The story centers on Kaede Honjou, who is invited by her friend Risa Shiramine to play a virtual
reality MMO game with her. While Kaede doesn't dislike games, what she really, truly dislikes is being
in pain. She creates a character named Maple, and decides to put all her points in VIT to minimize
pain. As a result, she moves slowly, can't use magic, and even a rabbit can get the best of her.
However, as it turns out, she acquires a skill known as "Absolute Defense" as a result of her pumping
points into VIT, as well as a "Counter Skill" that works against special moves. Now, with her ability
to nullify all damage, she goes on adventures.
(Source: Anime News Network, edited)
At first, this show looked like standard cute girls doing cute things show that come dime a dozen these days. However, after two episodes I realized this show struck a powerful chord.. as New World Online reminded me of the fun days I played in the real game Ragnarok Online. Reminded me all of the item gatherings, meeting friends, forming a guild. It's all here. __NONE__ = Also none of the excess baggage that other shows try to shove into my face. Trying to save the world from evil? trapped in another world? trapped in a game? people dying if they lose? generic harem plot? None of those shits!! This is just pure fun, we are playing a friendly game. More easy to relate to for people like me who played and enjoyed RO years ago. __Art__ - colorful backgrounds, lush grasslands, forests. Makes you want to explore and do adventure. Rest in the town when you get tired. The enemies, the non-playable characters (npc's), the buildings in the town, and even players chatting in the distance are decently animated, adding a sweet feel to the world of NWO. __Characters__ - Maple and her friend Sally are the most developed being main the pair. However, the others feel "real enough" in the sense that they feel like the friendly people I've met in Ragnarok Online years ago. __Sound__ - from the pleasant singing by Rico Sasaki in the background, to the action music during boss fights. It's helps flesh out the world of Bofuri into a wonderland that is both immersive and fun. __Enjoyment__ - I don't want to over hype. My review is very biased since I enjoyed this show, because I was a Ragnarok Online addict for years. However, one thing this show did is it is consistent on doing things it was meant to do, which is give me the feeling of playing game, explore, adventure, meet friends. __It did not pretend to be something deep. __ Come on people, we're playing game here for fun, not because our lives depended on it or world peace is in danger!! XD Another reason I liked this is no overpowered male main cast gathering a harem either, which is a mercy, as I'm sick of shows like that Smartphone shit. __Overall__ - I recommend this show for people who want to remove stress and just have some clean fun watching people play a friendly game in a virtual world. If you're looking for something deeper, then look somewhere else.
*“Now to distribute status points? Everything I've got goes into defense!” - Maple* ~~~If you couldn’t tell from the title, Bofuri isn’t an anime that you should take seriously and expect anything crazy from. The characters are hilarious, the atmosphere is light and refreshing, and the storyline centers around a beginner gamer that seems to get herself into the craziest of situations: Maple. This anime doesn’t try to be anything absurd or impress you with some intricate plot or characters, but it's just there to have fun, and that's a good thing. Bofuri is one of those anime that you need if you’re looking to just sit back, relax, turn off your brain, and enjoy a good laugh or two. So why don’t you do just that?! Enjoy all the smiling faces in this anime. Enjoy all the crazy and entertaining things going on. Enjoy how overpowered Maple seems to get every episode. Just have fun and enjoy it all! Leave all the technical scoring to me...~~~ __Art and Animation: 9.1/10__ ~~~The quality of animation was a lot better than I was expecting. I admired the character designs when I first saw them, and I was pleased when I saw that the same level of quality was implemented into the anime as well. The beautiful and vibrant colors of New World Online were both beautiful and refreshing. It felt like you were in a VRMMO with all the surrounding diverse environments and creatures. From beautiful sunsets to crystal clear ocean waters, the attention to detail in background shots were pleasing to the eye. I appreciated all of the diverse environments that we were able to enjoy throughout this anime. As for character designs, you had both familiar and new ones all around. New weapons, unique armor, craftable items, all of it was included in an anime about a virtual video game with their designs. The action scenes also had some amazing and over-the-top moments that I truly wasn’t expecting. Fluid movements, beautiful visual effects, and creative dynamics/skills kept this anime interesting the whole way through.