Hundred is my second crack at an ecchi harem here on AAB, and compared to Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut from last season, I’m already far more impressed with this show than with the former.
Hundred opens with a flashback. A large creature called a Savage is attacking a town. The main character, Hayato Kisaragi, is holding an unnamed silver-haired person in his arms. When the creature attacks, they are thrown away from each other. Blood is everywhere. When Hayato wakes up, he remembers where he is: in a military-type airplane on his way to the academic city-ship, Little Garden. Little Garden appears to be a military school, where students are trained to be a type of soldier called a Slayer. People who resonate with magical stones called Hundreds (named for the many, many forms a Hundred can take) can train to become a Slayer, and their goal is to protect humanity by fighting Savages.
Once Hayato lands and reaches the campus, he meets a young boy named Emile Crossfode, who recognizes him and is ecstatic to see him – but Hayato has never seen this person before. Except in, you know, his dream, but he hasn’t put two and two together yet. Emile introduces Hayato to a couple of his friends, and then their group makes their way to the opening ceremony.
At the ceremony, two girls who arrive late are expelled by Little Garden’s military “queen”, Claire Harvey. She has a no-nonsense stance on mistakes, for when in battle against a Savage, even a small mistake can get a Slayer killed. When Emile jumps to his feet to protest their expulsion, he is expelled too. Hayato takes a stand against this decision, and Claire makes him a deal: if he can beat her in a Hundred battle, she will reverse her decision.
After the opening ceremony, Emile takes the opportunity to introduce Hayato to her friend Charlotte Dimandius, the main technologist on Little Garden and the chief Hundred researcher, and her assistant Meimei. Who… is dressed like and behaves as a cat. Char gives Hayato his Hundred, and Emile takes it upon himself to help Hayato train for the upcoming battle. For you see, Hayato had never before used a Hundred when he applied to enter Little Garden, but he miraculously set a new high frequency record score.
Hayato’s Hundred is the Flying Swallow, a sword with a shield over his right arm and shoulder. Emile summons his Hundred, a winged model called Arms Shroud. Together they they train until the early evening. Afterwards Hayato finds a ton of messages on his phone and realizes he forgot to visit his younger sister Karen after the opening ceremony. He rushes off to go see his sister, leaving Emile to return to the dormitory alone.
Later that night after returning home from the hospital, Hayato accidently walks in on Emile getting changed in Hayato’s room post-shower. Emile freaks out, 
but once he calms down he reveals they’re roommates. Surprise! My bet is we’re going to get lots of ecchi situations resulting from this arrangement, at least until Emile’s secret is revealed.
The next day is the big day. Claire and Hayato face off in an arena, with the other students watching from up in the bleachers. The duo launch their Hundreds and prepare for battle. Who will be the winner??
My thoughts: How would I describe Hundred? If Neon Genesis Evangelion met Final Fantasy VIII and they had a baby, Hundred would be that offspring. It’s a nice blend of sci-fi, mecha and comedy, with a little ecchi mixed in.
The animation is solid, though I’m not a fan of the opening theme song. (I’m sure this is unrelated, but given that I feel that Hundred has some similarities with FFVIII, I thought it was ironic that the closing theme song is called “Eyes on Me”, lulz.) But do you know what got my attention the most? The possibility that we might get a different kind of fanservice in addition to the regular naked-skin-and-big-breasts. Seriously, Hayato’s physique in his variable suit? Hot damn!
Emile is obviously not a male. There are several hints sprinkled throughout the episode, references that he is not the gender he claims to be. I’m curious to see how that revelation will be played out later in the season.
This was a good start to a new show, and if this kind of performance continues, I will be happy to cover Hundred.
Possibility of Watching: High
Possibility of Blogging: High
Glad to hear you liked it
Hayato should’ve followed Kurogane Ikki’s example and took off his shirt to defuse the situation with Emile. No point hiding those chest muscles!
Character designs are by the same personas the Shinmai Maou novels, BTW.
Haha, no kidding eh? 0:-) I wouldn’t be complaining.
I’m not familiar with Shinmai Maou, sorry! ^^;;
The show is called “Hundred” because that’s the number of times this same show has been produced previously.
LOL. touche. I’m somewhat new to this genre though, so I will enjoy it for what it is. 😉
Ah, I wish I could still enjoy this kind of shows. They were one of the firsts I watched and really enjoyed, but at that point I didn’t quite realize they were Harems 😀 and I got annoyed when more and more girls kept showing up…
I tried to give this one a fair shot, (and I actually like the Opening :D), but I couldn’t continue once we saw the “Queen”. I didn’t understand the whole situation. Those two girls were firstyears too right? So why were they even “greeting” the MC? They made it sound like they were ordered too? Why did they not come on time to the ceremony? Why can the council President expell them? Who gives someone like that power? Argh, I know that these questions don’t matter, but I can’t do this to myself. It’s so predictable.
I mean, it doesn’t look that bad (compared to for example that chivalry thing last season), but…
Glad you still enjoy it, and I totally get why! I loved Zero no Tsukaima and Shakugan no Shana, (and even Freezing which had really over the top echhi). But these were my “firsts” 😀
I know that feel. It’s called Hundred because you’ve already seen the same show 99 times, right? I think Rakudai will end up with better fight scenes than Hundred (I’m still bitter about how good those were, because Silver Link’s budget that season should have gone to Antimagic) but Hundred should have better girls. I totally understand, ZnT and Shana feel more like classic staples than cookie-cutter entries to the genre (Shana probably doesn’t classify as a harem at all) although they were some of my firsts too so that might be why I think so. Freezing is just shameless ecchi.
Yeah, and the sad part is that it always feels like thrown away potential. Probably because they always link the Harem genre with the genres I actually like (a bit romance, magical fantasy worlds, military/magical school setting).