This review is based off of gg fansubs, a very good subbing company. Therefore, all sound and animation issues will strictly conform to what I have seen in the broadcasting and releases. Also note that all my reviews are done after watching the series at least two times.
Premise: Kampfer can be described as one’s guilty pleasure- scratch that- extremely guilty semi-pleasure. I say this because I actually somewhat looked forward to the next episode even though the content was total crap. Before you read on, let me tell you that there really was no conclusion to this anime, no real plot, no real anything but fanservice. In fact, I guess you could say that the whole point of it was to be a risqué anime that would tease viewers to keep watching for inevitable fanservice.
Background: Ok here’s what you need to know: Kampfer is a term for a selected warrior. The selected warrior is given a bracelet with which he or she can transform into a woman with some sort of power. There are two forces the red and the blue (one more is introduced later though). The point of the different colors is to signify opposing sides- basically it is red versus blue. So, the story starts out with a scene that “leaves the audience in suspense and draws them in.” Then, cut to the opening and voila you have fanservice- the main character, Senou Natsuru, wakes up as a girl. Soon enough a stuffed animal with its intestines hanging out talks to him about his current predicament saying that he was chosen to fight against the red kampfer. Sounds cool so far?
Animation:
Character designs are nice for the most part- you can actually tell who is who for the most part. Besides that, the fight scenes are standard, nothing really to catch your eye. Backgrounds weren’t very detailed which actually fit the rest of the anime since nothing was that detailed except for the fanservice scenes. Fight scenes were inconsistent in quality. Sometimes when the characters were engaged in battle, the camera would cut away to a person dodging attacks. Unfortunately, the person who was dodging attacks looked unproportional. Sometimes perspective was a bit off too although that could have just been me. Fluidity seemed to drop a bit in combat as well characters’s movements seemed more sluggish and ultimately duller. In the non-combat scenes, though, characters moved regularly and convincingly.
In regards to coloring, the colors chosen for the anime were very well done- Kampfer’s redeeming point. I really like the way they selected and applied the colors to each character. But for some odd reason, whenever I watched it, the colors always felt soporific to me. I always felt dull and tired when I watched it rather than excited by the exuberant colors. Again, maybe it was just me but it happened and I am reporting it.
The opening and ending were decent. The opening introduced all the characters and what the viewer should expect- i.e. fanservice. The ending reinforced the characters and had some fanservice images. The characters’s movements in the OP and ED were just like the series if not a little better. The OP is like a normal OP featuring moving 3d people introducing their characters and “unique” traits. The ED did basically the same thing just with some characters that shook their behinds and some 3d fanservice art- innovative. Overall the op and ed were decent.
Overall, the animation was pretty standard, the only outstanding thing would probably be the coloring. Combat scenes were poorly choreographed, characters were inconsistent in shape, backgrounds weren’t sharp, etc. Sadly enough, the fanservice scenes were standard, not innovative, but probably the best animated part of the series. Into and Ending themes were very normally animated if not below average. The animation is pretty standard for a modern anime but a bit better in terms of color usage therefore it merits a 7.
Sound:
Before I get to the voice acting, I want to talk about the OP and ED. First, remember that judging what is good and what is bad on a song is completely opinionated. So, the OP and ED were mediocre. They were fine, they went well with the animation and the actual anime. There really isn’t much to rave about.
Voice acting was Kampfer’s redeeming factor. In the first episode of Kampfer you are introduced to a star cast including stars such as Tamura Yukari, Horie Yui, as well as Mizuki Nana. Note that none of those are the main character, Natsuru. Natsuru was voiced by Inoue Marina. You must be going who the heck is that? Well you might know her as Wataru’s seiyuu (Hayate no Gotoku), Kana (Minami-ke), Jessica (Umineko), Chiri (Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei), or even Youko (Gurren Lagann). Anyway I have to say her performance was half good. When I first heard Natsuru’s voice when he was a male I was really surprised. It was a girl’s voice that came out, not a man’s- or if it was a male’s voice then it was definitely prepubescent. In fact, his male voice sounded more feminine than any girl on that show, I was shocked. Inoue Marina proved that she could do a male’s voice in various animes so why not this one? I was thus very shocked and almost immediately decided to drop the anime because of that. But, whatever you might get over it. Other than her voice not matching her character, her voice acting matched her character in regards to emotion. In fact, all the voice actors did a splendid job in emitting some sort of emotion.
BGMs were in two adjectives boring and reused. Sure, the BGMs fit, but the amount of recycling that goes on is just unbearable.
