Saishuu Shiken Kujira

Like snow falling in summer, like a cicada lamenting the coming of winter... In a town watched over by a whale in the sky... the extraordinary is made ordinary. Spectacles that could never be given form are instead given flesh and soul. And in their midst, the story of a miracle that comes to pass in this town of miracles incarnate... For Kuonji, this newly-discovered vision is a thing of wonder and fright – a sentiment not shared by his peers. Under its watchful gaze, Kuonji chats with and hangs out with his somewhat unusual friends. Whether it's with Nina and her striped panties, cat-loving Sacchan, the strange alien Allen or a variety of other busty, skimpily-dressed babes, Kuonji finds himself in the middle of ecchi situations galore! Welcome to the world of Final Examination Kujira.

(Source: BakaBT)

Based on a game by Circus.

Nagumo, Sae Main

Aoki, Sayaka Japanese

Yumesaki, Haruka Main

Sato, Mikako Japanese

Haibara, Kurumi Main

Naruse, Mia Japanese

Nikage, Niina Main

Sakakibara, Yui Japanese

Kuonji, Mutsumi Main

Toyonaga, Toshiyuki Japanese

Kujira no Shoujo Supporting

Aoki, Sayaka Japanese

Motegi, Mika Supporting

Hyo-sei Japanese

Kagura, Kaguya Supporting

Nabatame, Hitomi Japanese

Uchuujin Supporting

Fujiwara, Ryuunosuke Supporting

Saitou, Shigeru Producer

Miyazaki, Nagisa Director, Series Composition

eufonius Theme Song Performance

Takeda, Yuusuke Art Director

Reviews

Nov 30, 2008

Hr0n

Recommended

Randomness! What better way to waste some time than with a mindless show with a whale floating in the sky and a girl that randomly generates plush dolls? Well, maybe I can think of a few better ways, sure...nevertheless, on the contrary to what I initially thought, watching this little flick was actually quite interesting. It gripes me that it was so very, very short, though; the initial setup calls for a more fleshed-out storyline, but with twelve episodes spanning five minutes each, it never even really manages to take off. But would this idea ever be taken to a more fully fledged anime, I'd ... be certain to have a look at it.

Story: 2/10
As said, the initial setup is promising. A guy ends up at an academy for some reason, meets up with a bunch of odd characters (mainly girls), and random stuff occurs. Usually I write a coherent little summary under this headline, but it's rather hard to do it this time around without spoiling the entire...um, "storyline", because of it being so short. But that's the gist of it, kinda.

And...that's really it. A few characters are introduced in the first few episodes, but they're given such scarce airtime that you hardly get any time to bond with any of them. Massive plot points are left out: It's never explained how the main character ends up at that strange academy, and he also seems to have the hots for his little sister who wakes him up in the morning - this is also just left as-is. In the beginning, he's startled over the fact that a large blue whale floats high up in the sky, watching over them, but a few episodes in he's adjusted remarkably well to all random facts. And sure, there are a few episodes that link together, such as the trip to the beach, but many episodes seem torn and jumbled together from totally different storylines, and because of the length of the episodes they barely manage to make any sense, much less make an impact. So story-wise, there's very little to gather from this show, unfortunately; the show makes several nice plot directions, but they are simply never used.

Art: 9/10
Save for Yun-Yun's caricature appearance (a character that simply magically appears in the fifth episode without any trace of introduction), I have no complaints about this. The art and animation is in a style and quality you could expect from any anime show, with delicate lines and soft coloring. A few small details seem created with CGI, but they blend into the animation harmony nicely without sticking out like sore thumbs (as I've experienced some CGI effects to do).

Sound: 8/10
The voice acting - wavering between "decent" and "quite good really". The music - beautiful, matching nicely with the mood of the show. It lacks an intro song, but with such short episodes it's to be expected I suppose. And the ending sequence is good, so it makes up for it somewhat.

Character: 7/10
Even though they're never quite delved into, I really can't rack down on the actual character designs - they all have their funny quirks, differing them from one another. I couldn't really say that any of the characters are uninteresting, save for the main character...I think that's how it's supposed to be, though, that the main character starts out as a slightly more blank slate than the others, and then gains his/her personality by interaction with the characters he/she meets.

In this case, it's not entirely possible, though, since...

...yeah, I've said that the anime is short quite a few times now, so I suppose you get the gist. I'm sorry. :p

Enjoyment: 7/10
Despite everything said and done, I enjoyed looking at this. Not for the storyline, but for the humor and situations embedded in the show. Every so often, it brought me to a laugh (randomness is a perfectly valid source of humor), and sometimes it delved into drama. Not so intense, not for so long, but still enjoyable. Naturally, the lack of a story robs the enjoyment of some points, as well as the fact that there's a lot of "dead time" in the show - drawn-out pauses, or scenes that are much longer than actually needed to put an impression through. Had they cut some of those pauses, they could've fit more substantial stuff into the show.

