Review of Akikan!

If there was an institution that kept a list of animes with the biggest number of sexual jokes, Akikan would top the list every single year. This anime is a one big sexual joke. Some reviewers talk about a bit of seriousness and drama? No. Akikan is like an anime version of stand-up comedy involving several performers. The story follows a teenage guy, named Kakeru Daichi. He's a lonely, girlfriendless pervert who has only one thing going on in his mind at any given time - sex. Apart from his lewd ways, Kakeru collects soda cans. It just so happens that one day after hisusual trip to the local vending machine, Kakeru frees a beautiful girl from a SODA CAN by drinking it. Anyone thinking about a genie in a lamp? Because I sure as hell was. It's just so cheesy, so blatantly cheap... anyone can come up with a story like that. So a big disappointment there, the story majorly sucks.

Then however, a miracle happens. This anime was not actually meant to be serious, the first few scenes which involve touching narration imply that we're dealing with a serious, kimi ga nozomu eien type of anime. Literally a few seconds later, you can see that the intro was decieving. This anime is all about comedy and most of it is directed at adult audiences.

As the story progresses we learn many more things, for example that the girl Kakeru freed is called an "Akikan" (hence the title) and that there are many more out there. Another thing is that they develop a master-servant relationship with their liberators or "owners" as they're called in the anime. No real suprise there however. We could all see that coming since the whole girl in a can theme was probably based on... yes I've said it before - the genie in a lamp. Only difference though is that Akikans don't actually grant wishes.

The comedy is good however and the range of characters this anime has is to say the least, impressive. We have the perverted Kakeru, we have a witch, a bisexual goverment official and his strict subordinate, their duo reminded me of Shunsui Kyoraku and Nanao Ise from Bleach. We have a girl who desperately wants to get laid with Kakeru, I won't mention why because that would spoil the story. We then have a few more Akikans and a few more shady characters, throw them all together and mix and you have a recipe for a funny anime.

However one thing that should be noted is that the overwhelming majority of jokes are sexual with penis jokes being to most common. If I recall correctly Kakeru even mentiones that the "penis is the future of Japan and that with it he shall be victorious" or something like that. So I'm giving you a heads up, discretion is advised.

Sex is mentioned so many times in this anime that at times it makes you think that this series was made in an attempt to encourage the Japanese youth to procreate more, in light of the fact that Japan's aging population is dropping at an alarming rate. At least that's the impression I got when I watched it.

Art and sound are good, no complaints in that department. Some of the music used in this anime is actually very catchy which pleasantly suprised me. The sounds are authentic and voice acting is alright too. This is definitively where a lot of the points are going to go.

Overall, a good anime, providing you like watching comedies filled with sexual innuendo. I'll say it like this, watch this anime for laughs and you'll enjoy it.