Anime: Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut 5525n

Fans of the typical action-based harem show rejoice, here is yet another entry that follows the script to the letter. See princess naked in first episode? Check. Have princess challenge and lose a duel to the protagonist? Check. Have princess give up on retribution afterwards and pledge fealty to the protagonist? Check? All in the two episodes? Check.

Bahamut is a mech-based, semi-fantasy action-based harem that follows closely in the footsteps of shows such as Gakusen Toshi Asterisk and Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry. The twist this time is that our protagonist is the disgraced prince of the former empire that was overthrown after oppressing its people too far. To somehow atone for his family's past, Lux works as a handyman in the new empire, helping in whatever capacity others need. However, after the events in the first episode, he becomes the only male student in an otherwise female-only academy, and becomes one of the knights defending the school and empire. What enemies lurk in the distance beyond the empire, and what dangers lurk within the multitude of bijins in the school?

Animation:
Bahamut is a well drawn show with a bright, relatively saturated color palette and a serene setting with a nice albeit blurry mountainous backdrop. There's a nifty blend in the setting between rustic buildings and scenery and ultra-modern technology such as the sword-mechs and holographic ear-pieces. Unfortunately, there is a ton of CGI usage with the mechs here and though it's relatively good quality, it's still distracting at times. The mechs themselves aren't anything that great, their appearance is probably most similar to those seen in Infinite Stratos. The generic mechs used by non-important characters look like they took their color scheme right off of the training mechs of Aldnoah Zero. Character styling is pretty good with a diverse looking cast and a good variety of clothing. There are occasionally some drawing inconsistencies (random clothing articles changing color within a scene) but overall things check out well here. If I were to find fault in something, the overly-obvious, crazed antagonist look makes things too, well, obvious.

This show has a fair amount of action with a lot of mech battles and a slight amount of blood. Antagonists take the form of either other mech pilots or occasionally weird dragon-like ancient creatures known as Abyss. Our protagonist wields two swords, which can each transform into a piloted mech. One is a wyvern, an average sacrificial mech. The other is Bahamut, which is essentially a Strike Freedom in Gundam . The first time our protagonist uses Bahamut can be likened to the first time Goku goes Super Saiyan, the entire world stops to marvel at what has happened; humorously future summonings have no such effect. Unfortunately, Bahamut is so strong (and fast) that its special ability allows the animator to literally carve out a path of destruction on the screen. If you're looking for outstanding choreography, unfortunately this isn't where you'll find it.
This is indeed an ecchi based harem, the protagonist pretty much sees all the heroines at least partially undressed (except his sister thank goodness) and has more than his share of accidental exposures. Granted, some of the heroines are very aggressive relationship-wise (such as Krulcifer) so expect them to make moves on our poor (or lucky?) protagonist.

Sound:
The show opens with a few nice guitar notes but then dives into a melody that that isn't particularly inspiring; it's electronic but not in the right way. The ED carries a similar guitar-based feel with Nano.Ripe's instantly recognizable voice. It's not a particularly memorable song but a fitting cool down piece. The brass instrumentation of the BGM during the title intro and various other portions of the show definitely give the show a fantasy-like feel. The overall BGM is minimalistic most of the time, and the instrumentation changes based on the scene. There's a nice memorable, string-based theme whenever our show gets to a battle climax.

With the exception of Lux obviously being voiced by a girl, I think Bahamut's cast is actually very good. This is the first major role for Lynn that I've seen, and she does a pretty convincing tsundere as Lisesharte. I really liked Ari Ozawa's voice as Kirin in Gakusen Toshi Asterisk and her "nii-san" callings are pretty effective here too. Though her character isn't my favorite, Risa Taneda does a great job here as well. And not to be outdone, Shizuka Ishigami has an extremely dangerous/flirtatious character and she totally nails it. Again, if I were to have to pick a negative, it would be the antagonists; the VAs do a perfect job of matching a crazy-sounding voice to the already crazed-antagonist look.

Story:
Lux is a Drag-Knight (short for Dragon-Knight, though I don't think Japan gets the connotation of their shortened form), which means he can make his sword magically turn into an armored mech, which he can pilot. However, he is not just any knight but the infamous pilot of Bahamut, the pitch-black machine dragon responsible for single-handedly bringing down the former empire (his father's empire essentially). It's an interesting twist to the setting that honestly isn't fully explained in the show.

The show follows Lux as he assists the all girls' school with various tasks, often involving saving various girls in succession who become smitten afterwards. The central plotline is actually rather weak, as the episodes tend to do a round robin through all the heroines. Once all the heroines are "conquered", we find that there is yet another tournament! This brings the show to an over-the-top climax followed by an all-too-familiar conclusion.

Honestly, despite following the plotline of virtually every other action-based harem in the past few years, this is a story well executed. The story flows well and successfully weaves just the right amount of character development and interaction into the main plot. There's just the right amount of action mixed with a dose of comedy, ecchi, and romance.

Character:
There are quite a few characters in Bahamut, and not all of them are treated equally. Some of the girls are successfully differentiated enough (such as Lisesharte and Krulcifer) but others still end up feeling like cookie-cutter characters (such as Celistia and pretty much all the antagonists). Airi is a nice accompaniment to Lux though one may wonder why she's just treated as an encyclopedia and fact announcer; perhaps they just wanted to be completely sure not to annoy viewers with an incest route. I guess I'm just happy that the show didn't turn into another Aokana as both Krulcifer and Kirihime are quite bold.

There are quite a few ing characters, many of whom don't contribute all that much to the story; I will say Noct is a fun character as "Yes" and "No" are like half her lines. Despite these, there is a fair amount of character interaction and relationship development. Yes, a lot of it is just Lisesharte looking jealous as Lux hangs out with the other gals, but it's in a reasonable quantity. If there's one downer, it's that the characters are pretty static overall, I can't say that the events of the show strongly changed any of the characters (just having feelings for the protagonist doesn't count).

Value:
Bahamut should be the go-to action-based harem of the season. It's an entertaining, easy to watch show with a good mix of themes and a fluid execution. It's obviously not perfect as described above but overall it tells a nice story with reasonable depth and memorable characters. There are plenty of unanswered questions at the end of the show so I'd expect there to be a sequel as well. Compared to other shows of the genre, I think it compares about equally with its predecessors such as Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry but with a much more moderate dosage of ecchi (especially when compared against Testament). Looking for a decent harem with some action? You've found it.