Autumn 2018 First Impressions – Conception

Itsuki Yūge is a high school student who finds out on the day of his graduation ceremony that his cousin and childhood friend Mahiru is pregnant. Immediately afterward, Itsuki and Mahiru are taken to a magical world called Granvania, which is currently being invaded by monsters. The only people who can fight and exorcise the monsters are the “Star Children,” and the Star Children can only be produced by the 12 “Star Maidens.” In order to defeat the monsters and return to his own world, Itsuki must father the Star Children with the Maidens. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Game

Episode Summary: Itsuki’s cousin Mahiru has some news for him, and it’s a surprise to them both: Mahiru is pregnant, though having never had intercourse the mechanism is truly a mystery. As she reveals the news, both the teens are drawn unwillingly into a magic porthole that connects to another world. After battling with a demon, they’re met by someone from the royal court who escorts them them to the castle.

As the King himself explains, Itsuki was brought to their world to be its savior, and Mahiru is one of twelve zodiac priestesses who play an important role in the world’s survival. It’s not Itsuki himself that’s destined to purify the world, but instead the offspring he creates with each of the priestesses have the power to save them all. As a relatively innocent guy, this weighty task seems somewhat daunting though perhaps a little fun, too. When his potential coupling with Mahiru is set to become a reality, it’s then that Itsuki is under the gun to prove what kind of man he is.

Impressions: Every season there are a few anime whose synopses prove really hard to swallow. It’s true that sometimes plot elements that sound weird on paper might turn out to be less unsavory in practice, but anime being what it is, there are times when the final product is even worse. I spent weeks tiptoeing around Conception, mostly because it sounded like like a prime opportunity to introduce things like sexual opportunism on the part of the male lead, thinly-veiled sex slavery for the women, and the same sort of gross harem antics that I’m not a big fan of in the first place. As someone who’s been trying (and failing) to procreate for a while now, I also wasn’t in the mood to watch something that made teenage pregnancy look like some convenient magical accident (or in any way fun or appealing). Since I’m very close to exhausting my Autumn review source material, though, I figured it was about time to dig in and see whether this could possibly have as many issues as my mind had already assumed.

Luckily for me the answer is that the first episode is honestly about as good as it could be considering the tools it had to work with. Obviously this is a story set up to put the main character (and his “magic wand” har har) in the path of many attractive young women, and the first episode does spend some time setting up the mechanism for that to take place. It’s as contrived as one would expect; so much a product of its own setting’s “rules” that the circular reasoning for its existence is more an annoyance than anything. But it seems to believe the best in its main characters, and that lack of cynicism really saves the episode from being too gross.

Itsuki is sort of an interesting protagonist, at least as far as anime teenage boys go. Something that’s always bothered me about anime involving the potential for sex antics is that the male protagonist often seems really sex-obsessed until he’s in the position to actually have intercourse; the women around him are all game for a good time but for all his initial desire he’s suddenly apprehensive. In addition to the fact an unwilling participant is the opposite of sexy, when this sort of thing happens I’m usually left wondering what the point of the series is. If the main character is scared of sex in a comedy focused around the potential of having sex, then what should we be rooting for to happen? In any case, Itsuki is definitely inexperienced, but even so he seems interested enough to get the job done and manages not to be gross or creepy in the process. That in itself is a minor miracle.

Mahiru also manages to hold her own; her matter-of-fact demeanor about her mysterious pregnancy is humorous in its own way, and she never seems helpless – even though her situation is highly irregular as far as anime is concerned (I think the last time I saw an anime involving a teenage pregnancy, someone got their head cut off). As a pair, she and Itsuki demonstrate a lot of care toward one-another, and their “big scene” at the end of the episode comes across as nurturing rather than perverted.

Unsurprisingly, though, this episode is also riddled with various issues that detract from the overall viewing experience. Mana, the magical red panda (and de facto mascot character) is possibly one of the most irritating elements at play. Where as Itsuki and Mahiru handle their daunting task with some modicum of maturity, Mana is irritating and sex-obsessed, providing the “perverted 13-year-old” perspective that we neither wanted nor needed.

There are also some incomprehensible visual choices, the most egregious of which is an opening scene comprised only of character silhouettes with their breasts and butts featured prominently. As a sex-focused adventure series, it’s no mystery why these titillating glimpses exist. The problem is, they’re really not that titillating; the faceless body parts seem distorted and grotesque, which is likely the exact opposite of what was intended. In a series that’s otherwise fairly neutral as far as nudity and fanservice are concerned, this feels like more of a misstep than it might otherwise be.

Perhaps the real deal-breaker for me is Itsuki’s and Mahiru’s relationship; they’re described as cousins, so for however cute they are together their familial bond makes their sexual relationship feel especially inappropriate. I suppose relationships between cousins may be viewed differently in Japan, and it’s not clear whether they’re first cousins or some other more distant relation (second cousins? First cousins once removed?), either. But the situation has enough of an air of inappropriateness that I was unable to ignore the possible implications. It’s sort of a surprising place to stumble for an episode that had very little likelihood of being all that great to begin with, but I suppose that’s what makes it disappointing.

This series was never “for me” but I think viewers could end up doing much worse this season. I’m disappointed, though, that even though this episode reveals a heart that so few ecchi anime have, there are still issues that add to its gross-out factor and limit its audience.

Pros: The protagonists are both sympathetic and well-realized. The premise lacks the typical cynicism of many ecchi harem sex comedies.

Cons: The cousin relationship between the two characters is sketchy. The mascot character is gross and irritating. There are some poor-taste, poorly-rendered fanservice moments.

Grade: C-