~~~ __Storyline and Character Progression: 8.5/10__ ~~~I’d be lying if I told you that this anime had an actual storyline or some type of character progression that didn’t involve leveling or gaining more equipment. While this anime does have in-game events that our gamers participate in, there isn’t really anything beyond that. Bofuri is more of an episodic anime that's meant to be enjoyed one episode at a time. No need to bother with character progression either, since any character progression in this anime has to deal with being a higher level or gaining powerful equipment. There isn’t much to say in this department if I'm being honest. The events that took place in this anime were funny to watch, had a bit of suspense, and looked extremely fun to take part in. The sense of exploration, leveling, and new adventures were all there and made me excited to watch Maples journey as a gamer every episode. I’m sure you’ll either laugh or have your mouth wide open at how many crazy things Maple discovers...~~~ __Soundtrack and Audio: 8.8/10__ ~~~This was also another element that I truly enjoyed in Bofuri. The soundtrack had complimented the anime well in adding to the environment and ambiance to give a true sense of adventure. It was upbeat, refreshing, and the OP represented the anime quite well. When it came to the sound effects used, they were neither generic nor stale. This was most evident during action scenes when explosions were plenty and spells were being cast left and right. Another strong point that Bofuri had was in its astonishing vocal cast. With a lot of talent in this cast, its only natural that we’d get high-quality voice acting to add to the bubbly personalities of our beloved characters. No complaints at all when it came to this department.~~~ ~~~As you can tell, Bofuri isn’t meant to be taken seriously at all. It's intended to be laughed at more than anything. From the cute and adorable moments, to the endless and crazy overpowered things Maple seems to get, you’re going to have a lot of enjoyment with this anime. With a grand soundtrack, amazing vocal cast, and animation to add to the immersion, Bofuri is here to help you unwind and just enjoy! So sit back, don’t worry about the big things, and enjoy the absurdly funny and OP adventures of our cute gamer Maple. For the refreshing and great quality animation, fun soundtrack, and hilarious adventures, Bofuri has earned its score of 8.8/10. What are you waiting for? Add this to your plan to watch when you need an anime to make you smile and relax! That's all for now, and as always, I'll see you in the next one <3~~~ ~~~A special thanks to my Editor: @Zedlin~~~ ~~~Streaming Platform: Funimation~~~
__VISUALS: 90/100__ They did a fairly great job in the animation for this. There's CGI used here and there, but I think they handled it well enough and transitioned from it to traditional and vice versa pretty smoothly. There are also really great scenes visually, like during the times when Maple gets some of her new skills. Of course, there are some parts that I think would've been better if done in traditional animation, especially during some close-ups in some fight scenes. I've also noticed that they used slideshow montages a bit too much but that isn't that bad. Overall the visuals are done well. __AUDIO: 70/100__ A bit forgettable, imo. Both the OP and the ED I skipped from the first episode because they're a bit too standard for my taste. Nothing new. The BGM is meh too. Not bad, but not memorable either. It's only been 2 days and I can't remember any of the BGMs they used. (This is coming from the guy who can still remember the ones used in Himouto and Gabdrop even after only watching those twice) __VOICE ACTING: 90/100__ Pretty good voice acting. The only one I thought was a bit out of place was Yui's VA. Not bad, just out of place, like she isn't used to or she shouldn't be voicing lolis. It felt forced. Other than that, most of them are good and fit the character fairly well. As an AL player, Ai Kakuma was recognizable from the moment I first heard her. __STORY: 80/100__ The story is where I'm most.. iffy.. at. The story felt like it was all over the place and honestly, it didn't really feel like there was a story at all. That isn't bad by itself, but it felt like they didn't know if they should be going the slice of life route or the action comedy route. There are also tropes in here that I absolutely despise (I'm looking at you, number 1 player) but their lack of screentime makes up for it. The slice of life/gamey parts I really liked. As an avid MMO player seeing a noob play and learn the ropes of a genre I love will never get old. Seeing Maple get these ridiculous powers without actually tryharding was hilarious AF. The parts I didn't really like were the ones where they suddenly shifted into super serious, almost chuuni-like action sequences. Sally's serious mode, for example. The shifts into these scenes were really jarring. One moment, we were fishing but a few moments later we're fighting a boss that honestly should've been relegated into one of those short clips or maybe even those montage they liked to use. The use of CGI in those parts only made it worse. Honestly, now that I think about it, most of the meh stuff are the scenes where Maple wasn't present. She was seriously carrying this show on her back with her adorableness. Overall, If I were to change something about the story, it would be to turn it into a purely slice of life anime. The action scenes (that didn't have Maple) really didn't work imo and should've been changed in some way (Something like Kuma kuma kuma bear, in how it blends slice of life and action would be perfect). If I were to rate the two parts/genres separately, I'd rate the Maple parts 95/100 while the rest, somewhere around 65/100.
