Review of Akikan!

Akikan, a show about girls popping out of soda cans. Talk about hating it from the very description. The trick is to know how to translate the symbolisms in these shows. They usually cloak their real meaning with silly premises to make the anime accessible to a wider audience. In this case we have magical girls who for some lame reason are trapped inside soda cans. The one who drinks one of those, frees the girl, and then for some reason she vows to be his servant. The lead male happens to be collecting cans and one of them contains the lead girl. So… collectionsand beautiful girls appearing out of nowhere only to immediately become your servants. Is it me or is the show telling us to have a huge collection of figurines, sucking them daily in hopes of one of them coming to life, and becoming our sex toy?

In general, harems try to throw beautiful girls on the laps of sexless idiots with ridiculous excuses and this show ranks amongst the worst ideas. It goes even further by having those Akikan soda chicks fighting each other in a tournament. Why? Just because. It’s a battle harem; don’t try to reason it.

Crapful premise aside, there actually is a story going on somewhere among all those retarded moments. Half of the episodes are basically introducing the Akikans, letting us know them a bit better, and then it moves to the fighting. The other half of the show is the expected brainless ecchi humor. Honestly, for a harem show that has a beginning, a climax and a somewhat ending, I am willing to give the Story the base score.

Now the cast. All the characters are stereotypes, but for a harem show the scriptwriters tried to flesh them out properly; something rarely seen in the genre. The lead had this traumatic encounter with terrorists, each Akikan has a different fascination over her master as well as a main rival. Heck, the main male is actually quite bold and offensive when it comes to doing naughty things. He still chickens out the last moment and gets beaten and trashed by ravaged girls, but he is still not as terrible as the typical super lame eunuch archetype.The end result is still far from great, but at least it tried hard. There is a whole episode dedicated to showing them doing everyday simple things, with zero fan service or retarded action. For a 12 episode show with ecchi in mind, that was a ballzy move. By the end of the show the main characters are not following the norm anymore and somewhat escape the mold that created them.

With that said, all secondary characters are filler for the comedy. Gays, and gigolos and busty lesbians, and spunky kawai lolis, and a bunch of other cardboard stereotypes are there only for flavor. Not that the show would be much better without them, it’s just that they are terribly uninteresting outside of their role in ecchi humor. Not the greatest cast ever seen in a harem but still more that cardboards. I give it a 6. It could be more without the retarded excuses for fruit battles and kissing to replenish magic energy.

The animation is pleasing without being exceptional. The amount of details and colors is rather standard for its age and even sloppy at many points with obvious signs of deformity. The show has the courtesy to not go for a million pantsu shots per second or clothes made of paper. The fan service is mostly based on kisses, falling on someone, or just wearing swimsuits. Nothing too bold and offensive to the point of degrading the girls… too much. Also, the characters are occasionally making silly gestures and body poses that enhance the jokes and makes the cast more likable. I give the animation a 7 just for that.

It is still poor if you try to compare it with high budget shows. The fighting scenes for example have really lame choreography that comes down to yelling names of attacks such as Melon Bomb and Sour Grape. Furthermore, most special effects are simplistic computer filters.

The music part takes time to grow on you. At first the squeaky voiced girls and the terrible OP and ED songs are making your teeth cringe. After the more serious moments kick in, you get to listen to them from a more serious angle. Also, that dreadful ending song has several variations in the second half just for the heck of it. Minor details that make the acoustic part more likable. Sound gets a 7.

Despite the rather positive views I have for a harem show, I still say it has no replay value. It’s not like you can’t get the same story elsewhere with more interesting presentation or better colorful characters (even Fate/Stay Night does a better job). But, again, I admit that for a harem specimen, it is half-good.