This is review number two hundred and forty one. This anime is part of the Summer 2013 lineup. The anime I’ll be reviewing is called Choujigen Game Neptune: The Animation. It’s a twelve episode anime adapted from a video game. Yeah, it’s one of those. This one is a bit different though because I don’t think anyone would be nitpicking on this show. I personally just stared at the characters….then wrote a review about how I stared at them. Life is awesome. Let’s read on.

Story

This anime is about a bunch of goddesses that fights a never ending war. It’s called the console war. It’s a story about the console war between Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo with Sega to join the fray. The story is about the four goddesses signing a peace treaty though and decided to end the war they’ve been having for so long. Peace maybe temporary though when a bunch of evil people decided to take over the world and reignite war once more.

Taking the Pants Off

When I first watched this show, I was literally lost. There was a sense of defeat as I watch blatantly cliché characters act all cute and sexy without any mention of a story to focus on. I was obviously missing the point of the anime so I decided to search as to what the f*ck was I watching. Apparently, this is a video game adaptation of a PS3 game. Apologies in advance because I have not played the game so this review will be from the perspective of a guy that just watched a show full of nothing but cuteness and fan service. For what I heard, the game is actually pretty famous. The idea is pretty insane, actually. The game is called Hyperdimension Neptunia and it’s about the console wars involving the different companies’ seventh generation consoles. Instead of hardware pounding each other though, we have personified version of the consoles. Actually, we have sexy characters representing the companies as they represent their consoles and they literally go to war to find out who has the best gaming device there is. The focus is on the fictional seventh generation Sega console being banished to the mortal world and now grinds her way fighting bosses left and right to get back to her world. The fact that it’s a JRPG game with a lot of game industry references sounds like one amazing game. It’s something that looks good on paper only though. The game lacked depth and it has a simplistic setup that most gamers can’t get into. Bottomline, we have girls with big boobs in sexy outfits representing Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft in an all-out eye candy fest guaranteed to make people say “I will fap to this again”. Yes, it’s all about the girls and the anime captured that idea to a tee because there is nothing worth enjoying in this show. Much like the game, the anime also lacks depth and is pretty predictable to enjoy. It just has a lot of this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

…..

And this:

This anime is one giant ball of explicit fan service and stale cliché that holds the show together. You aren’t watching this show for the wonderful anime experience or the satisfying story. No, you’re here for the cute flat breasted girls that transforms into sexy girls in tight outfits being exposed in a lot of manner that’ll certainly capture your attention. If you’re not into that kind of anime then look away, this anime is not for you. If you are scrolling down to see more pics of the characters then just go watch the damn anime.

This show isn’t actually an adaptation of the game. I think it’s more of a continuance with a sole purpose of satisfying the people that actually played the game. I think this show will appeal more to the players than regular anime watchers because the show opened with a pretty confusing setup. It started out with an established status quo that most players would easily caught up to but would leave other viewer’s lost in the thick of it all. The characters aren’t introduced, there were a bunch of them appearing in the first episode alone and there was already a backstory to the show that wasn’t explained. You’d have to catch up and that’s not a fun thing to do. I seriously scratched my head wondering what the anime was about while I watch the annoyingly cute girls go about their routine. The show will eventually clear up though and the status quo would make sense after the fourth episode. If you hang on that long then you’re pretty much golden. Of course, I didn’t really mind when I was treated to some pretty stupid fan service moments along the way. It felt force but I still took time to make some screen shots so there are something to look forward in this anime. It’s mostly this:

And this:

