Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei No Kyokan OVA

After my successful stint in watching an OVA in Indonesian subs, I decided to test out another OVA with the same language. Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei No Kyokan OVA is one of the many OVAs of a TV series that is most likely never ever getting an English sub. At least not for the time being. So what better way than to satiate my ‘closure’ of another TV series that released an OVA by watching subs from another language that I understand. And thus this is my second OVA with Indonesian subs. Like many other OVAs, shows from such genres don’t necessarily have the plot continuity and is all for fun and fanservice. Like I’ve said many times in my previous blogs, all to get your 2 cents worth of buying the DVDs.

Lecty’s Pet
When Lecty is out jogging, she finds a stray chick in the bushes. She even saves it from a bad cat who wants to eat it for lunch! Bad kitty! Go away! Poor Lecty has her hand scratched while protecting Piyo-chan. Meanwhile Freon is addressing her team that a Garuda was spotted near Mistgun. It is believed that it has laid its egg somewhere in the city. If the egg hatches and the offspring grows up, it will suck the magic force out of everyone. So for the safety of Mistgun, they need to find this egg first before panic erupts. At the same time, Kanata tells his E601 girls the need to take care of animals as part of their curriculum. Surely the self-proclaimed goddess is too good to do something like this and Misora is giving a lame excuse that she would rather use that time to practice. This means Lecty has to do it, right? Lecty tends to the chicken coop where we are spammed with many cute little chicks. But she notices Piyo-chan doesn’t mix with the rest and wonders if he is scared. She remembers Piyo-chan’s shyness is the same as hers and understands. Piyo-chan slowly opens up to Lecty’s kindness. You know something is strange when Piyo-chan is getting slightly and obviously bigger than other chicks. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking about this chick could possibly be… Lecty continues to frolic with her pet by introducing him to her teammates, take it swimming and even shopping! Hey, are animals allowed in shopping malls?

As the search for the Garuda’s egg drags on, the need to find it quick becomes evident. Therefore instead of keeping it quiet and looking for it in the dark, Yuri and friends start distributing flyers about the Garuda. So you can tell from Lecty’s reaction when she sees the flyer and when she acts like there is nothing wrong. She quickly runs to the coop to take Piyo-chan and run but Freon and her team have already surrounded her. Apparently Rico saw the striking similarity in the flyer and Piyo-chan and reported. So is Lecty going to give up and let Piyo-chan to his fate despite being repeatedly told how dangerous it becomes when it grows up into a full Garuda? Guess not. She’s pretty attached to it. Then cute little bird turns into a Garuda. When Freon orders her team to attack, Piyo-chan protects her. But then it starts sucking everyone’s magic. Kanata saves Lecty before he is the first to run out of magic and collapses. So it is up to Lecty to use the power of words to convince Garuda to calm down. Can she talk in chicken language? When all else fails, she is going to put him down with her own hands. Suddenly Piyo-chan disintegrates himself into a pile of ash! I guess Lecty’s feelings did reach Piyo-chan after all. He too was quite attached to her and for her sake, ends it himself. But all is not lost and you don’t want to let a cute girl being left heartbroken forever. Because here comes Piyo-chan out of the ashes as his original little chick self. Can Garudas reincarnate themselves? Who knows… Piyo-chan becomes part of the family as he frolics with the E601 girls in the pool. You f*cking lucky little bird, you!!!!!!!!!!! And before you start wondering if Piyo-chan is going to become a ferocious Garuda in the future, Kanata already made a necklace that would prevent it from absorbing magic. How convenient.

Cute Chicks, Hot Chicks… Evolution! Then Devolution
Wohoo! I still have it! I can still understand a big portion of the subs. Yes! It isn’t all that bad. So I suppose now it is going to be a trend for me to find TV series with OVAs without English subs that I can easily substitute them with Indonesian subs as well. Oh yeah. I can feel it. The expansion of my anime experience. I’m levelling up alright. Ahem…

Back to this particular OVA, I guess there is nothing much to be said considering that I have already expected it to be somewhat like this. I figure this OVA is made for Lecty fans in mind. Things are pretty predictable as shy Lecty gets her screen time focus and show us that among the loser girls of E601, she is the most caring of the lot. Anime ‘veterans’ could have easily guessed the identity of her chick from the start. Otherwise it would have rendered this OVA pretty much useless and redundant, right? It feels like Lecty is some Pokemon trainer. Although not sending Piyo-chan to fight other cute critters, the way she cares for it and loves it like part of her own family, when Piyo-chan starts to grow up, that scene just feels like a Pokemon evolution to the next stage. And then it devolved itself because of the power of love. Yeah… Not too sure if Piyo-chan will become a permanent member of the team (if they ever make another season) but you can say that he is the new hot chick in town! Oh yeah.

