Samurai Girls Collection – Review

Title: Samurai Girls
Published by: Madman Entertainment (Australia / New Zealand)
Based on: Light novel series by Akira Suzuki under the same name
Genre: Action, Comedy, Samurai, Harem
Audio: English and Japanese Dubs
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen (16:9)
Runtime: 300 minutes
Cost: $59.95
Classification: This title is classified MA15+ for strong themes, animated nudity and sexual references
Special Thanks: Special thanks goes to the Madman Entertainment PR Team for providing me with a review sample of this title.

The harem genre of anime is nothing new, the action genre of anime is indeed nothing new, having an action harem genre anime is once again… nothing new. However, with Samurai Girls they bring a unique artistic style and a main lead who does not descend down the generic forgettable or “loser” male character role. As a series among many similar others does this stand out among the crowd or will it just be another DVD shelf addition? Find out in my review of Samurai Girls!

Muneakiru Yagyu is a gifted student of the samurai way. But until he arrives at his dojo, he never knew how truly gifted he truly was. Because there, a beautiful girl, Jubei falls naked from the sky and right into his arms. And when they kiss, he magically transforms her into a powerful master samurai. So naturally, every beautiful girl at the dojo can’t wait to kiss him, and some, like the sexy Gisen, want to do even more. It’s a tale of power and lust, filled with beautiful, scantily clad sword fighters who will do anything to please their master and attain even greater power. Get your sword ready for Samurai Girls!

You will notice in the brief synopsis above that I have bolded a sentence… this sentence is what you would consider the entire purpose of this series, as with many other harem animes. The storyline has an interesting concept behind it which when you view it keeps you that little bit hooked and wanting more, however is ruined by too many episodes dedicated to pointless random romance – some of which you know is just to obtain power originally, but always seems to end up in a more serious romantic interest – all by the third episode. Rather than introduce the concepts mixed with a tonne of fanservice, they would have benefitted from spending more time explaining what the storyline is about.

As in this alternate reality 21st century world, there are samurai’s which are trained at normal schools and then there are those few who obtain that “magical girl” element allowing them to transform into Master Samurai’s, in this case through the all mighty kiss of Muneakiru Yagyu. These allow them to transform and obtain supernatural powers while retaining their personalities, except for one who just randomly falls out of the sky and has an alter ego that is more serious and powerful then her weakened usual form (Enter Jubei). These two, alongside their other samurai companions get dragged into a struggle between the student council of Buou Academic School and the Toyotomi faction who desire dominance of said school.

If they stuck to the storyline more, then it would be more than an average storyline at best, instead of a series that beats around the bush in order to present “fanservice comedy” or the obligatory “Beach Episode” “Bath Scenes” and at least one case of frontal nudity per episode or two, if you weren’t already expecting that from the MA classification it received. Taking away the fanservice elements from the characters, the other female characters are relatively interesting from the personality switching Yukimura Sanada to the Princess Sen Tokugawa with a volatile attitude and at the very least provide some interesting battle scenes – as while there may not be many of them, what they do present is fun to watch alongside the design. Either way, it is perhaps the only series that has brought the Edo period into the 21st century and while being average, would have been better if there was more content in the storyline.

Now on to the design. The quality of the design is the one draw to the series that makes it stand out from the others and I am sure you can see why from the screenshots throughout this review. It is that design you would expect from a series focusing on the ero period, such as heavier emphasis on heavier black outlines of characters and the environment while using a colour scheme that focuses on darker colours that makes the design stand out. Both visually and anatomically, the characters are well designed, giving them a number of “costume changes” throughout the episodes to not tire of “Twelve sets of the same clothing” quite a few series rely on, alongside the actual designs themselves which suit the pseudo-edo era. In terms of animation, while they don’t show off their skills nearly enough the battle sequences they did include were more than satisfying.

My comments on the quality are equally retained for the environmental designs and gave a healthy mix of modern and edo designs, once again for more examples I encourage you to view the screenshots in this article. What is a creative little touch that I initially passed off as a transition effect was ink droplets appearing on the screen for effect, such as when a scene changed or being used when a character uses attacks, giving the impression someone was filming it, or at the very least giving that added impression that the characters power is strong or drawing (black) blood. A specifically memorable moment of the series was the ending few minutes (and no, I am not going to say “Because it was finally over”), where they presented the entire world in black and while, with different shades of black and colour only in the characters eyes – sounds simple put worked brilliantly.

Opening Sequence
Last vision for last by Faylan
What is not to like about this opening sequence? You should know by now that I personally like the faster paced songs with equally paced animation unless where warranted, and it delivered the strong animation and a song that had a good mixture of faster and slower paced tracks while having some appropriate lyrics to it. Delivered what I was hoping and more.

Ending Sequence
Koi ni Sesse Tooryanse by Aoi Yuki, Minako Kotobuki and Rie Kugimiya
In comparison to most Ending sequences I have watched, this would most probably be in the top 15 or so percent. It has an enjoyable song and the animation is better than most, but given the song I could have seen the animation being greater than it was… but perhaps that is just me.

The overall soundtrack for the series was of a relatively high standard and my kudos goes to Tatsuya Katou for perhaps his best work yet in capturing the intended tones, especially in the action and drama scenes in which the track list was more than capable of providing. The light-hearted tracks are not as memorable but still effective in getting the intended mood across. The English dub which was produced by Sentai Filmworks contains a number of familiar voice actors including David Matranga as Muneakira, Emily Neves as Yagyu and Hilary Haag as Yukimura to name a few, all of which have previously appeared in many other Sentai Filmworks titles such as High School of the Dead, Clannad, Angel Beats and so forth. They are a brilliant cast althrough I would like to see perhaps a bit more creativity in diversifying their roles in this series from previous roles.

We all love extra content right? “RIGHT!” you should all be screaming right now. Thankfully, they have filled the second DVD up to the brim with bonus content including:

• Narrated Comics
• Blushing Maidens in the Pact – A bonus episode all about kissing and fanservice!
• Japanese Promotional Videos
• Japanese TV Promos
• “Uncensored” Production Sketches
• Clean Opening and Ending Animations
• Trailers for Dance in the Vampire Bund, Ga-Rei-Zero, Strike Witches, High School of the Dead and Freedom

A very nice collection indeed, and I would like to see more series come out with these sort of extras as standard!

I believe I have made my point prior that the key element to every anime series for me is the storyline, and unfortunately this series underperformed despite a concept that could have taken the series further. However, the design and music to increase my opinion of the series slightly so I would go as far as recommend it to those who are more interested in a unique visual concept or a preference for fanservice.