Keijo!!!!!!!!

Episode 10

Last episode, Seitouchi beat Suruga with its A team, but as the Suruga head points out this episode, that team was fairly loaded. Person-for-person, the B team is not on the same level, which raises the question of whether or not the Setouchi teams were deliberately set up with the possibility of tanking one match in mind. So can the B team also persevere and triumph while battling on floats made of seaplanes chained together?

The show's protagonist was put in the C team, which plays last, so that's all you need to know to answer that question.

Still, the journey is entertaining enough to forgive the series its obvious conclusion, and there were a couple of points in the late stages of the episode where it seemed like the writing might surprise us this time. In fact, B team's loss was as close as close can be, coming down to a photo finish in typically ridiculous form, examining frame-by-frame who would impact the water first on a mutual knock-off. Getting to see the smart, underrated Kazane once again run her strategies was a treat; she may not be quite good enough in a free-for-all or one-on-one bout, but she should be fearsome in a team battle. However, I do hope that the story will eventually cut her a break. After all, this is the second time now that she has performed valiantly only to wind up losing, and that's eventually going to become a bad running joke if it continues.

This episode once again proves that you can't underestimate this series' creativity! Every time you think that it has outdone itself with its over-the-top antics, it pulls yet another brazen stunt. In the realm of things that I anticipated being parodied in this series, the Fate/stay night franchise was not one of them, but Keijo!!!!!!!! absolutely goes there by demonstrating that the ultimate form of Kazane's Scanning Hand (where she can touch a Keijo player's butt and learn that player's techniques) is a rip-off of Gilgamesh's signature Noble Phantasm, Gate of Babylon. In this version, it's Gate of Bootylon, complete with butts sticking out of the interdimensional portals instead of more conventional weapons. This effectively allows her to borrow attack techniques as needed, even if they're ones she might otherwise be physically incapable of performing. Kudos go to the original writer for coming up with that, and kudos go to the production staff for pulling off the scene where all of her schoolmates line up with their rear ends out in order for her to touch them again. Under any other circumstance, a scene like that would be incredibly perverse, but not here.

We can't forget all of the fun new attack names, either. Perky Pile Piper is the name of an attack which involves twisting one's breasts up by the nipples to make them spin, and 1.6 Kilo Boob Napalm is Non's breast-slamming “Death From Above” attack, making up for more comparatively mundane attack names like Hot Butt and Fairy Butt. The series has gotten to the point where Ass of Vajra barely even elicits a snicker anymore.

With two matches in the can and two episodes left, it's Nozomi's turn next. The only question now is whether they'll stretch the war's final battle out to two episodes or finish it in just one.

Rating: B+

Keijo!!!!!!!! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.