So as not for the little chick to steal all the limelight, this OVA still serve us little bits and pieces of fanservice. Sorry, no bare tits. From the girls having a shower discussion about the need to quickly find the Garuda’s egg (can you call this as shower thoughts?) to pool swimsuits fanservice, I suppose you can’t complain. Wait a minute. Can chicks swim? Sure, chickens can swim but not as well as ducks or geese. You know, I just find it odd that a chick loves to play water. I thought animals that are not water based don’t really like to bathe themselves in water. Like cats and dogs. So why the heck is Piyo-chan so cool in the pool? Just a freaking excuse to see Lecty in her swimsuit and at the end, the rest of the girls. Yeah… Hey, come on. You don’t want to be bored by seeing Lecty taking Piyo-chan to the video arcade, right? He might just beat you in Street Fighter V for the ultimate embarrassment…

Overall, just an okay OVA to complete the TV series. Nothing really special in particular unless you are a fan of Lecty or cute little chicks. Food for thought: If Lecty can tame the ferocious Garuda just by caring for it, is it possible to do the same for those Devil Beetles? Then they don’t have to fight all the stupid war against the bugs. Yeah… Hey, everybody come adopt 100 Devil Beetle bugs each and take good care of it. And when they grow up they won’t blast our city into smithereens and cause other unnecessary damage. Yeah… It’s so crazy it might just work. Unless it only works with Lecty’s touch… Boy, is she going to be a busy Pokemon tamer… But just remember to treat your pets well in any circumstances. They remember well if you pamper or mistreat/abuse. Better never having to have one that bites the hand that feeds than to have one that bites your head off!

Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei No Kyoukan

We’ve all heard this kind of underdog story and love to root for them. Take a bunch of losers with contrasting personality, put them under the care of a fallen coach who grooms them up, teaches them about team work, trust, cooperation and any other values you can think of, lots of bonding time, training time and then face off with the final adversary who is no other than the big favourites to win whatever game they’re playing and the no hopers clinch it via making an upset. Who wouldn’t love such a good story like that? So it is somewhat familiar bells here when I started watching Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei No Kyoukan. Only little difference is that this has a little harem genre in it. Hmm… Girls under his wing falling for their instructor? Well… Not that obvious. But you get the idea.

Episode 1
A group of Sky Wizards fighting against hordes of bug enemies. Kanata Age like the typical main protagonist hero he is, buys everyone time to escape while he destroys the enemies. Oh look. Here comes the big mother beetle now. Hey wait. You mean he isn’t going to take it down but he got owned???!!! This is a surprise. Now we move to Mistgun, the floating academy that trains Sky Wizards. We hear Chloe Sevegny reading to the Sky Wizards division leader, Freon Flamel a report from the losers of a team. Records so bad that you wonder how they made it in. We have Freon’s sister, Rico Flamel who is writing in a dramatic novel way and thinks she is some sort of reincarnated goddess whose beauty has everyone jealous. So she thinks. Then you have the shy and nervous girl, Lecty Eisenach who is probably one of those good natured kids who wants to fight to protect but you realize that a cat can even scare her. Finally, Misora Whitale is so bad that she has not registered a single win and is currently on an extreme losing streak! Amazing. Freon wants her to pick an instructor for them and turn those losers into winners. Kanata is on his way to see Freon when he bumps into Misora in the most cliché way. She is running late to school with a jam toast in her bread. He isn’t putting up that panicky reaction (despite his hands are on her boobs). Like as though he experienced it a million times. Since the bread falls on his crotch, she accuses him of being a pervert and all. So he needs to take responsibility now? Before she knows it, he is gone.

As he is washing up, he sees Rico vainly admiring herself at the glass mirror. She realizes he is watching and thinks he is fascinated by her beauty. Perasan! When she sees him only in his pants (he was washing up), she calls him a pervert as she thinks she is so hell of a beautiful that he couldn’t contain his horny lust. He mistakenly enters the female’s washroom. Lecty happen to go in when he is just about to go out. Shy girl thinks he is a pervert. What the hell is wrong with these girls?! He passes by Yuri Flostre who is still mad about him for being a traitor. Chloe cools things down. Kanata mentions he is purposely doing so because Yuri joined the team to be with him and must still be feeling hurt. As she is poor in controlling her emotions, this is the only way to vent it out. Is it? Chloe tells him she has struck a deal with him and he knows it is trouble with that kind of smile. Taken to see Freon, Kanata is told he will become an instructor for team Fireteam E601, the worse team ever. Why him? What about others? Fully booked. Besides, he is so free in helping out other divisions, so why not this? Whatever. Kanata agrees to take up the job. It seems Kanata’s traitor reputation is for real. Wherever he goes, others are afraid of him. But he just ignores them and continues his way. The losers of E601 are talking about their experience with a certain pervert today and speaking of which, here he comes in introducing himself and all. The first thing they do is take out their weapons. Sighs… Nobody listens to him…

Episode 2
As narrated, when the evil bugs known as Devil Beetles swarmed the land, humans are forced to live in the air. Kanata reads their stats and certainly it tells why they’re the lowest of the lowest. I mean, get this. The lowest grade is E and they can get assessed of F- in some areas! How is that even possible?! Misora will not be tutored by a traitor so this is a cue for us to know why he became so albeit a summarized format. When Kanata fought some Devil Beetles alone, he somehow managed to run home alive. Ever since then he became a coward in not fighting more Devil Beetles. He also refused to take part in important ranked matches and thus depriving his team to be promoted to higher ranks. However Kanata knows none of them has won a ranked match either. He lets them dream if they are trained by him, their skills will grow and defeat other higher ranked teams in no time. This sounds tempting especially Misora and Lecty starting to fantasize their ideals. However Rico will not be fooled. She believes as a goddess, she doesn’t need all this crap. Kanata has the ideal reply for that. Considering her data and how she doesn’t show her skills, it is possible she is ranked lower than Misora. A goddess, lower than human scum? No way. She’ll do it to show him.

