Sengoku Otome: Momoiro Paradox

Imagine for a moment that you're a Japanese schoolgirl. And imagine that you've just fallen into a room with a magic circle and a bright blue light. And then you wake up, and you're surrounded by people fighting with swords and lances, all of whom just happen to bear the names of the people in your history textbook on the Sengoku period. Can you guess what your first thoughts are? Well, if you guessed, "I've time-travelled!" you'd be way off the mark. "How do I get home?" is a little closer, but by no means the most prominent question for Yoshino Hide, for whom the immediatelyimportant problem is that her cellphone has no reception, closely followed by the fact that she's hungry. To be sure, she may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but readers who are paying attention may already have noticed the connection of her name to Hideyoshi, the lord responsible for unifying the warring factions at the end of the Sengoku period. This gives some indication of her importance in the episodes to come. The most immediately obvious quirk of Battle Girls is that, with the exception of a talking dog (no, really), absolutely everyone in the series is female. Sacrificing the dignity of prominent historical figures by turning them into moe girls has, of course, been done before (Strike Witches and Koihime Musou as the obvious examples), but Battle Girls' idea of removing men altogether adds a touch of self-mockery that makes the whole situation even more amusing. Moreover, it's actually written very well. Its style of over-the-top comedy is reminiscent of Kampfer, and is very well executed. There's a good dynamic between the three central characters, and there's a brilliantly colourful cast of side-characters. The fights are short and punchy, simultaneously displaying some nice visuals and choreography and poking fun at every other shounen fight you've ever seen. And in general, it's very well-paced, introducing characters, conflict and plot twists in succession, and tying everything up efficiently at the end. The series' main problem is its mid-section, where the pacing breaks down a bit, and it gives way to a couple of episodes which advance the plot very little, and don't add much to the characters. If you mind about animation, it's also not terribly beautiful - the series was clearly made on a budget. Whether the subtext (and at times, text-text) yuri is a good thing or a bad thing is personal preference, but there's enough of that that it could affect your experience of the series if you're completely against the idea of girls pairing up together. As far as fanservice is concerned, there are a few obvious attempts to appeal to a male audience, but nowhere near as many as, say, Koihime Musou, and it doesn't really feel unnatural or mess with the flow of the series. Battle Girls - Time Paradox won't make you think, and it won't teach you something new about life, but if you're looking for a really funny series that you can relax and enjoy, it's a pretty good bet. Best watched in company. (Original: http://james-neve.com/post/Anime+Review+Battle+Girls++Time+Paradox/41/ )

Sengoku Otome: Momoiro Paradox is an anime from TMS Entertainment based on pachinko games. And to think, it hasn't been that long since I looked at Umi Monogatari, another anime based on a pachinko game. I don't get it, what is it about pachinko games that makes people think they'd lend themselves to a story? But Umi Monogatari was a good series, so maybe this one will be too. Let's find out. Story: We open up with Japan in the modern day, a middle school girl named Hide Yoshino, nicknamed Hideyoshi, stops at an old shrine to pray for success in her exams because she is doingvery badly in school and doesn't want to attend summer classes. While there she stumbles into a strange glowing circle where a feminine form is sitting and stumbles into an alternate world set in the Sengoku period. In this world there are no men and Hideyoshi runs into a burning village where she's rescued by Mitsuhide and Nobunaga. They take her to Nobunaga's castle because Nobunaga thinks she might be helpful in acquiring the pieces of the crimson armour... somehow. Hideyoshi decides to stay and help Nobunaga because she as no idea how to get home. This leads to all kinds of shenanigans. Let's talk about the problems with the story. First off, there's not much point to having Hideyoshi as a modern day girl. They use it for a few “fish out of water” jokes, but it doesn't do much. Secondly, the entire population being female is dumb. Really, it would have made more sense if they'd just had it set in a world where women were the ones in power but men still existed. As it is they have to waste time with a stupid explanation for how reproduction happens and then just never bring it up again. The humour is pretty mixed too. While there are some funny moments, there are also a lot of attempts at humour that fall flat. For example, they have an ongoing joke about a talking male dog perving on the various female characters. It's not funny, it contributes nothing and it makes no sense. Why is a dog interested in human women? See, this is another reason that men should have existed. They could've made this character an old guy. Sure, it would still be stupid and cliché but at least it would've made sense. On the positive side, there are plenty of jokes that do work, albeit they're in the minority. I also do like the way they handle the question of leadership and what makes for a good leader. It's a nicely done little side element. The series also does manage to have some competently handled sources of tension by using actual historical events. Characters: The characters are a bit mixed as well. There's some really good stuff with Nobunaga herself and some of the side characters get some good moments. Unfortunately our main focus, Hideyoshi, is an obnoxious moron who spends more time getting rescued than she spends doing anything remotely useful. Most of the side characters are pretty one note too. Which wouldn't be so much of an issue if they played less of a role, but they consistently show up for the same few jokes. For example, Kenshin and Shingen have two ongoing jokes. They have a rivalry going and they're homo-erotic about it. It's kind of funny in one episode and it is funny in another one based on the execution, but most of their appearances don't really offer anything except for a reminder that they still exist. Art: There are some good aspects of the art. The backgrounds are pretty well done. The action sequences are pretty strong too. Then we've got the character designs, which emphasise mindless fan-service above making sense. These women are supposed to be warriors but most of them leave all their vitals exposed so that they can prance about in battle bikinis. There are also some art errors. There's a scene where Masamune Date goes from not wearing her eye-patch to wearing it, to not wearing it again. Where's an editor when you need one? Sound: There are some good performances in this. Kitamura Eri in particular gets to show a great deal of range and does it very well. Toyoguchi Megumi also gives a good performance as Nobunaga. Akesaka Satomi is also quite good in this. Even the actors who voice more annoying characters, like Hidaka Rina as Hideyoshi, still manage to give competent performances. There is some exaggeration to them at times, but it manages to keep them mostly toned down and more realistic. The music is also nicely done. Ho-yay: We've got the les-yay between Kenshin and Shingen. Mitsuhide is also shown as being in love with Nobunaga and there are a few cases where they use “onee-sama” in its yuri sense. There are a few disturbing scenes with Hideyoshi. Disturbing since she looks and acts significantly younger than the other girls. Furthermore, she's probably supposed to be given that she's in middle school. To be fair, there aren't many scenes like that with her and most of them are done so that they're more ambiguous but there's still enough that it gets sketchy. The ho-yay factor is going to be a 6/10. Final Thoughts: Sengoku Otome is not a bad series. It has some funny moments and some that are pretty good. However, it also has quite a few stupid moments, the main character is annoying and the art is overly fond of fan-service. Even though it's not a bad series, it's certainly not a good one either. In the end my rating is going to be a 4/10. It's below average. If you're really interested in seeing a comedic series about important historical figures as women, I'm sure there's something better out there but giving this one a try isn't a bad idea. Who knows, you might get more laughs from it than I did. Next week I'll look at Strike Witches.