Overall, the sound was, in order, decent, better decent, horrible. OP and ED were decent. Voice acting was inconsistently good and bad- more good than bad. BGMs were good for several episodes until you realize they only have like two running in the whole series. In the end, sound gets a 6.
Story:
Kampfers are chosen by the moderators to fight against each other. You know that you are chosen when you sport either a blue or red bracelet that makes you transform into a girl and also when you have an entrails animal speaking to you with a famous Japanese seiyuu’s voice. In any case, Natsuru gets chosen as a blue Kampfer and thus begins our journey that goes nowhere. We find nothing out really. The viewer will get introduced to one very minor plot twist and that is about it. The whole story is focused on fanservice and relations. The fanservice definitely is there but the relationship development isn’t really. It only happens really with one out of the four characters. Luckily that one was my favorite, but I still didn’t really like the story. Just a quick note, the story was slightly different than the manga. But that doesn’t really mean much because the manga’s story was exactly the same and the quality of the fights were the same as well.
The whole premise of being chosen to fight against another faction was not very original but relatively compelling. If they actually worked with this story rather than get sidetracked, it might actually have been interesting. In addition, this was labeled as a comedy...I maybe smiled twice during the whole thing. The jokes were very unoriginal and predictable. If they wanted to make an audience laugh, then they should stop trying to be an action/adventure, ecchi, and comedy at the same time and focus on one aspect. In essence, Kampfer had a lackluster story with slight potential which in turn merits a higher 5.
Character Development:
Is there really any? Well, yes I guess there is. Natsuru becomes less of a wimp, and the other girls change in their own way.
Senou Natsuru: Initially he is a wimp who cannot even ask out his crush. He is thick headed and cannot tell when ladies are making an advance. In the end he is still thick headed but not a wimp.
Senou Natsuru (Female): Big breasted same person. Her weapon are not only her breasts but also fireballs that are shot from her hands.
Mishima Akane: The first character we meet. She is a timid librarian who almost instantly turns into a semi-loose girl after falling for Natsuru. She is a meganekko and is a blue kampfer.
Mishima Akane (Kampfer): The opposite of Akane. She is straight forward, foul-mouthed, and a wielder of a gun- apparently she has unlimited bullets in that thing.
Sangou Shizuku: Very straight forward, kind of like a kuudere, manipulative, and strong. We get about 10 minutes backstory for her in the whole series. It explains her motives and her current self. She is a red kampfer.
Sangou Shizuku (Kampfer): Same as above. The only thing that changes is that she wields two blades on a chain that she can control readily and she gets some white highlights in her black hair.
Sakura Kaede: Lesbian beauty, school idol, straight-forward, and, as the viewer will find out, a real annoying person. She is not a moderator but has some connection since all of the entrails animals that she has somehow make people kampfers.
Kondou Mikoto: Natsuru’s childhood friend, busy body, lovers curry, and travels to a lot of places (I’m surprised that the school let her go back).
Kondou Mikoto (Kampfer): same as above really, we never get to really see her personality. She gets white hair and a sword.
All in all, the characters are not the most compelling. They work well together, for the most part, but seriously nothing really happens between them. The girls blatantly hint at their love for Natsuru but since he is thick-headed, he doesn’t get it at all. In the end, he says that he likes all of them- pimp- but it definitely wasn’t a confession. He was just basically saying that he liked them all as his friends.
So, there was little to no character development, some characters were barely even shown, and the characters were not very original. Unoriginality and barely any development deserves a 5.
Value:
I am happy I decided not to buy this. I’m sure the characters would look great on blu ray, but I doubt that I could watch this more than twice. This had to be one of the most useless animes that I have ever watched. If you want to get teased, if you want good fights, good animation, good characters, good sound, rather than decent or less than decent everything, then watch Kampfer. I don’t think Kampfer really will even be in my basement to collect dust. Value gets a 4 for not being entirely valuable (as redundant as that sounds).
Enjoyment:
As I said this anime was a extremely guilty semi-pleasure. I kind of looked forward to watching it for the cheap thrills but even that got very repetitive very quickly. The anime became so predictable and boring that there really was no point to watching it. But I endured it so that I could write this review. In the end, I admit I half enjoyed it, thus it gets a 5.
Conclusion:
Kampfer is nowhere near a good anime, it is close to being decent though. If you really feel in the mood for a fanservice “action/adventure” with lots of groping and stereotypical fanservice based scenes, Kampfer is for you. If you don’t want to waste your time then good for you, don’t watch it.
Did I make any mistakes? Anything you disagree with? I would be happy to change my ratings if you provide a relevant objection or agreement.