Overall: 7/10
Overall? A nice little pause from reality. Never mind the storyline - it was nice to look at, it was nice to listen to, and it was nice to chuckle at every now and then. And even though I doubt it will ever happen, I intensely wish for a more complete Saishuu Shiken Kujira to be released some time in the future, where the story has more time to develop and root in our minds. But until then, do try this one out - it could be more entertaining than what first meets the eye, if you'd give it the chance to be.

And now, to check out the OVA! :)

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 17, 2022

Suntanned_Duck2

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (3/12 eps)

Spoiler

Context of why it exists:
In short a bunch of ONAs covering a different heroine the male MC encounters at certain points in the visual novel. That's literally all this is. Just like later chapters in a light novel or manga anyone expecting any different of 'where is the character development, why is it scenes throughout' is missing the point, so expecting it to not have depth, not noticing the VN mention in the info to the left/below (PC/Mobile view) and how many did adaptations like this back then likely by the many I've seen so this different ways.

Each scene plays out as, guy observes girl, ... talks to her, they talk about whatever, move on and scene ends and at the end likely whatever ends of the route happens I assume at episode 12. The male MC has some vision according to a synopsis I found which is why ecchi situations happen and he can see things not likely supposed to. Whether useful in the rest of the story, the VN that is who knows as the adaptation is of course taking elements from it not everything.

It's from a visual novel originally so not surprised it's this broken up and disconnected approach with 5 minute scenes than a modern approach like other visual novel anime adaptations are of your Steins;gates, Damganronpas, Clannad and so on. I mean the closest using those examples is like seeing the Clannad OVAs but as a whole 12 episodes than the 1 OVA for 20 minures covering those routes (though it's more than the two girls and of course 60 minutes than 40 for those two). It seems to be the case with these visual novel adaptations how they used to do these than the 'well thankfully they gave me enough of the show to understand' like they do now than this showcasing scenes approach that MAL users seem to give these shoes low reviews and missing the point expecting a great new show to watch.

It isn't supposed to have structure. Think if you watched the major cutscenes from a game (not counting visual novels) as a full movie (that you see on YouTube collating all the cutscenes) and had none of the other context from the dialogue in the gameplay, that's what this is like experiencing. Nothing is supposed to be connected like other MAL reviewers expect in 5 minute episodes of the highlights of a VN.

Some short forms can do character development well like Tawawa on Monday's episode 2 S2 being a great amount of events summed up in that one episode but that's not the point of this series it's a cliff notes/key parts and bonus of visual novel players to see scenes animated, the way a visual novel adaptation was likely prior to 2007.


Voice acting, animation and story:
I see why it isn't great though even without that context the animation is very simple, gets enough done but isn't amazing even for slice of life show standards might have been a quick thing to do whatever the budget or its how these turn out like other adaptations of this type.

Voice acting and situations are average or mundane. They get across things, you can understand them but they aren't saying much. Whether the official voice actors they may be I don't know and would have to cross reference but I think they usually are. They aren't terrible but they aren't amazing either. I bet having played the game it would be more natural and even then you get used to the MC's voice which maybe is or isn't in the game as some visual novels have voices others don't for their main characters monologues/thoughts or out spoken eesponses.

It isn't Mars of Destruction or Skelter Heaven levels of making no sense and being terrible of 1 OVA to cram so much in or try to sell you on what happens and to likely advertise the games. This one may have been made to advertise it too but it works more as a bonus to see scenes animated of the encounters of each character in the game, like seeing many later chapter OVAs of a manga or light novels that likely didn't get a season 2 or something and got scenes far further on that only those that have read the source material will understand as it's too far along for anime fans to get what's going on, it's similar to that and anyone expecting more isn't really watching it for the right purpose to expect character development and depth when that is already in the source material anyway.

It isn't a case of badly adapting the whole game like some anime have done before and I get the lack of character development there when they are really cramming the game events into 12 episodes 20 minutes instead '5 minute 12 episode of key moments the anine' that this is.

But that isn't the case here the events are likely about maybe the next event every 1-3 hours probably in the visual novel to meet every character, see every major event and such so of course it will be disconnected and make no sense same as skipping dialogue and not understanding in the game. It's intended to show just specific scenes the studio was supposed to recreate of character introductions and I assume leading up to later events throughout the visual novel's story, routes and events whatever they are.

If you looked at it for advertising to get into the VN or as a show to watch compared to a VN player bonus you aren't likely to be convinced as the scenes are very generic really. A bit different than I'd expect in some ways like the staring at the window/power pole one but still the ecchi, trope, situations and dialogue between characters are pretty familiar. Who knows the visual novel is either just as average of getting started/scenes playing out or maybe gets better later on.

