Anime: Kampfer

I'll preface this review by noting that while, yes, I DID indeed watch this anime from start to finish, that was about 4-5 years ago, and as such I can't remember a lot of the details. However, after five years worth of various life changing events, the consumption of copious amounts of media, and taking on a somewhat altered world view, one thing remains: I still consider this to be the worst television show that I have ever subjected myself to. I think that fact should probably compensate for any gaps in my memory.

Yes, this review might have been more useful to people five years ago, back when there was a vague chance that someone could innocently make the mistake of starting to watch it. And further, anyone who would go out of their way to inflict this kind of pain on himself five years after the show's original release probably deserves what he gets. So yeah, normally I'd just wave goodbye to anyone walking into this buzz saw... however:

Last night I was awoken by soft-yet-commanding voice. When it spoke I felt like I was being bathed with love and sunshine. The voice told me, simply, that I had to do something to make the world a better place. So I pondered the best way to act: Give money to charity? Volunteer at a soup kitchen? Organize protests against hunger?

After kicking the ideas around in my head I finally settled on warning people off from this abysmal anime. Definitely the most worthwhile cause.

Anyway, onto what's actually wrong with this show.

You know the American concept of a melting pot? You take people from all over the world, mix them together, and HOPEFULLY you come up with something fantastic -- yet different -- in the end. Well, this show attempted something similar with all of the worst anime tropes. Most of the characters are High School students? Check. Talking stuffed animal? Check. Inexplicable and terrible use of a foreign language? Check. Gender-swapping? OH YEAH. Making friends with enemies? Mmmhmm.

I know this show might be some kind of parody. To be honest, it was really hard to tell, and I can't remember too well. But you know what? It might actually be worse if it's a parody. Failing so completely to deliver on comedic potential like that deserves a vicious curb stomping.

This show isn't subtle. It's some kind of ecchi, but it fails to deliver at every single turn. The jokes are all recycled from other anime. Not good anime, mind you. Terribly shitty ones.

But you know what? Kampfer is actually pretty special. Most terrible media falls into one of two categories: First, the "wat? I barely remember watching that" type, which you forget five minutes after it's over, and second, the Plan 9 From Outer Space kind of bad, where you actually feel enriched by the terribleness. But this show doesn't do either. It just leaves a nasty, rotting-turd kind of stench in your mouth, even after five years.

Don't watch this show. Don't trust any person or site that recommends this show.

Important: This review is based off of gg fansubs, a very good subbing company. Therefore, all sound and animation issues will strictly conform to what I have seen in the broadcasting and releases. Also note that all my reviews are done after watching the series at least two times.

Premise: Kampfer can be described as one’s guilty pleasure- scratch that- extremely guilty semi-pleasure. I say this because I actually somewhat looked forward to the next episode even though the content was total crap. Before you read on, let me tell you that there really was no conclusion to this anime, no real plot, no real anything but fanservice. In fact, I guess you could say that the whole point of it was to be a risqué anime that would tease viewers to keep watching for inevitable fanservice.

Background: Ok here’s what you need to know: Kampfer is a term for a selected warrior. The selected warrior is given a bracelet with which he or she can transform into a woman with some sort of power. There are two forces the red and the blue (one more is introduced later though). The point of the different colors is to signify opposing sides- basically it is red versus blue. So, the story starts out with a scene that “leaves the audience in suspense and draws them in.” Then, cut to the opening and voila you have fanservice- the main character, Senou Natsuru, wakes up as a girl. Soon enough a stuffed animal with its intestines hanging out talks to him about his current predicament saying that he was chosen to fight against the red kampfer. Sounds cool so far?

Animation:
Character designs are nice for the most part- you can actually tell who is who for the most part. Besides that, the fight scenes are standard, nothing really to catch your eye. Backgrounds weren’t very detailed which actually fit the rest of the anime since nothing was that detailed except for the fanservice scenes. Fight scenes were inconsistent in quality. Sometimes when the characters were engaged in battle, the camera would cut away to a person dodging attacks. Unfortunately, the person who was dodging attacks looked unproportional. Sometimes perspective was a bit off too although that could have just been me. Fluidity seemed to drop a bit in combat as well characters’s movements seemed more sluggish and ultimately duller. In the non-combat scenes, though, characters moved regularly and convincingly.
In regards to coloring, the colors chosen for the anime were very well done- Kampfer’s redeeming point. I really like the way they selected and applied the colors to each character. But for some odd reason, whenever I watched it, the colors always felt soporific to me. I always felt dull and tired when I watched it rather than excited by the exuberant colors. Again, maybe it was just me but it happened and I am reporting it.
The opening and ending were decent. The opening introduced all the characters and what the viewer should expect- i.e. fanservice. The ending reinforced the characters and had some fanservice images. The characters’s movements in the OP and ED were just like the series if not a little better. The OP is like a normal OP featuring moving 3d people introducing their characters and “unique” traits. The ED did basically the same thing just with some characters that shook their behinds and some 3d fanservice art- innovative. Overall the op and ed were decent.
Overall, the animation was pretty standard, the only outstanding thing would probably be the coloring. Combat scenes were poorly choreographed, characters were inconsistent in shape, backgrounds weren’t sharp, etc. Sadly enough, the fanservice scenes were standard, not innovative, but probably the best animated part of the series. Into and Ending themes were very normally animated if not below average. The animation is pretty standard for a modern anime but a bit better in terms of color usage therefore it merits a 7.

