The series focuses on five high school girls who secretly train in the ninja arts. All five girls have big breasts, and each one seems to fall into a particular "type" of character. One of the girls seems to be ditzy and clumsy, another girl is fascinated with fondling the breasts of one of the other girls, another girl is timid, another girl is calm and collected, and the fifth girl wears an eyepatch. About the only real character development we get in the first episode is the fact that the ditzy and clumsy girl is the granddaughter of a ninja master.
As I watched the first episode, it became readily apparent that Senran Kagura was designed to be a "fanservice" show, rather than one with much character development or plot. There's just enough "plot" and "structure" to provide a reason for showing jiggling breasts and panty shots on the screen, and that's about it. The girls also go through a ninja transformation sequence that looks a lot like a "magical girl" transformation sequence; however, there's only "fanservice" shots instead of the nudity associated with some of the more notorious "magical girl" transformation sequences.
I really can't fault the anime for the character designs, though, since that was dictated by the designs that appear in the Nintendo 3DS games. However, the amount of "fanservice" could have been toned down a little bit. The animators seemed to make sure that the girls' large breasts jiggled basically every single time the characters moved.
Senran Kagura will basically appeal to viewers who are already fans of the Nintendo 3DS games or to viewers who watch anime more for the "fanservice" elements than for plot or character development. Unfortunately, a show like Senran Kagura does not appeal to my tastes, so I personally have no interest in continuing to watch this series in the future.
When you watch the streams of Senran Kagura on FUNimation's website, you have to log in with a FUNimation website account to prove that you are 17 years of age and older. Since FUNimation has placed this restriction on their streams, I can only truly recommend Senran Kagura to anime viewers who are 17 or 18 years of age and older.
| Senran Kagura | 12 | 2013 | Takashi Watanabe | Artland | FUNimation Entertainment |
