Review of BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense.
Good action makes up for a weak storyline Moe? Action? VRMMO? Light hearted fun? If you are looking for those things then you will have a good time watching this anime. But if you are looking for more, then just give this one a pass. Bofuri is a power fantasy vrmmo anime, right off the bat, you should have an idea of what to expect. No, the characters are not in a high stake trapped in a game scenario, no the characters don’t get hurt in game and no the characters can’t die. Which means everything that takes place in the game doesn’t actually effect themain character in any way. No, I am not saying that’s a bad thing, but I can see a lot of people having problems with that. The good side of having a low stake setting is, it fits the tone of the show’s cutesy and light hearted nature. While on the contrary if the characters were trapped in this game like in SAO and still did cute and moe stuff, those two wouldn’t go so well together. However the problem with this is the fact that there is no actual threat to the characters, therefore completing their objectives aren’t actually going to make me feel like the characters achieved something big or overcame an obstacle.
The plot of this anime is really not that special either. The plot is essentially something like Net juu or netoge. It’s just people playing an mmorpg. While in Net juu or netoge the characters have more screen time outside of the video games they play in. Bofuri almost entirely takes place in the game. We see the characters attend a school and such during some segments, however those scenes are extremely short and aren’t even 2% of the anime. Other than the fact that bofuri takes place mostly in the game, this anime feels like any other vrmmorpg and has a pretty bland plot.
The characters are all really bad. There is almost no character development aimed at any of the characters at all. We see the characters mostly just be cute and do cute things. That’s about it. We don’t know what the characters are like in real life, none of the characters get their time to shine, since the show is mostly centred around Maple. On top of that, pretty much none of the characters contribute too much and are useless for the most parts, considering how OP Maple is. I couldn’t get myself to even get invested in the dialogue and I just couldn’t see the characters as real people rather than just characters.
Minor spoilers for this next paragraph.
Maple’s powers are never explained properly and for Maple to exploit the game so easily is just unrealistic, because if there was such an easy cheat to be OP, everyone in the game would be using it. The directors expected us to just go along with the plot convenience there. One minute Maple is taking out enemies with her shield, the other minute she is riding an oversized turtle and the next she is literally turning into Godzilla. The show never runs out of ways to make Maple OP, and at times it just feels like the anime is pulling these out of it’s ass. Some of these abilities that Maple gets are so random, and we are expected to just go with it. Of course this is fiction and realism isn’t necessary. But I am expected to have some sort of logic to what I am viewing for me to fully get invested in the world and a little less plot convenience would have made the show something more than just something to watch and forget about it the next day.
The animation is breath taking at times with really well drawn fight scenes are action sequences. There are explosions, lasers and just some of the most epic and entertaining anime battles that are easily what saves this show.
I also really enjoyed the music in this anime. The opening and the endings are both really catchy songs that I listened to a bunch of times.
Overall, if you like light hearted moe action with gorgeous animation and fight scenes and you are willing to forgive an illogical and straight up ridiculous power fantasy and just watch the show instead of focusing on the minor plot holes and details, then you will like this. If you are here for story and characters, I recommend giving this one a pass because it will not be worth your time.