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

Itai no wa Iya nano de Bougyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu - THE WHAT? Call it Bofuri for short. Story (6) Nothing new, we've seen it before, a world where people play ultra-realistic games, in which the players quite literally enter the game's world. But this time, they're aren't trapped inside the game, they are merely playing a game. Yeah, nothing to be trilled about, it's a "casual" anime, I would say, so this excuse of a story fits just fine for what the anime has to offer. Art (7) The animation is solid and simple, there's no real quality drop throughout the show. There are some pretty goodpieces of animation that stand out, as well as scenes where movement is replaced by stactic frames.
The scenery varies a lot and is well put together, always good to look at, even though it's mostly stactic.

Sound (6)

I don't often have anything bad to say about sound, but once or twice I found myself troubled by the fact that the song didn't match the scene. Outside of that, nothing stands out.

Character (9)

----Main characters----

Maple

The protagonist, I hope everybody agrees, caries this show on her back, she is a cute girl doing weird but cute things inside this new game her friend told her about, and she is lovely. A naive girl exploring a game. One of the best things about watching Maple is her unpredictability.

Sally

Sally is Maple's classmate and friend, the one who presents Maple to this new game. Sally is a bit more mature than Maple, and often tries to do whatever she can to ensure that Maple enjoys playing the game and can achieve good results in the in-game events.

----Supporting characters----

All of the other characters seem and are pale in comparison to Maple, and even their designs can be a bit of a letdown, but they're fine nonetheless.
As the anime intends only on showing the cast having fun, there are no scenes that connect us to them, we know nothing about them besides their personas while playing the game, and that is, almost nothing.
Every other character will, eventually, be affected by Maple's charisma, and they are all there just so that Maple can do her job.

ENJOYMENT (9)

ALL IN CAPS, this anime's name is ENJOYMENT.

If you ever played an MMORPG before, you will may recognise most of the features the cast comes across. That said, do not count on an anime to give you a real game experience, because it absolutely can not do so, and Bofuri does not try to do so. Most of the features are transformed into extreme mechanics that end up being either unpredictable or extreme enough to make you laugh, and it matches perfectly with Maple's unpredictability, which results in a really enjoyable show.

Overall (8)

The most enjoyable run I had in a while, Bofuri is pure fun. The characters are trying to have fun playing a game and the best part is that they drag you with them.

One thing I can't leave outside of this review is the exploration. The characters do explore a good amount of places, but the feeling of exploration is rather faint, even with a good amount of "exploring" scenes, due to the casual way the characters deal with it.

That's it, I had fun, and I imagine that's something we all want, something this anime can deliver.