First Impression – Akiba’s Trip
Akiba’s Strip knows the classics
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So the first new show of the season (but I’m slow so not the first FI) is Akiba’s Trip. How will this video game adaptation do? |
Just Smash The Words Together
You’ve gotta have over the top acting, right?
So Akiba’s Trip is the least subtle word masking that you’ve probably seen in a while. Let’s just admit it: the real name is Akiba Strip. The original PSP game was pretty popular (popular enough to get 3 follow-up games and an anime adaptation at least) and centers around beating the clothes off of zombie-esque people, for the totally-not-made-up reason that the thing causing them to be zombies is weak to sunlight. And because this thing wants to suck up the social energy of people, this is happening in Akihabara. For a thin pretense to promote a lot of places and to hook into otaku culture, it’s actually not a horrible setup.
Tamotsu and Matome, thinking about her first kiss, I think
Niwaka’s weird panda outfit
I’ll admit that I haven’t played the game, but from what I can see, the anime is adding a new story to the premise of the game. The main character here is Tamotsu Denkigai, conveniently named after a nickname for Akihabara: Electric Town. He’s a figure collector who is spending time in the area with his little sister Niwaka, who wears a squooshy panda hat. After experiencing what everyone assumes is a street performance (as Akihabara has recently lifted a ban on street performances, with decorum enforced by a vigilante group, also known as the comic relief) they encounter Matome Mayonaka, fighting some of these converted monsters. In another encounter, Tamotsu meets fellow figure hunter Arisa Ahokainen, a busty blond foreigner(?) who is super strong, and who initially gets on Mayo’s (Matome’s future nickname) bad side because she’s weird and strong. So there’s the four main characters. After Tamotsu is mortally wounded saving Matome, she turns him into a half-whatever like herself to save him, and now we’re off with two powered- up main characters. Tamotsu picks up the idea of stripping off clothes fast, and sets us up for the rest of the series.
Vigilante loli and her goon crew
General Impression
Arisa is really dodgy
Gonzo did a good job putting this together. The I like the look of all the characters, and the fancy half-white hairstyle that denotes the not-possessed but not normal people like Matome and Tamotsu is a good look. The animation works well, with really well done fights and sequences. It makes use of the obvious attention they’re going to give to breasts throughout, like having the mini-boss in this episode come through the smoke boobs-first, but I wouldn’t say it overdoes it. I like a style that goes this far, but doesn’t go more into wacky or deformed (like just about everything from Trigger).
More Things to Look at in Akihabara
The story they’ve come up with for the setting is not bad either, for an excuse to have a show. Some clever writing helps out with the gags, such as Tamotsu using lines from his old chuuni self, or breaking the cliché by not finishing his own dying words. And Arisa is fun as the cosplay clothes horse with her goofy foreigner-Japanese. A lot of the success of this show will hinge on whether they can keep up the creative animation for the fights, and whether they can keep the story in this sweet spot it’s in right now: enough for a pretense for doing things, not too much that it gets bogged down and ridiculous. It seems like a MC like Tamotsu could help keep that light feeling to the show, so I think it looks pretty good for the future.
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Saved with a kiss
She really enjoyed giving that kiss…
A lot of the success of this show will hinge on whether they can keep up the creative animation for the fights, and whether they can keep the story in this sweet spot it’s in right now
Yep, right on target here. That’s the balance of any actioner, but when they have an absurd premise and comedy the balances have to work out just right. So far I don’t get that it’s supposed to be “about something”, other than being fun, so a thematic hook is not there that I can see. But even if it’s fun, it could go into being a pure mess if they’re not careful.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Gonzo did a good job putting this together.
Akiba’s Trip is being made to celebrate Gonzo’s 25th anniversary since its founding.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
At first blush it seems like an odd choice of something to ‘celebrate’ an anniversary. But it could be something that they just decided to take a flyer on and make just for the hell of it, not really thinking about the profitability as much. So that could fit into that kind of mindset I guess.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
It’s similar to how anime like Kuromukuro were made to commemorate PA Works’s 15th anniversary (then again, it was an original work, compared to Akiba’s tie-in).
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yeah, that’s what I mean. You could figure that something like Kuromukuro was a “We want to make this story we all kind of came together on, and we don’t really care how it does.” Akiba’s Trip would, at first glance, seem to be more of a straight tie-in. But perhaps it’s not as much as we think, and is more just “We like the game, we think that it would be good with this story, and it would be fun to animate it.”
The animation certainly seems like it was fun, or at least satisfying.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Nsxt year, Silver Link celebrate their 10th, so it will be interesting to see their approach to a celebration.