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[series:3788#628] | ||||||
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(Eight episodes watched): In episode one Kaede's inexperience and reluctance quickly made her a likeable character who you could sympathize with, and I initially assumed that she would run into some sort of problem within the game, as in Sword Art Online or similar shows. But no, she had no trouble logging out after her first venture, and at the end of my viewing no looming problem had emerged. With time my impression shifted to this being primarily a comedy--the title suggests that--but the fact that it wasn't outrageously funny meant the intention wasn't crystal clear. Before long the show was looking rather silly and simplistic, which was a disappointment after I had gotten my hopes raised that an serious problem would emerge. The premise seems to be that Kaede/Maple have selected a ridiculously unbalanced set of capabilities, yet somehow this unconventional approach works pretty well. She can inflict little damage but is virtually immune to it herself--which leads to bizarre situations like her apparently gnawing a dragon-like creature to death. I wish it had been made more clear what part sheer good luck was playing in her escapades. I remained confused at the end, but was amused enough to watch some more. I guess my impression is an all too common one: not funny enough to be worth watching unless it also has an interesting plot. Episode two makes it clear that silly comedy is the intent behind this show, and also that not much of a plot is coming together. We meet Maple's friend and co-adventurer, Lisa/'Sally' and they do a little of that. Maple has gotten remarkably dangerous in short order, indeed she barely needs to touch an opponent with her amazing shield in order to kill them within the game--I didn't catch how that became possible. The people upstairs take notice of this and the rules are changed to make it more difficult for players to exploit this surprisingly successful the-best-offense-is-a-good-defense approach. This show is hardly brilliant, but is modestly amusing and I didn't mind watching, at least for a while. Someone who loves this sort of game would probably be enjoying BOFURI more than me. This is probably an exaggeration, but watching this show is sort of like watching somebody else play the game. I did appreciate a few jokes in episode six about things that happen to Kaede/Maple in the real world after spending what seemed like a week in NWO but was in fact just a few hours. Somebody ought to make an anime which is entirely about stuff like this. The thought occurred to me, if time moves at a different rate in this game, wouldn't people be tempted to spend large portions of their lives in it, because it would effectively extend their lifespans? Again, a subject that somebody ought to make an anime about. But these were nothing more than my mind wandering as I watched this lacklustre show. I started watching episode eight, but found I couldn't get into it and quit. I tried again the next day, got a few minutes farther into the episode, but then felt so bored that again I had to quit. When a show becomes a burden to watch, that's generally a good sign that it's time to throw in the towel. Actually, I did watch the final episode, just to see if anything remarkable would happen, but it didn't. Something about 'orbs' and it being necessary to wipe out 'guilds'. Players fight viciously but after the winner and loser are decided nobody holds a grudge (if only it was like that in the real world!). In general, although the characters had some value, I just had no idea what sort of climax (if any) might be building within this show, wasn't getting many laughs, and ultimately could not care much how it would end. Last updated Monday, March 30 2020. Created Thursday, January 09 2020. | ||||||||
