Asobi Asobase MAL Review

In a nutshell: If American youtubers who made anime parodies were given license to write the entire script for a school series. 

I wasn't sure if I'd like it going in. I assumed it would be another slice of life anime with overly kawaii characters, fanservice, harems, and no actual depth - the kind of anime that's popular nowadays, and unfortunately, tends to be a hit in North America. I figured I'd drop it after the first or second episode. But the storyline was intelligently written, and it was easy to follow along after the second episode. 

All the mini stories, almost like 'chapters' of a book, were hilarious, because the characters were hilarious. For me, Hanako's "socially repressed, thus insane at times" character was actually the most relatable, especially when I was growing up, so it was super funny to watch. Each character breaks an anime archetype in their own way, and more than once. This anime is full of self awareness, so a lot of the content is about 'breaking the fourth wall.' 

To fit with breaking the stereotypes, the art style is cleverly adapted to each scene, with genres spanning from shoujo, shounen, horror, realism, to gore and more. It's meant to be comedic, but if you find this kind of art style too inconsistent, you might not enjoy it. 

I think the main flaw with this anime is that it did only it promised: showing the daily lives of 3 bored junior high students trying to entertain themselves. It had the potential to, but didn't, deliver more. Given how well written the characters were, I thought they could've easily recreated something like 'School Rumble', where it's equal parts comedy, high school adventures, and hilarious teenage angst. They could've easily done this by bringing the girls outside of the classroom - something that only happened once or twice in the anime. Hence, the story ideas do get limited after a while, as there's only so much people can do within the confines of an abandoned classroom. 

Despite the low re-watch value, I still think the intelligent and hilarious writing deserves an 8/10 for breaking the boundaries in the anime world, and providing us with a beautifully realistic representation of the female psyche.


The original review on MAL: View here

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