Armor Shop for Ladies & Gentlemen (Season One)
Kautz is a rookie adventurer who finds his life strangely entangled with a shop that sells armour, specifically bikini armour. Before he knows what’s going on, he’s working and living there. It could be worse!
Armor Shop for Ladies & Gentlemen (Season One)
What did you watch?
This seemed like it would be the perfect show to accompany my rewatch of Bikini Warriors. If that show focuses on the adventurers who wear the armour, this one is all about the shop that provides them. It’s like a match made in RPG heaven! That’s not the only similarity. Both have only four minutes long episodes so they should offer more insight into that format. Well, that’s enough about Bikini Warriors, let’s find out if Armor Shop for Ladies & Gentlemen lives up to the comparison.
What happened?
Kautz was attacked by slimes. He’s such a rookie adventurer that it was not looking good. That was until he was saved by a mysterious woman. She ran off before he could thank her, leaving behind a bag of money. Kautz swore to find her and return the money, and maybe ask her out. She was pretty hot and had just saved his life, so he was swimming with hormones. Amazingly, he found the girl in an armour shop with the owner’s face between her legs. Worry not, he was just ensuring his armour fit perfectly.
Narden welcomed Kautz to his shop and asked him if he was looking to buy some armour, gesturing to a row of the most seductive bikini armour. He said no but then revealed that he had found Lilietta’s bag of money and was keen to return it. She recognised him and the money as it was all the money the shop had and without it, they would have to close. Surprisingly, the shop didn’t make a lot of money, but that was mostly because Narden kept discounting it as he was more of an artist than a businessman. Kautz offered to help them turn a profit.
What did you think?
This is not Bikini Warriors. It’s not even close. The first couple of episodes were funny, however, as the series went on the jokes slowed and eventually, the final four episodes could have been a single regular episode which made the whole thing kind of stilted and broken up. They also lost the level of humour from the earliest episodes. I feel like a show like this really needed to embrace the fan service elements, especially as it’s focused on selling bikini armour. It goes to show that it’s not how long it is, but how you use it… I’m talking about the episode length… definitely the episode length.
What was your favourite moment?
There were a couple of moments that really stuck in my mind after the show had finished. The first was when Kautz had been bewitched by Lilietta’s bikini armour and lost control. It took Narden slapping his ass to bring him back, which was pretty funny. Of course, it happened again soon after and we just saw Narden reappear with his hand raised, ready to strike.
The other moment was when we met Frealica. She’s the busty redhead who came into the shop while Kautz was alone and sought to have a bit of fun. Anyhow, she almost wiped his HP with a breast bounce skill as she walked into the store. That made me laugh far more than it probably should have.
What was your least favourite moment?
The eighth episode was horrendous. It switched almost entirely to a pixelated RPG format with still images and even live-action moments. It made no sense and was quite jarring. I really didn’t like it and that was the beginning of the end for me with this series. After that, it rapidly went downhill. It felt like they needed to get an episode finished and ran out of time.
Who was your favourite character?
Definitely Frealica. She was nice to look at and I enjoyed the way she teased Kautz. I would have liked to have seen more of her in this series, although not enough that I want to watch the second season. There wasn’t a great deal of personality with any of the characters. You could argue that with four-minute episodes that was bound to happen, but Bikini Warriors managed it…
Who was your least favourite Character?
I guess it’s never a good sign when the protagonist is your least favourite character! That’s right, it’s Kautz. He was the most annoying of the cast and never really did much to correct that. He was also a major factor in one of the slightly more annoying scenes where he kept passing out from blood loss every time he woke up to find Frealica and Lilietta leaning over him.
Would you like some more?
I’ve already hinted at this so I’ll just come out and say it. No! There actually is a second season and it has eight-minute episodes, but even that’s not enough to make me want to see any more. It’s pretty rare for me to not continue a series. By the time I get to the end, I will usually watch more, even if it’s just to see what happens next. unfortunately, this series doesn’t do anything that makes me want to find out more about the story or the characters.
What have you learnt?
This series should have stuck to the episodic joke. It also should have embraced the fan service elements that come with bikini armour. Had it done that, it would have probably been a lot of fun and could have left me wanting more. It’s definitely interesting looking at this side-by-side with Bikini Warriors as you can start to piece together why one worked and the other didn’t. That’s true of all stories, so it’s always worth checking out a number of different ones similar to what you might want to create. That way, you can avoid making the same mistakes.
Other Posts in the Series
- Season One
- Episode 1 – I Will Lend You the Key to the Armor Shop
- Episode 2 – Life is Armorful
- Episode 3 – I Want to Eat Your Armor
- Episode 4 – New Armor Shop Paradise
- Episode 5 – Breakfast in the Armor Shop
- Episode 6 – All You Need is Armor
- Episode 7 – Star Armor
- Episode 8 – Pirates of the Armor Shop
- Episode 9 – Constantine Tea
- Episode 10 – The Mokuku Next Door
- Episode 11 – Lord of the Wing
- Episode 12 – Armor Shop for Ladies & Gentlemen