Taking to the skies, the rule is simple. They can use their weapon and if they can manage to bring him down riding on this inefficient flying board, they win. Misora being the flustering hot headed one chases after him. She easily gets fooled by simple tactics. Kanata is impressed how Lecty approached him from behind without him sensing. However as they clash, he senses her inconsistency. Her skills are good but it is like as though she is lost and do not have faith in using them. Rico is waiting for the right moment to snipe Kanata. But he is swift to dodge her shot. It is because of trying to be accurate he managed to predict her and easily dodge it. At the end of the training, we are ‘rewarded’ with fanservice of the losers changing and in their undies. Rico continues to be cocky and pisses off Misora. And with such scenes, you must have the big boobs comparison to rile the other party. Sure, Rico is the biggest of them all but Misora can’t believe that Lecty is even bigger than hers! So are they going to kill each other in their underwear? And for some odd reason which I can only think of as silly and typical cliché, Kanata walks in to tell them about their next training. WTF. Did he do it on purpose? Did he not know this is a women’s changing room? Cue for the girls to raise their weapons and call him a pervert once more.

Episode 3
Rico refuses to join in the training. Kanata has the ideal training for the rest. Lecty is dressed as a maid and made to hand out flyers. Due to her shyness, the girls ignore her but the boys swarm over her! You can’t resist a maid! As for Misora, Kanata wants her to tail Rico and find out her weakness. As Rico passes by, Kanata hugs Misora to hide their cover. He accidentally got his hands on her boobs. Oops. Sorry. Didn’t notice it. Is he saying her boobs are so small that he didn’t notice them?! Quick, follow Rico or you’ll lose her. Misora fails in tailing since Rico can spot her from a mile. She lets her follow her for the day. This includes watching her buy boring philosophy books. There’s fun in pursuing the truth? What truth? Engineer Real Nua didn’t watch where he is going and bumps into Yuri, spilling the water over his crotch. It’s love at first sight for him. Lecty is done handing out the flyers and she’s got a little confidence now. But Kanata has another job for her. Since this cafe is short of workers, she is going to work here. Damn! Her shy personality is back and with the guys teasing her, she loses confidence and sits out. That is when she meets Misora as she hears her story. Agreeing to help her out, somehow the only other outfit is a Playboy bunny. That didn’t deter Misora as she goes on to serve the guys. Kanata’s pal, Lloyd Alwin has been watching Lecty so he advises her in using Misora as a role model. Lecty gets her confidence to be like Misora.

At the end of the day, Kanata sums up their training. Kanata knows about Lecty’s social anxiety because when they had their training battle, she couldn’t look at him in the eye. If she had done so, the fight would have been more interesting. With this maid job, she is able to help fix this problem. Kanata buys them ice cream as reward. Misora laments she has failed to find anything on Rico. She didn’t even know about Lecty’s condition until today. But as Kanata says, she has learnt she has much to learn and that itself is progress. Misora will tail Rico again but that isn’t necessary. The purpose of this training was to clarify what her weakness was. Misora is so mad that she dropped her ice cream. Wasted! Even the ice cream guy is crying! Back home, Kanata is analysing Misora’s magic reserves. It seems she has what it takes to be better than A-rankers but the magic cannon sword she wields makes it a waste of potential. Next day, he tells Misora she will be switching to another weapon to maximise her potential. However this only makes her more upset. She will never change her weapon even if it makes her stronger. She feels sad that she has mistaken him to be a decent instructor. Wait? Is she? I thought she only sees him as a pervert? She wants him to stop acting like he knows her and telling her what to do. Cue for emo girl to run away in tears.

Episode 4
Misora’s mom, Socie was one of the best Sky Wizards ever. Beautiful and popular, she took down an entire army of Devil Beetles and their big momma all by herself! And then she died. Misora has been absent from school a few days so Lecty is worried. She seeks Rico’s help but the goddess is cannot be concerned with mortal worries. So she is going to ask Kanata’s help instead. That irked you, Rico? Real is nervous in trying to give back Yuri’s handkerchief. Here she comes but she is being tsundere with Kanata who is just playing it cool. Heartbroken? Kanata goes to Misora’s house. Her dad, Gale runs a cafe and she is not pleased he is here and saw her in her maid outfit. She excuses herself. Kanata asks about Misora’s sword and it belongs to Socie. One day she went out on a mission and never came back. Ordinary people lost memories of her and photos of Socie are all that remained. Time for a flashback. Misora is such a cute adorable kid when she’s young. Mom is such a strong woman that she could toss her in the air long enough for her to have a little romantic time with Gale before catching her fall. But being the best Sky Wizard means she is a klutz around the house. She cooks steak for Misora every day (is this her way of making her strong?), floods the entire place while doing laundry and blows a hole in the wall while trying to clean the trash. Of course she is a little absent minded too because she forgot to seek permission one night when she took Misora out for a night flight and the authorities start chasing them down. Then one day when Socie didn’t come back the usual time, Misora feared the worst. It came true when nobody remembers who Socie is! Then the officers came in to relay the bad news. They gave the sword to Misora and that is when she vowed to use it and become a Sky Wizard just like her.

This frustration makes Misora fail even in her training. As Kanata has heard it all from Gale, he goes see her at her mom’s grave. He wants her to make a vow before her grave to give up wielding the sword. Not a chance. He asks her about the wishes of deceased Sky Wizards. To protect the people and even more, to protect the ones they love. Gale told Kanata that he lost all memories of Socie when she died. It still scares him if Misora dies, he will all memories of her too. Kanata is telling Misora if she remains stubborn, the risk of dying increases. She remains stubborn and wants to continue wielding this sword in hopes that it will make others remember Socie. Of course that has never happened before. This was just a test to see Misora’s resolve. Since she is that determined, Kanata will support her. The road ahead will be tough. So make a vow to her mom and that sword that she will become strong enough to protect everyone including herself. As her instructor, he will help carry her burdens. Misora goes apologize to Lecty for making her worry. Rico spying on Kanata has discovered this instructor has become quite the interesting person he is.

