I think Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho wins the “Anime With The Longest Name Award” for the Summer 2007 season. And as jpmeyer pointed out, the fanservice award as well.
Okiura Kaname is a guy with a troubled past. Apparently he almost drowned when a “mermaid” tried to pull him under! Now he’s afraid to go further than knee deep into water. Perhaps it wasn’t a mermaid, but a mere manatee? Despite his mental scarring, he’s the manager of his high school’s swim team. WTF? That’s like a Hindenburg survivor piloting the Goodyear Blimp!
It’s not such a bad job. There’s babes, babes, and ummm, babes (in the background!). I’m not usually one to enjoy the swimsuit genre of anime (there’s a swimsuit genre!?), but these ones are drawn really nicely. I think the animators probably spent more time figuring out how to draw the shading on the swimsuits than anything else in the anime. And I approve!!!
A new transfer student, Ninagawa Amuro, arrives by the way of a small houseboat. She’s super peculiar and to Kaname, super familiar. Or should I say, mermiliar? That’s right, Ninagawa is a natural swimmer. And by “natural,” I mean she likes to swim in the buff. Impressed (and maybe threatened) by her swimming skills, Orizuka Momoko, the oujo of the swim club, challenges Ninagawa to a race (we all win)!
Ninagawa is like a fish in water, but soon realizes that pools have walls. Ouch. While she lost the battle, the winner of the war is still undecided. Orizuka actually tries to spy on Ninagawa to learn her secret to swimming. Apparently this is all it takes to convince the senpai to get naked! Umm, I have a few swimming tips, too!
And thus begins the (mis)adventures of Okiura. There’s still a lot of girls left to introduce (according to the ending credits), so I expect this to be a swim team harem show! Though the two main contenders are probably senpai and new hotness.
This being a swimming anime and all, there’s bound to be fanservice. But Umisho really pushes the bar. I think it’d be impossible to watch the anime for more than 30 seconds without running into some kind of fanservice. So that’d be like, at least 50 fanservice moments or so. But actually there’s much more. Nothing wrong with that!
As far as the story goes, it seems like it’ll be fairly generic, but I’m already liking the characters. The senpai obviously sorta likes Okiura, and the new hotness definitely likes him. Aaaanndd I’m willing to bet that all the other girls on the team like him as well.
What’s really great about the show is the character designs and the artwork. Like I mentioned in my Potemayo impressions, I really dig the gradient hair thing. And the swimsuits. If you read my blog even semi-regularly, you’ll know that I like the “weird” type girls. You know, like Nodame from Nodame Cantabile or Yuna from Kage Kara Mamoru. I’d list Yotsuba but she’s kind of young. She’ll be a good weird girl when she grows up. But yeah, Ninagawa also fits the bill nicely. And shes got green hair for the win!
The anime is already eyecandy upon eyecandy (I’m talking about the art as well as the fanservice), so yeah, I think I’ll enjoy watching this.
Umisho is to fanservice as rice is to white. That is, Umisho has a lot of fanservice (on it?). And I’m not talking about the brown organic rice either. That stuff blows! What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Umisho. Bottom line: Art is good, girl is weird, fanservice is bountiful, Hung is watching.
8 replies on “Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho – Anime First Impressions”
wow, thats nice
lol Yuna from Kage Kara…oh good she’s like my most hated character in anime xD. But still I agree with the liking weird girls thing. Yup, I’m pretty sure I’ll be watching this show.
hmm why couldnt my few years as manager in highschool for the girls team have been that good I guess some guys have all the luck(granted mine wasnt bad but definetly not that good)
My first impression of this show from the plot was that it was going to be another Narusagerete Airantou type series and lets just say i was 90% right the only difference being this one is much much bolder. Oh well, atleast I will enjoy the ecchi jokes.
Who cares if it doesn’t have a story? At least it doesn’t try to have one either .. most anime horribly fail triyng to have a story even tho they don’t! Umisho has the funny and hot green haired girls who like to bathe naked.
But then again, I like Nagasarete Airantou just as well .. mostly because of Horie Yui’s character though.
This is one priceless quote btw, Hung: “Bottom line: Art is good, girl is weird, fanservice is bountiful, Hung is watching.”
Last but not least, Yuna from Kage Kara Kamoru.. first thing that popped into my mind about her: “Baaanana, banana, baaaananana.. banana baaaanana, banana de~” :p
-M.
Your writing style is fantastic, great review.
lol so this replaces Nagasarete Airantou as the fanservice-y harem of the season? The former was from the previous season, and now this one “succeeds”, in a way, in the Summer Season (oh hell yeah it’s summer rofl). Succeeding episodes may tell. 😛
it was a good review