Well, you read the title. You know what’s going on. Maken-Ki fucking 2. Of all the animes out there that deserve a second season, Hidan no Aria, Omamori Himari, Deadman Wonderland, Campione the list goes on its fucking Maken-Ki that gets a second season. The first season wasn’t even that popular with its target audience a majority said they didn’t like it so how the hell did this get greenlighted for a second season? Coming out at the beginning of 2014 done once again by Xebec, which reminds me I made mistake in the first review of Maken-Ki. In my first review I said that the anime was done by AIC which is correct but I forgot to mention that Xebec also lent a hand in creating this piece of trash. This time around AIC learned from their mistake and backed out of this anime thus saving their name. Xebec the creators of good anime such as the To Love-Ru series (very good harem series) and D.N. Angel unfortunately were stupid enough to stick around and revive this series. I would say I’m surprise but then I remember that this is the same studio that gave me Love Hina and the first Negima anime, two of the worst animes I have had the pleasure of watching. Well in order to appreciate the good things in life you gotta look at the bad things so let’s look at the bad and take a look at Maken-Ki 2.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening for this is “Cherish” by sweet ARMS. The song is passable. The singers are good but they sing a little too softly for my taste. The one thing that pisses me off about this opening is how good the animation and sequence is. We got students training and fighting their teacher and some good fanservice shots. Guess what? All we get is fanservice and no fight scenes. This anime lies to you straight to your face and it has the gall to play this opening for each episode to raise your expectations only to disappoint you. Fuck you anime. The ending is “Reach for Light” by Saeko Zōgō and boy is this song generic. There is nothing that makes this song standout. The singer doesn’t sound all that into it and the rock instrumental isn’t all that great either. This really doesn’t even sound like ending it could be used for the opening of the anime.
Episodes 1-5
So the anime starts off with the typical harem cliché gimmick we’ve seen a million times. Main character walks in on a girl in the bathroom, girl gets mad and beats him up, he falls to the ground in another room only to look up another girl’s skirt and gets beat up some more (1 minute in and this anime is already using the same joke from the first season. That’s not a good sign folks). So they barely make it to school where they get called to deal with an incident that just happened. Someone has been attacking the females on campus, stealing their bras, and posting them on the school’s bulletin board in the middle of the hallway for everyone one to see (you steal a bra only to throw it away? It’s obvious that we’re dealing with a perverted idiot here folks). So far 6 students and a teacher have been attacked and the group has no leads other than the perpetrator being a boy (obviously. About 101% of the boys in that school are perverts. With a 1% chance of error) that is until Takeru finds a connection between the victims. The perpetrator is attacking people by their bra size. He started with the smallest cup and has been working his way up meaning the next victim will have big breast and I’ll give you one guess who the next victims will be. Haruko and Chacha volunteer as bait for the pervert and camp out in the locker room with everyone surrounding the place waiting to catch him (this is actually a smart plan, I’m shocked). As Haruko and Chacha are waiting a black ooze comes in from the vents and takes the form of some weird creature who hypnotizes the girls. The pervert (who is an ugly fish-face looking bastard) disguises himself as Kengo (quite the improvement in looks if you ask me) to get pass the others and into the locker room where he has the two girls strip each other (yeah not gonna lie this was pretty arousing. As much as this series sucks I have to say the fanservice is great). Takeru gets tied up and just as the fish-face pervert is about to indulge himself Takeru breaks into action and beats the pervert. As Takeru goes to wake up Haruko we get are harem anime cliché once again to end the episode.
