Real Bout High School

Ryoko is the current champion of the K-Fight battles fought at school. These K-Fights, where two students battle eachother, are actually supported by the school.

I thought this show could be a lot better. It starts off promising, with Ryoko fighting Azumi in the first episode's K-Fight. I think this is where Real Bout High School shines because the K-Fight idea is awesome. Unfortunately, after the first episode the story shifts and Ryoko finds herself transported to another dimension called Sylvania.

At first it didn't seem so bad. Ryoko would be transported to another dimension and fight monsters with supernatural powers, like ultra strength and being able to jump really high. A lot of time is spent in this world, but it never fully explains it, so the story comes off being pretty weak. The last two episodes also felt rushed, almost as if trying to bring the series to a quick close.

Real Bout High School's only saving graces are its characters and some of the fights. The characters have some great personalities and are a lot of fun to watch, with some well-placed humor and fanservice. The show is packed with quite a bit of action and the fights range from decent to great. Strangely, the first episode actually has the best fight scene in the whole show.

Real Bout High School features beautiful character designs by Keiji Goto. For the most part, the animation is pretty good. However, there is one episode that was outsourced so the overall quality on it does drop a lot. The opening and ending songs are great, but there isn't anything remarkable about the background music.

Unfortunately, this is a hard series to recommend. If they just stuck with K-Fight idea I think it would have turned out much better. Unless you are a hardcore GONZO or Keiji Goto fan, I'd have to say you probably want to pass on this one.

Score:

Written by Marc Frost on Mar 21, 2014