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Jun 30, 2014
A lot of popular shows have plenty of problems that are often ignored because they pander to their intended audience and NGNL (No Game, No Life) is no exception. The impressions one would likely get from the hype surrounding NGNL are it’s “an amazing show with an original premise and spectacular story-telling.” Though this is mostly exaggeration, as this show is far from amazing, it’s also far from awful for plenty of good reasons. NGNL’s glory stems from how well it knows its audience and that is a point in its favor, but there are definitely issues with it that should be addressed.
It’s easy to
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argue that a show with good characters is a good show and NGNL has this aspect covered, whether the former is true or not. A very serious person might laugh at that statement, but that laughter is coming from the ignorance of the characters’ purpose. Each of the characters do their apparent job well and that is to be distinct and interesting as well as appeal to the target audience. The excellence of the cast is thanks to the way the NGNL allows it’s intended audience to relate to it’s main characters and that is a sign of competence from the creators (or that they are lucky).
However, though the characters are a high point of NGNL for being interesting, and in a way fun, it’s hard to deny their flaws. For one, our two main characters, the siblings Sora and Shiro, are nearly perfect (ironically, considering I’m saying this is a flaw), and it sucks a lot of the anxiety you might have, and even some of the fun, out of the show. They do seem to be self-aware, but it hardly excuses this problem. In fact, their aptitude in nearly everything is ridiculous considering their circumstances. It’s clear that this probably only to give them “cool points” and cheat its main audience into thinking the characters are well designed (I use cheat loosely). All this is only compounded by how the other prominent members of NGNL’s cast of characters, such as Steph and Jibril, only help boost Sora and Shiro’s ego as they seem to only compliment their incredible skill, both indirectly and directly. Also, it’s unbecoming for the cast that most of the characters are there solely for “fanservice” and other appeal. As such, even though this anime’s characters are “fun and cool”, they aren’t nearly realistic and have exaggerated abilities (and personalities too).
With all that said about the overall above average cast, it’s unfortunate the premise isn’t as original as plenty claim because similar stories have definitely been conceived and written. That isn’t foretelling of an uninspired plot though, is it? The answer to that question is subjective, but it doesn’t matter that much. The story almost entirely focuses on the siblings, brother and sister, Sora and Shiro as they are brought to an alternate world after beating the god of said world in a game. In this world, everything is decided by games (not violence, debate, etc.) so you’d think this would allow for some creativity involving all the games they will likely be playing. Unfortunately, whoever authored NGNL seemingly always uses a likeness to a Deus Ex Machina as the solution for the siblings inevitably winning the games they play. The way the games are played are less intelligent than they are presented. To be honest, for a show about games, the games aren’t exciting at all because you know the outcome is always that the siblings will win. Also, the story itself isn’t very interesting anyway, as the things that mostly happen are playing games and cracking jokes so NGNL heavily relies on “fanservice” and references which isn’t a strong foothold. It’s good the forced drama is rare though.
This might put NGNL down a bit, but beneath the unpolished story is a nice setting that is not fully explored. Because Sora and Shiro decide to try defeating and uniting the intelligent races in the new world they arrive in, we get to explore many of the interesting places that said world contains. NGNL doesn’t feed us with a lot of adventure and exploration though, so this could be a missed opportunity.
Not only is the setting very nicely designed, the animation compliments it too. The animation quality is not top-notch, but it is unique. It’s nice to see something different as the art uses some uncommon colors and has a nice hue of orange.
Other than that, the voice acting is good as the voice actors do their jobs well. There aren’t any performances of immediate note though. Also, the music is fine, but there is better out there
Overall, even though NGNL will likely leave a positive impression on you, its also good to consider its undeniable flaws. It’s something you’ll definitely like if you land in its target audience range. That means you like random fanservice and the predictable outcome of the games. If you don’t like it, you’ll probably find this anime poor for trying to act smart and tripping like a fool. While NGNL may have an uninteresting premise, its characters and setting make up for a good portion of it. And though it’s not as good as some may claim it to be, it’s an exaggeration to say it’s bad. NGNL is a fun experience, but it’s not all it’s praised to be and not a must watch. You may want to watch it for that orange hue though.
5/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Mar 31, 2014
If you’re incredibly interested in romances, Golden Time’s plot will probably catch your attention. Its author, who also wrote another popular series, Toradora, has some pretty good premises for his stories. We honestly could have gotten a lot as an anime with Golden Time’s strong start. In fact, I would say this show starts on a strong note and ends on one as well. That said, the middle, the core parts of Golden Time, are filled with boring sub-plots that lead to nothing as well as a lot of time wasting. I can’t say Golden Time is bad, but it didn’t fulfill many of my
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expectations.