In episode 2 the group is trying to arrest an alumnus who uses her powers for evil and to strip girls to their underwear (what was she doing in the school in the first place? They never explain why she’s there she’s just there for the convenience of the plot. That’s pretty stupid and bad storytelling). Haruko and Takeru corner her in the gym where she uses her powers to steal Haruko’s maken and her memories as well (maken I get but why still her memories. They only thing she remembers is Takeru peeping on her and her beating him up for no reason other than jealousy). They take her to the infirmary where she wakes up as a different person (wow it’s like a whole new character was born. One that I can tolerate). So now that Haruko has lost her memories it’s up to Takeru, Inaho, and Himegami to look after her while the others find the alumnus. While the others are looking for the alumnus we see that the usually uptight and tsundere Haruko has now become less uptight and more assertive in her relationship with Takeru. Hell she actually takes a bath with him and even confesses that she’s been in love with him since they were children (you’re a child what do you know about love?). The next day in school she can finally take no more of how much she loves Takeru and wants to be with him so she tricks him into going into the gym storage where she plans to have sex with him. Rather than rejoice at the chance to do it with the girl he likes and finally lose his virginity he seems scared out of his mind (dude what the hell? You mean to tell me you peep on her at every chance you get but when you have the chance to do it with her you get cold feet? Useless). But just as Haruko is about to make the biggest mistake of her life the members of Maken-Ki find the alumnus, beat her, and get Haruko’s maken and memories back. Once she sees the situation she’s in rather than stop and ask Takeru what’s going on she instead attacks blaming him for this saying she doesn’t remember anything that happened when she lost her memories (you’re a damn liar and you know it). At the end of the episode we find out she does remember everything (told ya) and is embarrassed by her confession to Takeru.
In episode 3 the cat Monji uses his maken powers which he learned from watching everyone else to turn all the girls into catgirls (what! Than this totally makes the series fall apart big time. Makens are created or inherited by people you don’t just make one up on the spot. Way to fuck up the basic idea of the series guys). With all the girls turned into catgirls they give into their instincts and act like cats playing with yawn and round objects, being comfortable in small places, napping out in the sun, and ending all their sentences with nya (you know, cute things to give the cat lovers out there fanservice). Yep, everything seems to be fine but as the girls keep falling into their instincts they begin to enter mating season and want to start mating (right here ladies I’m all yours). Haruko, Inaho, and Himegami want to mate with Takeru (do it Takeru prove to me that you’re a man) but he dowses them with water to snap them out of it (oh you pussy). Inaho and Takeru search for Monji to get him to turn everyone back to normal but he’s ran away because he feels lonely (and running away is supposed to make you feel better how? You’re only gonna be more lonely and lost). The two find Monji in the mountains where Inaho first found him. The two make-up and Monji returns everyone back to normal thus ending the cat mating phase (or we could just keep them in the cat mode and have plenty of catnip lying around for our amusement).
Episode 4 is the con episode. Kimi and Chacha are both participating in a manga/anime convention and the others decide to help them with their manga and cosplay. Through this we get a lot of anime shout outs to animes like Fate/Kalied liner Prisma illya, Mondaiji, Rozen Maiden (or Gosick I’m not entirely sure myself), Kore wa Zombie Desu, and Strike Witches (well at least they got 4 good animes. Actually it’s kinda sad that the animes that they reference in this episode are all better than the whole series). Kimi manages to sell all of her manga (which is pretty impressive for an immature) and just before the group is about to take the stage for their tribute to Dragon Quest the con gets attacked by bastards who just want to watch cosplayers suffer (you sick sons of bitches. How dare you ruin this place of fun and peace). They use their maken powers to tie the girls up in rope bondage and bring the megalos from Kore wa Zombie Desu to life (how fitting to have these creatures in this anime). Kimi and Chacha confront the guys responsible for these attacks and smashes them with a rock. Even though the con got ruined by these jackasses Kimi and Chacha admit they both had fun and start planning for the next con.
