Katana Maidens

Special academies and girls fighting mysterious creatures are my "favorite" subject matter! However, I have to say that this anime series is actually not bad; it is even relatively easy to watch, and it does not feature a lot of unnecessary fan service. The narrative, while not being precisely brilliant, is nevertheless relatively straightforward in the first half and because of the true identity of the villain, it is even quite entertaining. I clearly thought I would award the first half three stars, and I would even rate it good (like 6/10). Admittedly, I felt like I was in trouble during the first episode. As I mentioned in the first sentence, I do not enjoy this subject matter (the quotation marks there meant I was being ironic, in case you missed that). This particular show starts with a tournament (which can sometimes be a lengthy and tedious sequence for an anime series as well). However, everything is quickly and surprisingly resolved, and the storyline, which is then introduced, seems entirely original and even enjoyable. SPOILERS Then there is some chasing around, some characters trying to convince others what is actually happening, and then there is the final confrontation END OF SPOILERS. Well, if it ended there, I would have been relatively satisfied and would not even have to think about the rating. However, the second half came along, which strikes me as a kind of ham-fisted narrative setup. It practically just repeats the formula from the first half of the season in a much more complicated way, with a few tweaks and twists that are pretty predictable. In other words, I simply had the feeling that the second half of the season was rather pointless. I mean, I legitimately thought much less of the show (like 4/10), however... When I compare this anime series to other special academy shows, this show is clearly above-average. Concerning the characters, I cannot say any of the girls were particularly irritating, even though I did not fall in love with any of them either. So, the characters were basically OK. I enjoyed the fight scenes; the katana fights were good-looking and were decently choreographed. The fight scenes with the aradama were also OK, so overall the fight scenes were all good. I have probably talked enough about the narrative; however, to sum it up - it was not brilliant, even though it was interesting at times. Yes, it had a few (but really only a few) surprising moments. So giving a bad rating would be unfair on my part, however... If I were simply comparing it to how much I enjoyed all the other anime series I have watched, I would not award this show more than three stars. However, I am awarding the first half of the season 6/10 and the second half of the season 4/10. Putting the two together makes an average score of 5/10 for the whole season. (06/23/2018)