10 Second Anime - Musaigen no Phantom World - Episode 14 [BD OVA]

The Phantom Hunting Club goes on a Summer trip to a hot springs hotel by the beach. Their assignment is to eliminate a troublesome phantom who plays on their perceptions.

Episode 14 - "Miracle of the Polka Dots"

Heh.

This OVA let the fans have a real onsen and beach episode to make up for the great 8th episode's lack of bikinis. Wow! Did they ever make up for that episode! Not only was there the conventional fanservice with all the sexy girls (and Kurumi...) but there was also the regular fanservice of hitting the favorite conventions of this show's humor and action scenes. There was even a nod to continuity with Mai and Haruhiko almost having a "moment" under the beautiful night sky.

The whole premise of the phantom's power and the humor behind it was using bubble censorship, or polka dot censorship as the Japanese call it, for unnecessary censorship. The bus trip to the hot springs inn foreshadowed the crazy set of events by having everyone, and I mean everyone, wearing polka dot patterns. The phantom's "phase 2" level made a hilarious nod to the age-restricted manga and doujin scene too. Like I said, this was fanservice on lots of levels.

The OVA followed the basic structure of the regular season episodes, with Haruhiko and Ruru playing out a prologue for how concealment of features can change perception based on a person's biases.

The bus trip eased the audience into getting used to our cast again with all their personality quirks and qualities.

Ruru highlighted Shousuke's character as he was the designated favored high school age opinion on erotica.

Helping matters with the phantom's powers were the kids' and even the innkeeper and Himeno-sensei choice in beachwear. All the girls wore strapless bikini tops while all the dudes wore speedos and other short-cut boy shorts. The visual nature of the unnecessary censorship would not have worked otherwise.

The boys like the new situation but the girls do not. This phantom's power has driven women away from the beautiful beach which in turn drove the men away.

Haruhiko had his usual presentation on how the phantom's power works and how it plays games with human perception. This is the primary theme of the Phantom World show, so we got a big taste of it here.

Still, the kids can't help feeling naked even when they know they have clothes on. They should have worn straps and board shorts. Just saying.

Even Marchosias and Cthulhu got censored! Marchosias' triumph of stepping into the water was short-lived. He tried, so he was still a good puppy.

Shousuke's impassioned speech about seeing clothes first before nakedness somehow inspired the other boys to stop accepting their situation. "Being naked from the start is no fun!" Shousuke cried. He's right, of course. You've got to build up erotic feelings to a crescendo.

And then we got the girls fighting in their bikinis! My only quibble was that Mai decided to use her Water attack, which meant rubbing her sides, instead of a Metal attack, which would have meant rubbing her brea... chest. Ah well. That may have been too much to ask for.

Haruhiko's sealing ability went unused because of the splashing ocean waves, but Reina was there to gobble up the weakened phantom.

Following the conventions of the other episodes, Haruhiko became the final butt, and front, of the censorship jokes. Having lost his swimsuit from the rough currents, he became the only who actually needed censorship.

Mai had seen this burlesque show before so she needed to get the heck out of there. The rest of Team Haruhiko quickly followed.

Haruhiko, very much an indoor type, confirmed his hate for Summer, but his Ruru, naturally enough, loves it so much.

The Fanservice.

There was quite the heavy load of fanservice, so let's break it down into sections.

The Big Sisters.

Himeno-sensei and the innkeeper were absolutely gorgeous in their suits. This show focuses on the high school kids, but every time an adult woman has appeared on the screen, she has been a vision.

The Hot Springs.

Starting with free stuff as extra motivation to get that phantom, we went through a very fun and sexy review of what hot springs hotel fanservice should look like. That scene with milk drink is just straight out KyoAni showing off.

The Swimsuit Episode.

We got a nice ogle at the bandeau tops (all the better to censor lasciviously with) before the phantom noticed all the cute girls on the beach.

The Miracle of Polka Dots.

Here we got to the title of the episode. This phantom wasn't particularly harmful, but he sure played on the bashfulness of Japanese women.

R-18 Censor Bars.

The phantom took unnecessary censorship to the next level! Censor bars in age restricted material lets you know something more than nakedness is going on. Oh ho, what a sneaky devil! Good thing they were just white instead of black.

All in all, we got a most enjoyable fanservice episode. Fanservice for the eyes. Fanservice for the relationships. Fanservice for the usual jokes. And fanservice for the power of friendship.

Also, Haruhiko is going to get a reputation if he can impress the Big Sister Types with his full frontal display.