Alrighty then.
Like the many others who have sat through Outbreak Company‘s first episode, I’m kind of amazed at how much it blatantly panders to its audience. That said, I actually don’t mind it much? Much to my surprise, I actually laughed and had a bit of fun with the episode, though that’s not to say this was full of quality moments.
The basic gist of the episode is that Kanou Shinichi, an otaku shut-in, becomes the General Manager of Japan’s AmuTec division which is setting up base in a newly discovered fantasy world that will become the new market for anime, manga, and “gaming culture”. In this magical new world, Kanou has essentially hit the otaku jackpot, getting his own mansion, half-elf maid that will do whatever, and loli empress.
So I have to admit that I actually sort of enjoyed this episode – I laughed a few times because of the sheer silliness of some of the stuff going on, and I also liked the language barrier thing at the start, even if it was solved relatively easily, if only because it’s something that you don’t see a lot of in shows where Main Character is transported to Magic World. That said I think some bits of it were a bit offensive (opening doors for maids is bad) and that it tried too hard to appeal to a single group of people, but it’s hard to say I really hated it. I’d be lying if I didn’t saying some of Kanou’d ecstatic reactions to almost everything didn’t make me smile, but the political mumbo jumbo and the more serious stuff that the episode briefly touched on felt a bit weird in a show that seems like it’s just trying to be silly. The political stuff is ridiculous to begin with, but what else would you expect? The weirdness kicks in with the serious stuff. Kanou’s maid, Myuseru, for example, turns out to not only be half-elf, practically bursting into tears when he sees her pointed ears because she’s afraid he’ll be disgusted (or so I’m guessing), but also illiterate. Though Kanou has a kinda nice moment where he says he’ll teach her how to read Japanese, it quickly goes down the toilet when he makes some dumb remark, bringing the show right back to silliness. Trying to combo serious and silly in a show like this where the focus will always lean more towards the sillier side probably won’t work out too well because it’s hard to take the characters seriously.
In terms of characters, they’re all a bit uninteresting. Kanou is defined solely by his otaku nature and it colors his opinions of everything in this new world which is basically his living fantasy. Myuseru is the usual soft-spoken, nervous klutz who will probably do just about anything for her master. I suppose that I’m sort of interested in seeing what kind of backlash she’s gotten because of her descent, but, knowing the nature of the show, it probably wouldn’t be anything too moving or spectacular. The guy who recruited Kanou and Minori are pretty forgettable, although I do have to say that the whole thing about Japan wanting to export anime, manga, and gaming culture is one of the dumbest things I’ve heard in a while; they add in a far too serious tone considering the nature of the show and feel out of place. Though we didn’t see much of her, the loli empress, Petrarca, will probably be the loli tsundere she looks like.
The show actually looks pretty okay. I kind of like the character designs, though the female ones are obviously a bit fanservice-y. Everything has a lot of bright colors and the backgrounds in the ED are eye candy. I can’t pinpoint too many moments where the show didn’t look at least a little pretty and my biggest complaint is probably that everyone kinda looked unnaturally short in distance shots which was odd.
Outbreak Company‘s first episode is probably what most people would expect to be. What surprised me was that I…actually laughed at bits and liked the somewhat serious bit about Kanou promising to teach Myuseru how to read. Sure it’s a bit offensive at parts, but, in the end, I think I’m willing to stick around for at least a few more episodes to see what happens. I’m sure the show will continue to be dumb as bricks and won’t implement it’s more serious topics like the promised “ethnic discrimination, social problems, conflict with neighboring countries, [and] sabotage by opposition elements including Japanese government, etc.” all that well, but, whatever, I’ll try and take it for what it’s worth and maybe try and squeeze out a few more laughs.
