You know, there are times when I don't know why I bother with these damn Chinese cartoons and mangoes. Sure, for every space epic, or well written drama, there's 3 HORRID, and I mean insultingly horrid, pieces of crap. Usually I'm game to weather their meagre offerings, hell, I got some perverse joy out of how BAD Kampfer was, but I have been almost bested this year.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's BAD ANIME time.
Asobi ni Iku Yo (lit:We came to play) is bad, no two ways you splice it. Naruto levels of bad. Do not come into this expecting something to enjoy, because it will rape your soul.
So the show starts off introducing the best friend of the Main Character, in profile,surrounded by techie nerd stuff, while the plot is whispered into her ears, which she thusly recites, along with some guff about the Browning High-Power pistol, because she will be revealed to us all as a huge kinder-/k/ wet dream whom at every chance drools over firearms all the while ignoring all gun safety and almost killing everyone. We then switch to a scene which is one NGE Asuka Langley introduction, part COD4 Crew Expendable, part MGS2. The main point of this scene is to reveal character TWO of the MC's harem- a flat chested quiet girl with a traditionally long black hair and glasses, who ACTUALLY works as some free agent spy in a stealth suit and can conjure guns and shit out of nothing.You can see where this is going.
So the show is set on Okinawa, the closest thing Japan has to an island escape within affordable travel distance. It also happens to be a major US military installation, and as you'll get thumb-screwed into you, the CIA and the international intelligence agencies are apparently running some sort of stupid not-so-secret mission hiring school kids to be double agents.... what a schoolkid could possibly know or get into that a well-trained agent can't is well beyond me, but hey, this doesn't stop the show.
And now 5 minutes in, we get our Main Character introduction, the stereotypical MC nerd, whose name is so irrelevant to the plot that I have actually completely forgotten it. He's that bland, so let's call him John McBland, or JM for short.
So JM is at a party on the beach with his bearded on-vacation CIA uncle or summat 'ike dat ('tis revealed later in the episode), who promptly offers some beer to McBland as he rounds on him for being the Main Character of a harem and not having any women despite being of the exact age that all MCs are that they begin their harem. CI-Uncle then points out the plot-girl in his harem, who has massive tits, huge curves, a skintight I-can't-Believe-it's-not-NGE jumpsuit and cat ears, who has mysteriously entered teh party.
Naturally she is not from this world, she is from a planet called....*long desparate groan*... Catia. They Went there. The planet of cats is CATIA. So John and Cat-bitch start talking and shit and they become Best friends forever n ever. Not really. He then realised that he's talking to a girl and promptly passes out, which is fine by me. Hope he stays that way. Scene change and he wakes up and "oh shit there's a girl in my bed scene happens" followed by "best friend walking in and getting all pissed off at MC" scene. She's also super uppity. No one actually likes her, so let's smile at her face and pretend she's got brain tumors preventing her being pleasant.
Oh and Did I mention that this show is HUGE on fan service and cheesecake. It's constant, never ending, and gets in the way of every single thing, obstructing any virtues the plot may have had.
Normally I'm willing to let it slide when a shows got reasonable amounts of the stuff, or is blatantly a show that is marketed as so, because usually there's some payoff or redemption in plot or art, look at Kampfer or Strike Witches, but oh my god, it's just ANNOYING in Asobi. It literally ruins every scene it's in ,and it's in EVERY scene.
Returning to the plot now, the show plows the plane into international spy conspiracies tower head on, as some agents try to get their hands on uppity Cat-girl's downed space ship, and get her to leave Earth. Furthermore, there is a bunch of insane sci-fi nerds who somehow have guns, even in the only country in the world where such things are completely outlawed, who are trying to get her to leave because she isn't the aliens they wanted (as in they wanted Close Encounters or Predators, or something less mundane)... which results in a full episode of WACKY AVOIDING BULLETS HIJINKS. Also John and Cat-bitch get hooked 'cause she's in heat... because, you know..CATS!
Lemme just round up the plot summary here by saying it does not get better ,and even when the ending gets here, which thankfully is only 12 episodes from the beginning and does attempt to redeem itself by not being completely retarded, does nothing to make the plot endear itself. You will want to stuff it in a box and throw it into a river.
The voice work is merely fine, not above standard, nor below. it is exactly average. The standout character voicing is John Bland, and that's only because his portrayal is the immaculate birth of mediocrity personified.
So why is this show worse than it's last-season counterpart- Kampfer?
It's really that more annoying. Where Kampfer was overcome with being jsut hilariously over the top, the tone of Asobi makes it more grating to take in. If Kampfer was a mix of laughing gas and mustard gas, Asobi ni Iku yo increased the mustard density about ten fold, leaving you gasping for air and covering with welts as you collapse in a pile of your own vomit and blood.
So why did I NOT stop watching? fading hope that it would improve. It didn't.
To weigh out the cons-
I did enjoy two characters - The Chief Maid of Antonia, and her underling, An ex-SAS chick with a penchant for cute things. They were very nice tongue in-cheek characters which raised a smile whenever they made an appearance. They were fun. Everyone else can go back to the swamp in which they dragged themselves out of.
Picture Related (Warning- Explicit Language)
Toadie out.
