BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense.

There once was a shield hero who entered a parallel universe but after being betray- . Oh wait, wrong show. But granted, Bofuri does have a character with a big shield so what gets people watching this anime with a VRMMO setting? Virtual reality is no stranger to the isekai creative realm. Sword Art Online became one of the biggest franchise of the past decade. Bofuri has nowhere near that level of popularity in horsepower and for most people, they’re turning to heads and asking themselves, “what the hell is Bofuri?” A good question. For the sake of this review, I’m addressing it just the animeas “Bofuri” because who really wants to read out loud the full title. At its sweet spot, Bofuri essentially drops our main character into a virtual reality world, based on a new game known as “New World Online”. As the character avatar “Maple”, she carries a vast amount of vitality but very low amount of offensive power. Hence, you can easily guess where the English version of the title came from. Maple, as her character suggests, maxed out her defense and doesn’t want to get hurt. If we’re talking about realism here, putting all your skill points into one skill isn’t a clever idea. In a party, everyone has a role and sometimes, desperate times calls for desperate measures where you have to take on a role that you’re not prepared for. Now, you may be getting the idea that Maple made a critical mistake but fear not for she managed to obtain two important skills to aid her in combat. That’s the beauty about some MMOs. There’s choices that can be made and Maple’s choice managed to become a character of near unrivalled talent. Maple herself is a young girl with enthusiasm, curiosity, and full of life. She and her partner Sally are our charming adventure duo who undertakes quests and completing tasks. Adapting an MMO 101 formula, a series like this heavily depends on our main cast to carry the storytelling. The author wanted us to understand our main characters and relate to them. And for that purpose, she made Maple into as ordinary as possible, both in-game and in real life. Chances are, you’ve probably encountered someone of similar personality to Maple in a MMO game before. The main difference is that she has max defense and essentially that tank you want in a party. And when watching Bofuri, it sometimes feels like playing a game. I’m not just talking about fighting a boss monster together or taking on some escort mission. I’m talking about social connection, a perk that every MMO game offers to its players. Maple is there to not just build her character, guild, or skills. She’s also in this world to make friends, companions, and even rivals to prove herself. In the early episodes, she builds an important relationship with Sally, who becomes one of her most trustworthy allies. Later in the series, she forms a guild together with Kasumi, May, and her friend Yui. They called it, the “Maple Tree”. As the guild master, Maple has a lot of responsibility on her shoulders to carry as she has to unite together in this complex game. Under the virtual reality umbrella, anything can happen anytime in this series so their members must all be prepared. While most of the characters in the guild are friendly with each other, Kasumi does initially display a cold shoulder with her serious personality. It isn’t until she became more familiarized with Maple and her friends that she began to warm up and trust them. Blending between the line of fiction and reality, we also do see some of her real life scenarios when the opportunity arises. However, I would argue and say that her virtual life is far more ambitious than her real life counterpart. When it comes down to it, she’s too ordinary in real life and is portrayed as a generic teenager you’ve seen a million times before. In game, she has a more presence with not just her skills but ability to bring people closer together. I won’t be the grand judge on whether you prefer her in-game avatar or real life character. But if you ask me, Maple’s potential lies in her virtual adventures. Up to this point, you may also be asking the glaring question about how far the anime focuses on the story. As an anime original viewer, I can only say that the story embraces its premise and promises a lighthearted fantasy adventure experience. The light novels contains a well-rounded amount of chapters that I have no doubt expands far more into what this anime adapted. But for references, I do appreciate that the author were able to capture the main concepts of the show at its core. From Maple’s sociable personality and selling the main concepts of a VRMMO game, it shows that Bofuri can make an identity of its own. Even in a floodgate of these isekai-esque game world settings, Bofuri is what I classify as a sparkling gem. For Silver Link to take on this anime adaptation means you should probably lower some expectations. As much as I enjoy the world setting and fictional fantasy gags, there’s only so much this anime can pull you in on the artistic front. Character designs looks simple despite Maple wearing that heavy armor and wielding a shield almost twice her size. Other characters in the series has little to impress as most them look like premade characters from a video game. The bestiary is also more or less to get excited about as the majority lacks unique traits. On the hand, I do appreciate how the anime embraces idea of character classes and mostly stick to their guns. Mostly during combat scenes, we see the characters use their actual skills rather than pulling tricks out of their ass. And sometimes, these battles raises the stakes in later episodes with guild rivalries that can be worth anticipating for. Bofuri ended up being one of the better fantasy shows this year from what’s shown us. It may be a bit early to call for now but from the endless lineup of generic isekai and game world fantasies, Bofuri managed to celebrate the essentials of adventuring. And with just 12 episodes, it’s easy for anyone to jump into. Prepare to be assimilated.