Episode 5
Kanata is gauging the team his girls will face next when Rico walks up to him and rubs it into his face about her godly beauty. He laughs and this brings back unwanted memories of how Rico could never catch up to her sister and was always taunted by other kids for claiming herself to be a goddess. When Misora and Lecty ask Rico to join them in training, again she refuses giving that goddess crap answer. Misora is about to get down on her knees to beg but Kanata won’t let her do that. He tells Misora he is going to teach her something that will be the key to their victory. Later, Real is being a stalker watching Yuri in action. Rico thought he was doing it to her and allows him to continue but it creep him out as he runs away! Kanata trains Misora to use Strike Blaster. She tries out after he demonstrates. Seems it takes a heavy toll on her body. She wonders why nothing happens to Kanata but when she takes a closer look, he is also reeling from the effect but is hiding it well. Kanata then trains Lecty who seems isn’t concentrating. She wonders if there is anything Kanata would give her like he did for Misora. Nil. The twin swords that were designed and perfected by her descendents have been drilled into her. All she needs to do is remember her training. As Rico watches, she wonders if she could grow under his guidance. She is shocked when he pops up behind her. He can guess that she has the ability to detect and see things from afar. Rico continues to explain why the Strike Blaster move will fail, blah, blah, blah. Kanata interjects that is Rico’s strength. Her ability to analyze and decision making are the key to victory. Wait. Wasn’t Misora the key to victory? Well, he didn’t say there was just 1 key. All of them are keys to victory. But he never forced her into training so how can he be sure she is the key to victory? Well, he was waiting for Misora and Lecty to catch up to her level. The line that seals it is when Kanata tells her if she wants to spend her life being called a loser or climb out of that zone. You decide. And so with her goddess pride still intact, Rico joins the rest in training. Now the girls are ready for their match. Of course their opponents look down on them but it will only be better for them because causing an upset will be a blast. Too bad the match is on hold when the red alert sounds. Devil Beetles are coming their way.

Episode 6
Kanata and his girls help in the evacuation. Oh look. Lecty found a lost little girl. Just great. The swarm has just arrived. Misora, fuelled by the passion of her late mom to protect everybody, manages to get a shot right. Hey, one bug down, millions more to go! But when she uses Strike Blaster, it destroys part of the city! It took out her dad’s cafe too. A bit too enthusiastic, isn’t she? After getting the little girl to safety, a higher level enemy bug is detected, Chimera Deneb. Hmm… Seems easily destroyed. What’s the catch? There are numerous of them considering the size of the Devil Beetles fleet. The only way to push back the swarm is to destroy all of them. Yuri is being negative. First she blames that traitor to run away first instead of helping to destroy the bugs. Thankfully Chloe and Lloyd continue to have faith in him. Just you wait and see. Kanata’s plan is for his girls to take down all the Chimeras. Don’t worry. All the training they have done has been for this moment to survive and protect even more people. He even guarantees it as their instructor! Well, you can’t lose if he puts it that way, no? The plan has Lecty taking on Devil Beetles with close combat, Rico doing long range business and Misora using her acceleration to approach the enemy and blast them away with Strike Blaster. Of course with the endless swarm coming in, don’t lose heart just yet. A beam almost takes out Misora but Kanata blocks the shot. Then popping up from the rubble of Devil Beetle corpses is a giant never-seen-before Chimera mother. So big and powerful that the city will be flattened if they don’t do anything soon. I guess this means a cue for Kanata to show what he’s got as he powers up and that single blast of his blasts the big mother out from Mistgun! Oh man! He collapses after using too much power. But don’t worry. He is still alive. He can’t be dying on his harem, can he? Real who is worried about Yuri continues to face unfortunate circumstances. A bug part drops before him… With Kanata believing his girls are ready to win ranked matches, our underdog team is beaming with confidence and Kanata the same when Yuri is here to check out his progress with the girls. Make sure you eat your words later. Who would have guessed… E601 lost!!! The losing streak continues… You were saying, Kanata? Lastly, Freon seems to have gotten permission to accelerate the Sky Wizards training programme with more realistic fights for their academy tournament.

