Not a Happy “Kampfer”

February 23rd, 2012 in Anime, General Reviews, Kämpfer by

This was another show that got a lot of buzz. It just came off as no different when the AC kicks on and you hear the hum. A lot of noise for minimal results.

The plot revolves around Natsuru Senō, your typically clueless dense anime male. He wakes up one morning to find that he is a girl (the blue-haired one). What? How could this have happened? What gives? He is told by his stuffed tiger toy that he is a “Kampfer” (German for ‘fighter’) and that he has to fight other Kampfers. On his way to school, managing to regender himself, he meets Kaede Sakura at the bus stop (blondie, dead center). An old and dear childhood friend, suddenly, they are set upon by some mysterious red-tressed woman who tries to kill Natsuru. Fleeing the scene, he manages to switch back into his female form and defeat said fighter.

At school, things get worse. This might as well be the East Berlin School of Academics. Another girls-only school that went recently went co-ed, it is separate but equal. The guys are on one side, the gals on the other and there is a massive concrete wall, topped with barbed wire and packed with guards, to keep the boys away. In the library, Natsuru hooks up with Akane Mishima, the shy, bespectacled librarian…who tried to kill Natsuru. Yes, when she transforms, she becomes an Alpha female, packing a black Springfield M1911A1 .45 pistol and a mouth on her that would make Nixon proud. (more…)