We focus on Aki in episode 5 where we see as an elementary girl (who even back then had large breast for her age. Look, I know girls mature faster than boys but this is wrong even for the anime) all she wanted was to get married and spend her life with the person she loved (well that dream failed. Years later you’re the school nurse, single, still a virgin, and fapping material for all the boys and a few girls for that matter). Aki’s mom tries to setup a marriage interview for her but Aki wanting to get her mother off her back decides to take a picture with Takeru and send it to her mother showing her she’s dating one of her students (he’s no good for her). This somehow fools Aki’s mom (she’s seriously okay with her daughter dating a guy who’s at least 10 years younger than her and is one of her students? How desperate does the mom want grandkids?) and she sends her bodyguards to knock Takeru and Aki out and send them to a private island for a romantic 2-day getaway. She also handcuffs the two together so they can’t get away from each other and have to do everything such as go to the bathroom together, eat together, sleep together and even bathe together (though the major question throughout all of this is how they were able to change clothes? That’s pretty much the big question going through my mind throughout the episode). Even though the two start off on an awkward note they eventually warm-up to each other and just when it looks they’re about to do the greatest taboo between a student and teacher, Haruko and Himegami come in to find them where they both blame Takeru for what happened, don’t believe his story, and punish him (as much as Takeru annoys me he did not deserve to get punished. I seriously think the creators of this show are confusing punishment with comedy. When a character in a comedy setting gets beat up or punished it’s usually because they did or said something that warrant the punishment and it’s funny because they deserved it. When you have a group of characters punish a character for nothing it makes them come across as assholes or in this case bitches which is what Haruko and Himegami are doing in this episode. Not believing their friend or hearing both sides of the story, just labeling Takeru as the guilty party and punishing him for no reason). Now this episode does show Takeru in a good light. In the episode he never tries to do anything perverted or ecchi to Aki. He’s reading the situation and understands that Aki is distressed about this situation that they’re in so he plays the gentleman in a situation where a lot of guys would of took advantage of the situation and try to do a lot of naughty things to Aki. And trust me Takeru is very tempted to try something and jack off but he fights through it and remains a gentleman throughout the episode (it’s because of this reason that I am on Takeru’s side for once).
Episodes 6-10
Episode 6 is all about Uruchi who has a one-sided lesbian crush on Haruko (so far this is the one relationship in the series that can be somewhat healthy). Uruchi is a candidate to join the Leadership Committee which is great because than she’ll be allowed to work closely with Haruko but before she can be considered a candidate she must go through a rigorous training camp in the mountains under the guidance of Yuko the treasurer who looks peaceful on the outside but is actually a sadistic ninja girl who gets off torturing others (and did I forget to mention she has big boobs, just like 98% of the girls in this anime). During her rigorous training Yuka puts Uruchi through a series of tortures such as diving off a cliff, riding a mechanical bull where the seat wedges in her nether regions and all sorts of other sexual torture devices meant to show off fanservice (here’s an idea, instead of showing off fanservice how about you do something useful and get back to the plot. It’s bad enough that you’ve spent ¾ of last season doing nothing with it so how about doing something with it this season). Uruchi hangs in there thanks to her love for Haruko and is given one final test before officially becoming a candidate, she must secretly spy on Haruko recording what she does (here I’ll help you. 1pm Wednesday, Haruko beats up the idiot Takeru for helping a girl up who fell. Even though Takeru did nothing to the girl Haruko still decided to hurt him believing he did something indecent which he didn’t. For some strange reasons the creators of this anime think this is funny). Uruchi shadows Haruko in secret where she sees that Haruko only has feelings for Takeru and no one else. Uruchi comes to realize that her feelings for Haruko were one-sided and force (in other worlds lust) and decides to step down from candidacy but it turns out this was all part of the test and she passed. Even though she’s not ready to join the leadership committee now in the future she will be.
Episode 7 focuses on Himegami (and I hate to say it but this might just be the most ridiculous episode in the season). In the episode Himegami buys a rare antique teddy bear from Germany that she names Rudolf (I would have named him Jaeger). When she goes back to her dorm room to try on her new underwear she senses something wrong (scene here: //youtu.be/SRwOZQKhFiA, okay that took way too long, she should have known something was up after the second fall). It turns out the bear is alive (somehow, they never really explain it and no I refuse to accept its magic as an answer) and he’s quite the pervert (don’t believe me? He actually bangs one of Himegami’s spirits. How is that possible?). The others return and rather than tell them about Teddy Ruxpin’s perverted brother she keeps it a secret from them (Seras: Hey here’s an idea burn the damn thing. There are so many things she could have done to rid herself of this perverted freak of nature so why does she not do them? (Nitsuj): Because it gives them the excuse to have obligatory fanservice scenes like this: //youtu.be/EDoBqcdmdsg?t=4s. (Seras): This just raises an even dumber question. Why are they giving the bear a bath it’s not a live animal so why do it? If anything they’re destroying the thing by washing it. This is- (Nitsuj): Seras trust me, the more you try to add common sense to this anime the more painful it gets. The best thing to do is to watch it, accept it, and don’t question it. It makes the job easier). Himegami tries to return the bear but the owner refuses because she too is a victim of the bear who played with her heart and trained her. Later on he escapes from Himegami’s sight and goes on a walk in the park giving all the big-breasted ladies orgasms by rubbing their breast (you know. . .the more I watch this anime the more I am convince that this would have been a good hentai or doujin for that matter. It has all the right elements. It wouldn’t be the best but I could see it getting a good laugh out of people while also getting them aroused. But they had to go and fuck it up by turning it into a plotless fanservice anime). Himegami gets a call asking her to help the group take down a one-shot character trying to become a main character on the show (and they’re not even trying anymore and trust me buddy you do not wanna be associated with this shit). Because Himegami used up all of her element powers fighting the bear earlier she’s defenseless but luckily the bear comes in to save her and defeat the one-shot character (well that’s embarrassing. (Yin-Yang): For who? The one-shot character, Himegami, or the creators of this anime? (Nitsuj): All of them). With this fight the bear uses up all of his maken (excuse me for a minute *gets up, goes outside, blows up a snowman with a grenade, and goes back inside*) and stops moving thus putting an end to his perverted antics once and for all (nah~, I’m kidding he’s still alive but he’s lost the ability to move and talk).
