Akikan!

Daichi Kakeru is an openly perverted sixteen-year-old boy who has never had a girlfriend. One night, after a refreshing shower, Kakeru decides to have a drink and opens up a can of melon soda; but his first sip turns into his first kiss as the can suddenly transforms into a cute girl! After his initial hesitance to acknowledge her existence, Kakeru - as her new owner - names the girl Melon and allows her to stay. Melon, as it turns out, is part of a government project in which aluminium and steel 'Akikans' fight each other to determine which is the superior type of can. Completely against the idea, Kakeru insists that Melon will not fight. Though with the appearance of Budoko, a grape juice Akikan; and Yell, a sports-drink Akikan; it seems that they won’t be able to avoid the battles forever. Source: Anime-planet.com



Akikan is a light, relaxing, easy-going romantic comedy. The idea behind Akikan is pretty original although the characters seem stereotyped. Not that it matters to me, as long as the overall is good. The comedy consists of mainly dirty jokes, so viewers might want to be careful where you watch this. Nothing hentai though, just a scene or two of ecchi throughout the series.
Akikan definitely ranks top 10 among the worst facial expression in animes which I have ever seen. Every face is over rigid. Especially fails in eye expression. I’m not sure how they did it, but this does improve as the episodes goes on, which was a good thing. It’s pretty obvious that Akikan is trying to “sell sex” when all their sponsor screens always show ecchi’s. But seriously, W.T.F. is the point in that? I would have enjoyed this anime just as much without the ecchi.
“Isotonic Sword-o!” Lol! Even though the animation isn’t up to par with the majority of the animes out currently, the battle scenes are actually choreographed well, using split screens to the maximum effect. Don’t be expecting loads of action though, there are only 3 short battle scenes including the final episode.


Viewers need not bother with the first opening theme, just skip it. Felt like I was listening to some technocrap reject. Second opening theme, Juicy Extacy by Little Non, was way better actually having a nice tune which blends well with the upbeat anime. Ending theme was original with a catchy tune. Different episodes had what seem like different versions of essentially the same song, which I think is pretty cool.

In episode 2, after Airin used a chainsaw to cut through the door at Kakeru’s house, they went into the house and had a discussion on Akikans. Surprisingly after the discussion when Airin was kicked out, the artist actually bothered to draw the chainsaw lying in front of the door outside the house. Wow! Talk about maintaining integrity.
I did manage to catch a terrible blooper in episode 3 where Najimi actually called Budoku by her name. How is this possible when they have only met each other for the first time and Budoku hasn’t even introduced herself?
Episode 10, now what’s that about? Throwing a filler into a 12-episode anime series is totally retarded. Viewers who want to save bandwidth, do skip this episode as it has totally nothing to do with the development of the story.


The important factor about Akikan is whether viewers will enjoy the comedy put out by Kakeru, Melon, and the gang. If you do enjoy the comedy style, this will be a great anime. If not, the anime would just feel plain noisy for you. I personally enjoyed the humor from the start to the final episode and was smiling and laughing my way through them. Double Thumbs Up! A good facial manipulation could have made it even funnier with improved expressions. If Akikan had performed better overall, it could have easily gotten 4-Stars. Unfortunately with cheap looking animation and only good comedy to show for it, a solid 3-Stars then for the good laughs.

Akikan!
Rating: 3-Stars
Torrents: Chihiro