Kenka Banchou Otome: Girl Beats Boys- A Quick Action-Packed Anime Review

Kenka Banchou Otome: Girl Beats Boys

“A Quick Action-Packed Anime Review”

Has a friend or family member ever asked you for a big favor you couldn’t refuse? Maybe it’s because you didn’t want to let that person down or due to your own unique circumstances, so you simply accepted it despite knowing all the complications it would entail. Sometimes, we may just end up reaping far more than we bargained for initially from such situations, making you see things from a whole new perspective. But the important thing is to make the right decisions when confronted with such a tough choice, so that you may live a life of minimum regret!

“Kenka Banchou Otome: Girl Beats Boys," also known as “GIRL BEATS BOYS," is a 12-episode TV anime series that aired from the 12th of April until the 28th of June in spring 2017. It was produced by Grooove and DMM.com, licensed by Funimation, and brought to life by Studio Project No.9, A-Real.

The main staff behind it include Cook Justin as producer, Herek Samantha as assistant producer, Saito Noriaki as director, and Morishita Hiroto as sound director. Featuring the genre of action alongside the themes of crossdressing, delinquents, martial arts, and school, each episode ran for 8 minutes and received a rating of PG-13 for teenagers 13 years of age or older.

The anime is based on the Otome game “Kenka Bancho Otome," which was developed by Red Entertainment Corporation and published by Spike Chunsoft as a spin-off of the Kenka Bancho series. Released for the PlayStation Vita on May 19, 2016. A manga titled “Kenka Banchou Otome: Koi no Battle Royal” ran for a total of 2 volumes from the 4th of July 2015 until the 25th of January 2017.

It featured the genres of action, comedy, and romance and catered to the Shoujo demographic. It is the work of author and artist Shimada Chie, which got serialized in “The Hana to Yume." It was also published in English as “Kenka Bancho Otome: Love's Battle Royale” via VIZ Media under the Shojo Beat imprint from the 3rd of April until the 3rd of July, 2018.

The story revolves around protagonist Hinako Nakayama, a girl who has spent her entire life at state-run orphanages, devoid of any knowledge about her family. Even so, her life presses on, and she reaches the decisive point of entering high school.

This is when she is approached by someone truly unexpected: a boy named Hikaru Onigashima, claiming to be her twin brother who was separated at birth! According to him, the two of them are the children of the head of the ancient, honorable, and powerful Onigashima Yakuza family, the one leading the criminal underworld.

What follows shocks Hinako even more: Hikaru wants her to switch places with him at the one and only Shishiku Academy! This is an all-boys school completely overrun with the nation's wildest and toughest delinquents, an establishment that a child of the Onigashima family was obligated to occupy and control. Hikaru wants nothing to do with such rouges, but to defy his father’s orders meant death for him. Will Hinako be able to save her brother, fall in love, and maybe even become the new boss of this delinquent-ridden school?

This is the kind of tale where you’d expect a strong and bold heroine to take charge of things and bring about a wave of change for a bunch of hot but delinquent boys. But unfortunately, this isn’t very accurate in the case of Kenka Banchou Otome. The main premise sounds very fun and has many interesting avenues to explore, but the creators did not execute it as well as they could have for the plot, which could be improved. They just throw random pieces of the main plotline at us without giving us a proper explanation or much-needed in-depth exploration.

The best examples are the blood relations between the supposed siblings Hikaru and Hinako and Hinako's "brother" from the orphanage itself. It’s sad because these aspects hold a lot of potential for both the story and characters but go unused and even forgotten. As expected from 8-minute episodes, the runtime is way too short to build up a proper story.

Overall, the story made little sense, and it’s rough to maintain a grasp on what is happening with this absurdly rushed pacing. Chances are you’ll end up just as confused as me if you haven’t played the game or read the manga. On the bright side, the “plot” mainly exists to provide context, and there’s no proper progression anyway.

The main focus here are the fights, which are cool to watch, and the setting, which facilitates just that because Hinako is actually a capable fighter. There’s enjoyment to be had in watching her climb the ranks amidst these well-done fight scenes.

In the character department, it too suffers from only having 8 minutes per episode. There is a sheer lack of much-needed character development, and it severely diminishes the value of these characters.

On their own, the characters are well-constructed and possess very unique personalities to distinguish them from each other. But we, as an audience, do not get enough time to get to know or grow alongside them; we get to know their general information but don’t get to interact with them enough or learn what lies beneath the surface. So most of them feel one-dimensional and bland by the end because none of them get fleshed out, leaving behind only generic reverse-harem archetypes that will be forgotten pretty fast.

But hey, at least they weren’t complete psychopaths despite being the “baddest-of-the-bad” delinquents! On the flip side, Hinako is very cute and inspiring, constantly training to overcome nature’s odds stacked against her—a true badass! Honestly, I would’ve loved to see more of her fights with some blood and serious injuries thrown in.

For the most part, the art and animation department is the only one that redeems the whole thing. Unlike most reverse-harems, the guys here are pretty attractive and aren’t plagued by the overdone Shoujo artstyle tropes.

I liked all the character designs, even though some of them looked generic, and their appearances complemented their personalities just fine. My main complaint would be the badly drawn frames that appeared way too often, which can be credited to just how forward the whole show is.

Back to the positives: there were no annoying derpy faces here, but the fact that even the art and animation were rushed remains apparent. The fights are awesome to watch, but the quality diminishes slightly overtime; this is apparent in the increase in shadows instead of people later on. Overall, the action scenes are still great, and that was the creators’ focus as well.

The Sounds and Music Department is just there to fill the void and nothing else. You will most probably not notice it, and there’s quite literally nothing memorable here.

The opening theme is "Love Sniper" by Love Desire, and the ending themes are "Gankou Signal" by Love Desire, "Gankou Signal" by Totomaru Minowa (KENN), "Gankou Signal" by Takayuki Konparu (Shouta Aoi), "Gankou Signal" by Yuuta Mirako (Tetsuya Kakihara), "Face to Fake" by Yuuta Mirako (Tetsuya Kakihara), and "Gankou Signal" by Houou Onigashima (Tomoaki Maeno); these songs are sung by the characters’ respective VAs, and I really liked that aspect.

The OSTs are even more forgettable, existing just for the sake of existing and not ruining any scene on their own. The voice acting is pretty good, as I felt that each VA portrayed their characters’ personalities as well as they could within the limitations of this show.

The short runtime of Kenka Banchou Otome: Girl Beats Boys is a major flaw because the show could have been much better with more time. If these episodes were just twenty-four minutes long, the creators could have really delved into the intriguing premise and fleshed out the story and characters.

The premise was what interested me in the first place, so it’s unfortunate that it did not deliver in that regard. Did I dislike the show, though? Not really, because the fights were cool and the visuals were overall alluring.

What I got was like 2-3 minutes of that action per episode, but they were still entertaining despite the MC never losing a fight; this show does not have enough time for a plot twist like that. It is precisely because this anime is so short and forward that it doesn’t feel like a huge waste of time, so I wouldn't hold anyone back if they wanted to give it a go.

Kenka Banchou Otome: Girl Beats Boys is a decent show that is relaxing to watch and is even pretty comedic on occasion, my favorite being the “studying together” scene. It doesn’t demand brain cells, and you don’t need to pay attention either, as the deliveries are made during action scenes.

I would’ve loved to see longer fights and more development for Hinako, at least, but it is what it is. If you see some pro-fighter getting taken down with just three punches, don’t question it and keep sipping your beverage as the show presses on. This is no "must-see," but it is still moderately fun, and you get to temporarily put yourself in the shoes of a badass girl who fist fights men without any issue for a few minutes!