I don’t like talking about other anime when doing a review, since I just want to focus on just the show. However it is obvious that a superficial comparison can be made on this show and a previously aired title “Rise of The Shield Hero”. Since I remembered when Shield Hero was airing a few seasons ago, I made an off hand comment that the Protagonist was basically an example of a min-max build(even though it was against his will). Lo and behold that this season introduces another min-max build but this time is properly acknowledged, and also happens to be another defense build witha shield! It’s a funny coincidence more than anything, and where most of the comparison ends. BOFURI as it is called due to it’s absurdly long title is a rather delightful show to watch. Yes, the fact that it’s another virtual reality Isekai may be a bit eye rolling, but it does help that the show doesn’t take itself too seriously. It has a very light tone to the point that it can be considered slice-of-life, since it very much is. It basically looks into the life of a teenage girl as she has fun with her friends in the virtual space. The only thing making her stand-out from the crowd is that she naively Min-maxed a defense build that in turn led to her getting favorable results. Essentially she found a way to break the game and make herself drastically overpowered in a short amount of time. It amounts to very little aside from making boss fights and pvp tournaments very easy for her because in the end, it’s just a game. That’s really the crux of it all that makes it stand, the show acknowledges that everything is just a game and nothing more. The characters all get along and there’s rarely(if any) deep seated rivalries or drama because it would be petty because it is just a game. All the NPCS are obviously scripted and quests that can be easily circumvented or easily accomplished. And while the main protagonist may be an overpowered tank, she does get nerfed from time to time. Although she usually bounces back from it with some other new thing the story hands out to her. Yes, things really do come very conveniently to our main protagonist, Maple. So much so that combined with her happy-go-lucky attitude she comes off as a Mary sue with her only fault being clumsy. Of course this power fantasy is only in the game, because out of it she’s just a clumsy girl and nothing more. If it isn’t telling from the last paragraph, a lot of the characters in this show don’t have a lot of depth to them. Which is all fine for the most part, since their simplicity is part of their charm. It’s that casual carelessness and easy to understand personalities that makes them easy to attach to. such as Maple’s best friend Sally who is very supportive of her and who purposely created her own min-max build that compliments her friends. Even the “antagonistic” characters such as the leaders of the flame emperors who comes off as a very serious try hard person. Only for it to reveal that it;s more of a front for her to impress her friends and is also really a bit of a crybaby. Although it’s not uncommon that some of the characters can be forgettable even in Maple’s own group. While the production value for the show is as decent as it comes these days. The soundtrack is worth taking note of. Not because there is something remarkable about it, but it does end up having a place within the show. Mostly when it comes during the fight sequences and the montages in the show. Especially the montages which the show has many more than it should have. It has a very distinct musical and vocal track that gets played again and again for each montage. It’s a decent song, but it would be nice to have something different. The same goes for the fight sequence song as well. This is a show that isn’t planning to aim high and I guess i can respect that. All it wants to be is a carefree enjoyable show, and it succeeded in doing so.