Episode 7
E601 continues their training as usual. But even with simulated Devil Beetles made out of balloon, they’re having a hard time. Especially Rico is too busy admiring herself to help! Freon talks to Chloe and her team and confirms they did not destroy the new Chimera. As she heard it was Kanata, he said his girls were the one who took it down and in exchange they be let off the hook for destruction of public property. Of course she rejected this notion and is now considering disbanding E601 as punishment. This means firing Kanata. Yuri strongly supports this move as she feels a traitor is in no position to train others. There is also a Mistgun Tournament coming up whereby all teams with the exception of S-ranked are allowed to participate. Thanks to the tantalizing prizes, you can bet everybody is starting to win this tournament and bask in glory. Kanata is called to Freon’s office and is being told of his dismissal. He keeps his cool and isn’t cowed by this threat. Because everybody can think what they want about them. All he needs to prove are only to his girls. So he makes her a deal. If his team wins the tournament, everybody must acknowledge them. Of course the girls eavesdropped bits and pieces on this and it sends them into gloomy mode. Gloomy or not, they still have to continue their training. Freon brings Chloe and her team to a special building where a team of scientists and engineers experiment with Devil Beetle samples. She is doing so because Chloe is against the tournament as it only serves to agitate rivalries. Real is very pleased to meet them especially Yuri. But no time for chatter as Freon wants to show them the sample. It seems somebody picked up this Chimera part. It can regenerate infinitely. Think of the possibilities it can be used for medical science. But Freon’s concern is that with the enemy evolving, they do not have enough manpower for this and thus the need for the tournament. (Sorry Real, no time for you and Yuri to chat). Teams are picking out who they will face in the tournament bracket. Thankfully E601 got another fellow E-ranked. Kanata wonders why Yuri is here as she is S-ranked. I guess she is here to brag about her A-ranked team that she has become an instructor of. Due to the bracket, they will only face each other in the finals. Well, I guess you know what to do. Kanata makes a bet with Yuri that if she loses, she’ll join his team. Fine. She’s that confident of not losing, huh? Kanata’s girls hear for the first time about what the disbandment condition. Nothing to worry. All they have to do is win all their matches, right? They go all the way? They don’t even have that confidence.

Episode 8
Three years ago, Yuri watched Kanata’s D-ranked team that includes Chloe and Lloyd defeat an A-ranked team. She was impressed and since Kanata once helped her before and needs to repay the favour, he invited her to join them. Currently there is an assailant assaulting Sky Wizards so the S-ranked teams are to go on special patrol duty. Kanata somehow ‘ruined’ the conversation when he eavesdropped on this and starts teasing about Yuri’s personality. E601 is in training and it seems they are helter-skelter as Kanata has device a new formation. But Rico calmly analyzes the situation and then plays psychology to give out orders on how to fight the enemies effectively. Yuri’s A227 team is also here to take part in the training. Why do I feel that she just want to show off in Kanata’s face and demoralize his team? But he is nowhere near pushing the panic button. Even with this ambiguous answer that becoming a single fighting unit the answer will present itself, it is enough for Yuri to even worry. Then we have this ambiguous sex scene of Kanata and Rico. Head’s up: He’s just massaging her shoulders. What do you expect? After school, Kanata waits for Yuri and wants to have a word with her. His girls see this and Misora gets this ‘brilliant’ idea to tail him to find his weakness. Really? That’s the reason? Spying at them at the cafe, with Rico and Lecty deducing Kanata is trying to console his girlfriend who is currently in the slump with this date, this sends ringing alarm bells to Misora. Girlfriend. Date. Oh, the 2 most devastating words to her. Uh huh. How about losing her appetite for that? Kanata has read Yuri’s recent interview in a magazine that she is only interested in people who are stronger than her. In other words, the person she is interested now and the only one stronger than her is… Chloe! Without confirming or rejecting, Yuri gets straight to the point that Kanata should quit being an instructor to those losers. She hates those girls, doesn’t she? Yes she does. They don’t belong at this academy. In that case, Kanata points out he and Chloe would be the same too. Long ago, Chloe had trouble flying decently and was branded a failure. Didn’t know that, did you? Meanwhile Lloyd has discovered a pattern in the assailant’s attack. All victims are males using melee weapons. With the first victim being E-ranked, followed by D-ranked and the recent one C-ranked, guess who is next? True enough, some B-ranked dude gets beaten up and the assailant is disappointed this is all he’s got. I know we can guess who this mysterious attacker is but instead of leaving it to the future episodes to be announced, they unveil him as Real. Not surprised. He is obsessed that he will become stronger and win Yuri’s heart.

Episode 9
Lecty talks to Kanata about some of the new training methods he came up for them. It’s good to have some variety but she thinks this is not helping Misora at all. So how does Kanata solve this? Oh dear. It’s that maid job again! I guess this will always happen if she starts having low confidence. Continuing their battle training, Lecty who is now positioned as the rear guard as opposed to the vanguard position that she always played, has opened her eyes and understands why this position is as important as any other. It makes her realize what it is to be a team. Kanata passes her and pats her head. Why does Misora looked so worried? So she ‘complains’ to Mr Instructor that she is being left behind. She won’t be getting stronger at this rate. His answer for teamwork improvement? The girls have to clean this dirty room together! Oh Kanata! Meanwhile an A-ranked Sky Wizard is seen hospitalized. Now all that’s left is… Kanata sees Yuri and again teases her. We just love to see her flustering personality, no? They talk about how Kanata made her switch from using a sword to spear because of some bad habit. He notes her stubbornness has gotten her this far since there was not much he could teach her in the first place then. Although she still remembers his non-battle lesson of never giving up, there is still one last thing he needs to teach her and as long as she has that, she’ll be fine without him. Why is he doing this? Because she is his precious… Oh great. The assailant is here to ruin it all. Yuri thinks she can handle this all by herself but he is too fast and quickly falls back to her bad habits. Then he uses some advanced wind slashing move on her. This is his way of giving his love? WTF?! Aren’t you hurting her? Weren’t you going to cut off her head with that move?! Till Kanata steps in and show who’s boss. After being lectured that speed is all he’s got, the assailant calls it a day. But he leaves Yuri with a parting gift. A punch in the gut???!!! WTF???!!! This guy is really twisted in his love. Back in his room, Real is cursing that Kanata always gets in his way. He hears voices in his head to use the power to grant his wish. E601 has finished cleaning the room. And Kanata has the guts to bring back an unconscious and clothes all messed up Yuri to them. As expected, they accuse him of the beast he is. He knew this was coming anyway. Is he trying to provoke something in his harem?

