English Dub Review: Senran Kagura “IT’S SHOWTIME!!”

Yeah, don’t expect too much.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The mysterious woman from the last episode claims to be able to control Youma, which she does to demonstrate her power and is thereby able to impress Kagura. Kagura then transforms to demonstrate her power in turn, and the woman reveals her name to be Fubuki. Just as the two are about to fight, Gekkou and Senkou appear to inform Fubuki that its time for her to leave. Before she departs, however, Fubuki tells Kagura that if she wants to find out who she is, then she must enter the Shinobi Masters tournament.

Later, Haruka tends to Homura’s wounds, while Yumi and the others do a sexually suggestive weight loss aerobics routine. Yozakura interrupts and presents some new information, the Gessen Girls’ Academy newsletter, which has a photo of Gekkou and Senkou in it. That night, Yumi looks at a picture of her Grandpa and strengthens her resolve, while, surprisingly, Fubuki does the same thing.

The next day, Yumi and the others head to Gesen Girls’ Academy looking for Gekkou and Senkou, disguising themselves as middle schoolers to avoid being recognized. The team searches around the campus, trying to blend in, and find Gekkou and Senkou, who are also members of the student council. However, despite their efforts, Yumi’s efforts get discovered by Gekkou and Senkou, and the two proceed to attack Yumi and Yozakura on the school grounds. The rest of her team arrives to help, but Yumi stops them from fighting, saying that they could hurt the students of the school if they continue to fight.

Gekkou and Senkou look down on Yumi and her belief in justice, claiming that justice is nothing without power. Furthermore, they mock her for following Kurokage’s teachings and inform her that Kurokage’s name is a taboo at the school. Later that night, Miyabi’s girls receive their invitation to the tournament, which promptly begins with them facing Yumi and her team in a laser-lit dome. Gekkou and Senkou soon introduce the tournament, which is being streamed to an internet video audience, and summon Fubuki, who addresses the fighters and commends them on their strength. With her arrival, she begins the Shinobi Masters proper, which takes place on the rooftop of a skyscraper.

Our Take:

This episode poses us an interesting question: is it okay to interrupt a fight scene to have a shot on two separate characters stocking-clad panties? No. No, it’s not, but that isn’t a problem for Senran Kagura, which continues to push the boundary between anime and pornography, making one wonder why Funimation has seen fit to give this an English dub and further the otaku pandering that has plagued anime for quite some time now. But putting my soapbox to the side, for now, this is an episode that’s a little bit more in the right direction of where this show needs to be, but not by much.

As opposed to last week’s episode, which, being a beach episode, was little more than an excuse to shove our heroines into skimpy, jiggly outfits. This is much less of that, but it still has all the same kitchy action-adventure trappings you’ve come to expect without any real content. Though this episode is absent of much of the rampant sexy pandering that has defined it so far, it doesn’t replace it with anything of value or interest. The story is rather vacant. It consists of our heroines faffing about for a while, eating cake, doing aerobics (While in tight gym clothes I should add) and looking around a school. There’s a little bit of reference to Kurokage for flavor, but it’s not explored in any meaningful way other than hinting at the connection between Fubuki and Kurokage.

In essence, this is an episode that simply doesn’t need to exist. It doesn’t convey any information of real value to us that couldn’t be a footnote in a more important episode. Instead of just having us find out about Senkou and Gekkou at the middle school, we have to watch the girls wander around without accomplishing much of note. Even the potential entertainment of a fight breaking out at the end is pushed away to give us the opener to the Shinobi Masters tournament. This is a bridge episode, but it feels like they forgot the bridge. It should have built up tension and excitement for the Shinobi Masters, but it just sorta happens. I’m still not entirely certain why this is important to the story, other than it being a way for Yumi and pals to “prove their justice” or some such thing. Nothing to see here, folks, go watch something else.