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[series:4821#628] | ||||||
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(Rent- or Watch+) (All episodes watched): Any anime with an otaku theme has a decent chance of persuading me to watch. I just hoped some decent effort had been put into it and it wasn't banking on the usual 'Oops, I got to touch your boobs' stuff. After episode one this show could still go either way, and I would have guessed it is more likely to be cheap than deep, but it was looking like fun for now. The jokes were OK, for one thing. Apparently Amano won't be the only girl who joins the manga club. Indeed, in episode two Mikari Tachibana, a childhood friend of Okamura and now a well-known model, transfers into the class. She has secretly loved him for years and hates the manga which he is more interested in than her or any other girl. What was disturbing about episode two was the way it strongly suggested that this show would indeed be relying heavily on the usual 'Oops/boobs' crapola. It happens twice in this episode, once with Ririsa and once with Mikari, who shamelessly tries to seduce Masamune but then declares she's not willing to go the whole way. It was looking like this show would try to provide teenage boys with too-good-to-be-true situations that they could dream about being in themselves. Clearly nowhere near as good as My Dress-Up Darling, and I was starting to think that maybe I should go watch that a second time rather than this. This show was seeming to be more about getting a boner than cosplay. Episode three was fairly fun, however; the jokes were OK, and we did learn a little about cosplay (namely, how photos are computer edited). Perhaps this was possible because there was only one boner-inducing scene in the episode. Mikari is conveniently already deep in love with Okamura and will do anything, even cosplay in sleazy costumes, to seduce him. I was left with a feeling that the romance in this show would not be all that deep and moving. Fortunately, the cheap trash seemed to be largely limited to the first few episodes, probably tacked on to grab the attention of more potential viewers, and the remainder of the show is stuff one would not be embarassed to watch. In episode four Okamura and Ririsa go to a modest sized cosplay convention but since they haven't prepared well, about the only way to draw attention to their DVD would be if Ririsa dons her Liliel costume and performs live. She gets a good deal of help from fellow female cosplayers. No cheap 'accidents' in this episode at all, or in episode five either, which raised my assessment of this series a bit. Predictably, Ririsa/Liliel finds herself wildly popular and the star of the convention. Liliel and Okamura are encouraged to shoot for the bigger and more prestigious cosplay event at Summer Comiket. Nevertheless, I liked the way things worked out; insecure Ririsa gets a boost and we learn a bit about how semi-professional cosplaying is done. There's the usual joke where Okamura misinterprets Ririsa's words for a confession but it turns out that what she really 'loves' is the way her cosplaying career has taken off with his help. I wish the two had actually admitted their true feelings to each other, but that never happens this early in an anime. This show seemed a good deal less cheap and tawdry after episodes four and five. In episode six Masamune gets a lesson in cosplay photography from Ogino, the portly guy he met at the convention. We get an idea of just how sophisticated this art has become. Also, the manga club is in danger of being downgraded from a true club to a meeting group (or something like that). The signs are that in episode seven we'll meet the final major character, the shapely female teacher who will be their advisor (might she also be a cosplay star who has gone missing according to Ogino?). Sure enough, Sensei Mayuri (IIRC) has a colored past which she needs to keep secret in order to retain her job, and a touch of blackmail persuades her to serve as the advisor to the Manga Club--it needs one to avoid being downgraded. She's also inspired by Ririsa's genuine devotion to cosplay. Another thing the club could do to make itself seem credible would be to actually produce some manga--it is the manga club, not the cosplay one, after all. Why didn't Okamura and Ririsa ask Tachibana if she knew anything about writing or drawing? This show has shaped up a good deal from the cheap tricks it was pulling in the early episodes (I suspect the anime crew insisted that these be tacked onto the original manga), and the jokes are fairly funny. The idea of creating a manga doesn't last long as Okamura and Ririsa decide that what they really want to do is enter a competition at a larger upcoming cosplay convention and hopefully take a prize--that might impress the people in charge of allocating rooms to different clubs. They find that Ririsa will be up against Satori, one of the four stars of cosplaying (Mayuri is/was another). Again, there is no mention of Tachibana at all--apparently she won't even accompany her fellow clubmembers to this event. Definitely not brilliant, but I was curious about what would happen. A mistake and a snide remark from Satori shatter Ririsa's confidence and it looks like she won't perform at all. It was painful yet predictable--she overreacts to a setback yet snaps back just as quickly once given the right talk by Okamura. Nevertheless we have gotten to know her well enough that we really want her to succeed. But she needs time, which comes from an unexpected source. In episode ten Mayuri uses her old skills as a cosplayer to buy some time for Ririsa to costume up. We get a lengthy