Stark700

The wonderful thing about the Internet is the amount of freedom we have. And with freedom, we can use our creativity to build worlds, to imagine ourselves in places where we never expected, or meet people from the other side of the globe. What does that tell you about anime? Well, it means writers are able to freely express their thoughts and ideas into their work no matter how ludicrious it is. Take Sentouin, Hakenshimasu! for example. It's written by Natsume Akatsuki, the same writer who is the brainchild behind the KonoSuba franchise. You remember Konosuba, right? Unless you've been living under a rock, thatseries became a light novel and anime sensation back when it was airing. And now, he's back. Mr Akatsuki decided to translate his ideas into this show because freedom allows him to do what and how he wants. Isn't freedom just wonderful? To be fair, Sentouin, Hakenshimasu! is a completely seperate show and doesn't have any direct connection with Konosuba. So yes, go ahead and watch this without any knowledge would be a fairly straightforward easy thing to do. However, that doesn't mean you won't feel a similar experience when watching this goofball of a show. If you've ever felt the need to turn your brains off, then feel free to jump right in. But I should warn you, this anime loves comedy and the author wants you to laugh every square inch of the way. As the first episode progressed, we quickly find out just how goofy the main cast is. Let's start with Combat Agent Six, the man with the perverted mind who wants to do lewd acts to his bosses, from the organization Kisaragi. Yeah, you heard me right. Six explifies the type of protagonist who says what's on his mind and does what he wants, or even who he wants. Out of every character in the show, we see him perform the most lewd acts and because it's part of his mission to collect "Evil Points". I don't know how high the author was when he created Six but let's just say that he is about as obnoxious as a protagonist can get. Joining him as a group of female characters including Alice, Snow, Rose, Grimm, and his superiors. The majority of the show follows Six's group to collect evil points and and completing missions. No, it's not an RPG because Six himself isn't into roleplaying. He only seems to care about himself at first but he does get the job done when the time calls for it. Surprisingly, Six is actually efficient with some of his clever yet underhanded tactics. In various episodes, he behaves like a fool but can also be a badass when he wants. I don't mean type of badass that will make his look enemies weak. What I mean is that Six can be very efficient with his combat skills and it's why Kisaragi decided to employ him as an agent on their assignments. Six doesn't carry this anime all on his shoulders. We can't ignore the pretty android Alice, can we? Out of all the main cast in this show, she is perhaps the most normal and that's saying a lot when you realize she isn't even human. Unlike Six, she demonstrates a serious attitude on her assignments and often berates him for his foolish behavior. Their first meeting in the show starts out rocky but over time seems to get along well enough to get jobs done. Then, there's Snow, the woman with the haughty attitude and executive officer serving under Six. Their relationship in the show is comically toxic. By toxic, I don't just mean it as drama, insults, and names thrown at each other. What I mean is that Snow has to deal with Six for he is if she wants to remain in her position. And as fate turns out, she does warm up to Six and the others as time drags on. That doesn't refrain Six from talking lewd words to her though. Outside of these three, there's also Grimm, the flirtious redhead in the wheelchair. And despite being flirty, she becomes embarassed when lewd acts are performed on her. Many episodes shows that she is a pure hearted girl inside but acts like the opposite outside. And last but not least, there's Rose, a mascot of their group with a massive appetite. It seems when the author created her, they wanted a main character to fill the void of a gluttonious girl. When you package these characters together, you get perhaps the most idiotic group of 2021. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves though. Outside of Six's group, we also need to know about Kisaragi and their goal. What is Kisaragi? The easiest way to say it is that they are an evil organization. Sure, they are "evil" but to emphasize, the show doesn't protray them as malicious as they sound. In fact, Kisaragi has moral obligations and I dare say that their members aren't evil at all. Freezing Astaroth and Flaming Belial are two members who tasked Six to collect "Evil Points" but the way they protrayed their assignments almost seems like a parody. Evil Points is collected by evil deeds but the anime subverts and downplays as a joke. That is also thanks to Six's actions such as trying to gain evil points by lifting Grimm's skirt. Regardless, I think once you've seen the first few episodes, you'll realize the anime isn't bound on showing how "evil" Kisaragi is at all. Tagged with some of the familiar genres you'd expect from the Konosuba author, the anime itself loves its running jokes. There's countless recurring gags such as Snow's money fetish, Six's perverted way of living life, or Grimm being the target of sexual harassment. Sexual references and allusions is also common thanks to words being misunderstood. For instance, a conversation between Six and Grimm once gave him the impression of sex when she actually wants to eat him. There's also dick jokes thrown around by Six's perverted mind to the princess Tillis. It seems at every opportunity, this show will make fun of itself in some shape or form, usually the perverted way. Sentouin, Hakenshimasu! is the type of anime that you can recommend to your friend but I'd be careful if they've never seen something similar like this before. They might get the wrong impression or message of what the author wanted them to see. But if you're watching this show on your own, let's just say that turning your brain off is an understatement. In fact, turn all common sense off because this anime has transcended beyond the realm of normalcy. This is far from a normal show and the author wanted you to be free to experience their work. Isn't being able to express your thoughts like this so freely just wonderful?

