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This Week in Anime - My Poor Eiken Back

Sure, one could try looking it up in Japanese, but I honestly prefer never knowing; the mystery behind it appeals to me.

Lord Geo wrote:

Sure, one could try looking it up in Japanese, but I honestly prefer never knowing; the mystery behind it appeals to me.

It's just as much a mystery to me in Japanese, since the manga's title is in katakana and there are hundreds or thousands of kanji combinations that could have that reading. One would assume that the "ken" is an abbreviation of "研究," or "research," but what "ei" they're researching is a total mystery to me—could be anything from movies to fish to honor to poetry.

I remember watching JesuOtaku's review of it, which IMHO is the only thing about Eiken worth watching. I'd love to watch said review again, but it sadly seems to have disappeared off the internet, which is a shame.

I have to confess that I thought Eiken was the funniest stuff ever when I was in college. These days, though, it is at least still useful as an anime Boogeyman/threat, even if it isn't useful for anything else.

The only act of salvation one can do after watching Eiken is to weaponize having watched Eiken.

I also wanna say that, while doing some research, I saw a loooot of people trying to explain away Eiken as a "parody." Those people are cowards and fools. Eiken is exactly what it wants to be, and on some fucked up level, I kinda respect that.