Alright. I discovered this show when I saw a picture of a gender-swapped nobunaga, one of the characters in the series. I would say that overall I liked it, detailed breakdown is below. Story: Overall half of the anime feels like it is sengoku version of .... yuyushiki. We have sengoku generals, well, "girl versions" of sengoku generals doing various silly things that often revolve around some sort of misunderstandign related to what hideyoshi ("protagonist") said. They are mildly entertaining, but nothing special. Closer to the end, the series switch to a slightly more serious mode, but never get too dark. There's some fanservice and even abit of nudity here and there, but overall it has innocent feeling to it, and if not for occasional slightly more dramatic scenes, it would perfectly pass as sengoku period version of yuyushiki. Meaning girls doing silly things, blushing, having fun, and getting in interesting situations. Interestingly the anime has almost no men in it, and it doesn't go out of its way with fanservice attempts. Meaning you won't see many situations when somebody slips/stumbles and falls in an "ecchic" position. Right, since it is in sengoku period, there are obviously fight scenes in it too. Characters: Protagonist - "hideyoshi" is somewhat annoying "clumsy ditziy but cute girl" archetype. She's mostly useless for most of the series. Generals are fairly stereotypical with Nobunaga being a "strong woman warrior" archetype. Over time characters evolve, but some of their actions are a bit hard to be taken seriously and more look like characters are half-joking sometimes. The show looks like it wants to be serious sometimes, but only puts half-hearted effort in the attempt. So most of the time it is mildly entertaining comedy, without overly dramatic spots in it... and without incredibly hilarious spots either. Music: Music seems to be decent, but it doesn't stand out for some reason. Art and visuals: Design of character costumes is interesting, but they generally have low level of detail. The art style is somewhat simplified, with lower number of lines than you'd usually see. For example, if you saw the difference between "You're under arrest OVA" and "You're under arrest TV", it is roughly the same level of difference. It is not bad, but it is just the level of detail on characters is on low side. On a few occasions closer to the end, there were few scenes when the anime OBVIOUSLY pans unamiated cells, but there were very few of those. Animation is usually okay, but it is nothing breathtaking. Interestingly backgrounds seem to be fairly detailed and of decent quality. One of the rooms had a huge tapestry/rug in background with a complex drawing on it, it looked fairly detailed to me. Fight scenes weren't breath-taking, but they were decently animated in my opinion. Bottom line: It is a fairly relaxing show with yuri overtones. It is not overly ecchi and is not erotic despite having some rare occurrences of nudity. It isn't overly dramatic either, most of the time it is mildly entertaining comedy. I would say it is worth a watch if you want to chill watching somewhat that is somewhat relaxed and more on a peaceful side, without heavy drama, but with a fight scenes in it... and if you want to check out designs of girls characters. So, it is an alright show, and might be worth checking out... unless your standards are very high and you want to watch nothing less than a masterpiece. IF you were looking for an ecchi title, then "kinda sorta ecchi" material in this anime is nowhere near the level of, say, To Love-Ru. But if you wanted to chill for a while, This might be a right title.

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