but not pointless meditation from Satori about how cosplaying has gone from being a fun hobby to a drab business for her, and how making it a job has caused her to see fellow cosplayers as dangerous rivals rather than comrades. It makes you think a little. Another thing I wonder about is to what extent male fans of cosplaying are really excited by the characters and to what extent they just like seeing scantily clad women. Anyway, in episode 11 the principal himself has heard about Ririsa's recent performance and a reset occurs regarding the club's status. Something about the principal admires the members' drive but doesn't want them to make a mistake similar to one he once made--it was confusing. Also, Ogino calls Okamura and briefs him on the stir Ririsa has created in the cosplay world. She has (just barely) reached the status of being one of the 'Five Stars', who are those considered to be the five best cosplayers. We are introduced to two new characters. I got the impression that rather than winding down this show still had a good ways to go (2nd season?), which was OK with me. And, Tachibana still exists. Episode 13 has a new OP sequence, demonstrating that this will indeed be a two season show. Ririsa happens to meet Nonoa, another of the Five Stars. Nonoa would like nothing better than for Ririsa to become her friend, but when out of costume she is painfully shy and seems outright hostile. When you stop and think about it, it's hard to believe that someone who is so socially challenged could possibly become as famous as she has, but sometimes it is best to not stop and think. In episode 14 Nonoa fights her way through her painful social handicap to tell Liliel what she really thinks (is she talking to Liliel, the character, or Ririsa, the cosplayer?). It seemed to me like a strange mix of the absurd and the touching--'absurdly touching', or 'touchingly absurd' perhaps. In episode 15 Okamura, Ririsa and Nonoa are allowed to borrow a studio for some cosplay photography. They meet the highly extroverted Aria Kiseki, a gyaru and beginning cosplayer. What I would have preferred was some hint of whether Okamura and Ririsa will ever fall in love, or at least if he is starting to see her as Ririsa rather than Liliel. That is, stay with the two basic characters rather than introducing more. But what do I know? Anyway, Aria has a model's body and is highly enthusiastic about cosplaying but knows nothing. Her motivations were confusing. In episode 16 Okamura, Ririsa and Nonoa give her a crash course in classic anime and Liliel in particular. In episode 17 Aria explains her unusual reason for going into cosplay: her parents divorced, and she has no idea where her father, a mangaka, is. She hopes that if she becomes fairly well known as a cosplayer he will notice and contact her. This seemed fairly interesting to me, more interesting at least than Nonoa's hard to take seriously social phobia. A fourth cosplayer is needed for the ambitious group performance they are planning, and just the right girl is available. Aria overhears her mother saying that her father is dead, but episode 18 gives us reason to believe that is not the case. The four girls debut their new performance at Comiket but find that multi-person cosplay acts aren't as easy as they had assumed. We meet Lemon and Lime, two twins who are rising star cosplayers themselves. Day one of Comiket seems like a disaster after Ririsa faints from heat exhaustion, but she recovers and the girls make a quick but effective redesign of their act (episode 20). In episode 21 Aria's father finally hears about her cosplaying as one of the characters from a manga he wrote but considered terrible. He rushes to Comiket and there is a borderline moving episode as he is reinspired by Aria, Okamura and the others. In episode 22 the team wraps up the third and fourth day of Comiket. We meet Xiaoyu, a Chinese cosplayer who is also fixated on Liliel. At long last both Ririsa and Okamura begin to wonder if they are falling in love with each other. The series should have only two or three episodes to go, so some sort of climax ought to be approaching. In episode 23 the four girls, Mayuri and Okamura go on an overnight photography/relaxtion trip to the seashore. Plenty of boobs and asses, but also a couple of LOL jokes and a sort of touching revelation of how Okamura became estranged from 3D girls years ago. I thought this episode was surprisingly good. Pressure is mounting for Okamura to choose a girlfriend (at least three wish he would choose them), and though we all know who it will be it is intriguing nevertheless. I'm glad I didn't drop this show early on. In the final episode Tachibana makes it clear to Ririsa that she loves Okamura and has for at least ten years, which makes it clear to everyone involved (Okamura overhears her confession) that a romantic triangle exists. Okamura has a long talk with Sensei about dealing with 3D girls; love is complicated, she says, and so was this talk. Okamura has clearly evolved somewhat from the guy he once was, but exactly how isn't clear and he makes no choice of who his girlfriend will be. That, it turns out, is because another season of this show is in the works, according to an anouncement at the very end! I wasn't expecting that to happen. But I wouldn't mind more of this; 2.5D has turned out to be by no means brilliant but a good deal better than it had originally seemed. It has managed to remain capable of entertaining me after six months, which isn't easy. I had figured I would assign it a 'Watch' rating, but I think it deserves a low 'Rent' instead. Last updated Wednesday, December 25 2024. Created Saturday, July 27 2024. | ||||||||