“Scrub Lord: How I Learned to Stop Trying to Git Gud and Embrace the Cheese”. That is what they should have named this anime. Bofuri is an anime that is set up just like any other Isekai. A boring protagonist becomes obsessed with some shitty RPG that works through some incredibly advanced virtual reality. We know that soon she will get stuck in the RPG world and be told that she’ll die in the real world if she dies in the game. We’ve seen this 10 million times before. But WAIT! She doesn’t actually get stuck in the game! In fact, there are absolutely nostakes at all! This anime was recommended by a friend as one of the most pointless anime ever made. After watching it, I have to agree. This anime is literally just watching a Let’s Play in which a no talent, filthy scrub uses OP spells to cheese her way through a poorly balanced game with an unearned reputation for difficulty! Would you like to spend 6 hours watching a Twitch stream of a ditzy girl abusing Dark Souls 3’s questionable balance system? That is what this show is! The ditzy girl chooses pyromancer, pours everything into faith and intelligence, and just roflstomps every boss in the game with OP spells like Crystal Soul Spear, Grand Chaos Fire Orb, and Black Fire Orb. Doesn't that sound like something that warrants a 12 episode anime adaptation with a budget? Despite Bofuri's simple and admittedly kind of stupid premise, anime can have a simple premise and still work. One Punch is about a normal guy who becomes the world's strongest superhero, but he's so OP that every fight is a bore to him and all his fellow superheroes are rendered completely worthless. When I first watched Bofuri, I thought it was going to be an isekai version of One Punch Man with the whole joke being how OP Kaede is. However, this really isn't a comedy series. Bofuri is a "cute girls doing cute things" anime that on rare occasion has a comedic moment. So now that we realize it's not a comedy, we have to ask ourselves why this was made and who was it made for? My immediate guess is that Bofuri was made for thirsty male gamers who want to imagine having a hardcore gamer girlfriend. However, it doesn't actually feature any fanservice whatsoever. The main girls are drawn very flat and aren't ever sexualized. There is no romance in the series. It doesn't cater to any weird fetishes or anything like that. So maybe this is actually meant to be a relaxing anime for gamer girls? Nope! Bofuri is classified as a seinen, which means it is in fact intended for older men. As someone in the seinen demographic, I honestly can't imagine why people think this anime is good. I think my favorite running gag in the series is Maple killing difficult bosses by poisoning them from a distance and getting praised for it by hardcore gamers. If you want to troll gamer forums, go tell a bunch of Souls fans that you were clever enough to poison False King Allant, the last boss of Demon Souls to death and fish for compliments. They will get MAD because the way Kaede plays is always the exact opposite of how a respectable gamer is supposed to tackle these types of games. So if Bofuri isn't a comedy or a fanservice show or an action show, it must have great character development right? Kaede must start out with some character flaw she has to overcome or she has to learn how to make friends and get along with others right? Well...no. Bofuri is a show about level grinding montages, moe garbage where nothing happens, and then tournaments that Maple/Kaede wins by being OP. There are no real character journeys in Bofuri. There is no overarching plot. When I said this series was just a bad "Let's Play" I wasn't exaggerating. Bofuri is a monumental waste of time. Sword Art Online gets a lot of shit, and we can all see it's a flawed adaptation of an imperfect light novel. However, it wanted to create a protagonist that would inspire lonely young men. It wanted to create a wholesome romance and when the author was called out for writing shitty female characters, he actually took feedback and tried hard to get better! SAO was a pioneering LN that hundreds of others ripped off and even today is still beloved in Japan. Bofuri is none of those things. It wasn't a daring series. It never tried in any category. It's like the anime equivalent of a shovel ware game that gets thrown on to Steam in order to trick a few suckers into buying it. Bofuri makes SAO look like The Godfather. The only reason I didn't give it a lower rating is due to the animation from Silver Fox, which is honestly pretty decent. This series looks far better than it deserves.

At first, this show looked like standard cute girls doing cute things show that come dime a dozen these days. However, after two episodes I realized this show struck a powerful chord.. as New World Online reminded me of the fun days I played in the real game Ragnarok Online. Reminded me all of the item gatherings, meeting friends, forming a guild. It's all here. NONE = Also none of the excess baggage that other shows try to shove into my face. Trying to save the world from evil? trapped in another world? trapped in a game? people dying if they lose? generic harem plot? Noneof those shits!! This is just pure fun, we are playing a friendly game. More easy to relate to for people like me who played and enjoyed RO years ago. Art - colorful backgrounds, lush grasslands, forests. Makes you want to explore and do adventure. Rest in the town when you get tired. The enemies, the non-playable characters (npc's), the buildings in the town, and even players chatting in the distance are decently animated, adding a sweet feel to the world of NWO. Characters - Maple and her friend Sally are the most developed being main the pair. However, the others feel "real enough" in the sense that they feel like the friendly people I've met in Ragnarok Online years ago. Sound - from the pleasant singing by Rico Sasaki in the background, to the action music during boss fights. It's helps flesh out the world of Bofuri into a wonderland that is both immersive and fun. Enjoyment - I don't want to over hype. My review is very biased since I enjoyed this show, because I was a Ragnarok Online addict for years. However, one thing this show did is it is consistent on doing things it was meant to do, which is give me the feeling of playing game, explore, adventure, meet friends. It did not pretend to be something deep. Come on people, we're playing game here for fun, not because our lives depended on it or world peace is in danger!! XD Another reason I liked this is no overpowered male main cast gathering a harem either, which is a mercy, as I'm sick of shows like that Smartphone shit. Overall - I recommend this show for people who want to remove stress and just have some clean fun watching people play a friendly game in a virtual world. If you're looking for something deeper, then look somewhere else.