HaXXspetten

If you ever have worshipped an ass You would know it's a feminine mass But did you ever know That it's not just for show There is more to it than just its class See, the butt can be used as a tool As a weapon to wield in a school Where they learn the skill tree Known as asstronomyAnd are taught how to use it to duel But let us not forget 'bout the breasts You know, those lovely mounds on girls' chests As I'm sure you can tell They can use those as well To surpass all different kinds of tests So these ultimate weapons of war They will clash like never seen before And the last girl to stand Remaining on the Land Will make the audience beg for more Yes indeed, Keijo is truly an asstounding anime in its own right. Japan just never ceases to amaze me. The concept of having an anime about a highly oversexualized fictional wrestling sport for girls where they can only use their breasts and ass to push each other out of the ring may have sounded somewhat distasteful on paper. But Keijo actually pulls it off a lot better than I initially expected, and turned out to be a surprisingly good ecchi/comedy/sports anime as a whole, albeit a rather a ridiculous one. However, its so-called ridiculousness is also exactly what makes it successful. Keijo is a prime example of an anime which does not take itself seriously *at all*. You will legitimately have a hard time finding many anime that are less serious than this. It is fully self-aware that its concept is incredibly stupid, but it just decides to roll with it as far as it can and tries to make everything as exaggerated as humanly possible, and the sheer absurdity of it all is what makes it entertaining to watch. The special fighting moves these girls quite literally pull out of their asses do not only have the silliest names imaginable, but they are generally not-so-subtle parodies of other series such as One Piece, Shingeki no Kyojin, Fate/Stay Night and more, and what they actually do is just as wacky. Supersonic hip swings, machine-gun-like butt missiles, titty hypnosis, nipple judo tosses, and many other shounen-like abilities, all neatly remade into something originating from a pair of breasts or an ass. It makes no sense at all and is silly in every meaning of the word, but that is also why it is funny. Not like rolling-on-the-floor Prison School-tier of funny, but more something that will make you constantly smile and giggle at the sheer wtf factor that the show brings. Now that said, I still have to mention that it does not *always* come across as funny. The silly nature of the show skirts a fine line between being humorous and just being weird or awkward, and sometimes I found myself facepalming rather than laughing. Statistically speaking though, I would still say that it manages to stay funny most of the time, so it is not a huge problem. However, I also realize that it is going to be very individual regarding which scenes you will find amusing and which ones you will only find cringey depending on your sense of humour, so it is worth taking into account at least, as it could be a pretty big make-or-break factor depending on who you ask. Comedy asides though, what else does Keijo have? Well for one, there is obviously the ecchi aspect of it. Now this is very closely tied to the comedy however so it is more or less the same thing, but basically the sexual elements of this show are not designed to be hot or romantic or anything along those lines, they are simply there to be as over-the-top and exaggerated as possible, which is what generates the comedy of the anime. In that sense, because of its absurd general feel I would honestly put Keijo closer to the likes of Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, Grand Blue, Kore wa Zombie Desu ka, Seitokai no Ichizon, Sakamoto desu ga or even Gintama rather than notorious lewd series like To LOVE-Ru or Kiss x Sis. I have even seen some people refer to it as a female version of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Finally, there is also the sports side of Keijo. I should probably mention that I am not really a fan of sports anime in general as I find them to usually be rather predictable, and also the fact that the outcome of all the matches are scripted tends to kill most of the excitement for me. In order for me to enjoy a sports anime, it needs to do something a bit out of the ordinary. And well, Keijo sure as hell is about as out of the ordinary as it gets, so at least that part was not really a problem for me this time. I will say though that if it was not for the fact that the sport in question was so utterly ridiculous as a whole, then honestly Keijo would be a pretty typical sports anime. It still has the same general plot points like the optimistic and hardworking protagonist with a dream to be the best of the best within a particular sport, the close bonds that she forges with other hopefuls of similar interests, the constant training to improve themselves and the hurdles they have to overcome along the way, the new abilities they learn over time, the "rival" characters they have to compete with and one day surpass, the teams from other schools that they play against... etcetera, all of it can be found in Keijo as well. However, you do not tend to think of it as much because the silly and comedic elements of the show steal the spotlight far too much. As for whether that should be considered a good thing or a bad thing depends on personal preference, but at least for me personally I vastly prefer Keijo's absurd approach over the one of your average sports anime, no contest on that front. So, what can we make of all this in the end? Well, Keijo is an anime which on paper could and arguably perhaps should have been a complete trainwreck... but it is not. It is actually a quite decent comedy anime with plenty of creativity in it to boot. Admittedly it can get a bit repetitive over time since hysterical ass attacks can only remain funny for so long, but I think you should at least be able to make it to the end of the show whilst still having an awkward grin remaining on your face, and although the animation quality does have a bit of a hard time keeping up with the fast-paced nature of the action at times, it still does not feel like a huge problem. After all, those scenes are all about being as ridiculous and exaggerated as possible rather than ever trying to be anything photorealistic. And if nothing else, Keijo's mere existence was a massive middle finger to a large portion of the SJWs all over the internet, so at the very least it definitely deserves some bonus points for that.

ModelCitizen

There are some people who thinks anime can be good in only one way. If it's deep and thought provoking, whatever that means to them. These people tend to underrate everything light hearted and despise fan-service shows. Well this is hell for these snobs and elitists. Because what Keijo!!!!!!!! actually is? It is a fan-service show, but that's just a cover. It's a satire of the shounen sports genre. Those sport series, where the games are dominated by some legendary players with super powers. For that, we get an insanely stupid sport, a butt and breast wrestling. And this was the first catch. A fan-service heavyshow can easily go awkward from where the comedy doesn't work. There are a lot of shows like that. Keijo is not one of them, it manages to be consistently hilarious. The fan-service is incorporated into the plot so well that it's always feels natural. As for the story goes, it's basically a regular underdog tale. A bunch of freshmen starts attending this butt wrestling school, because everything has a dedicated high school in Japan. Our heroines start to sharpening their skills through a lot of mock matches and ridiculous training sessions, while every one of them discovers a special move. As for characters, we get the heroes of these kinds of stories, but even further exaggerated, with the same goal, they want to be professionals. And in context of the series, they are working splendidly. For the production quality, I have no complaints. There are some moments where they didn't get the CG right and the characters go off model, but over all, as far as design and technical quality goes, it's definitely strong in this season, and considering how flashy the matches are, it's amazing how they kept up the quality without inserting too much cheap budget saving scenes, like another sports series of this season did. In conclusion, this anime is not for everyone. This show is dumb, but it meant to be dumb, it wants to be dumb and it's proud of it. The ones who will appreciate it the most are the ones who're somewhat deep into the medium and seen some series this makes fun of and seen the biggest hits of the past few years, because Keijo is really heavy in references. It's an easy on the mind show with high entertainment value. I recommend it to everyone who has an open mind.