17 August 2016: Masou Gakuen HxH is not the second coming of Seikon no Qwaser
Masou Gakuen HxH leads off the first episode with the Japanese girl in a cold open.
Although trashy fan service shows aren't exactly rare, the full-on, uncensored, blatantly gratuitous ones aren't particularly common either. In recent memory, there was Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid (which I haven't seen yet), and the ever-popular High School DxD series (which is relatively tame as far as these sorts of things go). This season, we have Masou Gakuen HxH (Hybrid x Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia) which is sort of like IS: Infinite Stratos except that in Masou Gakuen, Potato-kun's purpose is to recharge the girls' fighting ability through the power of arousal rather than just standing around wondering why they're all angry with him.
Gun nerd note: In the book, Aine specifically uses a Howa Type 89 here instead.
In that sense, it's sort of similar to Dakara Boku wa, Ecchi ga Dekinai (So, I Can't Play H!). What it is not, unfortunately, is the next Seikon no Qwaser (The Qwaser of Stigmata) which continues to reign supreme as the undisputed champion of these sorts of shows (or at least its first season does). Masou Gakuen HxH, unfortunately, is a dreary mess which lacks the creativity and verve that made Seikon on Qwaser an inspired triumph of sexual genius.
I like that she's wearing Dibert's tie.
This disappointment is based on the first five episodes of Masou Gakuen HxH alone, so perhaps the show will veer into uncharted waters later in the season. I think there are also too many volumes of the original light novel out for the anime to cover in a single cours, so perhaps the source material vindicates itself down the road. But through the first five episodes, the only noteworthy event is Aine activating pink mode. Even that was a disappointment due to my own misconceptions.
She did, however, orgasm so hard that some of her lost memories returned.
You see, prior to the anime's premiere, most of the visuals I saw for Masou Gakuen HxH came from the light novels, and the cover of the first volume prominently features a pink-haired girl. Well, there was no pink-haired girl in episode one or two, and when I learned the pink-haired girl was, in fact, Aine, I couldn't understand why her hair was silver in the anime. Some light research into the matter led me to believe that early in the story, Aine unlocks a sealed fighting ability after she orgasms so hard that her hair turns pink. It turns out this is sort of true, but not exactly, and also not permanent. Or at least it's not permanent yet. Frankly, my disappointment here matches my lack of enthusiasm for the show as a whole.
