Review time, and today we see another show on Otaku culture, this is Outbreak Company.
Shinichi Kano is an Otaku shut-in who applies for a job that requires his love of Anime, Video Games and Manga, upon succeeding in the interview, he is drugged and dragged into an alternate world, this is the Holy Eldant Empire, which Japan found by accident and now wants to create diplomatic relations by spreading Otaku culture into the alternate world which intrigues it's inhabitants, with his new found purpose, Kano wastes no time in spreading his culture into the world.
This show is both clever and stupid.
The Clever parts
1. The story is well written, it keeps to the subject matter without relying too much on cheap thrills.
2. Much of what is said within the story regarding the culture along with the praises and criticisms are true to real life Otaku Culture.
3. Much of what is said about Eldant's culture can also be true to real life Kingdoms in the past as well as the class systems used in today's societies.
4. The characters particularly Myucel make for an enjoyable experience.
5. The world of Eldant makes for amazing visuals.
Now the stupid parts.
1. You can see the plot twist coming a mile away.
2. Fan Service feels forced.
3. To understand the jokes you need a good knowledge of anime.
4. Many of it's best characters are under used.
5. Shinichi Kano has a nasty habit of switching from good well developed character to horrid cliche otaku fanboy without warning.
6. Petralka's voice hurts my ears.
and 7. The whole story fails to use it's potential to the fullest, I felt like there was more to offer but with only 12 episodes it never really got that far, the best episodes you're going to get from this show are the Soccer episode and the Akihabara episode, everything else is just meh.
While the dub is pretty good, Petralka has no indoor voice and makes ears bleed so Japanese subs is the best choice, this also makes the whole learning Japanese language plot point easier to understand.
Final Verdict: Whille I can see the potential Outbreak Company has to offer in it's clever writing it doesn't quite get the elements it needs to be a rousing success as the show struggles with unused potential that may never be realized.
