Keijo!!!!!!!!

Episode 3

Unsurprisingly, the fan service quotient gets upped considerably for episode 3, due in large part to bath, shower, and locker room scenes. Even so, it's still fairly tame by the standards of dedicated fan service shows and only one scene (a girl-on-girl breast fondling) is likely to generate eye rolls from those who might be watching despite being normally averse to fan service. I see that more as an exception than a trend, as otherwise the series still much more rigorously focuses on using its fan service contextually than most. After all, in a series where characters are using their butts as weapons against opponents, the camera's emphasis on characters' rears isn't so far out of line.

And fortunately the story content still makes it easy to largely overlook the fan service if it isn't your thing. Episode 3 seems to be establishing a pattern where the last shots of the episode are more a preview of the next episode, as this episode rolls back to the Vacuum Butt Cannon incident of episode 2 and shows both what happens in the immediate aftermath of it and how Nozomi ends up in the weird suit that we saw her in at the end of the episode; in fact, close to half the episode is about that. I very much liked and appreciated the emphasis that the writing placed on detailing how, even though the VBC is a champion technique, the violent wrenching of the hips required to make it work too easily can result in career-ending injury. That essentially makes it equivalent to the forbidden techniques which are commonly-seen in shonen action series (and are often forbidden for pretty much the same reason), and Nozomi's willingness to pursue the technique despite knowing the dangers marks her as akin to both those shonen action heroes and pro sports figures in general, who sometimes knowingly put their health and/or careers at risk for their sport.

Much of the rest of the episode is also a mix of fairly typical sports and shonen action characteristics, although the nature of the sport that they're being applied to makes them seem fresher than normal. Nozomi gets a training suit (read: training regimen) that's amusingly difficult to master until she finally learns the trick to it, Sayaka finds her own potential rival in the elite class, and in a slightly stranger turn, Kazane and her wonderfully-expressive ponytail seems to be embarking on a study of competitor's butts via giving massages. (I am now very curious to see what that leads to.) The classification of the Keijo contestants by preferred fighting style – infighters go for intense, strength-based attacks, while outfighters focus on speed and counters focus on taking advantage of opponents' attacks – also plays into this, as breakdowns into specialties is hardly unusual for sports or action shows. Somewhat disappointingly, this episode doesn't clarify whether or not that classification results in specialized training for adherents to that style, or what else it might mean in the long run.

Still, that's only a minor flaw in what is otherwise proving to be a consistently enjoyable and surprisingly well-thought-out series. The one concern going forward is that it looks like at least the next couple of episodes are going to involve test matches, which is all-too-often a bog-down point for sports-related action series. The way the series has gone so far though, I'd like to think that we will see an entertainingly different angle on it.

Rating: B+

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