Episode 10
Kanata’s reason of bringing Yuri to their room: Can’t be brining her back to his, right? You can’t blame her for screaming her head off when she finds she is totally naked. Although the girls undressed her, Kanata unfortunately saw a bit of her skin. He makes the right choice by running away. The girls chat with each other as Yuri finds out they are living together here as instructed by Kanata. They seem to be ‘getting along’ fine with their conversation till Kanata returns to hand Yuri a good luck charm he got from the creampuff vendor. Why? Because he cares for her. How can he say that with a straight face? Why not? Better than beating around the bush. Yuri thanks them for the hospitality but still fires a warning shot that the next time they meet in the tournament, it will be the end of them. We’ll see about that. The girls start their first night together by cooking and because Lecty and Rico are quite good, this makes Misora feel she is useless. When the heater machine isn’t working, Misora thought she could use some brute magic force to fix it but you know, things like that always end up making it worse. Then in the public bath, when they ‘compliment’ her brawns, Misora took it as an insult and lashes out at them like as though they don’t care about winning before realizing she overstepped her boundaries. Now it is all gloom and doom for her so leave it to Kanata to give her some words of encouragement. So when it is their turn to fight in the tournament, Misora rushes in thinking she needs to be strong to protect her team but got owned. Her teammates come to her rescue and continue fighting in her stead. Misora takes a good look at her surroundings and remembers Kanata’s words and those of her pals. What she really needs is the trust of her friends. Believe in them. She gets her confidence back and fires her Strike Blaster to take out her enemies all at once. That’s right. They win. Sorry, Freon. Looks like your hopes of disbanding this loser team and that traitor will have to wait. Oh, and Real is getting crazier as he injects himself with some enhancement serum to get his eternal love for Yuri.

Episode 11
Freon thought they just got lucky and they’ll lose in the next round. Wow. They must be pretty damn lucky to reach the finals, eh?! I think Freon puts up some insurance by announcing in the article about E601’s disbandment so Kanata won’t make up excuses to get out of it. E601 trains hard on the night before their final match, reminiscing times with Kanata (especially the first time they met the ‘pervert’). On the day of the finals, the stadium is jam packed and there are also live cameras. Nervous? Just when it looked like the entire crowd supports A227, at least there is a team that lost to them supports E601. And so the match begins but the crowd is left wondering how boring it is since E601 keeps running away. There is a clear difference between their abilities. If this was a paid match, I’m sure they’ll be shouting for their money back. I guess when you’re this confident, Yuri starts being the commentator why her team will win as well as her joy to see his schemes crushed. The tables are turned when Misora makes a feign Strike Blaster move and this irks her counterpart. Now that she feels insulted, she can’t think clearly and will overreact. Kanata who has been quiet all the time, it’s his turn to be the commentator. In the end, Misora catches the enemy by surprise and blasts them out with Strike Blaster. It should have been a happy ending for this big upset win if not for somebody hijacking the system and announcing everyone to take shelter as there is an incoming air raid. As the spectators rush out and the stadium locked down, it is deduced somebody is trying to clear the stadium. No prizes for guessing that Real is the one behind this. He is going to claim his love since he is now the strongest. So he believes. You think Yuri wants to make love to this creepy guy? Kanata gets in the way yet again. However he gets injured in the short bout. Yuri tries to attack him but her sword got broken. That kind of face, you want to make love with this girl? Look how petrified her face is! Thankfully he is yet again interrupted. This time by Misora’s Strike Blaster. Actually she wanted to fire a warning shot but overpowered it. Any normal human would have died. That’s right. Real is no ordinary human so to say.

Episode 12
Real’s skin now transforms into that of a Devil Beetle. His insanity increases as he grabs Yuri all in the name of love. When he disposes of E601, this makes Kanata mad. His dark aura is now visible. Real recognizes this aura that he has been chosen by the Devil Beetles. Kanata sympathizes that he fell victim to those whispers. Real reveals that this aura means the Devil Beetles have acknowledged his power and this is some sort of blessing from them. This is perhaps the reason why Kanata have gone rogue because imagine what will happen if the public finds out that he has been blessed by the enemy. While being distracted to kill Kanata, E601 returns to free Kanata and Yuri. However Real’s body can regenerate. He targets Yuri but Kanata uses his body to protect her and get stabbed. Now isn’t the time to be sad or get mad. E601 maintains their cool and calm thinking. They still haven’t forgotten about Kanata’s lesson to never give up. Despite throwing all they’ve got, he is still invincible. However Kanata isn’t panicking because this is all part of the plan to make him think they’re weak and he’ll let his guard down. When Real again targets Yuri, she stabs him with her spear. Not just any ordinary spear. With a few mumbo-jumbo lines, this spear has the ultimate technology to fight Chimera. His body takes some permanent damage. Yuri offers an olive branch to him to stop. But since he won’t and is going to target and kill Kanata, she knew this would happen and throws her spear at him. Thank goodness he is down for good this time. In the aftermath, it is officially stated that a student under stress was the cause of the bombing. Kanata refuses to take any credit and instead insists Yuri was the one who defeated Real. Before you start harping Freon as a b*tch for not going to honour her words of promoting E601 to C-rank, it is because this was enough just to cancel their debts of destroying the city and stuffs. What about the other cool prizes? You mean this junk? Well… It was destroyed during the mayhem. I guess the only thing they really got is the crystal prize. The girls lament their hard work was for nothing but Kanata congratulates them for working hard and winning the tournament. And if you remember, there is one more promise to make good of. Kanata introduces their new member: Yuri. She’ll be joining them in training as of today. Kanata snatches her cake she intended for celebration. He opens it and realizes too late why she wanted to celebrate alone. It has the big words “I love you” printed on it. Gee… This has Kanata remember which one of them she loves. Oh you silly. Couldn’t you guess? Now you made her run out in embarrassment.

