#244: Eiken (2003)


Studio: J.C. Workers

Director: Kiyotaka Ohata

Screenplay: Tomoyasu Okubo

In line with the manga by Seiji
Matsuyama

Recount Forged: Akeno Watanabe as
Densuke Mifune; Miwa Oshiro as Chiharu Shinonome; Emi Yabusaki as Yuriko
Shinonome; Mai Kadowaki as Kyoko Morooka; Marina Ono as Komoe Harumachi; Masumi
Asano as Kirika Misono; Touko Itou as Lin Grace

Considered in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

J.C. Workers are a prolific company who have labored on some acclaimed
titles – the TV sequence Revolutionary Girl
Utena (1997)
and Azumanga Daioh
(2002)
spring to thoughts – however they’re calm a company who labored over the
years, resulting in an eclectic catalogue which contains legitimately
curiosities, ones it is possible you’ll perchance also just have never heard of and others that you just can be succesful to scratch
your head about. The straight to video work is a giant example of this.  You can have Cat Soup (2001), an awfully talked-about and surreal avant-garde
animation in line with the work of manga writer Nekojiru.
You can nonetheless also have Garzey’s Wing
(1996-7)
, a infamous Yoshiyuki
Tomino
work, and so they are a company who have set up their fingers honest into a unfamiliar
need of tangents. Presumably one of the horrifying, least in the united states as a consequence of
Media Blasters launched this two
episode work and the manga, is Seiji
Matsuyama’s
Eiken. Eiken, for fogeys that correct see on the
screenshots, will lead to many running removed from it as a long way as possible. Hell,
the calm photos could also just even reason considerations for those that take care of free blogging
net sites, until it is possible you’ll perchance also just have the warning page for soft stutter material up. Eiken, with enticing warning for somebody awaiting this to be a review correct viewing it as a atrocious perversion of anime intercourse comedy tropes could also very effectively be mortified that this review, dare I recount, could also just even change into pretentious. Now not to shield the anime at all, however from somebody who considered it handiest in thoughts to a morbid fascination, and left discovering it a sexual nightmare memoir masquerading in cute garments with plenty to unpick. Even in phrases
of Matsuyama’s unintentional
contributions as a manga writer in actual lifestyles Japanese politics, Eiken is a ideal example, whether or not an correct anime, a unfriendly anime, or an horrifying one, it is possible you’ll perchance also write so mighty about even supposing totally personal idea, and it is all price having written down.

This all also stems into the
previous. Enable us to not kid ourselves, even supposing the later sentence will sound crass,
however anime and manga over the a long time has had an obsession with the feminine bust, and this outcomes in the time duration “bakunyu”,
literally “exploding breasts” and capability “mighty breasts”, ought to you clutch the fixation found in many cultures for heterosexual males to its most impolite level.
Eiken is horrifying, even when greater
busted characters have change into in style within anime and manga, for being the
one title to bring bakunyu to Shonen manga as, sure, this used to be targeted to
adolescent boys in Weekly Shōnen Champion.
The account is inspiring incandescent that its most infamous ingenious decision, the
bust measurement of various its feminine forged, used to be not from the accumulate-dash, however a decision
made with the editor (with the author’s curiosity) to redraw the characters from
quantity four in the manga tankōbon onwards, which is also severely where, in the
US releases, Media Blasters’
publications had to swap from an age ranking of 16 plus to 18 plus1.
Although I characterize caution against somebody watching this without warning, I got here to this anime totally attentive to what I was entering, and discovering in online page of feeling soiled, as I will warn most will, the anime adaptation fascinated for what it inadvertedly grew to alter into. The total element by pure accident comes as a teen male sexual neurosis onscreen even supposing that’s clearly not the plan of the manufacturing at all, all with a perverse air to it that’s extra inspiring to have witnessed for myself than the shock many would have with this title. 