In episode 8 the school principal Minori overhears students insulting her womanhood and how easy her job is. Angered by this she decides to step down from principal and hands the job over to Kengo (okay this idea would almost work if it was Takeru doing it instead of Kengo. Yeah, has any else notice that Takeru takes a serious back seat in this season? He’s barely in this anime and focused on. Yeah I find the guy annoying and weak but as I said in my last review he does get stronger and he is the main character so wouldn’t it make more sense to have him take over the role as principal because we all know what’s gonna happen next right? It’s gonna be fanservice). Sure enough as soon as Kengo takes the seat of principal he turns the academy into his fanservice paradise having the girls limbo to get into school, measure the volume of their breast, read perverted literature, look at sperm (scene here: //youtu.be/HQ1VDHec6iI), takes them to a sex toy factory where they get souvenirs (the boys will be going home happy), have the girls wash cars in skimpy outfits (should. . .have. . .been. . . a hentai), has the girls wrestle each other in bikinis, and all sorts of other wild perverted fantasies whatever the guy could think up (he’s living the dream and making me jealous I’ll say that much). Finally, the girls reach their boiling point (amazingly late in the episode. I’m starting to think they like perverted stuff they just don’t want the boys to know) when Kengo announces a rock-paper-scissors stripping tournament that all the girls must participate in (THIS WAS THEIR BOILING POINT!? YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THE WRESTLING, PAINTING EACH OTHER, AND TOURING THE SEX TOY FACTORY WASN’T THEIR BOILING POINT!? IT WAS THE STRIPPING!? Okay, yeah, I’m convince now. These girls like doing perverted stuff. It turns them on and they like teasing the boys. They are dominatrixes who enjoy showing off their bodies just to tempt the boys and have an excuse to attack them. Fucking teasers). The girls stage a rebellion and begin a manhunt for Kengo (scene here: //youtu.be/DzrO0K1JtU4). After they catch him Himegami decides to face him in the rock-paper-scissors stripping tournament where if she wins she’ll become the new principal but if he wins he gets to stay principal. They play and she destroys him stripping him down to nothing and beating him up for public indecency (well at least he died with no regrets . . .kind of).
Episode 9 focuses on Furan the president of Maken-Ki and man-hater. After Azuki gets done beating a group of students from another school it begins to rain and she steals one of their hats and coats to protect herself from the rain. While running home through the park she accidently runs into Furan (just going out for a rainy day scroll I guess) where she hides her face not wanting to get in trouble for fighting students from another school. She helps Furan up, apologizes, and gives her back her umbrella. Furan gets the idea that it’s a boy who helped her and even though they shared no conversation with each other and Azuki only said two lines of dialogue to her she falls in love (you know for a girl who hates men she sure falls in love with them easily). The next day Azuki makes it her mission to tell Furan the truth but the others stop her saying that this would be a good opportunity to cure Furan’s hatred of men (than don’t lie to her and have her date an actual man. Preferably a nice and decent man). They set up a date for Furan and Azuki (disguised as a man. Surprisingly she pulls off the look well) where the two have a good time, get their photos taken at a wedding shop (and that would be a guy’s cue to leave the date. You don’t take a man to a wedding shop on the first date. You wait for the 4th date to do that), and Azuki accidently gives her first kiss to her (//youtu.be/VL4xRwl1f3A). Azuki decides that things have gone on long enough (wow someone with a conscience in this series. Didn’t think I would see that) and decides to tell Furan the truth. But before she can tell her the students who fought her yesterday come to face her again and take Furan hostage forcing Azuki to take the beating. Once it gets exposed that Azuki is a girl Furan goes all president on them and uses her maken (which unties her hair and gets rid of her glasses making her look beautiful) to defeat the students and save Azuki. They leave on a good note with Furan not angry or mad at Azuki or the others (wow, that’s very mature) but instead thanking Azuki for giving her a wonderful experience and one she looks forward to sharing with her true love.
