Review of Absolute Duo

Who wouldn't want to attend a school where all living expenses are paid, and they hand out credit cards for the students to use? Is that not enough to convince you? How about adding a few trips to tropical islands and luxurious cruises with a class full of bishoujo classmates? Ok... so there is a catch, you have to be injected with a mysterious serum and agree to train for battles with and against your classmates and teachers. Welcome to the world of Absolute Duo. Once more, we find ourselves with a series where a male protagonist enters a school seeking power, only to be overwhelmedby a room full of already powerful girls. Absolute Duo feels very similar to oh so many action-centric harems such as Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance and Trinity Seven. The lightly-ecchi show centers around Tooru, a typical harem protagonist with some guts and a lot of spare niceness, who is tormented by a tragedy that he blames on his own weakness. He, as well as many other students, is able to harness the power of his soul through a means called blaze. The school is set up by the loli devil er... chairwoman for achieving "absolute duo", something that isn't terribly fleshed out in the school.

If you're into action-based harems know that this is one of the weaker ones. Some annoyances include a protagonist who is often just a meat shield, extremely generic antagonists, and weak character development. Not to say that the show doesn't have any redeemable value, but the show and its protagonist have low ratings here for a reason.

Animation:
The show itself is well animated with vivid, saturated coloring and an overall modern look. Backgrounds are adequately detailed and some effects, such as falling sakura petals, are particularly well done. Character styling is fairly nice overall with a nicely rounded (no pun intended) group of heroines. Emotions are a bit stunted in this show, though perhaps a bit intentional as the main heroine isn't very expressive.

There is substantial action in this show, ranging from sword battles to ranged projectiles. Expect plenty of blood and some pretty serious wounds. That being said, I think that serum somehow impacts recoveries as well as people seem to recover as fast as the protagonist in Unbreakable Machine Doll does. The action is on par with that found in other action-based harems though CGI is grossly abused. The ecchi is rather on the light side. There are substantial amounts of boing and upskirts but clothing actually stays on mostly and the protagonist isn't an overt pervert. A lot of the ecchi material is due to misunderstandings caused by the primary heroine, Julie.

Sound:
The show starts with an energetic, action-centric light rock piece that fits despite not having much of a central melody. The EDs are much nicer in my opinion with lightly electronic touches and more palatable melodies, on top of being performed by the VAs. The BGM is present with a variety of tunes but not particularly memorable.

The primary heroine VAs all haven't really had breakout roles, most have just done a lot of supporting roles. Haruka Yamazaki probably gets the standout award though her character by nature has a bit more of a distinguishable personality. Yui Horie makes an appearance, though limited to a supporting role. Overall, not bad but nothing particularly great either.

Story:
The show follows our protagonist Tooru as he learns to harness his blaze along with his foreigner duo partner, Julie, and their classmate friends. Our protagonist is unusual in that his blaze takes on the physical shape of a shield, rather than an offensive weapon, thus giving "meat shield" a whole new meaning. The gang is repeatedly challenged by the school as well as external antagonists who use Crysis-inspired suits rather than harnessing the "power of the soul".

Absolute Duo has a rather simple plot with very few branches. There are sub arcs that span various episodes and culminate in minor climaxes. Though moderately entertaining, the show suffers from an unambitious, shallow plot and poor explanation of the overall setting and its mechanics. It is apparent that this is a harem first and an action show second. Unfortunately, the harem aspect is likewise weak, as I'll get to next.

Character:
Supposedly, this is one of the simpler harems, with only five-ish candidates vying for the protagonist. The protagonist, obviously dull when it comes to relationships, can barely fend off the girl's attempts for his attention. However, the show manages to undermine even this simple harem by forcing the Duo pairing system. Tooru is almost immediately paired with Julie (and apparently is the only cross-gender Duo in the class), and you pretty much can guess how that will affect the rest of the "candidates." Don't expect much competition from the rest of the crew except for a few instances of horrifically bad plot exploiting a character's jealousy.

The relationships are very shallow and basically can be summarized by Tooru saving a girl who then joins the bandwagon. Despite their being other insignificant male characters in the show, our protagonist mysteriously gets all the attention. As for actual personalities, don't expect much from the show. Lilith is probably the strongest in that regard, and by strong I mean average for a show. Julie is emotionally stunted and is only marginally entertaining when she mispronounces things or accidentally says something that causes misunderstandings. The other girls just aren't even worth mentioning. Furthermore, the antagonists are as plain as can be, often spewing out generic nonsense with virtually no background or explanation of motives.

Overall, this was the most disappointing aspect of the show. The cookie-cutter heroines lacked development and depth and no one was really relatable.

Value:
This is a generic action-based harem with a weak plot and even weaker characters and relationships. Absolute Duo is a shining achievement in how wrong a harem can get. The entertainment value is present but greatly diminished by the events in the show, and given how simplistic the plot is there isn't much re-watch value. I would absolutely avoid this unless you are a masochist and like watching painfully bad works.