Sound:
Before I get to the voice acting, I want to talk about the OP and ED. First, remember that judging what is good and what is bad on a song is completely opinionated. So, the OP and ED were mediocre. They were fine, they went well with the animation and the actual anime. There really isn’t much to rave about.
Voice acting was Kampfer’s redeeming factor. In the first episode of Kampfer you are introduced to a star cast including stars such as Tamura Yukari, Horie Yui, as well as Mizuki Nana. Note that none of those are the main character, Natsuru. Natsuru was voiced by Inoue Marina. You must be going who the heck is that? Well you might know her as Wataru’s seiyuu (Hayate no Gotoku), Kana (Minami-ke), Jessica (Umineko), Chiri (Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei), or even Youko (Gurren Lagann). Anyway I have to say her performance was half good. When I first heard Natsuru’s voice when he was a male I was really surprised. It was a girl’s voice that came out, not a man’s- or if it was a male’s voice then it was definitely prepubescent. In fact, his male voice sounded more feminine than any girl on that show, I was shocked. Inoue Marina proved that she could do a male’s voice in various animes so why not this one? I was thus very shocked and almost immediately decided to drop the anime because of that. But, whatever you might get over it. Other than her voice not matching her character, her voice acting matched her character in regards to emotion. In fact, all the voice actors did a splendid job in emitting some sort of emotion.
BGMs were in two adjectives boring and reused. Sure, the BGMs fit, but the amount of recycling that goes on is just unbearable.
Overall, the sound was, in order, decent, better decent, horrible. OP and ED were decent. Voice acting was inconsistently good and bad- more good than bad. BGMs were good for several episodes until you realize they only have like two running in the whole series. In the end, sound gets a 6.

Story:
Kampfers are chosen by the moderators to fight against each other. You know that you are chosen when you sport either a blue or red bracelet that makes you transform into a girl and also when you have an entrails animal speaking to you with a famous Japanese seiyuu’s voice. In any case, Natsuru gets chosen as a blue Kampfer and thus begins our journey that goes nowhere. We find nothing out really. The viewer will get introduced to one very minor plot twist and that is about it. The whole story is focused on fanservice and relations. The fanservice definitely is there but the relationship development isn’t really. It only happens really with one out of the four characters. Luckily that one was my favorite, but I still didn’t really like the story. Just a quick note, the story was slightly different than the manga. But that doesn’t really mean much because the manga’s story was exactly the same and the quality of the fights were the same as well.
The whole premise of being chosen to fight against another faction was not very original but relatively compelling. If they actually worked with this story rather than get sidetracked, it might actually have been interesting. In addition, this was labeled as a comedy...I maybe smiled twice during the whole thing. The jokes were very unoriginal and predictable. If they wanted to make an audience laugh, then they should stop trying to be an action/adventure, ecchi, and comedy at the same time and focus on one aspect. In essence, Kampfer had a lackluster story with slight potential which in turn merits a higher 5.

Character Development:
Is there really any? Well, yes I guess there is. Natsuru becomes less of a wimp, and the other girls change in their own way.

Senou Natsuru: Initially he is a wimp who cannot even ask out his crush. He is thick headed and cannot tell when ladies are making an advance. In the end he is still thick headed but not a wimp.

Senou Natsuru (Female): Big breasted same person. Her weapon are not only her breasts but also fireballs that are shot from her hands.

Mishima Akane: The first character we meet. She is a timid librarian who almost instantly turns into a semi-loose girl after falling for Natsuru. She is a meganekko and is a blue kampfer.

Mishima Akane (Kampfer): The opposite of Akane. She is straight forward, foul-mouthed, and a wielder of a gun- apparently she has unlimited bullets in that thing.