It is not always a parody, because it used to be
clearly made as a memoir with intercourse allure if one with a kink or two few have, and
as we can accumulate into later, Seiji
Matsuyama
created a manga mighty extra controversial, with broad scale make
on Japanese censorship, which is more likely to be much less defendable and online page a extra
damning witness on this title too with hindsight. Coming to this, Eiken has the total tropes of different anime
and manga that will perchance also just be questionable and clichéd, the highschool romance a total account line that will perchance also just be performed effectively and has questionable aspects to deliver, along side the obsession with having so many and the muse one’s highschool lifestyles in a fantastical make is extra mighty of anime over the worlds of adults. The adaptation is that here’s anime highschool if
filtered via a teen hormonal nightmare. Our lead Densuke Mifune is
so bland, like so many male protagonists in these by system of his meek incapacity, that he is straight away situation upon by the infamous Eiken membership and its leader Kirika
Misono on his first day at Zashono
Academy
, a online page which is literally positioned on a blatant Freudian landmass.
It is not always redeemable as an anime, however the stereotypical clichés over these two episodes are
here and so they ranking themselves being extra scrutinised as a consequence of how tasteless this
conceal will get, exaggerating them to an impolite at the same time as calm disguising itself as cutesy.
The clichés are found in other presentations – cute love curiosity Chiharu Shinonome,
who’s shy and Densuke crushes on, the faculty competition that will perchance also bring them
closer, the frequent pupil who studied in the united states who’s a risk as one other
romantic curiosity, and Densuke’s possess poor curse to stumble into every clichéd
moment of anime intercourse comedy on the extra serious moments. The diversities beyond its lewdness could also nearly were necessary changes that the conceal never in point of fact winked at, in that the most infamous fragment of the conceal, the breast sizes of just a few key feminine characters, could also have correct been confirmed onscreen and all the pieces about the distance could also have accomplished out with out ever raising the persona designs as the anime in point of fact does persistently, forcing one to register it and react with how even a crass need undercuts all the pieces. This anime isn’t refined in the slightest so as a replace with Chiharu,
the bakunyu swap forces her to alter into distorted, the swap turning these
characters into hyper exaggerations that for a viewer could also very effectively be a step into the
off-striking. And some of the characters are younger and extra ridiculously
proportion, which makes this even moe perverse let alone extra uncertain in
total earlier than those enticing touches. 

If it used to be not apparent this used to be a
unparalleled product beamed from a particular sequence of conditions, the different world model of this, which used to be extra targeted on being a crooked runt parody, would were impressed if off-striking for somebody. Even on this uncertain make it is in point of fact, I will be succesful to not attend however see it like a two episode nightmare from one other tv conceal, censored for tv censorship, where our lead dreams all of this in a advise of delirium, representing
all of his sexual anxieties and dangle-usa a teen boy, earlier than he wakes up and
encounters these characters with good proportions and with much less lewdness
onscreen. In one other context, this would have calm be poor viewing,
however could also were a in point of fact crooked satire much less on these tropes however on teen
hormonal anxieties. That is extra so pondering how many anime intercourse comedies already
have the unfamiliar “reward-punishment” trope that I ranking extra and extra unfamiliar to see. Removed from embarrassment, after I change into older as an anime fan, watching work with fan carrier stutter material, rather a lot of it is now, if not defendable as correct intercourse comedy, changing into extra psychologically compelling to unpick for the style they symbolize sexual dangle-united statesand relationships. Whether or not the lead
deserves it or by pure accident, any stumble upon with the reverse intercourse in phrases
of one thing lewd or sexual on the total incorporates a male lead being humiliated
and/or beaten up afterwards, one thing which has come off as extra an scare of
intercourse in total the extra I look it in these tales, whether or not they’re defendable or
not.

Even the obsession with breasts,
exaggerated here to an fantastic impolite and an obsession for many men,
filters via this anxious unintentional tone; the muse that, whether or not any
psychological or sociological reasons this fragment of the feminine anatomy is an
obsession for many heterosexual men erotically, a giant fragment of this likely as
mighty as a consequence of an integral fragment of childhood being how all of us undergo necessary physical swap. When one goes via
puberty, male or feminine, your body physically changes and these changes, even
for fogeys that every one of sudden change into taller or stay immediate, change into the element which others
take in as they themselves physically and emotionally swap, sometime they exaggerate in how they peek you; here’s along side
of us that adjust into in you, and what they would also just clutch into tale,
as they themselves by shock in point of fact feel attraction to the reverse intercourse until they dash
via the discovery of being contented or bisexual. All of here’s amateur
observation, so heckling in the comments is applicable, however it undoubtedly is honest that, if
this used to be a parody, Densuke’s nightmare distorts the most prominent
aspects of the lady he has a crush on. These are her
shyness, with the Japanese vocal performance from Miwa Oshiro, a mannequin whose handiest reveal
performing role is this conceal, exaggerates via the timidness in her excessive
reveal, and her resolve, which if this used to be a good conceal, and not a fetish work, would be via the thoughts’s witness of how one teen boy views her via this over-the-top physicality as the opposite feminine characters with an identical proportions. Thinking about the hair kinds
of the feminine forged, no topic figures, is correct as exaggerated with how
giant they’re, it befits this distortion. Any individual like the leader of the
Eiken membership Kirika Misono and others are even extra exaggerated of their
proportions, and even with those that’re not, their reputedly sexual openness, at the same time as not refined and effectively performed, could also were in a satire his fears of women he is in however are absolutely extra attentive to themselves physically and in needs then he and most of the males in the faculty ever can. The
crass phallic meals jokes make not attend amongst many moments on this conceal, namely with Kirika’s obsession with things like
bananas and not ingesting them conventionally, peek gags that you just the viewer
will hope no person comes into the room (with the total work) ought to you are
watching this; even those despite the reality that would create sense if this used to be an actual satire if calm
crass. That being Densuke a case of someone with a surprising need for the
reverse intercourse however is fearful of them as confident, hypersexual figures in his
see of them.