If you get to know the characters of Golden Time, you’ll see why its story does not work. The plot centers around Tada Banri, a college student: that’s at least more "original" than a highschool student. We find out he’s lost his memories and obviously has no recall of the details on how. College is where he meets our main cast, Banri’s group of friends, and though they are all unique characters, they have their own archetypes which occasionally makes their actions and reactions predictable. There’s is a love web going on between them, but it's made clear that Banri is interested in our main girl, Kaga Koko; the other relationship are in the shadow.
Here’s one problem with the characters though: Koko is obsessed with Banri’s new friend, Yanagisawa Mitsuo, who is her childhood friend. Banri immediately falls in love with her and they get together in the first quarter of the show. Then all the cast decides to forget character development and stick to their established personalities which is disappointing. What’s annoying though is that Koko eventually becomes obsessive over Banri, which isn’t a problem by itself, but the show, for who knows why, decides to focus on it for the majority of the episodes. Let’s also not forget that everyone seems to have mood swings. One minute there happy, another there sad, and then they get mad; whatever mood the show calls for. The cast isn’t bad, but they’re not notably entertaining and sometimes aggravating.
Plot-wise, Golden Time does not stay true to its original synopsis. Having the two main characters get together in the first quarter of the series essentially drove the author into a corner. Nothing happens for the majority of the series. Several episodes consist of Banri and his friends screwing around and you may argue it's for character development, but their personalities felt the same at the end of the series. Maybe they got a little moodier, but that’s it. Golden Time did a wonderful job at introducing us to itself and its ending was well done, but they should have just removed the 10-16 episodes in between. This should have been a 1-cour show with all the junk cut out. The show could have also simply not have Banri and Koko confess so early which would change the “screwing around” into “romantic development”.
I do have to appreciate the music, but it's mostly very "cutesy" (especially both OPs and EDs). There are more serious tracks, but I have a hard time noticing them because of the obviously forced reactions from some of the characters. I'd also like to point out the subpar animation. Its not bad, but it doesn't score Golden Time any points. Funny enough, the second OP seems more detailed than the rest of the anime.
The high point of this show is really the drama that revolves around Banri's past. It comes to haunt him (literally, but unfortunately, annoyingly) throughout the show and yet it still seems to be left out half the time. That drama is what would make Banri an interesting character and it prominently comes into focus only in the last quarter of the anime. Other than that, the writing could be better, but these are the only notable problems and they each seem so big and glaring that it confuses me why they weren't amended. I'm fine with comedy, but there's so little "plot" the majority of Golden Time that it's a waste of potential (and time).
Despite this show's popularity, its quality doesn't quite meet a good standard. Golden Time is one of those anime that disappoints you and won't meet many expectations. You could still like it despite your expectations though I doubt it. The storyline is incoherent, the characters aren't interesting enough and the voice actors simply do a fine job (nothing special). The author tries to force emotions on characters and doesn't have a solid "order of operations" for Golden Time to take. It makes the story boring and doesn't let our cast of characters develop. Overall, Golden Time is far from awful, but it wastes your time in some episodes and should be shortened. We'd also all appreciate better storytelling and writing, but that ties in with the unnecessary length. Its merit mostly stems from it being written by the same author as Toradora. As such I'd only recommend you watch Golden Time if you think that is enough reason, or if you're fine with mediocre RomCom anime.
5/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 2, 2014
At the beginning of this fall anime season, I wasn’t planning on watching Outbreak Company. The synopsis for this anime wasn’t anything exciting nor was it intriguing. However, I decided to watch it anyway, for it was on Crunchyroll and there weren’t too many other anime I was hyped for this fall. After this show finished airing and I finished watching, I, unfortunately felt like I had wasted my time, tuning into this show every Sunday.
For the most part, the plot of Outbreak Company is nothing special. Our protagonist, Kanou Shinichi, is a reject who hides in his house all day. The reason for
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this is silly, but we can’t blame Outbreak Company for it because it was clearly meant to be a parody anime and you can tell right from the beginning. The show then immediately tosses Shinichi into a fantasy realm (the Eldant Empire) in which he unintentionally starts developing a harem. The harem part was a strange inclusion, as the beginning of this show led me to believe this would be a romantic comedy. Outbreak Co. is, indeed, a comedy, but it occasionally attempts to be serious and it fails miserably. It has plenty of ecchi elements and fits the definition of harem very well, which prevents it from blending well with “plot.” This could direct the focus of the anime towards comedy, but it may bother you when the show tries to be serious.
