Eiken News

Before I press on with this article, let me tell folks that this title is now officially the absolute worst anime I’ve had a chance of seeing to date. I had to regularly take breaks every few minutes watching this horrific piece of trash just to keep myself from getting the temptation to destroy the disc when I rented it from Netflix. I did warn you guys this was not gonna be a pretty one for me and I was almost tempted to go on a profanity-laden rant for this article because of how much Eiken absolutely disgusted me. But for the sake of those who want to avoid crap like Eiken, I guess I have a duty to inform you of why you should avoid this like the plague. So sit back and enjoy reading this.
 

Eiken was an 18-volume fan service-heavy romantic comedy manga series published in the Shonen Champion magazine from 2001 to 2004 and created by Seiji Matsuyama. A two-episode OAV anime adaptation of the series was released in 2003 and animated by J.C. Staff and GENCO. The anime adaptation was directed by Kiyotaka Ohata, a storyboard artist and episode director for titles like Arjuna and Azumanga Daioh.
 

Story

Densuke is a high school student who enrolls at Zashono Academy who finds himself taking an interest in shy, timid and beautiful girl Chihiru and unwillingly joining the mysterious Eiken Club. Hoping to earn Chihiru’s affections, Densuke is persuaded into entering a school-wide competition he desires to win.

Notable Characters (from left to right):

Densuke Mifune- Male lead of the series who is wimpy and trying to earn Chihiru’s affection. Quite often found in embarrassing predicaments with other girls which prevent any relationship developments for him to occur with Chihiru.   

Chihiru Shinonome- Timid, shy and beautiful girl with an 88 cm bust, Densuke’s love interest.

Kirika Misono- Purple-haired leader of the Eiken Club with a 99 cm bust who is normally seen sucking on phallic-looking foods and egging on Densuke throughout the school competition.

Komoe Harumachi- A clumsy elementary school student who is the youngest of the Eiken Club members and has the largest bust size at 111 cm.

Yuriko Shinonome- Chihiru’s younger sister with interest in Densuke and quite often likes pressing her body on him or jumping into his face butt or crotch first. 
 

Why It Sucks:

  Enough boobage and ass-shots to drive me insane.

Eiken is a huge smorgasbord of various scenarios and character archetypes you would find in ecchi titles. Any kind of plot and character development you would hope to get out of this series is taken out in favor of enough sexual innuendo to spot in just about every scene of Eiken. The series is so ignorant of its plot that it doesn’t even bother exploring what exactly the Eiken Club does and why the students never get in trouble for the suggestive predicaments they get into.

Here’s just a bit of the various forms of innuendo you would be exposed to throughout Eiken: suggestive use of food, butt shots to the camera, clothes flying off, Densuke getting in enough embarrassing moments with girls, suggestive movements between two characters in very close proximity of one another. These moments make Eiken seem almost like a softcore hentai title.

This might be all well and good if you crave ecchi and fan service heavy anime titles. But when there are a number of girls among the cast who have bust sizes that defy genetics (even the youngest of the Eiken Club being among the offenders), then it is rather hard to get turned on and interested in the female cast when that one “certain” area is very unappealing to the eyes.
 

Where They Do Now:

Seiji Matsuyama- Last I had heard about Matsuyama, he is still doing ecchi manga with the recent publication of his series, Oku-sama wa Shogakusei (My Wife is an Elementary Student). However, the series had been listed as a “harmful publication” by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in April thanks to the passing of the Youth Healthy Development Ordinance bill.

Kiyotaka Ohata- Ohata is still doing storyboards and episode direction for a number of anime titles, with the most recent notable ones including Baccano, Princess Jellyfish and Natsume’s Book of Friends.
 
The License- Both the anime and manga adaptations of Eiken are currently licensed by Media Blasters. The anime is still available to buy through the distributor’s Anime Works chain while only 12 of the 18 manga volumes are available for sale with no new volumes having been released in America since 2008. 

And for your personal amusement and my entertainment, I present this…