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Please Put Them On, Takamine-san — If BDSM was ever a genre, this show would fit perfectly by any stretch of the measure. Look, I think that we could afford at least a moment or two exposing the degeneracy within us to hit some nut, furnish some sea cucumber juice, or by whatever means, extract the sauce within us so sticky and digestible, so palpable that jerking off seems like the kind of habit that we as anime weebs like to frown upon ourselves to show that we embrace being degenerates for better or for worse. However, like all things in life, where there's the goodin one, there's always the bad in the other, which is where we arrive with mangaka Yuichi Hiiragi's Haite Kudasai, Takamine-san a.k.a Please Put Them On, Takamine-san: a rom-com about how science fiction comes into play of a relationship that need not be so degrading in the first place, that, however, plays for the obsession of it, while harvesting genuine love from within...?
What happens when you pair the average Joe against the Madonna that everyone idolizes, yet has this sense of aura that somehow disguises who she really is to the absence of anyone? You'll get Koushi Shirota, who is the unappealing young man with seemingly no attributes whatsoever, just living out the school life as he sees fit and going along with the typical route of everyday mundaneness, who, out of pure coincidence, sees a stellar young woman taking off her underwear (be it her bra or panties) and witnesses time reversed back to the critical moments of perfection. That would be his school's Madonna and the dignified Student Council president of Takane Takamine, always the perfectionist in her life who cares about nothing other than the people around her witnessing the 100% completionist perfectionism of a young lady of her stature. The irony of the fact is that ONLY Shirota knows what's going on with Takamine's rather bizarre tactics, and to make matters worse, it leaves her completely vulnerable on the inside, like literally wearing a birthday suit on top of her clothes. Of course, Shirota, only being the wise one in this instance, attempts to circumvent this "power" of Takamine's, though he's soon met by the facade that attempts to blackmail him for sexual assault, which he eventually becomes her walking lapdog of a "closet" to refurbish her with whatever article of underwear Takamine will be trading for to turn back time with her so-called "Eternal Virgin Road" magic power.
For a wacky premise of this sort, a rom-com — I'll admit this is one, but it panders to quite the audience that, for better or worse, could turn into a full-on Hentai at this point (see Winter 2024's Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete a.k.a Gushing over Magical Girls, which mangaka Akihiro Ononaka does things A LOT better), which I'm just purely shocked at in many ways, if there ever were a fair few sauces to count about.
For one, I don't know if you're thinking heads with me, but Koushi Shirota is just basically the mangaka's way of saying that "I want to be a decent person, if not held by bondage and domineered by the girl that secretly loves me since my childhood days, being as sadistic and masochistic as possible to derive love pangs from emotional pain." Because, while the childhood puppy love of yesteryear has gone by, it's clear that Takamine has targeted him in more ways than one, if not intentionally at best for the naive boy to see through her real desires of getting together, though in a rather uncomfortable, fetish-sized way possible. There's nothing going for Shirota from the outset as a typical student in the sea of standouts, though with how Yuichi Hiiragi has painted him in a negative light to receive Takamine's "toxic" love through subterfuge and manipulation, this is a relationship that typically would not end well with a lose-lose probability of gaslighting, but yet, it somehow "works" to give the rather wrong idea that "it's all in the head/mind" of a kinky partnership that only benefits one or the other.
As for Takamine herself, I can see the appeal of the Student Council president being the perfect girl for any series in general...again, painted in quite the snarky mind of the mangaka himself. The beauty and splendour that Takamine's "Ojou-sama" presence holds for everyone is foretelling, and aside from the BDSM side of her, I can relate to her very much as a perfectionist personality through and through. This, coupled with her Eternal Virgin Road power, is quite the sci-fi plot that could have been better implemented and experimented with, but it always just ends up being used for the "plot" of sexual innuendos all around. To be fair, her coercing Shirota in her own sexually fantastical ways may not sound like an order but more of a "Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san a.k.a Teasing Master Takagi-san" kind of way that adds to the appeal of girls loving to see their boy partners all flustered out of embarrassment, but I digress for someone who derives amusement out of the same suffering.
At least the OTHER character of note is Ellie Evergreen, and despite being Shirota's childhood friend also, who broke up going to different schools and ends up being in the same cram school as him, she is quite the Yuri with a lesbian feel, with an actual girlfriend in tow. She may look like a rival to Takamine given her voluptuous body, but her character is simple to work around, being nothing more than just an affectionate tease for Takamine in vouching for her secret crush on Shirota. And out of the 3 prominent characters, Eri is the one that most people would vibe with, being the ACTUAL interesting character of note due to her eccentric personality.
Alas, what happens from here on out is quite the tragedy of a less-than-stellar adaptation of an ecchi manga that turns out to be the superior version against the anime. I had doubts going into the show with Liden Films and in-house director Tomoe Makino, whose time at the studio hasn't been flourishing all that well, as compared to being at Felix Film and helming both seasons of Aharen-san wa Hakarenai (of which Season 2 is airing alongside this season). Sure, she could handle shows that don't need much flair, but Takamine-san is clearly an adaptation that needs a lot (and I mean A LOT) of effort to punch in the ecchi notes towards the "I can't believe this is not Hentai" levels of nuance, which this adaptation simply doesn't cut the manga better in every sense of the word. The most annoying and egregious part of them all is the sci-fi interpretation of Eternal Virgin Road, which in its full premise takes up almost a minute or two of the total runtime, which, yes, needs its emphasis, but it's done to an excessive point that just diminishes the value of the show over time. Needless to say, the rather subpar animation from Liden Films does not help much to satiate the "Mahou Shoujo Akogarete" feeling that the anime could have benefitted from by amping up what sells the source material in the first place: the close-to-Hentai-level art of "magnificence." Also, please don't sell Hentai shows to Crunchyroll; they'll abuse the hell out of any level of censorship possible.
The only appeal I've found of this show is in its OP, and honestly, renowned artist Masami Okui feat. Bonjour Suzuki's vocals just slap as a sexual innuendo banger of an OP song. And while Makoto Furukawa's ED is every bit decent as it comes, his high-upbeat vocals give it range for a song that's otherwise forgettable at best.
If you know, you know, and I believe that we're of one sound mind that Haite Kudasai, Takamine-san a.k.a Please Put Them On, Takamine-san could be an ecchi show that has a ridiculous premise to boot and make it work. But yet, by the "grace" of the mangaka Yuichi Hiiragi himself, it exposes quite the fetish story that just disregards any semblance of BDSM, using themes for the sake of fanservice "plot" and actually never going anywhere with the initial idea.
Just go and read the manga; the anime is a complete waste of time with ecchi notes that just don't cut the original source material any better.
