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Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - My Poor Eiken Back
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Swissman
Posts: 795 Location: Switzerland |
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I remember having read a short japanese review of the first manga volume when it came out in 2001. I think it was a free magazine. The reviewer back then wrote that Eiken was a parody of harem manga, and not a particular clever/funny one. But besides that, I always mention Eiken when people are looking for some true "horror" anime 
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2675 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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I will always argue that the original Eiken manga is meant to be taken as am absurd parody of ultra-fanservice-y harem stories, especially because Densuke in the manga is secretly a really dirty-minded teenage boy, with him often having extremely risqué daydreams & hypothetical situations playing out in his head; often even more wild than how the situations themselves actually play out. Beyond all belief, I actually did enjoy the 12 volumes Media Blasters released in English, and I am disappointed that I'll never find out why the Eiken Club exists, which was an overlying mystery that would occasionally be brought up during the manga.
The OVA, however, is truly just bad, taking (what I feel is) a parody & simply playing it straight, resulting in it just indulging in the worst aspects, but without any of the absurd humor that the manga had which made it easier to accept & swallow; Densuke's filthy mind, in particular, is nowhere to be found here. While most have only seen the OVA by itself, I actually only bothered to watch it after reading a bunch of the manga, and I was probably even more disgusted with it than those who go in without any prior experience, because it was nothing more than a skin-deep (pun intended?) adaptation. Still, I can absolutely see why Media Blasters re-licensed it & why Crunchyroll agreed to stream it. After all, it got featured here on ANN, which will now likely prompt people to check it out for themselves, if only to see if its truly as bad as everyone says it is. |
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Kilgamayan
 Posts: 275 Location: Location, Location. |
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I have to confess that I thought Eiken was the funniest stuff ever when I was in college. These days, though, it is at least still useful as an anime Boogeyman/threat, even if it isn't useful for anything else.
The only act of salvation one can do after watching Eiken is to weaponize having watched Eiken. |
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OtherSideofSky
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Oh god, I'd forgotten how it looked in motion. That's like when the Ninja Gaiden 2 boob physics would do weird things in in-engine cutscenes because they seem to have applied them to each breast individually.
This prompted me to go look up the manga in Japanese, and the Japanese Amazon customer reviews are way funnier than anything in the actual series (such as a 2-star review titled "this author's No. 1 hit"). Going by the preview pages, the manga's art is also somehow worse than the anime's. Edit: Some absolute lunatic wrote a 5-star review that described it simply as "a gold, old romantic comedy." Last edited by OtherSideofSky on Thu Oct 29, 2020 12:37 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4601 Location: New York |
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I know some people genuinely believe that Kirika might have been a decent character if she was a bit more modestly proportioned (as in, big breasts but not this absurdity) and in a story that wasn’t Eiken. And to them I say “well, congratulations. You found one redeeming thing in something otherwise completely without any merit.”
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Takkun4343
 Posts: 1577 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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I've gotta agree with you there. Eiken's character designs might not be "appealing" compared to most others, but I definitely find them appealing compared to the manga art. Well, except for the bear in the room. By the way, this thing got dubbed, and it has a surprising number of recognizable VAs among the cast. Bryce Papenbrook (at age 18), Stephanie Sheh (under a pseudonym), Mona Marshall, Cindy Robinson, Rebecca Fordstadt, Grant George, and a few others. All acting at their most mediocre at best (from what I've heard), thanks to the efforts of Arvintel Media and their only ADR director, the infamous Ruben Arvizu. |
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HannoX
Posts: 200 |
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Why, oh WHY, did you have to remind me that this abomination exists?
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DavetheUsher
 Posts: 505 |
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Kids today got no respect for the classics.
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2483 Location: United States |
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Ugh. I remember this crapfest. Nobody deserves to be subjected to this. Ever. Also, I remember watching JesuOtaku's review of it, which IMHO is the only thing about Eiken worth watching. I'd love to watch said review again, but it sadly seems to have disappeared off the internet, which is a shame.
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12skippy21
 Posts: 785 Location: York, England |
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In case anyone is interested, there is an canonical doujin of the two leads aged 26, where they have <censored> intercourse. Her proportions are even bigger but the art is at least better.
No, I will not apologise for knowing this 
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harminia
 Posts: 2049 Location: australia |
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I watched this the other day and to be honest I thought it was pretty funny. It was so over the top. I don't know if it's a parody but I think it's a bit tongue in cheek.
The animation was really nice on the expressions. It had some great comedic expressions (Mostly densuke). Some of the scenes where Sakurai's character and the main love interest were talking had good sort of horror type emotions in them. There were scenes that were surprisingly well composed for a trashy ecchi show. (I guess that's the power of OVA budgets). Some of the comedic timing was great too. I liked how the purple chick (I forget everyone's names) made Densuke join the club and just kept saying "Congratulations". I also like how pretty much every time she appears she's eating some phallic type of food, it was so tacky it made me laugh. I also loved the scene where they're eating noodles and the teacher slips, just because the peaceful music and slow motion really made it super funny. I thought I'd hate the megane girl with the massive boobs but I kinda enjoyed her because she was just a nice girl who wanted to do her best. idk I don't like ecchi stuff but I DO like over the top ecchi stuff (i.e. Daimidaler) so this was pretty enjoyable for me. It's super unsexy though. Like, I feel like this show would kill boners. I also did feel super sorry for all the girls backs. One of the lines in the OP was about running and I instantly thought "dude, no one in this show should be running" |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11595 |
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Oh no, finding out Takahiro Sakurai is in this is like that time I had to watch Fencer of Minerva to hear Crispin Freeman doing ecchi. As it turns out, Eiken was better. At least it kinda had a plot that um, tied things up, so to speak.
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Neko-sensei
Posts: 286 |
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Although I've never seen the anime, in Japan the term "Eiken" (英検) is the shortened name of the main English exam taken by junior and senior high school students. Since I didn't move to Japan until well after I'd become aware of the horror that is the OVA, hearing "Eiken" just all the time is still a little surreal.
What does "Eiken" mean in the context of the manga, anyway? |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2675 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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The reason for the Eiken Club's existence, and likely also its name, was a giant mystery that was often brought up, mainly by Densuke, but was never revealed in the 12 volumes (out of 18) of the manga Media Blasters also released, and it was never even brought up in the OVA. Considering that we'll likely never get an English translation of those last 6 volumes (some people tried scanlating, but stopped after a couple of chapters), we may never know. Sure, one could try looking it up in Japanese, but I honestly prefer never knowing; the mystery behind it appeals to me. |
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Horsefellow
 Posts: 262 |
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Hey, speak for yourself. Chiharu and Kirika were great, especially in the original manga art Only girl I'd call unsexy is Komoe. Those eyebrows, man. |
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