a wide mouth and rounded bob. Animation is poor, as it mostly consists of bad redraws of the manga, and many still images – even lazy AI backgrounds in some shots. Transformations were so underwhelming. I understand that story and art is usually rushed and watered down in anime, but this adaptation is exceptionally poor and disappointing. As for the soundtrack, it has a the generic visual kei pop rock sound that is like every other average theme song. For most of the voice actresses, this is their very first role, and they did great, it’s just too bad that this had to be their break into the industry. Might as well be a phone sex operator.
Overall, this is just another cheap attention-seeking anime that pops up, then quickly overstays its welcome. The characters and schtick get old so fast, it’s not memorable, and the pacing of the actual side stories are just so slowed down by all the crap. This series could be so much more than that “lewd magical girl parody”, and I kept giving it a chance, but it just keeps leaving a bad taste that the lighthearted jokes can’t distract from. Most of all, the animation and art is so terrible that it really couldn’t bring the battle action scenes or characters to life at all. If this series was adapted by a better studio, it could have been so much better animation wise. Then again, it would still be just a porno.
If I can say one good thing about this anime, is that they did a good job advertising it. They seem to have put all of the small budget towards the hype and lewd (which was also disappointing). They tried to make up for it by parading the fact that it is uncensored unlike the manga (as if we’ve never seen nips before), and having two ecchi directors going all out, but it really couldn’t cover the apparent low budget. I understand that sex sells, but did they really have to make it so obvious? This anime has to be the most prime example of the commercialization to shell out cheap merch that is keeping the industry in the garbage.