In the final episode (hallelujah) we actually get a plot with action, story, and likable characters (clearly the anime should have been focusing on these guys). The only problem is it’s a flashback story (fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu~ I am not surprise by this). The episode focuses on Minori, Aki, Gen, Tomiko (Takeru’s homeroom teacher and Yuka’s older sister who’s also a sadist), Akaya and how they came together to form the school’s first Maken-Ki. We see how Minori was the energetic leader, Tomiko the loyal follower, and Aki the hot, serious-minded, but clumsy discipline member. Gen was the guy who didn’t wanna join at first but through some persuasion he joined even creating the first maken he calls Dragon Ace which belongs to Minori. Akaya was also a guy who didn’t wanna join them because he thought they were just protecting the school for fun but once he sees how serious they are he joins them in the end. In the episode we see the group come together and face their first threat as a team, a spy who was sent to steal documents for a group of people who want the school to shut down. Through their combine efforts they manage to catch the thief and establish the first Maken-ki which went on to be inherited by Takeru and his friends (I bet they’re regretting passing the torch to these guys). This episode is probably the best episode out of the entire series. While the episode is nothing more than a flashback that doesn’t progress the story I give it credit in that it gives a backstory into how the group was formed, the founding members and what they stood for and faced. They each have their own personalities and characters that work off each other well and like I said before they’re likable and funny characters who provide good fanservice but also get a story out for you to enjoy and get invested in. In all honesty I wouldn’t mind the anime focusing on these guys and following their adventures instead of the current characters (we can call it Maken-Ki Zero).
Final Thoughts
Guys, what do you want me to say about this anime? It’s horrible, it’s a piece of crap, total shit the list goes on. The first season rarely had any story this season just flat out gets rid of the story and just places it with random scenarios each episode. These kinds of things can work if the scenarios are funny and enjoyable but these scenarios aren’t funny at all and are just tedious. Takeru pretty much serves no purpose in this anime other than to be everyone’s punching bag despite not doing anything and the characters pretty much lose all of their personalities and just become flanderized versions of themselves who are annoying and just eye candy. The animation takes a huge downgrade from last season with the characters looking disturbing especially those who have obscenely large breast, the music leaves no impression on you, and there’s no action whatsoever in this series and the action they do show is so poorly done and uninteresting that you’ll quickly forget about it. Another thing that pisses me off about this season is that it pretty much betrays the setting and logic of the original series totally abandoning it and creating all sorts of situations that make no sense. The only thing of value in this anime is the good fanservice but that’s it. Everything else is total shit. Just because you have good fanservice it doesn’t distract the audience from other factors the anime is lacking and this anime is lacking a lot.
Is it better than the first season
Hell no! This season is hands down worse than the first season which is saying something because the first season wasn’t really that good to begin with. This season makes the first season look good. The first season which doesn’t follow the story of the manga at all and only has four episodes of actual story in them is a better representation of the manga than this season. That is so sad and messed up.
Final Score
The final score for Maken-Ki 2 is disappointing and deserved 1/10. An epic fail of an anime that should not exist and shouldn’t be watched at all. This was the worst anime of 2014 in my opinion and I hope to God that this will be the last time we see this series in anime form. This truly is one of the worst animes I’ve had to sit through. Stay away from this anime. Go watch To Love-Ru or Highschool DxD if you wanna see a good harem/ecchi anime. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj. Piece of shit anime.
*All videos, pictures, and music are not owned by me and belong to their respected owners. All rights reserved.*
Thanks for reading. As always feel free to leave a comment, feedback, or request down belong or send to iamprojectnitsuj@gmail.com