About

Keijo!!!!!!!! (競女!!!!!!!! in Japanese) is a Japanese anime and manga series based in an alternate reality where former judo students participate in keijo, a sport in which women in bikinis attempt to knock each other off floating platforms by striking opponents with their breasts and buttocks. Online, the series has drawn criticism by some feminists as a sexist form of "fan service."

History

Manga

In July 2013, Keijo was serialized in the manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday. Collections of the manga were subsequently released across 13 tankōbon volumes.

Anime

On July 30th, 2016, a trailer for an upcoming Keijo anime series was released on YouTube (shown below). On October 6th, the series began airing in Japan and was subsequently released on the anime streaming site Crunchyroll.^[2] As of November 2016, a total of seven episodes have been broadcast.

Online Presence

On August 20th, 2015, the Keijo Wiki^[4] was created, gathering upwards of 200 pages in the next year. On August 15th, 2016, the /r/keijo^[3] subreddit was launched for discussions about the anime series. On October 7th, YouTuber Meti 'Not The Bad Guy' uploaded a clip from the Keijo anime titled "The New JoJo Looks Great" (shown below).

On October 9th, the anime news site Anime Maru published a satirical article titled "'Keijo!!!!!!!!’ Tops Fall Season in Exclamation Points." On October 20th, 2016, YouTuber Kirin AMV's uploaded an anime music video featuring the pop song "Bomb" by Isa (shown below).

As of November 12th, 2016, the Japanese artist community pixiv leads to over 70 results under the tag "競女!!!!!!!!",^[12] and the artist community DeviantART leads to over 1,200 results under the keyword "keijo",^[11] most of them related to the series. Fandom presence can also be found on other communities like 4chan^[14] and Tumblr.^[13]

Reception

In November 2016, Crunchyroll announced that Keijo was the most-viewed anime series in nine states within the United States.^[5]

Fan Service Controversy

On October 11th, 2016, Kotaku^[8] published an article criticizing the anime for being objectifying to women. Two days later, Redditor sw4ahl submitted a post mocking the Kotaku article to /r/KotakuInAction,^[9] where it gathered upwards of 920 votes (97% upvoted) and 200 comments within one month. That day, Kotaku^[10] published an interview with Anime Feminist founder Amelia Cook, who denounced animes like Keijo for using "fan service" to appeal to a male audience.

Search Interest

External References