Anime Hajime Review: Maken-ki

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Maken-ki. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

Tenbi Academy has converted from an all-girls school to co-ed. This could not make Takeru Ohyama (voiced by Tomoaki Maeno) any happier. Now he has the chance to meet...be around...see lots of pretty girls. Plus, Tenbi doesn’t require an entrance exam. So it’s a win-win. Or least it would be. A little research can go a long way.

Tenbi Academy focuses on student’s ability to use Elements and Maken. Magical items used for combat. That’s why fights are not only common, they're expected. A problem since Takeru doesn’t appear to wield a Maken.

For help, he relies on his childhood friend Haruko Amaya (voiced by Noriko Shitaya). The two have been close for years and Haruko is always worrying about Takeru’s safety. Or his perverse habits. Often both.

If things weren’t already difficult, Takeru gets another surprise. On his first day, he meets Inaho Kushiya (voiced by Iori Nomizu). To everyone’s shock, she proclaims herself to be Takeru’s fiancée. A claim Takeru has no knowledge on why.

Adding to this, Takeru runs into Kodama Himegami (voiced by Sayuri Yahagi). Their meeting isn’t the smoothest. But to make matters worse, Kodama believes Takeru to be her long-awaited enemy.

Takeru has a lot on his plate. That’s why it’s a real kicker when he ends up living with these three women. It’s unclear where trouble will come from. But it can be literally anywhere now.

Series Positives

Before starting Maken-ki I said to myself, “Wow…this looks awful.” From doing this site, I’ve come to trust my gut when it comes to anime. It’s not always right. Sometimes it does get it wrong. Not this time.

This show’s brand of awful was the boring kind. It wasn’t rage inducing. It didn’t do anything to get the blood boiling. There wasn’t...anything. Nothing to hold your attention. A nap would be a way better use of your time. I’m not saying that was exactly what I did. But I may have had to watch one or two episodes twice.

Before going any further, let me say this. Maken-ki relies on a special, specific kind of sexualization. If this happens to be your kind of thing, you’ll get much more out of this show than I did. But…do not be expecting anything more. This series has little else to offer.

What it can offer, doesn’t instill a lot of confidence.

Audio Only

Open another tab. Shut off your screen. Close your eyes. It doesn’t matter what you do. Maken-ki would be worlds better if it didn’t need to be looked at. Going on audio alone, this series, to my surprise, wasn’t that bad. I mean yeah, it was bad. But it could be doing worse.

What do I mean by this?

Well other than me needing something positive to say, there was a clear disconnect. What I was seeing and what I was hearing didn’t match up.

To start, the voice cast. They were all pretty decent. There wasn’t anyone I recognized. Except for Kodama’s voice actress, Sayuri Yahagi. She was also Suzu from Seitokai Yakuindomo. Considering the story they had to act, I’m impressed they gave as much as they did. And this leads me to my other point.

Maken-ki’s dialogue worked. I can’t believe I’m saying that. So, I want to make sure I’m saying it clear. The dialogue was okay. The story was s@#$. I don’t know how you get one right and f@#$ up the other. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Though okay, none of this came close to saving this show.

Takeru

Series Negatives

There were many things I didn’t like about this show. To sum them all up in a single phrase, Maken-ki was visually uninteresting. This goes hand in hand with the general boringness of this series.

Haruko

Fights lacked any life. Jokes fell flat. The art and character designs were meh. No, the artwork would be better described as lazy. A problem since how a character looked was prioritized over an actual personality. No one in this show was memorable.

As I said earlier, the only way you might get some enjoyment out of Maken-ki is if you enjoy this type of ecchi. The kind of ecchi that’s as low brow as you can get. The kind of ecchi that comes off as distracting and annoying. Rather than fun.

Inaho

Maken-ki was over the top. Not a bad start. It ran with this gimmick. Also, a plus. But it never stopped.

Keijo was also over the top and ridiculous. It went big. It went crazy. Except it knew when to pull back. It only went insane when it needed to. For instance, when characters in Keijo had conversations, they only had conversations.

Kodama

No one’s gooch was on full display. We didn’t know how prominent someone’s camel toe was. And nobody’s breasts were bursting through a shirt that was three sizes too small.

Maken-ki not only did this, it was how characters conversed. If I’m asking, “What the f@#$ are you doing,” instead of saying, “That’s hot,” a show missed the point.

Now, can this style of ecchi work. Yes. In High School DxD, the wind blowing was enough of an excuse to have a character go topless. Although, I’d argue DxD wasn’t as heavy handed as Maken-ki.

The first reason why DxD succeeded. Better proportions. Big breasts are fine. If they fit the character. Large for the sake of large isn’t good enough.

Second reason. DxD had a story and characters worth caring about. Remove the ecchi from DxD and you still have a good show. Remove the ecchi from Maken-ki and you’re left with its biggest problem.

The Story

I mean oh my God. Can I even call this a story? Where didn’t it f@#$ up is the better question.

To start, what the f@#$ are Maken? What the f@#$ are Elements? Are they actual things in this world? Does everyone know about them? Our main character Takeru seems to both know and not know about them. It appears there are only eight real Maken. All others are replicas. Then they can’t be that special if they can be remade. Also, some of the main characters have a few of the originals. That’s convenient.

Except, why are they important? Where did they come from? What do they do? Is it bad if someone misuses one? How do you misuse one? How do you get one? Again, Takeru didn’t seem capable of having one. Until he got one that is.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

This is the stuff the show didn’t answer. But went ahead and assumed we knew it already. 

Maken-ki got insanely complicated at the end. Like, did you know this series had a bad guy? I didn’t, and yet one appeared anyway. F@#$ me if I remember what their name was.

That’s another thing. Why the hell was this cast so big? There were so many characters. Way too many for this series to handle. Nowhere near enough time was given to get to know any of them. Even the mains. And any development that did happen was dull.

Maken-ki was a harem anime as well. Wow, could you have screwed this up anymore? Takeru, the center, was lame. The members were forgettable. The member’s motivations for falling for the center were half-assed. Most weren’t even that consistent. It came off as unimportant.

Then the ending tried to get a little emotional. It tried to tug on your feeling. But I did not care. Nothing happened anyway. So, it didn’t even succeed in this aspect either.

Uninspired and uninteresting shows tend to leave my memory within a few weeks. Real bad ones do it in days. Then there was Maken-ki. This series couldn't last episode to episode. It’s mostly all gone now. I am unable to tell you what happened or why you should care. Nor would I bother.

This show was a mess. But I don’t remember what the mess was.

Final Thoughts

So, as you can see, I didn’t like this one. It was a bad show. But there wasn’t anything that pissed me off about it. Except for one thing.

Take a series like Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance. Or how about Hataraku Maou-sama. Or even Deadman Wonderland. Hell, throw in Inu x Boku Secret Service. All these shows have two things in common. One, they were all pretty good. Some were even better than that. And two, none of them have a second season.

Maken-ki does. Think about that.

This series did almost nothing right. There were too many characters. All of them were boring and forgettable. The ecchi elements were obnoxious. The harem was bull s@#$. Any semblance of a story was almost nonexistent. But still, season two. And I’m going to watch it. Eventually.

For now, though, don’t even bother with Maken-ki.

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