Kampfer
Kampfer revolved around a group of people called ‘kampfers', identified by either the red or blue bracelets on their wrists, who act as proxy fighters for an interstellar war taking place deep in space. Oddly enough, Natsuru Seno finds a blue bracelet randomly on his wrist one day and, to everyone’s surprise, when the bracelet activates, he not only gains amazing powers and agility, he turns into a she.
I loved Kampfer, but I did find it a bit confusing in the genre department. At the beginning, I thought for sure that this anime was going to be completely action oriented with a good dash of comedy here and there, but it quickly makes a left turn down romance lane, and suddenly transforms into a lovey-dovey harem. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore harem anime, so I was not disappointed due to the turn of events. I was mainly confused because, for example, episode one and two would have a good bit of action, but episodes three through six would consist of nothing but high school high jinxs and a whole lot of romance (you can imagine the amount of trouble a guy who can transform into a girl could get into on a sex segregated campus).
The character development was fine for an anime of this size (twelve episodes). You really don’t get to know the characters that well, but when you think about it, twelve episodes is really not enough time to really fall in love with any one character. The story line was a bit random. You had the whole ‘kampfer proxy’ thing going on, but that doesn’t even come into play until the rear of the series. The rest of the series consisted of random episodes that featured the girls in talent shows, going to the beach, dates, and other miscellaneous adventures that are commonplace throughout many harem anime. I did found the protagonist’s journey from male to female interesting though that may be because that is where most of the yuri action went down.
There was nothing special about the artwork. The music however, was one of the main highlights that made this anime special for me. When it comes to music, I am completely, unequivocally, absolutely, and entirely biased. If I hear a flute theme I’m instantly hooked on the music; it has to be a really crappy flute theme for me not to give the music department a double thumbs up. Kampfers chalk full of ‘em, so that really improved the anime as a whole for me.
Overall, Kampfer was a pretty good watch. However, my biggest bone to pick with this anime was the last episode. It was so random, stupid, and ridiculous that I was left speechless. I would go into details, but I’m afraid that if I get started I won’t be able to stop ranting (I love ripping into anime that really deserve it). Besides that simply dreadful last episode, Kampfer was pretty decent, so I’m giving it 7 out of 10. I recommend this one to the romance fans who don’t mind a bit of action to liven things up.
