Akiba’s Trip Episode 3

Posted on by Karandi
akiba3b

Review:

When you start something expecting to not like it and it surprises you, there’s always still the underlying caution that maybe they just had a good week or two. Akiba’s Trip is apparently that show. I kind of thought they’d get to episode 4 before the shiny started to fade but they haven’t even made it past the first three episodes for those who do a three episode rule.

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This episode is not good. We spend 8 minutes of the episode focussed on Tomotsu as he pursues his new hobby as an idol fan and audio enthusiast in the lamest kind of parody that is actually kind of insulting to the viewer. The end result is its boring and predictable to watch and with none of the action or humour of the first two episodes it falls completely flat. By the time his credit card debt arrives and he’s forced to get another part time job (which then leads us to the second half of the episode and remembers that there is supposed to be something resembling a story happening) you just don’t care. The second half embraces the sleazy fan service that the synopsis of this show suggests should have been here from the start, putting the three main female characters through idol training before getting them into swim suits. Again, the vast majority of the jokes don’t work and with an over reliance on bust shots visually its pretty ordinary.

This far in I’ll give it another episode but if this is what is in store for the rest of the season, I am going to put this one in the dropped list.

Akiba’s Trip is available on Crunchyroll

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.

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

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

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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.

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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.