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

Surprisingly enough, I actually liked BOFURI quite a lot. It's rather pretty, pretty cute, and acutely aware of its purpose in the industry. BOFURI isn't an attempt to reinvent the wheel, not by any means. It's more of a touch-up to the wheel with some spiked rims and such. Considering that this is an SAO-inspired, female-led, slice-of-life comedy, I really was blown away by how much I enjoyed this show. -[Brutally Funny, Cute, and Brutal]- BOFURI is adorable. Truthfully, I don't do moe. It just isn't my thing, however, this show was cute, and it had enough substance (at least in the beginning) to keep me watching.Most of the cast is extremely likable, and obviously, they're mostly cute girls. It's a cute show. That being said, though, it's also kind of brutal. Maple, while she's blundering around in the virtual world absolutely cannibalizes enemy mobs and even players. She's metal as hell, if I'm being honest.

-[10/10 Art]-
This show looks great. The artstyle is the modern anime default, which is to say that it looks really good. The scenery in the game is beyond beautiful (they even revel in it in one scene). The character designs are memorable and fitting, at least, until later in the show. The animation, however, was unprecedentedly good. If I'm being honest, frame for frame, this show could whoop a shounen anime's ass in terms of animation. Every frame is handled with a level of care unbefitting an unestablished franchise. It seems like the staff who worked on BOFURI actually cared about the quality of their work, which is a nice change of pace in the industry.

-[Falloff]-
This show started off so well. The first 8 episodes were great, but as BOFURI drew nearer to the end, I knew things were going downhill. For whatever reason, be it staff overwork or time constrains, this show does not maintain its initial level of quality. It's such a shame too. It was going so well until the ball was completely dropped.

I believe the harbingers of this show's downward spiral were the bumbling twin lolis. They were the last characters to join the main cast, and the second that they became establish characters, the show took a nosedive. All at once, the show became nothing but cheap jokes, cheap moe, contrived drama, and naturally, as a faithful SAO successor, surrenderance to the OP MC trope. It really killed my enjoyment of the show. When Maple became a ditsy, indomitable Kirito with every ability under the sun, the show was over. It's just unfortunate, then that there were still 4 episodes left. In the words of Gordon Ramsay, "Damn. What a shame."

-[Regardless...]-
Despite my criticism of the final third of the show, I do believe that BOFURI was a worth-while watch. Before episode 8, I gave this show a 9/10. That's pretty huge for me because, in general, I detest shows like this. Watch it if you will. It's up to you. 7/10.