Eiken

Eiken is a 2003 Ecchi Comedy Original Video Animation series that unfortunately came from one of the most loved Japanese animation studios during the 21st century, J.C. Staff. While this studio has created some beautiful anime series in the past, this doesn’t negate potentially terrible creations, and everyone is due for a dry spell now and again. However, when a studio creates an OVA, it peaks not only my interest but perhaps the potential interest of the viewers themselves with questions that’ll be only answered after the viewer has watched the piece. So the viewer must decide should what their potentially going to watch is worthwhile. or is it going to be a waste of time?

Densuke Mifune looks like the luckiest man in the world to some people. Thanks to a once in a lifetime encounter with the brilliant, beautiful, busty but extremely shy Chiharu Shinonome, he is suddenly invited to join the mysterious Eiken Club. Led by the Kirika Misono, she recruited Densuke for his downright tedious, unassuming nature and his entirely accidental encounter with her friend. Either way, it’s bound to be a great time with him aboard!

Although insanely busty women now surround him, Densuke can’t catch a break to save his life. His attempts to get closer to Chiharu end up not only backfiring but also making the situation worse. Soon he’s labeled a deviant pervert and a predator, which he isn’t sure which is worse. His problem is made even more complicated by the rest of the Eiken Club’s overly sexual antics and Chiharu’s younger sister intentionally trying to get Densuke into some compromising positions. Will he be able to fix the situation he’s been put into, or will he live the rest of his school days as a deviant pervert.

Usually, this is where the positives would go, and the only good aspect was the unintentionally funny parts. However, that was only due to how subpar this story truly is, and badly doesn’t even describe the torture. When it comes to having either having a plot or story, there isn’t one, and after watching this two-episode OVA multiple times, it’s impressive how this studio wasted its resources on this anime. The random events seem weirdly placed and continuously not to make any sense. Though one is hoping for a stable ecchi series with tons of fan service, this has it pretty stacked.

However, the amount of ecchi elements they use throughout the series is why most viewers watch this show. But even then, it’s terrible; Pokémon had more sex appeal than anything this series came up with, even if they were given years to come up with an idea. Don’t automatically count this series out because of the awful story, but what truly sets this series apart from the others is the long awkward pauses throughout the two episodes.

While the lack story, one would hope the art style within this series would be worth the viewing pleasure. If this series’ artwork were drawing viewers in, this would be a weird experience. Eiken’s art style isn’t terrible, nor is all that good; it’s merely a mediocre early 2000s anime art style that hasn’t aged well. The series tries to overcompensate with overly bright colors, which doesn’t work. Though the style is decent, this series looks similar to any other series from the same time frame. The art is just lower-tier, almost bordering on offensively bad, but it shouldn’t deter anyone from watching this series because the artwork isn’t the best quality.

While the art style was abysmal, the animation production was slightly better, but that’s not saying much. The awkward silences and long pauses were great touches on the comedy aspect, whether intentional. The ending song wasn’t within my taste, but it was adequate for the series and the ending animation as a whole. The biggest negative that this production has is that any viewer can identify this series as a made-for-video production, which is a shame since some of the most underground OVA’s have been produced exceptionally well.

Overall this production team shouldn’t put their names on this if they value their careers.
A few characters are easily identifiable and adequately summed up in a sentence or two throughout this short series. Take Chiharu Shinonome, for example; her description from the story was pretty much all of her personality. The only aspect left out of the series was that she came from an all-girls school, so that was why she’s so shy? Densuke Mifune is much the same as any other male ecchi character; a plane boy who no one seems to notice.

Kirika Misono is the elusive one of the bunch, given that much is not known about her other than she has purple hair and runs the Eiken Club. When it comes to stereotypical characters that make people question their whole existence, Komoe Harumachi, is the winner! She’s 11 years old and is best described as the one with enormous breasts that are also clumsy.

Overall, the rest of the characters are no different within this series. The characters mentioned above weren’t even worth the data they were made with. one could get potentially better characters from literally anything. Characters are supposed to help the viewer progress through the story, not question their entire reasoning behind the series.

For most viewers who decide to watch this OVA, they’ll more than likely be watching solely on the female chest and asses. However, they’ll be disappointed due to the weird size and underage girls within the characters. However, if one chooses to watch this based on other reasons, one simple question comes to mind. Why? This series has nothing to offer the viewer other than an incredible amount of laughs on how bad it is. This anime works better as a drinking game than anything else, but then again, who doesn’t like to drink when watching something that’ll shorten their life?