IrrelevantGuy

Sentouin, Hakenshimasu! is basically a retelling of KonoSuba—only much, much inferior. That's not to say that it's particularly a bad anime, but does that matter much when pretty much the entire time I was thinking: "I wish I was watching KonoSuba instead." The idea of parodying isekai RPGs was novel few years ago. However, after the release of countless light novels and anime that have parodied/attempted to parody isekai, this concept has become painfully dull as practically everything about the genre has already been covered. Originally a light novel by Natsume Akatsuki—the creator of KonoSuba—Sentouin, Hakenshimasu! is essentially just another unremarkable isekai parody. I know whatmost of you are probably thinking. Given the fact that the original light novel is written by Akatsuki, we should be expecting another side-splitting comedy anime, but in reality, Sentouin only dreams to be as funny as KonoSuba. KonoSuba was one of the first anime to parody the then ubiquitous isekai genre, which is mainly why it had become so popular. However, no matter how distinctive the set-up was, what primarily made KonoSuba so enjoyable were its flawed yet exceptionally hilarious characters. The comedy of Sentouin is dependent on its characters as well, but the difference is that most of the characters aren't nearly as likeable and entertaining; they are more or less the watered-down versions of KonoSuba characters. Sentouin's comedy is mostly hit-or-miss. Most of the jokes involve sexual matters in one way or another, which I mostly don't find funny. I won't pretend that I'm a "mature" guy who doesn't laugh at lewd jokes, because I'm not. Gintama is one of my favorite anime of all time and it contains a fair amount of sexual humor too, but that's far from what essentializes the series (the same could be said about KonoSuba). In contrast, one of Sentouin's essential parts IS the lewd comedy; taking out the lewd jokes would be like removing one half of the entire show. To make it worse, the hackneyed lewd humor crosses the line multiple times in the series, which includes the protagonist Agent Six shamelessly groping the female characters, pulling down their panties, forcing them to do lewd things, etc. This also brings up the topic of using repulsive fanservice as a means of "comedy". KonoSuba isn't entirely immune to this either, but the issue of fanservice is far, far more prevalent in Sentouin. There are several distasteful panty and cleavage shots in the show that serve no purpose besides appeasing the horny fanbase. This doesn't mean I can't stand "meaningless" fanservice at all. I'm a fairly big fan of the To LOVE-Ru franchise (Darkness, specifically) which is full of pointless and over-the-top ecchi scenes. However, when most of the fanservice is followed by a creepy guy making crude and despicable jokes about it, I think it's reasonable to display some concern. A lot of people seem to liken Agent Six to Kazuma, but these two aren't the same. Despite his perverted tendencies, Kazuma is surprisingly a very well-written character. Unlike most of his peers who are protected by the mythical object known only as "plot armor", he actually uses his brain to solve his problems. Deceptively clever and knowledgeable, Kazuma is the main (or perhaps the only) reason why his practically dysfunctional group manages to do something useful sometimes. His witty remarks, sneaky tactics and ingenious schemes are one of the prime aspects that make KonoSuba so entertaining. On the other hand of the spectrum, Six's essential character trait is the fact that he is a giant creep. He is pretty much Kazuma—if Kazuma was made thousand times more stupid and creepy. In the anime, Agent Six himself doesn't do anything useful for the most part (it's usually Alice who does the actual work) and instead causes trouble for others on a regular basis. Most of his jokes aren't even remotely funny. Rather, his creepy and idiotic behavior only makes you annoyed and uncomfortable. Despite that, like every harem protagonist, all the girls surrounding him seem to find him charming for some reason. Fans will probably say Six does these awful things only so that he could gain evil points, but that's a complete lie. Pretty much all of the times, Six actually enjoys the detestable stuff that he does. Although there are a couple of occasions where he does become remorseful for his actions, they are few and far between. And even if I disregard that argument, integrating evil points into the story is still just a convenient plot device to include fanservice as much as possible; it doesn't rationalize the sexual harassment whatsoever. Luckily, not everything about Six is irredeemable. There are times when he can actually be a nice person. Take a scene from episode 7 for example, where he found Mokemoke adorable and wanted to be friends with it—tell me that wasn't heartwarming! (although the ending is morbid) Moments like this are one of Six's few saving graces and probably one of the best parts of the entire show. Unfortunately, when you take his countless loathsome deeds into consideration, you realize that Six ultimately doesn't amount to much more than a scumbag. And no, being self-aware about it doesn't help. Most of the other significant characters—which are all females—primarily exist for being the unfortunate victims of fanservice and Six's sexual harassment. They aren't as unlikeable as Six to be fair, but that isn't really saying much. Similarly to KonoSuba, pretty much the entire cast of Sentouin is extremely