How To Train Your Winning Harem
I wonder if calling this show mediocre would be too much. Maybe average would sound a lot better and not that offending since it isn’t that good nor it isn’t that bad in the first place. Hey. Did I not tell you? I wasn’t putting a lot of high hopes and expectations for this series so that is why when it ended, I didn’t really feel the pain of disappointment. I mean, when you have watched so many animes that are somewhat similar to this, the characters, the plot, the direction and the ending are somewhat predictable. Not to say that I predicted 100% what was going to happen in the end but my guesses were not far off the mark. So how can you not be disappointed if you put up high expectations in the first place? That is why despite this although isn’t an anime that sucks, it is still pretty decent in terms of ‘entertainment’ value. Yeah…

The characters themselves feel shallow, weak and very clichéd. Our main guy and his harem girls have some sort of troubled pasts and I am not sure whether it is a good thing or not it is not expanded and focused on too much because the most that was focused on was just Misora. We get some melodrama about why she so wanna become like her blah, blah, blah but eventually like any hero will tell you, you can’t be that person except to be yourself. Yeah, I think I get it. For the rest it was just unimportant like Lecty and her family background (maybe she has no issues with them, at least not that we know of) or the severity of Rico’s chuunibyou syndrome. Yes, people. People at her age acting and believing like as though they are really some goddess reincarnate is as good as being classified as chuunibyou in society. It’s a reason for her to be stuck up and not dirty her hands. And as predicted, E601 who started as troublemakers and do not trust their instructor eventually believe in him naturally. It’s just sad that it didn’t sort of evolve into an obvious harem. Maybe Misora has got more responsibilities to think as a team leader, Lecty because she is shy, would any goddess go so low as to claim they’ve fallen in love with a mere mortal (looking at you, Rico) and Yuri is just being a tsundere. And there you have it. Such an interesting bunch, don’t you think? Yeah… When can the harem cat fight begin?

Even Kanata’s reason of why he became a traitor in the eyes of the public, his penchant of never wanting to take any sort of credit and his habit of saying “Didn’t I tell you?” when he has never said it in the first place are all the reasons why he as a main character feels weak and shallow. Despite being briefly stated in the final scenes about why he is so and that mysterious dark aura of his, it feels like it was just so as to quickly close and cover up the case for those of you who are still thinking and remembering those ‘loose ends’. And then they just chuck it away never to be heard of again like as though everyone has forgotten about it since there is not much time life. Because all is well, ends well. I mean, the girls clearly heard about Real’s revelation about Kanata’s mysterious power. Aren’t they curious enough to badger him for answers? I believe they’re not the kind who just easily gives up, right? I mean, remember Kanata’s teaching? Never give up! Or is it that their heart is not ready to learn the truth and thus they just stalled asking that question for the time being? And like any other similar series, being status quo is always the best, no? Yeah…

A very funny thing I find is that after a few episodes, I began to see how similar the main characters here to the ones in Seiken Tsukai No World Break. At least on the general aspect. Kanata and Moroha are both male protagonists of a harem and wield sort of mysterious power. The harem girls are even more strikingly similar. Noticed how that both sides have got a red head that flusters a lot? Sometimes I want to say Misora and Satsuki are long lost sisters separated by a different anime. What about the long dark haired beauty that does not portray as much emotional outburst but cool and calm? I wouldn’t go so far as to label Rico and Shizuno as clones since there are some other differences but at first glance they look pretty similar. Then there is the petite blonde. Lecty may not be a loli like Maya but she is the smallest size among the girls so in a way they are pretty similar to each other. Then there’s the outsider tsundere in which we know as Yuri here and Angela the maid in the other. Bizarre, right? Even stranger is the fact that both animes are although created by different authors but are animated by the same studio, Diomedea. Ah, maybe that is why I can see a very familiar artwork pattern here.

Other characters… Meh. Chloe and Lloyd fall under the category of nice, cheerful and helpful friends despite not doing much in this season. Even though they back up Kanata at times but even that I feel their presence could have been unneeded because you know, Kanata will eventually handle it himself. Yeah, just believe in him. That’s what best friends are for, no? I guess the duo being the top brass of the S-rank class means not much needed screen time either. At least Lloyd doesn’t fall into the pitfall of being ‘the other loser guy’ just to make our main guy look good. Freon is working up her way as being the b*tch boss with her grudge against Kanata and E601, finding ways to bring them down. Well, it is not like she is always on scene to see Kanata and his girls do the awesomeness in saving the world. What you don’t see, you won’t know. It is even hard to think that she is related to Rico. Maybe in a way she still cares for her and perhaps with her big sisterly pride in a way, she always uses Chloe to report on Rico’s progress instead of checking it out herself.

Real fails as an antagonist despite you can see his lowly character building up to be one since his first appearance. The way he spams his love for Yuri makes it irritating maybe it is because the producers intended it so. So instead of giving her flowers or chocolates, this guy uses unholy powers to beat up other people? Is that a way to a girl’s heart? Can’t blame him entirely. Yuri’s tsundere personality and ambiguity about liking the strongest guy would make unstable douchebags like Real go crazy misinterpreting everything. Thank goodness there are no social media sites in this world setting. Otherwise who knows what this guy could have done by being a social media stalker. No, really. I wonder what happened to that bug part in his room. Was it confiscated? Even in the end, this guy was shown some sympathy. Because Yuri sent him even flowers to his hospital bed, you can see him break down with all that freaking regret.

