| Akikan Review |
| Written by kevin-san |
| Sunday, 10 May 2009 04:01 |
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Akikan Review
Melon and Kakeru What the hell was Riku Ranjou, the original author of the Akikan light novels, thinking – or should I say smoking? “No wait... soda-cans that turn into girls. Magical juice-can girls with super powers. That battle each other in a supreme contest of the strongest can!” Only the Japanese could think of something as awesome sounding as this. Akikan is an anime that aired during the winter of 2009 about magical can girls and their owners. The word Akikan means “empty can” in Japanese, which explains the soda can girl thing this show has going on. Each Akikan girl has a unique look that comes from the type of drink that their can holds – sports drinks, melon juice, and grape juice are some that come early on in the show. If you think that magical girls spawning from the likes of Surge and Mountain Dew are frightening, you're right. Each Akikan girl has the ability to do more damage than a level 100 Mewtwo dishing out a critical hit. That said, it's not like Akikan girls are running amok throughout Japan. They each have an owner, the first person to take a drink from their can. As soon as the unsuspecting owner puts their lips to the edge of the can, it transforms into a girl! Oh, it just so happens that the girl will be kissing you each time this transformation occurs. The Akikans are divided into two types – steel cans and aluminum cans. The steel cans and aluminum cans are sworn enemies, destined to destroy each other. The “Akikan Elect”, a battle between the Akikans, is established to find the strongest Akikan of all. As awesome as the sounds, the anime never sticks with this idea – or with any idea of a plot at all.  Kakeru hangin' out with Melon
The aforementioned melon bombs come from Kakeru's Akikan – Melon. Melon is a steel can, melon soda flavored Akikan. She's generally naïve, often letting Kakeru humorously trick her in his perverse ways. Despite this, she tries to seem tough and strong, even though she's actually quite needy and sensitive. Melon has a hard time expressing herself to Kakeru, which sometimes gives the impression that she dislikes him. In reality, she's just a typical pseudo-tsundere who is temporarily closed off to the main guy in her life. Melon detests aluminum can Akikans, and would love to throw a few of her melon bombs in their direction.
Aside from Kakeru, Najimi Tenkuji also acquires an Akikan. Najimi is Kakeru's childhood friend, and has an obsessive romantic interest in him. Despite Kakeru being so eager to get with girls, he never seems to take an interest in Najimi. As a side note, she also gets drunk off of carbonated drinks. Seriously. She acquired her Akikan while buying a refreshment during one of her classmates birthday parties. Najimi's Akikan is an aluminum can sports drink girl named Yell. Yell is a very strong, respectful, and loyal Akikan. She would do anything for Najimi, including kill another human. Seeing Najimi upset triggers Yell to act in harsh and violent ways. She has an isotonic sword as her weapon, which can cut through almost anything. Finally we have Misaki Miyashita and her Akikan Budoko. Misaki is an extremely shy junior high student who never gets much attention in the series. Budoko is an aluminum can grape juice Akikan and is very young when compared to Yell and Melon. Budoko's personality is completely different from her owner's, as she is very confrontational and won't keep quiet. She loves to battle other Akikans, even though her owner disapproves.
Melon and Yell start to battle Throughout Akikan, there are repeated battles between the steel can Melon and the aluminum cans Budoko and Yell. There's a so called “Akikan Elect,” where the steel and aluminum cans are to battle each other to find the superior can making material. These battles are generally not very interesting and quite generic. It's the typical, narrowly dodge explosions followed by a special move scenario. Even more disappointing, each Akikan's special move is typically highlighted by some stock footage shown over and over in each battle. Such repertoire is typically left to Mecha anime, which can get away with it because Mecha stock footage is generally epic and flashy. With Akikan, the special moves are boring, generic, and predictable. Each battle is a yawn, and does not add anything to the overall enjoyability of the series. You would think that Akikan would be fairly easy to follow with battles being instantiated by the “Akikan Elect,” but it isn't. In fact, Akikan has little to not direction at all, struggling with itself to get in and out of several different plot threads. Between Kakeru's love life and perversion, the whole idea of an “Akikan Elect,” and Najimi vying for Kakeru's affection, it's very hard to stick to a consistent story. Throw in Yell and Melon's rivalry, Budoko being an annoying loli, filler episodes about “hot days,” and trying to explain the human and Akikan relationship, it's obvious to see how there was no way for a decent story to ever form – especially in 12 episodes.
A humorous moment with Melon relaxing in a bath tub full of Melon Soda In later episodes, Akikan almost completely shy's away from the premise that the battles were caused by the hate between aluminum and steel cans. When a series begins to backtrack on an a priori fact for why everything is happening, it is never good. Even worse, the characters in Akikan never develop and grow, creating a boring stagnant of predictability. Instead of doing one or two things well, Akikan does many things horribly wrong. I started out thinking this would be a great comedy anime, laughing at Kakeru's sexual jokes. In fact if they went in this direction and focused on the humor, the anime would have been much more enjoyable. As is, the viewer inevitably ends up disappointed and asking themselves how the first episode could ever have led to the last. With such poor plot management, you would hope Akikan would step up to the plate in other areas. There are a lot of funny moments in Akikan, Kakeru's sexual references being a highlight. That said, there are hardly any other redeeming qualities in the series. The animation quality is of average to poor caliber, with some unpleasant graininess and little creativity in character design. Aside from Budoko (who sounds annoying and muffled), the voice acting is decent. The OP songs are fitting to the series, and average to slightly above average. Sadly, the ED does not compare. The OP and ED animation sequences are also boring and stale. Overall, Akikan is a mediocre to poor series about soda-can girls. It suffers the same fate as many recent shows; trying to fit too much into too few episodes. As an engineer, if you can't fully develop a product, it isn't worth selling it to the consumer. Likewise, if you can't fully develop an idea in anime, please leave it out. If Akikan chose to perfect a few elements as much as possible rather than cramming 9384 fragments together to form a collage of mediocrity, we might have a unique and enjoyable series. Unfortunately, Akikan is bland, predictable, and rarely leaves you wanting to watch more. Rating: 3.7/10 You can contact kevin-san at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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| Last Updated on Wednesday, 13 May 2009 13:24 |
Comments
I flipped when I found out akikan was released this very year -chuckles-
I just had to find out what others thought of it in reviews, so glad this didn't talk it up.
The worst thing for me is I just came from watching the masterpiece that is Monster to watching this -sighs-
The only main redeeming feature was that the main character has and did shoot people in the past (After seeing that flashback and knowing the backing story I was kinda hoping for a punypuny poemi style twist or psuedo higurashi style twist)
They even included a yakitate style reaction, really an anime I will unfortunately remember just to tell people of the strange japanese mind.