Keijo!!!!!!!! (Hip Whip Girl) -anime review- some spoilers-

 By Mark Rodriguez

After hearing about the premise of a sport involving girls knocking themselves off a platform using only their breasts and butts, the curiosity got to me. After seeing all 12 episodes, I just had to review it. It felt kinda awkward to review this in a video, so let's blog about it instead. If you can get past the basic premise (and the fact that the girls are basically shaking their boobs and  butts in your face in the opening intro, which makes it awkward if someone is watching the show with you), the anime is pretty enjoyable, full of likable characters and perverted humor without pushing it too far.

The story follows Nozomi Kaminashi, the aspiring hopeful eager to enter the world of Keijo, a sport where girls balance themselves on platforms floating in a pool and have to knock each other off using only their breasts and butts that is considered as important as any other sport. And since this is an anime, this isn't just some girls gently pushing each other with their booty. No, these girls can throw themselves as missiles causing destructive shockwaves upon impact, or have super speed, hitting you multiple times in the blink of an eye.

From left to right, Kazane Aoba, Sayaka Miyata, Nozomi Kaminashi and Non Toyoguchi 

Nozomi is a gifted gymnast and is the usual upbeat, excited main character that wants to be the very best in Keijo, like noone ever was, and she starts the series alongside her friend Sayaka Miyata. Sayaka is kinda shy, and she used to be a judo champion until she left the sport to partake in Keijo instead, much to her father's disapproval. Once they enter the academy, they meet their roommates, Kazane Aoba and Non Toyoguchi. Kazane is shy and softspoken at first and she has the ability to study and counter the techniques used by others if she can touch their butts. Non is a little more outspoken but very clumsy and trips over herself a lot.

The first few episodes deal with Keijo training as well as the girls facing the elite class in several matches. Along the way, Nozomi uses her attack that basically launches her entire body butt-first like a missile called the Butt Cannon, but if she twists her hips a certain way mid-flight, she can do an even more powerful version called the Vaccuum Butt Cannon. However, this move is so powerful that if she doesn't master it properly, she could end up crippling herself permanently.

After the girls defeat their upper classmates, they all team up together to attend a tournament called the East-West War, with the West never having won a match against the East. The final episodes deal with the girls facing the East with some of the most powerful Keijo opponents ever.

My thoughts- 

I like the series. It's silly and funny, and full of endearing characters, that if you can get past the basic premise, you'll end up rooting for. I'm sure you've seen other anime where characters are describing the nature of their special attacks, or other sports anime where the characters take their sport so seriously you think the fate of world is at stake. This series also treats Keijo with the same level of seriousness, which in my opinion, just adds to the joke. This really is the most important sport to the characters and it shows.

The main girls, except Nozomi who is loud and outspoken, are all shy and awkward in their own way, but you get to see them get more confident with each other as the series progresses. Nozomi herself has her never say die attitude tested as she gets challenged at every turn with new training techniques. The elite class, while they take their matches very seriously, get along with our crew for the most part when they're off the field, leaving any hostility behind.

Then you also get all of these crazy techniques and random moments. The anime is very creative in coming up with new techniques, and a lot of the matches end with a character doing something that just made you ask 'did that just happen??? did she just-??'

Now for those wondering, this series does not include nudity (not frontal anyway), the camera always gets the right angle to cover things up. However you are gonna see a lot of fanservice, so keep that in mind before inviting your friends over to watch it with you. I mean, anime in general gets a bad rap for being perverted as is.

As for the feminists complaining about this show.. it's hard to say. Yes, they fight with their T&A, but the audience seems to want to see a good fight and some cool techniques, no one really seems to be making perverted comments about the girls, and the girls do take the sport very seriously in a world where a Keijo East VS West War is considered as big as the Superbowl. I can't really say they're being objectified any more than the sport already entails. Ironically the only one fondling the girls, is a girl herself.

Overall it's a fun and silly anime if you like this kind of humor and can get past the intro. The anime has 12 episodes and apparently there are 6 OAV episodes as well. It's also one of Crunchyroll's most popular animes of 2016 aside from Yuri on Ice. There is currently an English dub on the Funimation channel, which I hope is done justice. It also sounds like the manga shows more of the backstory of Nozomi and Sayaka and the anime kinda skips straight to when they first enter the academy. Maybe I'll pick the manga up as well.