Action bits are just okay and aren’t that exciting. Despite Kanata training E601 in various techniques, I don’t really see how different they are. Maybe it is because I’m not paying attention. Thus we always have Lecty doing the close up melee fighting with her twin daggers, Rico positioned as the sniper for long range attacks and finally Misora having enough time to power up her sword and do Strike Blaster. It is usually among this line if you expect the girls to see victory at the end of it. Although the tournament is brief and cut out all the other ‘unimportant’ teams that we couldn’t care less, at least they didn’t skip E601’s final like some shows would. At least they also let them finish and win their match unlike some shows that interrupt in the middle so there would be no clear winner. Thanks Real, for holding in your lust and at least waiting till the end before trying to show off your fail big baddie character before being whoop assed. And the fights with the Devil Beetles are so minimal and short, you might think it is just a short distraction from whatever we have going on now.

And of course, you can’t do away with the fanservice. Just a handful of scenes of E601 in their undies in the changing room and other shenanigans that women can only say or do among themselves there. They teased us with Kanata getting into ambiguous scenes when he first met his would-be trainees and thought this would set the tone of the fanservice for the rest of the series because when you become an instructor for such cute girls, is it not tempting to have fanservice bloopers? Guess not. Well, in a way good thing it did not otherwise it would have diluted this already average series. Yeah… Average… Then they should have more scenes of Lecty and Misora in maid outfit and Rico could be elevated into a higher goddess status if she joins the maid duty. Really. But I can’t help think if there is a hentai version of this series, Kanata would be training his girls for bed instead! Holy sh*t! Did I just think about that?!

Art and drawing feel pretty decent for this kind of anime genre. As mentioned earlier, Diomedea did this series so you might find a handful of similarities in their other similar themed animes like Seiken Tsukai No World Break, Campione and Juuou Mujin No Fafnir. Character designs feel average. The worst design goes to the Devil Beetles or other bugs. It feels like because they don’t make much impression and rarely appear as the whipping boy antagonist, it is as though it is okay to give them a poorly designed figure. Boring. Looking better are some of the high tech and fantasy-like weapons that the teams carry especially our E601 girls. But the artwork that is even more refreshing to see is the mid-intermission. Instead of falling back on the typical fanservice poses, what we see here are the different skies! I believe they are hand drawn and they look gorgeous and beautiful despite just the empty blue sky with some clouds and on occasion a stormy weather. Nevertheless, it is cool to see something different once in a while.

It’s that familiar voice again. Lately I’ve been hearing Yoshitsugu Matsuoka in many recent animes I have watching. Not to say it is a bad thing but it made me go, “Oh, it is this guy again”. So as Kanata, another typical male hero lead like his other past works. Godou in Campione, Arata in Trinity Seven, Kirito in Sword Art Online, Yuu in Juou Mujin No Fafnir… Need I go on? Oddly, discovering Iori Nomizu as Rico threw me off a little. Not to say that I could recognize her voice but hearing her voice squeaky pitched bratty characters like Nymph from Sora No Otoshimono and Haruna and Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka, I would never suspect her to voice a character with a lower voice. And the rest of the casts include Nozomi Yamamoto as Misora (Julie in Absolute Duo), Nao Touyama as Lecty (Chitoge in Nisekoi), Risa Taneda as Yuri (Yukina in Strike The Blood), Saeko Zougou as Freon (Shiori in Date A Live II), Yuki Yamada as Chloe (Shiena in Akuma No Riddle), Tetsuya Kakihara as Lloyd (Natsu in Fairy Tail) and Hiroki Yasumoto as Real (Sado in Bleach).

This is another one of my past stereotypes. Long ago, Iori Nomizu was one of those whom I believed couldn’t really sing. Or so I thought. At least many of the anime songs I heard her, it sounded so out of tune that it wasn’t just suitable. Maybe over the years she has gotten better. So that is why I was also surprised to find out that she sings the opening theme, D.O.B. and this rock paced outfit isn’t actually that bad. Surprise, surprise. La La Larks sings the ending theme, Hallelujah which pretty much feels like a moderate dance beat thanks to the heavy bass beat. Perhaps it is my sound system because I could feel the vibration of the bass on my floor. Really. Like in every other anime, there are a handful of BGM soundtracks. While this one like those many, does not have soundtracks that stand out, however there is one that had me raised a little smile. There is this track that sounds like a hillbilly country tune! Each time this comical banjo tune is played, I can’t help go “Yeehaw!!!!” and do an air rodeo or something. Funny indeed.

Overall, another one of those average animes that won’t become a masterpiece anywhere in time. Still a lot of materials and potential if you go ahead to read the light novel instead of waiting for another season for adaptation. They say two wrongs don’t make a right. Obviously they don’t know maths because two negatives become a positive, right? And so in the case of this anime where you take a fallen hero and a bunch of losers, they work together and train hard to usurp everybody else just because everybody looks down at them. That’s a lesson in life that we could at least learn from this anime. Always give others a chance. And maybe a second chance. After all, they are still humans just like you and me. Do we need a reminder who the real enemy is? In that case, back to more training. Can I request for a pretty maid instructor then? Pretty please?