Hello everyone,
Here we are to complete the coverage of another series. This time we'll talk about Softenni, a series we blogged again recently and that reached conclusion a couple of days ago. (12 episodes)
This series has been for the whole duration a big comedy/fanservice parade, one so full of craziness that it makes you relaxed knowing that nothing can go wrong ever!
The story (oh, is there really a story?!) seems to be incomplete as the manga is still running and we'll probably need another series to get more of our characters maybe going to the national championship to fight against my lovely Shidou Misaki.
This is after all a sports anime and this series adaptation looks to me more like a preview of a sort of what have to come. "An introduction" maybe is the best word for this anime adaptation especially if you look at the fact that they presented the sixth girl right at the end of the season giving her almost no real focus...
The characters are pretty distinct in both personality, visual style and behaviour and each one of them is likable (no hateful character at all in the whole series that is a good point to make a successfull comedy series).
My favourite character remains the cool (only by appearance though) and cute Misaki Shidou that really jumped in the rankings of the show with her two dedicated episodes. (The cat costume scene was abnormally cute!)
Second favourite for the dirty Asuna Harukaze that got quite a backstory building in the latest two drama driven episodes regarding her past introduction to the soft tennis club together with Kotone and their relationship.
I'll be honest to say that the series would have been even better if they removed all the "romantic drama" parts regarding Kotone and Misshi, but we can't really go nitpicking don't we? :P
This series has caught enough interest to make me decide to buy the manga (that by the way have 5 volumes released at the moment) in the next July/August shipment from Japan to have the chance to see how the story of these girls will continue in the soft tennis world as I think it will be difficult for this series to have will have another adaptation in the future.
I suggest this series to anyone looking for a fanservice driven comedy series around cute girls striving around in their soft tennis club. (No, no Sekirei/HOTD abnormal "mature" design here)
See you soon,
feal87