It is not a bad ONA short form when it does its job, it only is if you don't understand it's intended purpose and if you skipped the 'its source material is a visual novel and this is a bonus/recap or brief run down so you don't need to play the game to remember events again or to just see them animated' and to not expect depth like the other 2 reviews your missing the point.

I haven't played the visual novel either but a quick glance at the information, understand tthe format of the scenes/the time period of this is how they did visual novel adaptations back then, it makes a lot of sense and like the Mars/Stellar Heaven examples it's not hard to go 'oh that's why this exists' than expecting something as a causal watch outside what it already tells the viewer if they pay attention.

Its just them missing the signs. Enjoyment isn't likely without having played the visual novel to really care about the characters, the situations they are in and so on, there isn't enough context without the visual novel alongside it to really judge it.

If you want to watch it outside of visual novel experience by all means to see an alright but nothing special bunch of scenes, but expect like on episode 4, it being 'you just watching a guy stare at a girl surrounded by cats, hears weird things, sees it's cats, badly interacts with the cats, she gets along well with them, he says he was looking for her, they leave'.


Breakdown of some episodes:
Or in episode 2 or 4 I forget 'something in the sky and whatever dumb or ecchi or mundane slice of life thing happens on the power pole that has all the imagination along with it' on 5 minutes with a different girl or event each episode. Episode 5vis a beach episode, talking about sun lotion but the usual doesn't happen just the pink haired girl questioning their thoughts, writes material down for a doujin, girl in green moving arms around in the background, all the people on the beach or the group see something in the sky. A man with 2 girls falls and the girls get off, they complain about swimming a distance, the guys stare at them, a building and the man inside falls down near them and with snow cones. Both times things fall some characters get flung around for that added effect. To give a better idea of what happens as most others are 'meet character, see them in ecchi situations and so on only the two characters on screen'.

It does it's job and I see it for what it is. Can't complain having not experienced the source material and with contexy of 'this is how they did visual novel adaptations in 2007 and before than 2010s+ cramming it into 20 minute episodes of the whole game's key elements or main route or whatever they intended.

Doesn't mean I won't give it higher than a 5 as it's still not great regardless of being an adaptation of visual novels from the era. They are average and so I'll give it just that. No character development judging or anything just what it seems and how it's presented.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Apr 10, 2011

SereneLin

Not Recommended

If you're thinking of taking a shot at this anime, I strongly advise you to click that little red X on the top of your screen and don't look back. I'm sure you can find other ways to use 60 minutes of your life.

If you've already watched it, however, there's not much I can do. Go somewhere quiet and lie down. Take a nap. You'll probably develop a headache from trying to make sense of what you saw. When you've rested, get yourself a lawyer. You'll want to get your time back from the creators of the show.

*Here Be Spoilers. But then again, there's not ... much of a plot to spoil*

STORY: 1
Storyline? What storyline? Saishuu switches from Slice-of-Life speed to Action about 3/4 of the way into the series. Of course, with 5 minute episodes, there are time constraints, but the contrast in speed (and apparent plotline) is beyond horrible. It feels like the series only had the first episode and the last episode made from the storyboard, and then cut the 2 into 12 five-minute episodes. You'll notice the HUGE gaping plothole near the middle, and will probably fall in.

ART: 4
Character designs were alright. Nothing amazing quality-wise, and none of it moved (Saishuu's world apparently does not have wind). The colors, however, were soft and calming, which is nice if you're into this style.

SOUND: 6
5-min Episodes = no BGM. There's rarely any soundtrack, and when there is, it doesn't match up with what's going on sometimes. However, Eufonius sings the ED, which is probably the best thing that happened to this series.
The voices were not matched well either. The main boy has a very feminine voice even though his character isn't girly at all. Also, most of the voices (if not all) carry zero emotion.

CHARACTER: 1
No character development whatsoever. The first few episodes were slow, and characters were introduced. Then most of them magically disappeared by about the 8th episode, and never came back. Odd? You bet!

ENJOYMENT: 3
If you can manage to ignore all the outrageousness and plotholes, Saishuu can actually be enjoyed in an awkward way.There were some (rare) moments of genius as well. The flying bit was cute, and the beach episode was so cliché it was funny. Other than the complete lack of emotional scenes, it could be enjoyed if forced. And of course, the Transformer-Whale-UFO is all worth it in the end.

OVERALL: 2
If you turn a blind eye to all the weak spots, you'll have your eyes closed for the whole duration of the anime itself, and only watch the ending theme.
With that said, Don't Watch! If you love your life, find something better for your time :)

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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