Keijo!!!!!!!! (2016)

Keijo!!!!!!!! (2016)

Episode 01 – 12 + OVAs

These Girls Never Half-Ass Anything.

There are a couple of things you need to consider before deciding whether the sports-centered ecchi Keijo!!!!!!!! is a show you can get behind. Firstly, you’ll need to be open to spending your hard-earned cash on a series that’s based around fanservice, chiefly knockers and tushies, coz this show carries more crack than your average drug dealer. Secondly, you’ll need to be down with the silliness of it all, as Keijo!!!!!!!! is pretty darn stupid; I honestly felt as though my braincells were diminishing by the episode — get this, one of the sportswomen’s abilities is called K-acceleration, in which the athlete gains Flash-levels of speed by giving herself a wedgie (it’s apparently got to do with alleviating the pressure around her butt or something). If you’re okay with either of these, though, you’re bound to have a blast with these ass-tounding bunch of babes and the booty-bumping world of Keijo!!!!!!!!

Based on a Japanese sports manga series called Hip Whip Girl, written and illustrated by Daichi Sorayomi, Keijo!!!!!!!! centers around the fictional phenomenon of the title, a women-only sport whereby competitors must battle one another on floating arenas known as Land, where they must try to knock their opponents off said platforms and into the water below — the kicker, they can only use their jugs, bon-bons and the power of their curves! Cue the boob-bouncing, ass-smashing bust-to-bust shenanigans.

Our story follows protagonist Nozomi Kaminashi, a determined 18-year-old who decides to join the competitive world of Keijo once she finishes high school, the dark-blue-haired babe hoping to become the wealthiest player in Japan so that she can win enough money to support her family — a lot of Nozomi’s backstory (from the manga) is actually absent here. Anyhow, when she attains a spot at Setouchi, a prestigious Keijo training academy on Awaji Island, Nozomi winds up bunking with fellow hopefuls Sayaka Miyata (a white-haired ex-Judo player), country gal Non Toyoguchi (who’s also a bit of a klutz), and the quiet Kazane Aoba (who’s a little afraid to speak up — well, at first anyway), the four being placed in the doomed Room 309, said to be the sleeping spot for those expected to drop out first.

The roomies, however — all of whom dream of overcoming the impossible odds stacked against — soon form a budding friendship as they’re forced to conquer several butt-bruising obstacles that stand in their way of becoming big bum-bashing stars, including their gifted Elite Class opponents, an intense training camp in Kyoto, and the annual East-West War against rival school Suruga.

Directed by Hideya Takahashi, Anonymous Noise (2017), Keijo!!!!!!!! clearly knows what it is and doesn’t take itself too seriously, with Takahashi and his team focusing all their efforts on creating a number of high-octane butt-powered battles and titillating skirmishes that are extremely fun to watch — don’t expect much in the way of in-depth character development here, though, folks. Although there have been a ton of fanservice shows that focus on action in the past, what makes Keijo!!!!!!!! so unique (and wacky for that matter) are its characters’ special moves and abilities.

We have something called ‘Titty Hypnosis,’ which is pretty self-explanatory, and a maneuver dubbed ‘Cerby’ where a character’s buttocks gives off a ghost-like Cerberus appearance as it charges its prey. We’ve got another strike labeled the ‘Vacuum Butt Cannon,’ which is capable of shredding swimsuits, and a technique named the ‘Perky Pile Piper,’ where the attacker twists her nipples into a coil so that when they unwind, they create drills to push adversaries off the arena. There are other moves called ‘Surface-to-Surface Butt Missile,’ ‘Butt Guillotine,’ and a charge termed ‘Quick-Draw Gazongas’ — heck, one chick even uses her boobs as a butt vice, and there’s a bigger girl with a move that’s known as ‘Buttack on Titan.’ On top of all this, the theory classes that the girls are enrolled in are just as ludicrous, with subjects like Ass-trology and Boob-ology on the menu.

None of this would matter if the animation weren’t up to scratch. Thankfully, the crew at Studio Xebec, Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne (2012), do a solid job in framing the action, presenting the fights in striking, uncommon and risqué ways in order to keep things fresh and dynamic — sure, the animation can sometimes be a bit inconsistent, but on the whole, it’s still pretty decent.

Besides shooting the female body in a variety of interesting angels — the frame is often tilted to showcase the entire kit and caboodle — the character designs by Keiya Nakano, Aokana: Four Rhythm Across the Blue (2016), are excellent, even if the cast of players are just your standard bunch of sporty shōnen riffraff (i.e., friends, mentors, and tough-as-nails competitors).

Although the entire ensemble is pretty darn bootylicious in their own right, a highlight is our curvaceous heroine Nozomi, who’s also known as the ‘Ribbon Girl’ due to a white ribbon she wears in her hair. Another standout is the Elite Class’ number one player, the tall, sexy, blonde-haired Mio Kusakai, as well as her Ping Pong Girl admirer Usagi Tsukishita, who’s usually hiding her face in a rabbit shaped hoodie — if you pay close attention, you’ll notice that her pupils are heart-shaped, which complement her smittin’ persona. Additionally, I dug the designs of Suruga antagonist Maya Sakashiro, and her alter ego Kaya Sakashiro, along with that of the pink-haired Fuyuzora twins.

What’s less successful in Keijo!!!!!!!! is its comedy — while it’s always amusing, the show never reaches the laugh-a-minute heights of anime like Maken-Ki! Two (2014) or Baka and Test (2010). With that said, Keijo!!!!!!!! tries to elicit laughs out of slap-stick situations, such as Nozomi’s skin-tight UTM swimsuit (basically a reinforced rubber getup), which she’s forced to wear by butch-y former-Keijo-player-turned-teacher Nagisa Ujibe. Of course, Nozomi struggles to move in the UTM (Ujibe’s Training Maillot), which functions as a way of testing her willpower and getting her body ready to perform her signature move of the Vacuum Butt Cannon. We also get the usual girl-on-girl groping and lewd behavior found in these kinds of raunchy shows. I guess the funniest thing about this whole shebang is that fans in Portugal were so taken by the absurd concept that they’re planing on turning it into an actual event!!!

Keijo!!!!!!!! features a couple of generic openings/ closings, with the former, ‘DREAMxSCRAMBLE!’ by Ari, feeling a tad long (particularly as the show goes on), and the latter, ‘Fantas/HIP Girlfriends!’ performed by Lynn, M.A.O, Kaede Hondo and Saori Ōnishi, a little lower key, simply following our awesome foursome as they chase their swimwear around town after the gear gets blown away by the wind while the girls are doing some washing.

All up, Keijo!!!!!!!! is completely frank about its intentions and aims to deliver exactly what it promises — a butt load of swimsuit action from beginning to rear end. If you’re after any sort of subversion or depth, though, you’re likely to be disappointed as Keijo!!!!!!!! doesn’t swing that way. And, look, while I’m not the biggest fan of extreme fanservice in anime, think along the lines of The Testament of Sister New Devil (2015), I had a great time with this, which surprisingly had me fixed to my sofa for a number of breezy hours — let’s just say that even I had a sore backside after sitting through this one!

3.5 / 5 – Great

Reviewed by Mr. Movie

Keijo!!!!!!!! is released through Madman Entertainment Australia