Bikini Warriors is an anime about two things: buxom fantasy heroines dressed in nothing but bikini armour, and making fun of some of the most prevalent JRPG clichés.
Let’s be clear up front: There is a stupid amount of fanservice in this short-form anime. So that alone may move it off (or onto) your watch list.
[Image: Feel | Tokyo MX]
However, what keeps me watching each week is its comical jabs at JRPGs. Each four-minute episode is focused on one cliché or another. The first episode is the most obvious one: chainmail bikinis (and the absurd notion that they provide any protection at all).
[Image: Feel | Tokyo MX]
The second episode deals with the odd economic disparity existing in the lands heroes visit — i.e., the reward for saving a kingdom quite often being less than the price of a night at an inn. The third hits on an obvious target: JRPG heroes are basically the world’s most blatant thieves.
[Image: Feel | Tokyo MX]
My personal favourite episode so far has been on the useless stockpiling of elixirs — I mean who doesn’t end each game with a dozen or so, stashed away for an emergency situation that never comes.
[Image: Feel | Tokyo MX]
Long-time JRPG fans will likely get a good laugh or two out of this anime, if they can come to terms with the fanservice, that is.
Bikini Warriors airs on Tokyo MX in Japan. It can be watched for free and with English subtitles on Funimation and Hulu.
Comments
3 responses to “Bikini Warriors Is A Comical Look At JRPG Tropes”
It sounds like it could be worth a laugh or two, although it sounds like it could very easily be just making the same worn out trope-based jokes everyone else has for years. This kind of humour is always a tricky thing to do well.
i feel like it’s not just JRPG tropes but RPG / MMORPG tropes in general, that first one especially, all MMOs do it pretty much, some RPGS to lesser degree (depend’s which one u play really)
As a fan service fan I will have absolutely no problem coming to terms with the fan service 😉