English Dub Season Review: O Maidens in Your Savage Season Season One

A lot has been said about the polarizing nature of the Netflix animated series “Big Mouth” and its subject matter of addressing burgeoning puberty in adolescents. Some say that it presents a more digestible and relatable way of bringing the topic up that most shows wouldn’t work within this much detail…while others decry it as exploitative pseudo-pornography that tries to titillate with the idea of minors discovering themselves. The answer to this…might be something in between, though I do wonder if a similar question might be asked about HiDive’s newest dubbed anime with a big mouthful of a title: O Maidens in Your Savage Season. There aren’t any puberty monsters or ghosts voiced by Jordan Peele, but it does chronicle the emerging development of several teenagers dawning to changing relationships and growing impulses as they attempt to navigate these rocky waters of adolescence.

Mainly centering on the five female members of their school’s literary club, the story follows each as events begins nudging them on self-reflective journies regarding how they view their lives as new thoughts and feelings begin to emerge. Kazusa finds herself discovering feelings for her childhood friend, prudish Rika begins taking interest in relationships once a male classmate begins taking interest, novelist Hitoha starts looking towards a male advisor for erotica inspiration only for that to escalate, and the rest take even more elaborate trips into adulthood that should really be watched going in blind. Each of the five has their own arcs that speak to distinct facets of teenage romance that intersect and weave into each other naturally, showing how each character plays off one another.

Though with this sort of subject matter, it stands to reason that there will be plenty of moments that are going to be pretty awkward to watch. If you’re well versed and numb to the usual racy parts of anime, then this might not be that huge a deal, but I can certainly say that there were plenty of things that left me beet red at times. Part of that was the sheer closeness of certain scenes, other times being the absolute schmaltzyness of the romance at times, and other parts being…the flatness of most of the voice cast more often than not. In fact, I think the main stand out voice talent of the show would have to be Britany Karbowski, who manages to shine through despite what I have to guess is rather a plain direction. After reviewing another Hidive production, I figured they just weren’t giving it their all because it was such trashy material, but now I’m wondering it’s the dubbing across the board.

Regardless, that doesn’t do a whole lot to detract from the strengths of this particular series. It’s a story with very strong emotions and thoughts on the subject of adolescence that I rarely see given this much importance that wasn’t immediately thrown into smut territory. Not that this is any revolutionary or particularly educational by any means, but it’s definitely a stand out amongst the ever-expanding ocean of high school drama anime. Whether you’re fourteen or forty, you might get something out of watching it.