Kenkou Zenrakei Suieibu Umishou - Comedy and fanservice aplenty

Kenkou Zenraikei Suieibu Umishou (ケンコー全裸系水泳部 ウミショー) is a romantic comedy manga series written and illustrated by Mitsuru Hattori. It ran from 2005 to 2008 and spans 9 volumes in total. I only recently got around to finishing it up, despite having watched the anime series long ago.

The series follows the life of Kaname Okiura, a high school student attending the Prefectural Umineko Commercial High School, often shortened to "Umisho" (hence the title). As a club activity, he works as a manager for the high school swim team, even though he actually doesn't know how to swim himself.

It is revealed that back when he was a kid, he nearly drowned because a "mermaid" pulled him under the water. From that moment on, he started to fear water, which makes him unable to swim. He originally joined the club to learn to overcome this trauma, but the team itself is mostly composed of weirdos, so it is kind of difficult to actually get much done.

The story really begins when a floating house arrives at the shores of Umisho carrying a cheerful girl called Amuro Ninagawa and her father. She transfers to the school and is extremely good at swimming, to the point that the protagonist almost connects her to the mermaid that made him nearly drown years back.

From that point on, considering the time period, you can guess what kind of content you will be seeing in the story. Lots and lots of fanservice (made easy by the swimming team setting), plenty of comedy due to the weirdo characters, and even some slight romance, though it isn't really developed much during the course of the manga.

The cast is quite big, but only a few characters get enough screentime to be memorable. Aside from Amuro and Kaname, we have:

Momoko Orizuka

The serious and disciplined third-year student and vice-captain of the team. She is the "straight man" in the team and is the last bastion trying to keep the team under control and actually doing their activities.

Masa Ikariya

Third-year captain of the Umisho swim team, nicknamed Ikamasa. He is an extremely eccentric guy obsessed with shaving body hair. He is often the target of Momoko's anger due to being the main culprit behind the team stopping training.

Mirei Shizuoka

Second-year student and one of the best swimmers on the team. She is very self-conscious when observed due to her glamorous figure, but secretly loves wearing revealing lingerie and collecting kokeshi dolls.

Maaya Nanako

First-year transfer student. She is a competitive swimmer who joined Umisho to pursue her childhood crush (the protagonist). She views Amuro as a romantic rival and resents larger-breasted teammates (like Mirei or Amuro), creating funny scenes.

The comedy scenes are hit or miss for me. You can go from some hilarious comedy scene to something that completely falls flat. My favorite character is definitely Mirei. The gap between her shy, embarrassed persona and the inner pervert growing inside her was really amusing to watch.

One thing that bugged me is that the quality of the final panels of the manga (set in the future) was EXTREMELY rough. It makes me wonder if the series was axed and the author had to complete it quickly or something along those lines. It almost looked like the draft got released instead of the final ink.

Overall, I enjoyed the series, but I have to say that there are plenty of better series out there, both on the comedy and on the ecchi side. But if you have some hours to spare, give it a shot and see if the characters stick with you.