Anyways, the status quo of the show is pretty easy to follow. We have four major countries in the world of Gameindustri. Planeptune is the fictional seventh generation Sega console. Lastation is the PS3. Lowee is the Wii and Leanbox is the Xbox360. All the countries are ruled by a goddess that the people really believe in. Through the strong faith of the people, the goddesses gain tremendous power. By collecting “sharecite” that is obtained through the faith of people, the country becomes prosperous. That is why the countries are at war. They want all the sharecite to themselves so they can be the only console that rules over the land of Gameindustri. In the first episode of the anime though, the four countries has agreed on a mutual ceasefire. Instead of trying to beat each other up just to prove who is better, they decided that the fighting must stop and they must now propagate friendship in the four countries. The anime is now mostly about the fun and fluffy days of the four goddesses as they spend the rest of their days in peace and mutual respect. It’s a pretty hard status quo to follow if you haven’t played the game. The main appeal of the anime is really about the characters being cute and doing things together in a laidback manner while drowning in some game references along the way. The goddesses would often spend time hanging around each other’s kingdom doing sleepovers and playing around in the fun stuff the various countries have to offer. Along with their sisters and some friends, the massive cast really just do fluff with fan service as a main focus. After understanding the status quo, the show progresses pretty smoothly. It’s mainly because the story is simple and pretty predictable with not a lot of things to offer. You basically just stick around for the fan service and the different ways the girls are exploited.

This show does have a story though. It’s a good thing to have a structure to follow so the anime doesn’t crumble into a directionless mess and I do appreciate that. They’re all straight forward, predictable and a bit forced but you honestly can’t expect much from a show that has the PS3 resemble a girl with the biggest boobs in the group. Always remember though that the main focus of the show is fluff about the girls being cute and sexy. Anyways, the show has three arcs. They are closely connected because the events of the first one support the second and, in turn, affect the third as well. The first plot point is about an evil force trying to stir up some trouble hoping to eliminate the goddesses. A villain appears that believes that the world does not need goddesses and so sets up an elaborate plan in order to eliminate them. With the goddesses’ life in trouble, the pressure is now on the little sisters to save the day. The goddesses, except the PS3 one, all have little sisters that they care for dearly. A special power granted to the goddesses is that they can transform into hot chicks with awesome voices dressed in very revealing clothes. It seems that the little sisters can do it as well but they can’t seem to figure out why they can’t transform. Well, they’re forced to try and transform or else their big sisters would be successfully eliminated by the villain. What is holding the little sisters back? They must figure it out before the world is conquered by one over ambitious person.

The first arc eats up pretty much the first half of the anime. It was also where the anime truly made sense after a confusing start. The appeal of the show was muddled because of the complicated status quo but it’s easier to follow afterwards. The story of the first arc isn’t really that impressive. It’s badly predictable and a bit clichéd for my taste. There was no smart twist to elevate it above mediocrity and the resolution came a bit too quickly without a proper build up to it. The first arc showed off the anime’s true potential though. It had four girls binded by cords tentacle monster style as each girl has their own suggestive poses to present to the audience. My favorite was this one:

It’s safe to say this review will be loaded with pictures. I think I took fifty screenshots and I will use all of it in this review, damn it. Screw shame, this anime has girls posing like this. That’s about it.

The second arc is about a new country rising up to fight the goddesses. This one actually took the time to set up all the components of the story. The girls first met a loli character who lost her memories and decided to take her in. It turns out that a lot of people want her though including a parallel world version of the goddess of Sega out to restore the discrepancy in both worlds. A bunch of evil characters are also after this little girl. She seems to be something really special that an island, solely meant to have people enjoys rated H games, decided to establish itself as a country and rise up against the four major countries. It appears that they have a goddess of their own and they’re hell bent on crushing the other countries so their own can prosper. The characters must all band together to stop the uprising but they must also face one tough goddess that they can’t seem to defeat. To make matters worse, it’s a close dear friend of the girls that they can’t seem to hurt. This is a nicely character driven story. Despite the overcrowded show, there was balance among the characters. Everyone was showcased decently and the show was still able to uphold its fan service centered ideal. The story itself is pretty weak though. I do appreciate the buildup and the sophisticated progression but it was just lacking depth to really sink your teeth into it. Most of the events of the show are forced. The show needed to go to that plot progression even though it wasn’t able to create enough intrigue for such event. The effort is certainly appreciated but the whole thing was too shallow to enjoy. The loli character introduced in this arc was also annoying in the most cliché way that I personally wanted her to die.

