Bikini Warriors is a series of figures of girls role playing as fantasy classes created by Hobby Japan. Each of the characters are designed by various artists. A 12 episode anime series aired from July 7 to September 22, 2015, starring a group of these characters, Fighter, Mage, Paladin, and Dark Elf, as they set out on a quest to defeat the Demon Lord Deathgeld and his many minions. Oh, and they're all wearing bikinis. An OVA was released on December 19, 2015 and two more were released on December 7, 2016.
A manga was released online. A video game has also been confirmed to be in the making.
Visit its official website here
. Compared to Queen's Blade, a similar Ecchi-filled fantasy series focusing on a group of Chainmail Bikini-clad women that's also made by Hobby Japan.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Parody: Of RPGs.
- Always Need What You Gave Up: The party sells off their elixirs in Episode 5 for a new staff for Mage, thinking that they have too much of them. Cue them being overpowered in the next dungeon. And to add salt to their wounds, the reward at the end of it was the same staff they just bought.
- Anime Anatomy: Partial aversion. Every single Bikini Warrior definitely has nipples as the OVA episodes make clear. What they also make clear, is that they do have genitals (as they get stimulated in certain episodes), but they are not visible in Ep 15 (nor is there any pubic hair), which features extensive full-frontal nudity from almost the entire cast.
- Back for the Finale: Hunter and Valkyrie come back to help the heroes in episode 12.
- Big Bad: Demon Lord Deathgeld is the In-Universe Final Boss and leader of the monsters who wants to Take Over the World, making him the main enemy that the four heroines must defeat. Not much of him is known beyond this, as the series is a non-serious spoof of JRPGs.
- Cast Full of Gay: Confirmed by a couple of clips from episode 12 and the OVAs. Mage, Cleric, and Kunoichi are the only characters not confirmed to be into women in those episodes. And it's not like they were confirmed to be into men either.
- Death Is Cheap:
- When the party is forced to kill Mage, Mage's ghost tries to tell them that they can revive her by paying the town church.
- Paladin's ability to turn into holy energy and blast the enemy is apparently reversible, although Fighter fears she might die for real someday.
- Deconstructed Trope: Nearly every episode is dedicated to taking either one or two JRPG tropes and running the consequences into the ground:
- Episode 1: Chainmail Bikini: While buying new armor after being defeated in a dungeon, Fighter complains that the "armor" being sold by the blacksmith is practically the same thing. The blacksmith claims that the gear has attributes that make them more effective. When the team returns to the dungeon and face the same hazards, she and her companions discover the difference in the new "armor's" defense and resistance, despite their blatant skimpiness.
- Episode 2: With This Herring: The King is either unwilling or unable to give the heroes more funds and equipment by reminding him of their hero status, which causes them to get increasingly irritated with his attempt to send them away underprepared. Ultimately, they try to rob him, which leads to the King locking them up for their greed.
- Episode 3: Kleptomaniac Hero: Paladin gets the idea to rob the townsfolk blind after convincing her companions that they're owed for putting their lives on the line. After all their thieving, the townsfolk repossess everything the heroes spent their looting on. The townsfolk even go as far as depriving them of their clothing.
- Episode 4: Chain of Deals/Fetch Quest: Fighter just kills her quest giver instead of putting up with her increasingly embarrassing menial tasks.
- Episode 5: Too Awesome to Use: The heroes sell their stock of elixirs under the assumption that they never needed them if they had so many rare curatives. This backfires when they need the elixirs badly in the next dungeon.
- Episode 7: Overrated and Underleveled: A flashback to how Dark Elf convinced the heroes to let her join the party portrays her as an overblown adventurer that exaggerated her competence. Dark Elf is unsurprisingly shown to be useless in every adventure depicted for the remainder of the episode.
- Episode 8: Optional Party Member: The two new characters that fight over the chance to join the party end up forming their own party instead because they like each other's company. They come back later.
- Episode 9: Brainwashed and Crazy/Death Is Cheap: The party fails to understand that Mage is possessed by the wizard they killed, and are forced to kill her in self-defense. They also forget that Mage can be resurrected by the local church, so the heroes just leave her for dead. She’s fine by the next episode, though.
- Episode 10: Bragging Rights Reward: Because the heroes are especially whiny when demanding a better prize from the Great Fairy than either of her two treasures, the Great Fairy leaves them with nothing for their trouble.
- Episode 11: Heroic Sacrifice: Paladin only throws her life into possible danger because she's a masochist. It's also why she offers her life in place of the other heroes so much (well, that and Honor Before Reason).
- Episode 14: Combat Medic: Valkyrie and Hunter are initially pleased to have Cleric in their party, only to realize later that while she's good at combat, she's a mediocre healer.
- Episode 15: Informed Equipment/Infinity +1 Sword: The characters can't see the gear because it's literally not there. They’ve simply been fooled into thinking it is. So the "gear" is both effectively and literally useless for how much effort it likely took to acquire.
- Deconstructive Parody: The series lampshades most of the typical elements in a fantasy setting, and some of the drawbacks and consequences of the heroines' actions, in a humorously fanservicey fashion.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Although technically Hunter and Valkyrie didn't exactly fight, and technically they didn't become friends...
- Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female: Sexual encounters between the girls is always Played for Laughs and Fanservice, regardless of whether they're consensual or not. This can be seen in the Special episode, where Fighter and Dark Elf are possessed by a wizard and sexually assault their teammates. The scene is milked for pure fanservice, even though it could have ended in Rape by Proxy to four people if Mage had not stopped it.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The first three episodes portray Fighter as the Only Sane Man of the party, frequently pointing out how absurd the things that happen around her are. Starting with episode 4, she's just as wacky as the rest of the party. Mage tends to be portrayed as the voice of reason after that point.
- In the first episode, Mage joins the other girls in proving how wrong Fighter is for doubting their bikini armor. This clashes heavily with how she's consistently shown in later episodes to be kind and shy, as well as a Reluctant Fanservice Girl.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: A show featuring lovely girls wearing bikinis fighting RPG-style battles. It does not get much more obvious than that.
- Fanservice: With a name like Bikini Warriors, how could it not be? For example, there is plenty of jiggling thanks to the heroines walking around in bikinis.
- Fantasy Character Classes: The characters are based off typical fantasy classes:
- Fighter: Fighter and Paladin.
- Rogue: Hunter, Ninja.
- Magician: Mage, Dark Elf and Valkyrie.
- Cleric: Cleric.
- Fetch Quest: Parodied when the group have to do several random tasks for the town mayor to get a key they need to continue their quest. They don't take too kindly to finding out the key was metaphorical.
- Final Boss: Demon Lord Deathgeld, introduced in episode 7, is this.
- Final Boss Preview: Accidental one, courtesy of Dark Elf teleporting the gang to Deathgeld's lair.
- Gag Series: Loaded up with plenty of Fanservice, parodies the fantasy genre, has nonsensical plots (if you can call them plots) and provides plenty of laughs.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: From what little that is seen of Big Bad Deathgeld, he's basically your typical Demon Lord.
- Heroic Fantasy: An Affectionate Parody of one. A group of heroines with different talents band together to go on an epic quest to slay a Demon Lord. They are all wearing bikinis, and the series toys with fantasy tropes.
- Hotter and Sexier: The Special and the OVAs, a.k.a. episodes 13 and beyond. The TV series already has tons of Fanservice, but these episodes depict the characters in more revealing situations. Also, the OVAs come with "Hyper Sexy" versions of the TV episodes, giving them a more explicit retouch.
- Hyperspace Arsenal: One of the subjects of Episode 5. This is lampshaded by first showing how few places they could keep all the stuff, then wondering aloud where they were keeping it after laying it out on a cloth.
- Intentionally Awkward Title: The series' title can be considered a Take That! towards actual video games that have female characters wear very skimpy and impractical outfits for no reason beyond Fanservice.
- Kissing Discretion Shot: In the original airing, one of the clips from the 12th episode showed Dark Elf and Paladin about to kiss, but the scene cuts to another clip before they do. The later Hyper Sexy version of the episode replaces this scene with something far more explicit...
- Logo Joke: The series' logo is clearly stylized after the Dragon Quest logo.
- Merchandise-Driven: It's no coincidence that new OVAs are announced together with new characters and figures.
- Ms. Fanservice: Every single girl, aa expected from a saucy ecchi anime.
- Naughty Tentacles: All over the place.
- Nipple and Dimed: Played straight in the broadcast version. Averted in the Special, the OVAs, and the retouched episodes, which give them nipples.
- Not Quite Dead: The wizard in Episode 9.
- Playable Epilogue: Episode 15 seems to take place in one of these.
- Scenery Censor: In episode 6, it's not only used when they have their clothing removed by the Monster of the Week, but to also obscure their armor to make it look like they're not wearing anything. For the entire episode.
- Shout-Out: Fighter defeats an opponent in black armor with significant facial scars who congratulates her on how strong she is, and is also her father.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: After fighting with each other, Huntress and Valkyrie eventually decide they'd prefer to go off together.
- Slobs Versus Snobs: The uncouth hick Huntress versus the distinguished and haughty Valkyrie. Also an example of Opposites Attract.
- Useless Item:
- Episode 5 had the group selling all of their excess gear in order to pay for Mage to get a Crystal Staff. Fighter ends up selling all of their Elixirs, which restores mana and health fully, reasoning that they've always managed to keep both up in their quests before, so they've never used them. Cut to the group at the end of a dungeon just before the boss fight, almost completely drained of both health and mana, with only one chest to possibly give up a healing item...and it contains an extra Crystal Staff.
- After enduring a dungeon of endless trapped chests, the final one reveals the Great Fairy, who offers them the Token of Courage or the Crest of Justice. When an irritated Fighter remarks that they don't want either of them, the fairy offers them both.
- Wedgie:
- Whole-Plot Reference: Episode 15 is a parody of The Emperor's New Clothes.
- With This Herring: The king tries to send them out with a 10 gold coin stipend. When the heroines try to convince him to equip them better, he loses his temper and throws them into the dungeon naked and bound with ropes.