Sangou Shizuku: Very straight forward, kind of like a kuudere, manipulative, and strong. We get about 10 minutes backstory for her in the whole series. It explains her motives and her current self. She is a red kampfer.

Sangou Shizuku (Kampfer): Same as above. The only thing that changes is that she wields two blades on a chain that she can control readily and she gets some white highlights in her black hair.

Sakura Kaede: Lesbian beauty, school idol, straight-forward, and, as the viewer will find out, a real annoying person. She is not a moderator but has some connection since all of the entrails animals that she has somehow make people kampfers.

Kondou Mikoto: Natsuru’s childhood friend, busy body, lovers curry, and travels to a lot of places (I’m surprised that the school let her go back).

Kondou Mikoto (Kampfer): same as above really, we never get to really see her personality. She gets white hair and a sword.

All in all, the characters are not the most compelling. They work well together, for the most part, but seriously nothing really happens between them. The girls blatantly hint at their love for Natsuru but since he is thick-headed, he doesn’t get it at all. In the end, he says that he likes all of them- pimp- but it definitely wasn’t a confession. He was just basically saying that he liked them all as his friends.
So, there was little to no character development, some characters were barely even shown, and the characters were not very original. Unoriginality and barely any development deserves a 5.

Value:
I am happy I decided not to buy this. I’m sure the characters would look great on blu ray, but I doubt that I could watch this more than twice. This had to be one of the most useless animes that I have ever watched. If you want to get teased, if you want good fights, good animation, good characters, good sound, rather than decent or less than decent everything, then watch Kampfer. I don’t think Kampfer really will even be in my basement to collect dust. Value gets a 4 for not being entirely valuable (as redundant as that sounds).

Enjoyment:
As I said this anime was a extremely guilty semi-pleasure. I kind of looked forward to watching it for the cheap thrills but even that got very repetitive very quickly. The anime became so predictable and boring that there really was no point to watching it. But I endured it so that I could write this review. In the end, I admit I half enjoyed it, thus it gets a 5.

Conclusion:
Kampfer is nowhere near a good anime, it is close to being decent though. If you really feel in the mood for a fanservice “action/adventure” with lots of groping and stereotypical fanservice based scenes, Kampfer is for you. If you don’t want to waste your time then good for you, don’t watch it.

Note: Did I make any mistakes? Anything you disagree with? I would be happy to change my ratings if you provide a relevant objection or agreement.

Kämpfer starts very well; the opening action sequence wouldn't be out of place in a season's lead series, and is followed up with a show that manages to be genuinely amusing, and comedically fresh, despite the well-trodden ground it covers. In contrast to e.g. Birdy the Mighty: Decode (which had a similar genderswapping premise), Kämpfer weaves comedy and serious plot together right from the start, with a gradually building mystery plot alongside an entertaining harem line, somewhat remniscent of Akikan. But while the story is always secondary to the humour, for most of the series it's interesting enough to hold the show up, particularly given the continued high-quality visual effects. While this doesn't quite have the production of a top-flight blockbuster, the animation remains consistently good - the fights look great, and outside of them the detail is there, particularly in the backgrounds and costumes. Of course there is nothing groundbreaking here, and a little more detail on the faces wouldn't hurt, but it makes for pleasant viewing (on which note, there're a number of clearly fanservicey scenes, most prominently the ending animation, but nothing that goes beyond tasteful). The sound is likewise high quality throughout, with catchy theme tunes, good general voice acting, and an astonishing performance from the lead, Natsuru. The voices of his male and female forms are at once distinct, clearly male and female, and yet at the same time thoroughly the same voice.

Sadly, the series doesn't quite hold everything together all the way through. The delicate balance between comedy and dramatic plot slips about halfway through, with later episodes leaning too much towards simple harem comedy - and while the jokes by and large remain fresh, the situations start to become repetitive, as well as straining suspension of disbelief further than is really reasonable. The jokes are actually quite gently paced compared to an outright comedy like, say, Minami-ke, which works well in the earlier episodes, but it means that humour alone is not enough to keep an episode interesting.

The actual resolution of the main plot, in episodes 10-11, is done probably as well as it could ever have been; were the second half paced more evenly, this could have been a truly excellent show. But as it stands, the episodes immediately before this are just too hollow, and the conclusion, despite being very well written, feels rushed.

All in all this was still a very enjoyable series; for the first half I was looking forward to each episode a lot, and at the very least it remains well-presented throughout. But the weak episodes towards the end tend to overshadow this, making for a disappointing experience overall. So while Kämpfer is a good series, it's not really worth going out of your way for.