That is all death of the author
logic, however I am coming to this title with its legacy being hyped, that I had
heard for years this used to be to be approached with caution, a title it is possible you’ll
scratch your eyes out in on the spot contact of. As a replace I watched Eiken handiest to search out myself admitting I
used to be not suffering from it at all, even with some of the extra serious jokes that seem
between the 2 twenty plus minute episodes, even discovering a in unfortunate health sense of
humour to this with distance for the style unintentionally un-erotic it is. My tastes for readers is also person that, appreciating the most helpful of art, is also being somebody with the taste for the unique, even a cinematic trash panda who can strive to marvel what fashioned work that’s not going to ranking many other folks. Again, let sanity come and point out here’s all a point of view
to a work proudly, and overtly, perverse on reason, however calm I ranking one of
the stranger moments on this anime used to be not sexual at all, that amongst the duo of
feminine commentators on the sports activities events, each and every classmates, one of them decides
to preserve her finger to her top lip like a moustache and talk in a faux deep male
reveal to sound like an authority, which is stranger than the rest else that’s lewd and sexually symbolic. Far extra annoying
for me is that the male pupil getting back from the States is a predator,
somebody claiming to be Chiharu’s knight in shining armour however emotionally
twisting her, and forcing her to be intimate with him in the sports activities games in a
non-consensual system as a team of workers. That stutter material is extra problematic over time in anime, making his punishment (even with the cheap laughable account
at bald of us) in point of fact justifiable. 

That is all in thoughts that, even supposing
you organize to build up via episode one, episode two goes to be extra
off-striking for some. The principle has a yoghurt water scramble as a deliver, which
is sexual innuendo giving up subtlety, however the later has a chocolate
waterslide, which is poor in what it appears to be like as if as a replace, and one off
jokes, along side interesting eels, that will perchance also just reason even of us that got via
that first episode to present up the anime broken. But it calm sounds like the
sexual nightmare of Densuke, inflicting me to marvel why Seiji Matsuyama for his manga made most of the humour, if correct to the manga in the adaptation, a male lead who’s the butt of these jokes. There are moments when Densuke has some very kinky fantasies of his possess about Chiharu, however they truthfully in point of fact feel adolescent and are persistently undercut by how at a downside he is in every deliver, like a guy whose learnt of these in a grimy magazine however would be in the deep result in an actual relationship with one other human being. That is doubtlessly the one element on this total anime arguably conclude to categorical lifestyles even supposing I make not deserve to present Eiken credit ranking for being orderly. Even jokes that it has that are eyebrow raising,
akin to Chiharu’s younger sister being openly flirtatious with him, are a)
jokes we deserve to critique in other anime for having too, and b) itself one other
of the moments this conceal unintentionally sounds like one unfortunate boy’s hormones being
his possess enemy. The total “gag” (with air quotes) of Densuke  being forced to set up on a lady’s swimming one allotment (with ponytails) for the chocolate water scramble deliver is loaded in itself, and would be calm the same even supposing Seiji Matsuyama used to be to have admitted, if from the manga, he never thought to be the rest extra to it beyond pondering it a “gag” to casually consist of for one chapter.

A unique amount of sexual scare
comes into anime even when it is taking half in to questionable tropes of women being
viewed undressed or nude in altering rooms for a laughable account and titillation, not forgetting sizzling springs episodes or when by pure accident a fling of garments in a pratfall transpires. There is probably going afterwards to be the scene of the fellow being physically injured in the transgression, or in
this case Densuke persistently on the fracture of humiliation and belief from others
he is a pervert. The Japanese reveal performance, not like the one from Bryce Papenbrook in the English dub, is
a female reveal actress Akeno Watanabe who plays him poor
younger in how excessive pitch he is, like a heart pupil along side in his immediate
top, however it undoubtedly provides to the in unfortunate health laughable account of the unfortunate lad making an are trying to wrap his head
spherical this world of hyper-figured ladies even taller than him let alone with just a few wrapping him spherical their fingers. Suffering on the
cruel fingers of the writers (and manga writer Seiji Matsuyama) falling back on the dated tropes of intercourse comedy,
that this calm sounds like a outmoded comedy barring its lewd small print provides
to this provides to this crooked nature. With its early 2000s see of vivid colours, its nineties mah-jong videogame music ranking, and the plot in which cute it is all
supposed to be, the muse here’s all supposed to be like a on daily basis anime comedy is extra weird and wonderful than any of the perversity onscreen. There is even a undergo creature no person raises questions about being
in the Eiken membership with everybody else correct to toy with any viewer who can tolerate how impolite it is, discovering a brand contemporary system to baffle.

