0.206549316544 out of 5
First and and foremost before watching any ecchi or harem anime, you have to know and understand what your getting into. It should be understood that when watching said anime you will be getting a ridiculous amount of fanservice, and a multitude of characters that are either not to bright or just outright annoying. If you can look past these elements some of these can be real gems, but others not so much. So does Maken-Ki stand out from the bobby bungalow that is the ecchi genre or is it another pair of soiled panties?
Unfortunately, the truth about Maken-Ki is that it falls flatter than an A cup in a lot of areas, except the bust area of the female characters in the show (Not counting Himegami). At times it's pretty hard to understand just what the hell is going on in this anime. A very loose explanation of the plot would be that the male lead, Takeru Ohyama, is reunited with his childhood friend Haruko Amaya when Takeru enrolls at Tenbi High School; however, when Takeru steps on campus he quickly finds out that Tenbi is not your normal high school (guess he should have read the brochure). Things get hectic really quick as the students start fighting one another using magical artifacts known as Maken, Takeru ends up joining a security committee, there's an international terrorist group, someones trying to some a snake dragon, Oh had look it's a chibi Goku...Okay, that escalated quickly, and I think you all get the point now.
The thing is the story is the weakest part of this entire series. You truly have no idea what's going on, because the story is one disjointed mess, and not one single episode really serves to explain anything regarding the backstory of this world. Which is really a shame because I found myself drawn to the idea of Maken and Element and just what their connection was to everything. Instead of explaining what a Maken is we...PANTYSHOT!
Okay mainly my point there is this is an ecchi that looses itself in the fanservice, and the artwork behind the fanservice is not very good. I won't bother talking about boob physics cause this is an ecchi and I've come to expect it, but there are a lot of bright colors here, and if you're watching the sub, expect to go blind because there is a lot of really bright white light censorship. To be honest it sometimes took up so much of the screen that I honestly rather watch the uncensored version, and it's not much better.
The characters of the show can range from interesting, to annoying, to just plain forgettable. The male lead Takeru, a pervert with hidden secret powers (how original), is literally freaking useless. The female lead Haruko takes the backseat in a major portion of the story and despite the fact that she's supposed to be the most powerful Maken user at Tenbi comes off as really unremarkable. There are some various side characters though that are more interesting than the main lead characters such as Usui who is a fellow pervert that often serves as comic relief in a series that is already supposed to be funny, Himegami who shows how badass she is in every scene she is in, and my personal favorite Kai Kuragasa the behemoth of a man that spends the entire series pursuing Azuki (a kick your ass readhead) to be his girlfriend, but he does so in such a way that you can help but love the big bastard.
Overall, though I honestly cannot recommend this series. Though it captured my interest at first with the Maken and the who school system that encouraged epic duels with martial arts, magical powers, and mystical artifacts. It got to be old, and I had to force myself to sit through the rest of it. There's just too much fanservice, and the plot is so disjointed that you can not make any sense of what the hell is going on. Characters are for the most part either annoying or forgettable, and there is just a lot of better stuff out there. Something that is already much better than this would by High School DxD which has all the elements of this show, but a much better and more coherent story, so go watch that instead.
So for a final rating Maken-Ki gets 2 slightly used panties out of 5.
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