Hensuki: Are you willing to fall in love with a pervert, as long as she’s a cutie?: Yes, yes I would.

I’ve said this at least have a dozen times, and I’ll keep saying it. 2019 has NOT been a good year for ecchi. Aside from a clear lack of ecchi and fanservice shows in general, those that we have had have ranged from the decently ‘eh’ (Date A Live III), the forgettable (Nobunaga’s Sensei), the overly censored (Why are you here Sensei?), and depending on who you ask, the disappointing (Two-Hit Mom). It just hasn’t been a good year, but to be fair, 2018 has been a hard act to follow with the double whammy home runs of How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, and High School DxD Hero.

However hope is not lost, and there is actually a series in 2019 that isn’t only a great ecchi, but it is a reminder of just how fun ecchi can be. After the cut let’s dive into the series Hensuki: Are you willing to fall in love with a pervert, as long as she’s a cutie?

Like a man dying of thirst. I drink deeply

Hensuki is everything I love about ecchi. While it doesn’t have the depth of High School DxD, or the raw fanservice of To Love Ru or HybridxHeart, Hensuki represents all that makes the ecchi and harem genres so great. It’s got a wonderful cast of characters, a great script, colorful and vibrant animation, a fucking catchy theme song, and oodles of hilarious comedy. After months upon months of bare minimum ecchi shows or shows that couldn’t bring the sauce, Hensuki is like getting hit by a tidal wave of it.

The plot of the story is basic, starring our titular male lead Keiki Kiryu as he tries to uncover the identity of a the girl who sent him a love letter, as well a pair of her white panties. His brings him into contact with several girls of the school whom he discovers, all have some incredibily…interesting fetishes. What follows is twelve episodes of hilarious ecchi hijinks involving all the greats the series has to offer. The kinks of course, and this plot isn’t something that is new to ecchi. We got master/servant play, on both sides of the coin, scent fetish, boy-love fetish, stalker fetish and of course, brother fetish, all of which have been seen in one anime or another over the years.

Sayuki’s kink is one that’s been done several times before, but it still absolutely lands each time.

However what makes it work is that Hensuki makes each of the girls endearing and lovable to the viewer. Sayuki, Yukika, Nanjo, Koharu and Mizuha are all something we’ve seen before, but they represent what happens when you take time and effort into creating them. The girls are an absolute RIOT, especially in the English dub where the script writers at Funimation clearly had the time of their lives with the comedic beats and dialogue, taking the very best lessons from the High School DxD dub. While they do lack character depth (with the exception of Koharu in some cases) that other series have, they are just so fucking funny that it makes it work, and damn does it work well. In fact, the girls of Hensuki represent what I love about the depiction of women in anime: they are allowed to be freaks, they are allowed to be quirky, and weird and they are allowed to be human.

The three main girls of the cast, Sayuki, Yukika and Nanjo all have great comedic bits. Nothing new, but it’s still done well.

Furthermore, another point in Hensuki’s favor is that it is an ecchi that takes a break from the fantasy world or science fiction romps we’ve had recently. While a high school harem is pretty much the go-to for this genre, watching Hensuki after watch so many others have tried to combine ecchi with another genre is shockingly refreshing. The fact that Keiki and the girls are just living their lives as high school students, free of any real baggage involving other worlds, demons, swords or anything made everything just sort of peaceful. It was nice, really nice to just sit back and let yourself rest on a cloud of a good wholesome ecchi set in a high school, and the fact that I am even saying that for this genre is really weird.

Comedy like this is in spades and thank GOD.

And that is really how I can best sum up Hensuki: Are you willing to fall in love with a pervert, as long as she’s a cutie? It is like taking a drink of water after being starved for days. Biting into a sandwich after a hard days work, and or taking that first sip of beer: when it touches your mouth it’S just so good. After an entire year of half measures or let downs, Hensuki is finally, FINALLY the home run ecchi hit that I and everyone else has been waiting for. Beautifully animated, sharply written and just. fucking. funny. Hensuki is the best ecchi I’ve seen all year and it earns that spot almost effortlessly. If you haven’t watched this series and you are bummed out by the offerings this year, go watch this show at once, and dig in. This is the reprieve we’ve been waiting for.

 

Good doggie.