Najica Hiiragi is famed throughout Japan as a top perfume designer for CRI- but what only a handful of people know is that she also works for them in another capacity- as a secret agent. When she’s not down in the lab working on the last of the ‘Day series’ perfumes, she’s out tracking down and recovering rogue Humaritts (artificial humans), all the while accompanied by her own Humaritt partner, Lila.

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Najica will most likely be aware of its rather dubious claim to fame- the record number of panty shots squeezed into every episode. In a world populated almost entirely by young women wearing incredibly short skirts, there are plenty of opportunities for creative camera angles, and Najica takes advantage of them all. Many viewers will no doubt be put off by the prospect of an endless parade of white cotton panties, but anyone prepared to treat the fanservice as laughably ridiculous rather than just plain irritating will find that Najica isn’t as bad as it’s often purported to be.

Indeed, unlike many other examples of the genre, Najica actually offers a reasonable storyline to go along with the panty shots. There’s James Bond style action aplenty as Najica and Lila complete their various missions, and whilst admittedly the series does have a definite ‘Humaritt of the week’� feel, each encounter is unique enough to stand out from the rest. There’s nothing here you won’t have seen before, but it’s entertaining nonetheless.

Overall, the storyline is reasonably well rounded- given the length of the series, naturally there isn’t time to go into that much detail, but then again, neither does it have time to get tiring. There are one or two unnecessary inclusions to the story, however; the most notable being the fact that Najica is set in a future where 17.5% of the world’s current landmass is underwater. Aside from a few shots of partially submerged landmarks and the odd reference to the world’s altered geography, this fact is never really explained, and it’s puzzling as to why it was included at all.

Character-wise, Najica manages to avoid the mistake of trying to cram too many characters into too few episodes; although there are other regulars, the focus is squarely on Najica and Lila. The combination of a veteran agent used to working alone and her naïve rookie partner is hardly a new one, but it is still interesting to watch the relationship between the pair develop, and see Lila use Najica as role model to transform from an obedient android into a more defined personality.

Visually, Najica may not be among the best looking shows out there, but the animation does maintain a decent standard. Likewise, the music, whilst not outstanding, is surprisingly catchy, and only helps to reinforce the James Bond feel of the series.

In Summary

A dose of spy-style action liberally sprinkled with fanservice, Najica is a fun slice of light entertainment that’s perfect for when you want something that isn’t too deep but doesn’t quite fall into the category of total fluff. If you think you can learn to live with the copious amounts of panty shots, then there are definitely worse ways to spend an afternoon.