So the very first show of this season that I've seen come by was also one I was vaguely curious about. Having nothing better to do, I downloaded Rio -- Rainbow Gate.

For a change we have a show with gorgeous women who are dressed in fetish costumes and it makes sense. Most of the show happens in a casino, and casinos really do have women like that wearing flattering costumes working as cocktail waitresses.

There's a simple reason why: men like places with attractive women, and men who are gambling will gamble more aggressively when there are attractive women around. Casinos figured this out a loooong time ago. So we are going to get a lot of fan service in this show, and at least some of it does make sense. On the other hand, some of it is gratuitous.

Our protagonist is a little girl named Mint. Her grandfather is what Vegas calls a "whale", a rich man who likes to gamble for high stakes. They are visiting Howard Resorts, which seems to be an artificial city built on a created island. They call it a "casino city", but it's not quite like Vegas because the whole thing is owned by a single company. I have to admit that watching it made me nostalgic for Vegas.

Anyway, back to the story, such as it is. Mint wanders around the island accompanied only by her stuffed bear, Choco. She rides a cable car, and walks down to the beach, but she's seen it all before and it's boring. But we keep getting hints about something called the Goddess of Victory. Customers at the casino all think that if they see her they'll have good luck, and some of them do.

What with one thing and another, Rio (said "Goddess") gets assigned by the hotel manager to accompany Mint. And there's some strange blonde man with four henchman who waylay Rio and Mint outside on a walkway. The blonde man says, "Get the bear!". At which point Rio uses her leet martial arts skills and knocks out all four henchmen. The five men run away.

That was the point where the show got really stupid. Eventually the blonde man shows up at the casino and challenges Rio to a single hand of draw poker. If she wins, he'll explain why he wants the bear, and he'll leave the casino forever. If he wins, he gets the bear -- and Rio has to take her clothes off.

And then we get a poker game. I will give them credit for that part: we didn't get straight-flush versus straight-flush or something ridiculous like that. But we got something akin to a henshin sequence during the poker hand, during which Rio used her ki to affect the outcome of the game.

I have to admit: it was silly, but it was fun. And the art is superb. Very clean animation, and the girls look great.

And the Rio character is refreshingly accessible. She's not stuck up. She's doing a job. She is nice to Mint and they get along.

I'll probably keep watching this.

I've got five frame grabs below the fold. Not quite NSFW but borderline, so better safe than sorry.

UPDATE: Aroduc hated it. Were it not for all the frame grabs, I'd wonder whether he watched the same show I did.

That's Rio, and her pet ferret Chip.

That's one frame out of a gainaxing sequence. But it was... realistic. She's wearing support underwear. She's jiggling, but not a ridiculous amount. Movement measured in millimeters.

That little girl is Mint, and the rules here are different than Vegas. In Nevada, kids are only permitted to pass through the casino area; they can't linger or watch the games.

The green-haired one and the blue-haired one are apparently twins, and whatever the blue-haired one says, the green-haired one repeats the last word. It's really annoying.

And why is Rio wearing a wedding dress? Well, I didn't really understand that part myself.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 10:17 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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