flawed, but whereas the former uses the imperfections of its characters to make them more endearing, in the latter it mostly makes them annoying. Alice is probably the most likeable of all the characters; her clever and deadpan personality is a nice change of pace from the usual idiocy. In terms of narrative, it wouldn't be too far-off to say that there's absolutely nothing remarkable about Sentouin. It blatantly rehashes the fundamental tropes of most isekai parodies and doesn't bother to add much of its own flavor. The obvious lack of originality makes the show kinda tiring to watch at times, especially when you consider the fact that there are already a multitude of anime that are based on the same basic concept and follow the same story patterns. Another apparent flaw regarding the storyline, and possibly where Sentouin falters the most, is how the show handles its serious side of things. Despite mainly being a comedy anime, Sentouin does contain a reasonable amount of drama, and I honestly wouldn't have any issues with it—if it wasn't this poorly written. There is an overarching plot in Sentouin that revolves around the conflict between humans and demons, and it's all hastily put together and doesn't mesh well with the comedy. I get it, the plot is only supposed to be a side-dish here, not the entire thing. But if you think putting in the right amount of ingredients is too much of a hassle, why did you bother to give me the side-dish to begin with? During dramatic scenes, the characters suddenly become attached to each other for the sake of plot progression. When something serious is about to happen, they suddenly act like they have always been best friends. But here's the problem—they never had any proper bond in the first place. The anime does pretty much nothing to flesh out its characters in a meaningful way, so dramatic scenes like this can only be seen as awkward and pointless. I mean, tell me how I'm supposed to think those guys are being serious when one of them literally pulled down a girl's panties few minutes ago. Amidst all this chaos and stupidity, Sentouin does have a few morsels to offer. One of the plus points of the show is that it's at least aware of its own inanity, and while that's not necessarily always a good thing, I can still appreciate the honesty (as odd as that sounds). There's something quite exasperating about watching a show that is being ostentatious with its comedy, and Sentouin fortunately isn't guity in that regard. Of course, self-awareness can only carry a show so far, but at the very least, it made Sentouin a tolerable experience. The comedy doesn't always disappoint. Akatsuki has proved in KonoSuba that he is a talented author, and his brilliance occasionally shines in Sentouin as well. Character dynamic is one of the key things to consider when you are making an anime (especially if it's a genre like comedy that primarily relies on characters), and while the characters of Sentouin generally share a rather feeble bond, their dynamic during comedy scenes is surprisingly quite strong. Unexpectedly, there are some well thought-out jokes here and there that don't shamelessly resort to fanservice, and utilitize the characters' dynamic instead for which they are actually clever and funny. Remember that I said the characters are annoying? Well, that's not always true. Like Agent Six, all of them have their own great moments. There are occasional moments in the anime when their charm shines through; especially when they are together, they are able to complement each other pretty well. Because of their strong dynamic, sometimes it's quite entertaining to watch the characters simply goof around. From time to time, they can be reminiscent of KonoSuba's quartet, reflecting the latter's usual charisma and excellent compatibility, which should be a plus point for KonoSuba fans like me. The animation of Sentouin is actually pretty good, although nothing particularly remarkable or worth taking notice of. The character designs are obviously designed to be attractive, and attractive they are. If you simply want some cute girls to gawk at, Sentouin should be able to meet your expectations quite easily. On a side note, the costumes of the characters are fairly varied and distinct; I have to give the artist a pat on the back for that. The background designs aren't half-bad, either. Like most light novel adaptations, the soundtrack of Sentouin mainly consists of generic upbeat tracks. That doesn't mean that it's bad though; it actually works well with the lively nature of the anime. The dramatic scenes, however, tend to be rather unengaging since they are mostly accompanied with trite and overly sentimental music. The opening "No. 6" is a pretty generic J-pop song that has some annoying parts, but it does suit the vibrant style of the anime. The ending song "Home Sweet Home" is quite catchy and has a soothing vibe to it, which I personally find very charming (Alice's voice is amazing). Sentouin isn't entirely meritless. Although I have been fairly critical about the show in this review, I have also said that I did enjoy it. Sure, the comedy is mostly trite and inane, but I have to admit that it still made me laugh sometimes. Sure, the characters are generic and can be pretty annoying, but I have to admit that they still kept me somewhat entertained. For what it's worth, Sentouin can be quite enjoyable despite all its flaws, so I found it a bit difficult to actually dislike the show. But then again, I would have had a much better time watching KonoSuba instead.