Thankfully, Outbreak Co. does try to be funny for the majority of the time and that is what you should expect when jumping into this anime. Much to the chagrin of many, however, the jokes in this show heavily rely on references and parody. This is awful for new viewers of anime and non-hardcore viewers because it’s hard to understand the jokes without prior knowledge or thorough research. Either that or the show throws around cultural-specific Japaneses terms so it can create a gag that might last until the end of the current episode. Comedy is really all this show has going for it, yet the entirety of Outbreak Co. involves Shinichi trying to teach the residents of the Eldant Empire about “Otaku Culture,” which creates comedy that, again, alienates new viewers. Don’t watch this anime for the plot, and only for the comedy if you’re a hardcore anime lover, or for some reason, striving to be one.
The animation is fine. Though, like many anime today, the art style makes everything shiny (hair, vehicles, skin, etc.). If you watch for a long time, your head may start to hurt. Don’t marathon this anime; not that I would recommend it otherwise. I do like how fantasy elements, such as dragons and magic are drawn, however. There’s also some ecchi so that might also be a reason to avoid Outbreak Co. By the way, every character tends to have this lower case u-shaped smile as their “default expression.” That annoyed me and may annoy you.
I have no complaints with the audio for the anime. The music was fine. The opening and ending may be sort of catchy, but nothing exceptional. I do have a problem with a lot of the dialogue from the characters Shinichi and Myucel, but that is more of an issue with the story, or characters. The voice actors could annoy you since their character roles are all generic archetypes, but they’re bearable, at least to me.
The characters are what really and truly mitigate my enjoyment for this anime. Outbreak Co. does what many anime do and builds characters directly from unadulterated tropes. I can summarize my problems with the characters in one sentence: Everyone is unoriginal and possibly so annoying that it’s lethal. The unoriginal characters may not be an issue especially if you anticipate the harem aspect. Plenty of harems are not plot-driven, or very much creative, but they can back-up their quality with comedy, or even quirkiness. Outbreak Co. does not have this leisure and it worsens because of Shinichi and his gang. All the people (and even other creatures) are absolutely obsessed with anime and manga. This could actually be funny if: 1. the show could allow people not familiar with Otaku culture to get its references, 2. not make it seem perfectly reasonable that their obsession does not hinder their work. Shinichi takes every single chance he gets to boost his ego by acting like mister smarty-pants when it comes to “Otaku Culture,” Myucel misunderstand every statement that may be misunderstood, and Petralka acts like a more serious person than she actually is (considering she looks like a little girl). These traits could allow these characters to be hilarious, but the awful dialogue and unfortunate combination of mediocre setting and bad character interactions prevents this. An example being: the show doesn’t alert us when it changes its tone effectively, so we don’t know if dialogue is supposed to be serious or comedic.
To be as frank as possible, the only reason this show is bad is because of the references that are 90% of this show. It actually isn’t so much that they’re hard to get, but more that they’re omnipresent. Without that problem, high points of Outbreak Co. are salvageable. Though, since it’s included, this anime becomes incredibly hard to enjoy. It’s quite possible for you to enjoy it if you are a hardcore anime viewer. I wouldn’t personally call myself that. The show is obviously made in Japan and therefore targeted toward Japanese viewers, but some of the issues I brought up may prevent you from enjoying it even if you live in Japan.
You should definitely avoid Outbreak Company entirely. Unless you are an anime enthusiast, it is distracting that every joke in this anime tends to rely on references to other media, or certain cultural elements. It also seems to want to parody, but never goes full force with it. Even if you get all the references, they’re more amusing than funny, and the bad character design and lack of proper storytelling doesn’t give Outbreak Co. much merit. Don’t expect depth from anything in this show and expect a lot of annoying characters as well as the lack of common sense that would be funny if done properly. I wouldn’t say Outbreak Company is a terrible show, but it limits its audience and it tries a little too hard to be what it is not.
4/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Dec 23, 2013
Just to be clear, 5 isn't a bad score; I'm only saying this show is average.
Harems have always had a bad reputation among people due to their lack of originality. Ore no Nounai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Love Comedy wo Zenryoku de Jama Shiteiru, or NouKome, is no different and is almost exactly what you would expect it to be. It's definitely nothing groundbreaking, as most would expect from a harem, ecchi show. I was originally pretty hyped for this show because the synopsis was interesting and I thought this "absolute choice" plot point described in the synopsis would create some pretty hilarious situations. I was
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correct in this assumption, but as it stands, NouKome is still generic and littered with tropes you often find in harems. Even though it lacks originality, the high amounts of comedy is something worth mentioning, so you shouldn't dismiss NouKome immediately.