The third arc is a short one and eventually wrapped up the anime. It consumed only two episodes of the show just so the show can reach a decent resolution before it ended. The third arc is about the evil main villain of the second arc finally making an appearance. In the second arc, the bad guys were under the orders of one character that hid in the shadows. That person was revealed as the main villain of the third arc. An ancient country has decided to rise up from the ashes of its former self and soon created chaos in the land. This country simply wants to control the rest of the world and it’ll happily use force. It will even hurt innocent people just to get what it wants. This obviously spell trouble and the four goddesses must band together to defeat one common enemy. This bad guy is no push over though and holds a secret power that robs the girls of their sharecite, the source of their powers. They must find a way to defeat the villain before their powers are drained because if they can’t, the world would have to feel the wrath of one ancient country hell bent on destruction. This was the shortest arc so it is a bit iffy in its progression but it is still pretty good. The events are nicely presented, and despite feeling a bit forced, there was enough here to give the show a proper send off. It also has hot girls if that particular point hasn’t sunk in yet.

The characters are all one dimensional and horribly cliché. The only way they become likeable is really as you keep watching, their weak personalities become a bit tolerable. The characters just weren’t able to stand out in any particular way. All of them talk cute, some with “-desu” at the end of their sentences, and it makes the fluff episodes cute but not really that enjoyable. The characters are all forgettable which makes it a bit harder to understand the status quo when you first watch this show. Thankfully, they were color coded so it was easier to look at them as single base colors. I mean, they don’t offer much to the show at all. They are just there for the visual experience and nothing more. I think at some point, I stopped caring about the characters. There were a lot of them so keeping track is pretty pointless. The show tried to give each of them some deserved time in the spotlight but it failed to flesh the characters out. Maybe they were already fleshed out in the game but they were certainly wasted in the anime. As long as I can enjoy the fan service and the whacky transformation scenes then I’m not really concerned who is who. Surprisingly though, the villains are actually more interesting than the main characters. They’re still one dimensional and cliché but the stand out pretty decently. I mean, I still remember all the villains and what they did in the show as I write this review. I can’t say the same for the main characters. It’s weird.

There are some things I liked about the characters despite being horribly weak. The show’s comedy comes through pretty decently and the characters mostly do all the work. I mean, the visual’s purpose is to deliver fan service so the other elements deliver the comedy. The content itself isn’t really that great but it’s how they executed the whole thing that stands out. The comedy is composed of mainly breaking the fourth wall and the show being self-conscious constantly poking fun of itself. The show would often reference how cliché it was and it would point out how those cliché doesn’t improve the show at all. This was all covered in the veil of the cute and fluffy moments so I really admire how smart the delivery was. Often times, the show would just point out the stupidity of what it is doing and I think it’s pretty good. The show doesn’t take itself seriously and I think the audience should understand that as well. It’s just a stupid anime that loves to exploit its characters and have irrelevant scenes that simply provide fan service. It doesn’t get more straight forward than that.

David Production (the studio) is a bit of a hit and miss kind of a studio. I remember how awesome Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure was but I also remember how mediocre Ben-to was. For such a small time studio, they’re a bit unpredictable in what they release. I think that’s a good thing because one thing I noticed is that their show caters to a specific niche. Instead of finding their own, they dabble in a lot of genres that appeal to different kinds of niches. This video game adapted anime is a pretty unique one though. It didn’t really adapt the game but made a different story out of it. It’s a decent way to present a video game adaptation but I think it’s also a bit hard to appreciate. I’m fine with it but I don’t think most people will get the appeal. This kind of show is for those shameless kinds of people that simply want fan service in their anime. If only that overly perverted High School DxD season two wasn’t in the same lineup. One more picture to finish this rant though:

