Akiba’s Trip Episode 5

Posted on by Karandi
akiba5

Review:

Let’s go through the formula again; this time with retro-video games. Points to Akiba’s Trip for realising that eating up more than five minutes in setting up Tamotsu’s latest fixation is boring, but minus about a thousand arbitrary points for not realising that just introducing a red-herring for the villain of the week isn’t really adding anything to the formula.

akiba5b

The dialogue above is what happens when the writers seem to feel that being random will equate to humour but they have no justification for what the characters are doing. This isn’t funny. This entire sequence was ludicrous and overly lengthy. It certainly pushed the limits of absurd. But none of that made it good or funny and having the character explaining why they were doing each ridiculous thing essentially give up on their own rationalisation just made the entire thing an open joke that this entire sequence is fundamentally without purpose other than someone wanted a zany training montage and maybe it started out as a satire of training sequences but it soon just became a free for all of random ideas that went nowhere.

On the plus side again, they didn’t make us listen to the villain’s flimsy rationalisation this week given they didn’t reveal the villain until right at the end and then they took him out in a single hit. Another minus though is that the girls in this have essentially become background noise (even what’s-her-name who saved Tamotsu’s life and you kind of thought should be important to the story).

Akiba’s Trip is available on Crunchyroll but I’m not recommending it.

 

Akiba’s Trip Episode 4

Posted on by Karandi
akiba4

Review:

Akiba’s Trip was never going to be my kind of anime but the first episode was entertaining, bright, there were some genuinely funny lines, and the pace kept things moving along so you never felt like you just waiting for the next bad gag to land. By episode 4 this show has definitely developed a pattern and unfortunately that means most of the energy and pace that were so appealing in episode 1 have now abandoned this show for greener pastures. Once again, Tamotsu picks up a hobby and obsesses over it, admittedly this time only for 6 minutes of the episode instead of 10. A bugged one shows up and how this (see picture below) is ever explained to the public just doesn’t make sense.

akiba4b

Anyway, we then have a brainstorming session, a bit of a backstory for the professor, and then we use Tamotsu’s newly introduced hobby (but of course he’s been interested in radios for a long time) to get some cryptic clue that will apparently save the day.

The issue is there’s a lot of dialogue that exists only for expositions sake and having the blonde girl interject occasionally with something entirely asinine doesn’t actually make up for the slow pace or the lack of anything interesting happening. This isn’t unwatchable, it is just failing to be interesting at this point.

Akiba’s Trip is available on Crunchyroll.

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Akiba’s Trip Episode 2

Posted on by Karandi
akiba2

Review:

I get the feeling that this is a show I’m going to forget as soon as I’m done watching it but I’ll have a great collection of screen caps. Like this one where Tomotsu’s sister clearly empathizes with his situation having died and been brought back last week.

akiba2b

Or this one, where Tomotsu announced the name for their team that he’s apparently been pondering all night.

akiba2c

Or lastly, this one where we realise Tomotsu is just plain deluded and not about bugged ones but about reality.

akiba2d
Some subtle product placement in the background there.

Seriously, this show takes any opportunity for nudity, girls in maid costumes or bunny suits, has some highly questionable camera angles, and a story that kind of boils down to those guys are bad, we’re good, let’s win, and yet for all that it is nonsense it is fairly entertaining nonesense. There’s also a few good points like the field around Akihabara that now prevents Tomotsu from leaving is kind of interesting.

All and all, I didn’t intend to like this show, but I do. It’s completely silly and the plot is utterly ridiculous (what plot there is) and if there are so many ways you could take offence at some of the jokes, and yet somehow it’s working for me at the moment.

Akiba’s Trip is available on Crunchyroll.

Are you a fan of 100WordAnime.blog?

If you like this site and you like what I do, please consider becoming a patron.

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Thanks,

Karandi James.

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Akiba’s Trip Episode 1

Posted on by Karandi
akiba1c

And here we start sampling shows from the Winter season. I’ll post thoughts on the first episode or two before deciding my final watch list for the season.

Overview:

After being attacked by an unknown evil, Tamotsu Denkigai is stuck in Akihabara fighting to keep the streets safe.

– Crunchyroll

Yes, I borrowed the overview because to be perfectly honest I didn’t have anything really to add to it.

Review:

I’m going to give this show points for being really clear about what it is. The title art tells you what this show is really about.

akiba-title

So as the synopsis tells us there is an unknown evil that could be either vampires, zombies or some as yet unknown thing depending on which speculation or rumour you would like to believe and it can be defeated by stripping off the clothes of the possessed individual. Why all the possessed individuals have so far been women is a question that may or may not ever be addressed but really seems beside the point given I really don’t think we’re supposed to really question the premise too much here.

Generally speaking, a show about tearing clothes off of someone is one I wouldn’t touch but… (there’s always a but), I actually really found myself enjoying this first episode. Much of the credit for that comes from Tamotsu as the main character and the one we view the episodes events through. He seems like your standard modern, self-aware protagonist except that his self-awareness isn’t. He’s just a complete geek and draws on a range of fantasy and anime references to draw conclusions about the insanity surrounding him. I absolutely loved how he deterred the sales woman early in the episode and I just really enjoyed watching him interact with the various characters he encountered.

It doesn’t hurt that his little sister was pretty amusing, the girl he ‘fought’ with over a collectible figure while having an extremely annoying way of speaking was hilarious, and the action sequences have been visually entertaining. Whether or not clever writing and characters can hold up a premise that seems pretty dreadful to me for a series is a question I will only be able to answer after watching more of this but I am definitely hooked enough by this first episode to give a second one a go.

Akiba’s Trip is available on Crunchyroll.