Thinking about the stuff I’ve sat
via where I’ve found extra annoying stutter material in extra imperfect
locations, I ranking Eiken correct perverse. Anime with poor phases of non-consensual eroticism like VS Knight Lamune & 40 Original
(1997)
, a straight to video work which gives itself as a sexy inch
conceal handiest to be hideous in misogynistic systems in tonal whiplashes, create Eiken a lesser of two evils, extra unfamiliar to prod as an oddity. It is tasteless
and one I understand the reactions to, that it is atrocious and deserves the most
adversarial critiques; the most helpful things are that I’ve suffered via worse, and
that here’s a singular artefact too loaded with psychosexual aspects and
unintentional weirdness that are compelling. It is not always pleasant to peer
the anime, however it undoubtedly used to be compelling in its possess system. If somebody like Guy Maddin made a yarn like this in
are residing inch, imagining now the perversity and surrealism of the Canadian
filmmaker of Careful (1992) adapting
this account, Eiken would be a movie
that will set up of us off, however it undoubtedly would one damn unfamiliar day out, pondering that
a movie like Cowards Bend the Knees
(2003)
, one of Guy Maddin’s extra
transgressive movies dealing with sexual kink, used to be a movie about male sexual
neurosis if by system of ice hockey. The reality
this has no actual nudity either provides to its tone too. It is tame in what you make not look, however has
stutter material kinkier here than in actual spirited porn, that will perchance also just create of us in point of fact feel very
filthy for watching this however provides to this perverse feverish conception even supposing
totally from this viewer’s standpoint. There is rather a lot of anime and manga
which is totally with this tone, supposed to titillate with having horny
schoolgirls with ridiculous proportions and come in undress, which has its possess
ethical and gender considerations rightly to unpack, however also on the total come with a necessity to
punish its male characters as if to punish the male viewers.  It is charming to peer what’s held as
one of the infamous straight to video anime for many other folks and, in online page of
clutch it because it is, imagine what Sigmund
Freud
would have thought to be it. Although Freud’s
strategies on intercourse and women were persistently uncertain, correct to see him making an are trying to resolve it
all would were one thing I wanted came about.

The one sobering point despite the reality that,
and here’s one thing I were wary to reach, is that the history after this
for Seiji Matsuyama would let to him
accumulate into legit controversy with one other of his works, a title called Oku-sama wa Shōgakusei (My Accomplice Is an
Elementary Pupil)
, which, sure, does elevate fear bells as a premise even supposing
a gag comedy. This controversy over this manga and others in 2011 used to be connected
to a revised invoice to amend the Formative years
Healthy Style Ordinance
2, person that not handiest restricted those
manga3 however used to be marked with considerations, underneath its contemporary revised
guiding precept, to limit the gross sales of affords that were thought to be “to be
excessively disrupting of social repeat”3. Invoice 156 as the final
revision grew to alter into, via mess ups and revisions beforehand, used to be controversial,
and at the same time as the sphere cloth it targeted comprises work which for many is inspiring
to shield, along side manga that contain sexual relationships with minors, unfortunately
one of the men who helped this revision in the fracture accumulate passed in 2010 used to be then-Tokyo governor Shintarō Ishihara. Ishihara, till the fracture of his tenure in
office in 2012, is an extremely problematic resolve, a historic novelist whose
beliefs were slammed as racist4a, misogynistic4b,
and pertinent to Invoice 156, integrated openly homophobic comments from 2000 that
homosexuality used to be irregular4c. The deliver with Invoice 156 on the time
used to be a conundrum; that the affords it targeted would be extremely inspiring
for many to shield, akin to work in the lolicon and shotacon genre, minority
genres of manga yet ones that deliver what freedom in manga as art is, however
that it could perchance also were abused for censoring LGBTQ voices underneath the auspices of
retaining kids, alongside those selling views on controversial subject matters performed with intelligence and beauty. Especially as inspiring work for many, even of us that
believed in the freedom of art, would be pointed to as proof to account for the
censorship, the invoice could also have had giant lasting wound, and pondering it
used to be Seiji Matsuyama’s Oku-sama wa Shōgakusei that used to be confirmed
on tv by Tokyo Vice Governor Naoki
Inose
as corrupting and needing to be restricted5, fragment of a
campaign resulting in the birth of this invoice, Matsuyama
got his fingers burnt by this and it does deem back on Eiken. Whilst it is its possess perverse runt element, least on this
immediate anime adaptation, the tone of Eiken
if correct to the manga does conceal a lewdness, along side that it used to be supplied
for teenage boys, could also have gotten extra confrontational if he used to be allowed to push the envelope. It used to be a good title of Matsuyama’s which got him in sizzling water, however he could also have raised controversy from sure groups even from Eiken if remotely like the anime. 

