Keijo!!!!!!!!

Genre(s): Sports, Ecchi, School, (Shonen?)

Age-Appropriateness: 16+ (Partial nudity, sexual references, themes, and language)

Platforms: Crunchyroll, Funimation

Episodes: 12

TheAwersome Rating: 7.1 / 10 (Takes 3-4 episodes to get into it)

Premise: Japan’s latest competitive sport, keijo, is dictated by a simple set of rules: female-only participants must stand on platforms floating in a pool—referred to as “lands”—with the goal being to knock off opponents using only their breasts and butts. Despite this outlandish premise, the sport attracts millions of viewers across the country and boasts a lavish prize pool. Many aspiring athletes take up the challenge in hopes of becoming the next national champion.

After graduating from high school, the lively Nozomi Kaminashi enters the world of keijo, hoping to bring home a fortune to her poor family. As a gifted gymnast, Nozomi quickly proves herself a tough competitor. Meeting new friends and rivals as she climbs the ranks, Nozomi discovers that the path to stardom as a keijo player is filled with intense competition that will challenge not only her body, but also her soul.

TheAwersome’s Thoughts: Yup, it’s the water polo butt wrestling anime, and yes, there are that many exclamation points in the title and I hate it. I also hated this show for about four episodes, then I got into it and found myself able to watch more than one episode a day, so it isn’t absolute trash the whole way through. Animation is… poor, as is the character writing (or lack thereof). What this show does have going for it is the classic tournament/training arc combo. The matches each have slightly different settings and rules, so there’s the fun challenge of “how will they win THIS time?” Like a proper shonen-flavored, everybody has somewhat supernatural moves that all have names they shout as they perform them.

TLDR: A decent sports/shonen set in a heavily ecchi environment, but not worth much past the novelty of the gag premise.

From an ecchi standpoint, it was refreshing to see an anime pay any attention to the backside at all, let alone give it such a starring role. While there aren’t any “spicy” scenes, there are plenty of shenanigans and skin-service that put this on the stronger end of ecchi, easily in the Food Wars category (though not as good IMO).

You’ll Likely Enjoy This if You Enjoyed:

• Unapologetic ecchi of Food Wars
• Solid battle competition of Kakegurui or any shonen
• Almost all-female cast of New Game!, Sound! Euphonium, etc.