The story for this show is mediocre, though it is actually decently original, considering its genre. The basic premise of this show is that our main protagonist, Kanade Amakusa, suffers from a condition, or curse, known as Absolute Choice, which forces you to choose between two options that appear in your head, or else you get severe headaches. Right off the bat, you can probably understand how this element in the story allows for some pretty hilarious moments. Unfortunately, even though this show is quite funny, it still lacks an actual plot. The story doesn't ever go anywhere, and even though Kanade really wants to fix his condition, he doesn't by the end of the show. Granted, this could be to allow room for a second season, though I don't believe there is one announced. This show is listed as a romance, but that's a bit misleading. Most of the girls fall for him, but, to everyone's dismay, he never chooses one of them. The high point of this show is comedy, but some of the jokes simply fall flat, or get watered down by the ecchi elements. It also ends with an obligatory, harem beach episode and its full of extra fanservice. Anyway, you shouldn't try and watch this show for its amazing story line for it has none.
The show is animated fairly well, but so are most shows nowadays. A strange trend that I see in anime that this show has is how everything seems "shiny." Hair, clothes, and skin often reflect so much light that it masks them in a blazing glow. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but everything is still shiny. All the light also seems to have a red tint. It's pretty noticeable, however, it shouldn't detract too much from the anime. Characters move fluidly for the most part. There's really nothing to complain about. I mean, nothing moves like a robot, so you shouldn't be bothered by it for the most part. Every character is drawn pretty well, though they seem to constantly blush, which could annoy some people.
The voice acting is nice, but a lot of the girls have a squeaky, high-pitched voices. It feels like all of the girls are voiced by the same person. The acting isn't bad, but some of the voices get annoying over time. You could also say the voices are cute, so the squeaky voices could be considered a positive. Nothing else of note comes to mind concerning the audio. The music for the OP and ED are actually decent, but nowhere near exceptional.
As you might expect, a lot of the girl's characters in this show are based on generic, harem archetypes. Though, honestly, the girls are unique in some ways and offer a relatively unique twist on their base archetypes. Let's first talk about Kanade Amakusa though: our male lead. I hate to say this, but he's also pretty much another generic archetype. Which archetype? The male lead archetype that is oblivious towards all romantic feelings directed towards him. I'm less mad at the archetype now than the fact that Kanade's barely an original character. Kanade is also kind of snarky and snide. All the girls want to marry him, and he is oblivious of this: that sums him up. Back to the girls. By the fact I constantly refer to them as "the girls," you should understand that they are essentially one big character. To the shows credit, they are pretty quirky in their own way. Chocolat, our female lead, is as funny as she is gluttonous. She falls from the sky in order to help Kanade with his Absolute Choice. She fails at it and that makes her somewhat likable. Most of the time though, character's like Yuouji and Yukihira are just targets for various missions Kanade is given to complete. By the way, Kanade completes missions to prevent him from being stuck with Absolute Choice forever. I don't know how it works, but NouKome doesn't bother explaining it. He's assigned these missions by God who is pretty much the pinnacle of awesome. God is, well, God. He loses points for not letting us see his face though. I should also mention the existence of the Reject 5 and Popular 5. Kanade and much of his harem happen to be in the Reject 5 for they do strange things. Kanade is often forced into those actions because of Absolute Choice.
Character's don't seem to develop in NouKome. They exit the story the way they enter and that proves to be pretty annoying. Again, don't expect much from the story.
It's not like this show is not enjoyable. It's far from it. Characters like Kanade will peeve you off, but its bearable so we can try and ignore it. If you can get past Kanade and his obliviousness, you get to the meat of this show: it's comedy. Some occasional jokes aren't too funny, but most of the humor is chuckle-worthy. Also, most of the complaints I have only become relevant in the last few episodes of this anime, so the first, around 4/5 of NouKome is enjoyable. They really crank up the fanservice in the last portion.
In the end, Noukome is a harem that's got humor going for it. If you have a lot of harems you would like to watch, NouKome should probably be on the top of all those. It's better than a various assortment of harems, but it's still nothing special. Luckily, it's only 10 episodes. I still wouldn't recommend marathoning it, but I would recommend watching it in small doses if you're into harems. Overall, I would say NouKome is an average anime, but fine for people who like ecchi and harem.
5/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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