Eiken itself managed to come, least the anime adaptation, when Media Blasters got here back from a lengthy
hibernation in 2020. Media Blasters,
who were based in 1997, are charming as the runt fair distributor
in the United States who has never refused to present up the ghost, and despite a
lengthy duration of absence, founder John
Sirabella
has saved the company afloat, coming back with a vengeance in
2020. The manga arm of the company is gone, however Eiken got a Blu Ray re-liberate that year6a and would be
made available to peer on Crunchyroll
for streaming by the fracture of 20206b. I would not be bowled over ,
at the same time as Media Blasters sells actual
porn anime and lewd ecchi anime, that Eiken’s
re-liberate comes with the records of its notoriety after the passing time. Eiken is the title which, after its
first liberate and its manga being printed in English in the US, would be viewed
as the final horrifying title to dare to peer for some, the one too unique or
perverse for others to see, and in my case the infamous title I spied with the
aforementioned morbid curiosity. It is to be approached with caution, and if
this had been a stout tv sequence of correct thirteen episodes, my comments from these two episodes could also just have lead as a replace to me changing honest into a husk of a demoralised anime viewer after my preliminary cockiness. Thinking about the manga had eighteen volumes, even my perverse curiosity in the title could also just not deserve to understand where it went with this premise beyond these sixty minutes, and incandescent stout effectively here’s loaded with innuendo, on occasion one thing shorter is much less painful over one thing vastly longer by system of watching anime. As I’ve found, immediate anime, even those thought to be the worst, make not have that mighty energy for me as a consequence of they make not clutch too longer to take a seat down down via. At sixty minutes, Eiken is the make of conceal John Sirabella’s Media Blasters could also re-liberate and clutch profit of even adversarial legacy, and truthfully, I love them for taking profit of this even supposing other of us could also just not, doubtlessly regretting watching this even in the occasion that they brushed off warnings like mine on this review. 

======

1) Who Turned into once To blame For This Anime?, an insanely (and applaudably)
detailed and shining YouTube documentary on Eiken from Hazel
(“@hhhazel”). The video here and the channel here.

2) Rotund Tokyo Assembly Passes Formative years Ordinance Invoice,
written by Egan Toilet loo and printed by
Anime News Community on 15th December
2010.

3) Akamatsu’s J-Comi Living Posts Adult Manga Restricted
by Tokyo Law
, written by Egan Toilet loo
and printed by Anime News Community
on 3rd October 2011.

4a) Substitute
Memoir to the First and Second Periodic Memoir of JAPA on the World
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination
. Share “3. Care for an eye fixed on of expression,
incitement and violence connected to racial discrimination”
, underneath “(2) Absence of provisions regulating
and punishing discriminatory expression by public officers”
, underneath “C. Residence of the JFBA”. Written
by the Japan Federation of Bar
Associations  (JFBA)
in January 19,
2001 and printed on-line by Nichibenren.

4b) Committee
on Elimination of Discrimination Against Females, The Third Consideration of
Japanese Governmental Memoir: Proposal of Checklist of Points for Pre-sessional
Working Crew
, written by the Japan
Civil Liberties Union
and printed on 27th January 2003, archived on 23 November
2012.

4c) FEATURE:
Ishihara’s homophobic remarks elevate ire of gays
, written for Japan Protection & Politics and
printed April 3rd 2000. Archived on the Free
Library.com

5) 4,000
State Takashi Murakami’s Versailles Note
, written by Egan Toilet loo and printed on Anime News Community on thirtieth August 2010.

6a) Media
Blasters to Free up Eiken, Jungle de Ikou!, Jubei-Chan 2 Anime on Blu-ray Disc
,
written by Crystalyn Hodgkins, and
printed by Anime News Community on
Twenty first February 2020.

6b) Crunchyroll
Adds Eiken Anime to Catalog
, written by Rafael Antonio Pineda and printed by Anime News Community on twenty fifth September 2020.