The Sparta Academy is notorious for forcing students to study, and its principal, Satan's Toenail, is very strict. During a test in the middle of the night, one student, Mayumi, falls asleep from exhaustion, and is thus punished by the school teachers, who lock her up in a dungeon and whip her. However, Mayumi is rescued by Kekko Kamen, a naked superhero woman who only wears a red mask to hide her face. The school hires a new gym teacher, Schwarzu Negetaru, who makes Kekko Kamen blush from his muscles, but she defeats him anyway. A cyborg student and a Samurai are sent to fight Kekko Kamen, as well, but she defeats them again, gaining admiration from Mayumi and Yuka.
The 4-episode OVA "Kekko Kamen", by buxom-fan author Go Nagai, seems like an April Fools' Day anime, since it features an upside down concept of a naked superheroine who only disguises her face with a red mask, and thus fights the strict teachers as some sort of parody of the Japanese tendency to exhaust their students with neverending demands. This anime series is trash, but it is a deliberate trash, a tongue-in-cheek spoof that has no other pretension than to be just simply fun. It's ridiculous, silly and crazy, and yet it has some sort of 'guilty pleasure' charm to it. The first episode is already insane and doesn't even try to hide it, by showing such ludicrous moments as the principal (wearing a mask and a court jester-like wardrobe!) ordering that the worst student of the school will be publicly punished in front of all, so the poor Mayumi is tied up to a giant swastika, topless, and made rotate so that her skirt will fall down once her legs reach the upside down position, but is luckily saved by the title heroine. Kekko Kamen even finishes off her enemies by jumping with her legs stretched (a beam of light covering her vagina) and grabbing their heads with her legs, after which one of the male teachers falls on the floor, happy. The final, fourth episode, even has a Samurai ask Kekko if she is not ashamed walking naked like that in public, after which she seems to question her choice for the first time and cover her body with her arms for a second, before she continues, "in the name of love and justice". It is no wonder the series enjoys a cult reputation, and even had several live-action adaptations. It walks on thin ice all of the time, and it is not consistently entertaining in each episode, but it is so cartoonish and exaggerated that one cannot be angry at it. "Kekko Kamen" is akin to a burger with fries—it's not nutritious, but you enjoy it in spite of yourself.
Grade:++
No comments:
Post a Comment