Campione

Summary: >

Godou has decided to visit Italy to return a relic his grandfather obtained from a woman there. Gods occasionally manifest themselves in our world, but are normally perceived as natural disasters. Godou is now able to see the truth, and in a twist of fate defeats a god. Godou obtains the 12 powers of Verethanga, and is now known as a Campione: one who has killed a god. This is only one of the problems he encountered in Italy. The other is a knight who swears her allegiance and heart to him, then follows him back to Japan.

Godou is no longer just a man, he is a Campione. Thirteen are said to exist, and they have one thing in common: they love to fight. Godou will have to face many of them sooner or later, but the bigger concern is the prophesy involving him and the end of the world. Which he would probably have more time to worry about if it weren't for the ever growing collection of girls taking an interest in him.

Thoughts: >

Campione is fairly typical, with the regular assortment of harem girls surrounding the no personality male. One difference is how this one revels in being an adolescent male fantasy. Which is kind of cool in its own way. Somehow it has enough vitality to keep it from completely collapsing under the collection of tired anime concepts, but there are two distinct features setting this one apart.

Fights are based on mythology with powers inherited from their basis in gods from various cultures. Battles have tiers of depth, not just "the struggle" followed up with "the tipping point for victory". Fights can shift back and forth in stages. As mythology doesn't really line up with known fact (in this anime), they become unpredictable which keeps it interesting. And annoying. Campione is unpredictable because makes everything up as it goes, and tries to support this with substantial amounts of dialog gibberish. This is essentially how the plot unfolds as well. The story almost seems deep, but lacks coherency in details.

The stand out feature of this anime is the kissing. You know the generic gutless harem anime male who can't make up his mind? That's Godou. You know how occasionally that guy might lightly kiss a girl in a harem anime? That doesn't really happen here. No, Campione goes all out with lip locking. First a longing look, then characters really go at it with long wet full tung kisses. Often after finally pulling away, they go at it again! In the last episode Godou makes out with all the girls in one shot. I think anime has gotten a little tired in dancing around stuff like even thinking of kissing, so it's refreshing to see one reflecting the reality of teenage hormones. Yeah the reasoning is a bit shallow, but in my fantasies where I'm a god and girls are shamelessly throwing themselves at me, logic is a spurious distraction. Hail to the king baby! That's kind of the attitude this anime has.

I admit I have a more positive view of Campione then I probably should. For an action/fantasy anime, it's okay. For a harem anime, it's okay. Campione is well produced but pretty average from a content perspective. I don't really consider that good enough these days, but I think Campione compensates with some interesting battles, and the unusual kissing thing. Kind of annoying that hardly any of Godou's adversaries are really defeated, and thus all he did through the show is collect pretty girls... then again if I were the main character in an anime, I'd consider that mission accomplished.

Screen Caps: >