Outbreak Company is an anime series that aired this year in the Fall 2013 season. It's a comedy/harem series that has lots of references (including anime, manga, light novels, and video games). I was following this anime series when it was originally came out, but soon stopped keeping up with it for a while and didn't finish the series until one week after it ended. Was this show worth watching, or was it just a mediocre series that relied too much on references? I'm here to tell you in this review of Outbreak Company. (Note: As always, I'll try to keep this with as little spoilers as possible, but if I do spoil something, you have been warned)
Story: 7/10
The story focuses around a boy named Shinichi Kanou, a former shut-in otaku who has a very huge knowledge of anime, manga, video games, and light novels. One day, he decides to look for a job and ends up finding a job that is hiring an otaku (for a high salary as well). However, when he meets his employer, he ends up getting kidnapped by the company and sent to an alternate world. It turns out this alternate world is home to inhabitants different to our world, both socially and literally (as this world has elves, dwarfs, and many other creatures and humans we only ever see in fantasy stories). We find out that the job Shinichi applied for is improving the relations of Japan and this new world by spreading entertainment products of Japanese culture (that being anime, manga, video games, and light novels) in order to see if there is a market for said things in this new, unexplored world. In short terms, the series basically revolves around Shinichi spreading his otaku culture to the kingdom of Eldant with the help of his maid Myucel Foaran, and many other people he meets in this new world, with a good variety of references thrown here and there. The story for the most part was good. Outbreak Company's set-up really good, and doesn't make everything that's going to happen in show predictable. The harem aspects also weren't annoying as they managed to give the main females in the series equal times to shine, and even sometimes the secondary love interests.
However, there is two major problems with the story. One problem being that the show is inconsistent. The last two episodes take a different tone from the usually upbeat series and cram too much information that could have been done (or at least hinted at) in previous episodes, resulting in making a lot of episodes in the series feel useless. This really lowers the quality of the story and only makes the story feel somewhat good. The second problem I have with Outbreak Company is that not all of the comedy was good. I felt like 75 percent of the jokes they nailed, and the other 25 percent came out as awkward or lame. In the end however, it was still an enjoyable story (especially with the setting).
Characters: 6/10
The main characters of Outbreak Company are strong, but they have flaws in them. There are three main characters in this show.
(Petralka, Shinichi, and Myucel)
The main protagonist is Shinichi (the one in the middle of the picture). As I have said previously, he's a former shut-in otaku, and has a huge amount of knowledge on otaku culture. One thing I really liked about his character was that he tried to break the boundary of racism in this new world (which is that half-humans like elves and dwarfs as well as full humans don't really get along and humans even treat these races as lower beings) through his hobby/job. While I think he does some good things as the main character, there are some things that I don't like about him. One of them is his backstory towards why he became a shut-in. It felt unrealistic and it didn't really help give him any character development or tell us why he acts the way he does. Another thing I don't like about him is how annoying he can be with his childish attitude. I get that otakus are considered somewhat childish by the ways they act, but even they have restrictions compared to Shinichi at times. Shinichi has his ups and downs, but he's not a bad character. I just think he's a character you need to be able to relate to in order to love him (which I can't, but maybe you will).
Petralka (the one on the left) is one of the main females of the series. She is the empress of the kingdom of Eldant and takes an interest in Shinichi. Eventually, she starts to get jealous when Shinichi is with other woman. Her character was my favorite of the three since she is one of the reasons Sinichi is able to succeed in his job by allowing him to do so his job in her kingdom. Though her tsundere-like behavior kind of makes me cringe, I thought she was a good character.
The last of the main three main characters, and the second main female of the series is Myucel (the one on the right), an elf girl that is Shinichi's maid in the series and also becomes a teacher in Shinichi's school (which he made to teach otaku culture) later in the series. She was pretty much the innocent girl of the show and the first girl Shinichi meets in this new world. I had no problems with her character, except that sometimes I felt she was too nice to everyone. Overall, the main characters were pretty good, it's just that they just have some small flaws. Now for the supporting cast...
(most of Outbreak Company's cast)
The supporting cast to me felt like the weaker side of all the characters. With the exception of maybe a few characters that spend most of their time with Shinichi, they never do leave an impression that makes them feel different or original in their screen time. Those few characters that do leave an impression are also secondary love interest characters, so that doesn't really help the supporting cast. I didn't really have any favorites, but I did like the character Galious (a yaoi-loving guard/cousin of Petralka that somewhat likes Shinichi) since he parodies the secondary love interests. As a whole, the whole cast of Outbreak is underwhelming, but still a decent cast.
Animation/music: 7/10
Animation for Outbreak Company was done by the studio Feel (which is a company that was established by former Studio Pierrot employees). One of their more famous works is Kissxsiss. I thought they did an amazing job for a studio that isn't really well-known. The character designs were somewhat good, and the backgrounds were surprisingly detailed and good-looking. The animation really did make it feel like a Fantasy world. There is one problem I have with it though. That problem is that sometimes the characters would look a bit weird when they were reacting, or showing more expression. On the music side of things, there was nothing to write home about, except the opening.
I wish we would've gotten more music like the opening, but that is sadly not the case. The music was really average. For Outbreak Company, you have to really like the animation, and not the music. Since there is no dub of Outbreak Company at the time I'm writing this review, I can't judge it. If there is a dub in the future, I recommend you watch the dub first, and if you don't like it then switch to the subs.
Enjoyment: 8/10
I really did enjoy watching this show. I never enjoyed it for the story, it was more what the characters did and said that made this show (like any comedy). The story might make it somewhat less enjoyable, but it was entertaining. The references were a nice treat in the series as well. I will say that you need to have somewhat of a knowledge of the references to enjoy this show to its fullest, but there are some things that you could still enjoy in this show even if you aren't a long-time fan of said subjects in the show.
Overall Thoughts:
While I think Outbreak Company was a good show, I can't say it's amazing or spectacular. Its problems with the story towards the end, and not all the jokes being funny makes this show somewhat good at best. I would recommend Outbreak Company only to those who can relate to the main character, or like a show that parodies a lot of the trending things in anime. I don't think Outbreak Company will age well since anime trends will always change just like with any medium, but
you can enjoy it for what it is currently. It was definitely one of those sleeper shows of the Fall 2013 season.
Score: C (7.0/10)
You can find Outbreak Company currently on Crunchyroll, and it has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks (so you can expect a home release soon).
Tags:
Anime/Manga