Sight and Sound

This is where I really love video game adapted anime. The character design is often a treat because of how detailed each character is. The game itself is part RPG part visual novel so they were able to keep the character design intact. I’m sure most people have seen Tsunako’s design before. If you were staring long enough at those pictures above then you’ll realize they resemble characters from the anime ”Date A Live”. Yes, another fan service show had the same brilliant character designer behind it. The characters themselves are pretty generic. The same rounded face with big bright eyes with only the height being different. The thing that makes Tsunako’s design special is the detail work and the way the characters just look amazingly sexy and cute at the same time. The outfits of the characters are all great stand out as it nicely captures their personality. Despite being generic characters, the outfit helps convey what kind of character they should be. We have girls in a lot of colorful clothes and amazing combination of accessories. The color scheme helps a lot as well and the bright color palette for the characters. Their cuteness nicely comes out yet there is also a chance to make them present some fan service along the way.

Tsunako’s design is fully unleashed though when the girls start to transform. The goddesses have the ability to transform and possess great power. The familiar design of having the girls in tight outfits that accentuates their curves while having some wings behind their backs really makes the anime pretty decent. This is the pay-off for those that watch this show. The cute characters with their big round eyes become really sexy characters with fierce eyes. The fact that they show a lot of skin in their new looks was also a nice touch. Everything bad about the anime is nicely balanced out by the visuals and it’s really the thing that makes the anime fun to watch. Its f*cking shameless but I think there are enough pictures in this review to convince you otherwise.

The animation is pretty decent. The fight scenes are nicely animated despite the lack of a proper pacing. The show was able to utilize some cool camera angles and add some effects in the various fight scenes of the anime. The characters were also able to retain their eye candy appeal through the various scenes of the anime. I like how the animation was consistent and the production value was good enough to make the experience pretty worthwhile. There aren’t a lot of notable animation sequences though besides the transformation scenes. I am busy right now but I would love to make a lot of GIFs of those scenes. You have moe girls being undressed then doing suggestive poses as they slowly transform. Every girl had a different sequence too so that was pretty great. The background design is a nice element of the show though. The video game appeal of the show came out nicely. The game references were nicely tucked between the folds that the show had a nice aura to it thanks to the colorful world the characters move in. I bet this looked even cooler in the game itself. The visuals do have some downsides though. One thing I particularly wasn’t fond of was the overly bright color palette of the show. It wasn’t just bright, it was in the lines of super bright that it was blinding. You’re often not sure what kind of expression the girls are making because of how bright the tone of the show was. It also ruins most fan service scenes. The design and the animation were good enough but I question the choice of the color palette. It makes the show look cheap.

The anime’s OP is “Dimension tripper!!!!” by nao. This is a pretty cute song. The catchy intro was a nice touch and the soft cute voice of nao makes the song pretty special. It also has one upbeat chorus that is fun to listen to because of the way nao sings it with her soft voice. The OP sequence features all the characters and some of the wonderful character design you’d expect to see in the show. It is also a nice way to recognize the characters more because there are a lot of them.

The anime’s ED is “Neptune☆Sagashite” by Afilia Saga. This is an overly cute song with nice video game themed lyrics to it. The chorus is especially pretty great because of how cute the song was. The ED sequence is pretty weird though. It features the characters in moe form dancing but in the chorus, they were on top of a giant breast bouncing along to the sound of the song. It’s insane and the kind of blatant stupidity that rampant in the show.

Overall Score

5/10 “It has cute and sexy girls. That’s about it. If you can ignore the cliché characters and the predictable story then you have one entertaining show.”

This was a decent anime. The story might be weak and the overall experience might be a bit iffy but the visuals really make up for a lot of the disappointments. Again, if you don’t like the pictures then you won’t like the anime. This show’s main strength is the visuals and nothing more. Everything else is pretext for a shallow show. If you enjoyed Date A Live from the Spring lineup then you might like this show. If you like cute girls being sexy when they transform then you’ll like this one. You like fan service? This show has a lot of it. Enjoy.