_~~~Urged on by her friends, Kaede joins VR MMORPG_ New World Online. _Not wanting to get hurt, she
opts to be a shield user and starts putting every status point she earns into increasing her defense
stats. Despite this leaving her with slow movement and no magic, her high defense allows her to endure
most hits without taking any damage. As a result, she earns all kinds of new skills and becomes one of
the strongest players in the game.~~~_
So, I watched this solely because I saw a scene somewhere wherein the main character and her friend
have some sort of Space Dinner and drink starlight that makes their hair crazy colors, and eat the
Essence of Planets in Jello Form or something that make their eyes do the same. It looked cool, is
what I’m saying.
One of my favorite things I used to do on a daily basis growing up is playing a lot of online-focused games. From the creative levels from Little Big Planet 2, the turned planning of competitive Pokemon the heavily social base Playstation Home to the addicting strategy first-person shooter Battlefield 3/4/Bad Company 2. I loved my online games and I still play to this day. (newer titles of course) Of course, being a video game and anime fan, I had to check out the many animes that focus on online gaming, and the results that the medium offered more and less disappointed me. I’m not going to reveal those disappointing online game-themed anime as not only many of the shows are popular to a point where you may know by now, but I also don’t to upset any of its fans that may like those shows, however, aside from two shows many of these online gaming-themed anime are plagued with these three faults. Lack of fun. Awful understanding of video game mechanics. Poor writing which a certain popular franchise is most guilty of. Honestly, why is it so hard to make a good/decent online game-themed anime? I get that they will become obvious limitations due to them being two completely mediums that have different standards, but I feel like the writers could have worked around the limitations and barriers to make a worthwhile product that is fun. Thankfully there were two shows that did all of that on top of them being great show respectively Log Horizon and perhaps the best VRMMORPG-themed anime I’ve encountered, Bofuri. A show that restored my faith in my mostly negative stance on online gaming-focused anime. Right out of the gate one of the first things that blew me away was the spectacular writing that Bofuri has to offer. It may not be the tightest written show out there, but I admire just how clever, well-thought-out, and charming the script was. It’s also helped that the author of Bofuri is a veteran of MMO games, meaning he knows the basic fundamentals of MMOs game design as well MMORPG player mindset which are the reasons for Bofuri’s success. It’s human and reliable to the core which makes Bofuri a wholesome and exciting experience. Maple’s journey of becoming a respectful player was satisfying as we see her transformation from an inverted player that has no clue of how the game works, to a powerful guild master who’s capable of leading a team on top of being quite an expert in the game. Another amazing aspect of Bofuri is the excellent worldbuilding. NewWorld Online the game that our characters play feels so alive, there is so much content and things going on that it makes the show feel more immersive. From the skill tree that would define your playstyle and role. The explorable mysterious locations and dungeons. The game events and the ranking system, I could go on. Bofuri has it all which only enhances the experience. Bofuri’s biggest story strength is how simple, but well-written it is. Not every series has to be complex or deep to qualify as well written, in fact in instances I’ve seen various series that try too hard to be something bigger than it actually is and end up failing. Bofuri knows what hype of show and tone it wants and it sticks with it. There are no sci-fi plot contrivances, no jarring time skips, and no forced rivalries, It’s simply people coming together to experience the game of their love. The characters are the best component of Bofuri. They are nicely written, fun, and memorable. Maple aka Kaede is quite a fascinating female heroine. She’s a bubbly hair head that is filled with fun and innocence. As a competitive player in many games, I adore how honest she is as she simply wants to have fun with her during her friend sessions. I totally respect that, and it’s nice to see a character that plays for fun instead of pure glory. She may be overpowered with her broken skills, but she’s the good type of overpowered that doesn’t get old. As I stated before, I adored Maple’s journey from a newbie to a powerful guild leader and it is mainly due to her character growth. As she encounters new locations and more importantly new people, she ultimately starts to find her place in the game. She even had a life outside of the game which is a nice touch. Sally aka Risa is Kaede’s best friend and what a best friend she was. Compared to Kaede, she’s a passionate video gamer who’s known to win numerous achievements in the game. She’s also known to be very competitive in video games to the point where she will do anything to achieve victory. She’s my favorite character in the show mainly because of her pure respect for her best friend as well as her passionate personality that she has. I like how she understands Kaeda’s gaming preferences of playing the game for fun rather than pure glory, I also like how she does not discriminate against anyone for being low/unskilled players. Usually, these types of players would either get critical or triggered whenever a low/unskilled player beats them. Risa feels a gaming reflection of myself when I’m video games, A powerful skilled player, who’s known to respect their opponents regardless of skill level. Lastly, her personality was such a joy to watch. I tend to like passionate characters and Risa is no different. The rest of the characters are also pretty good, each character got their time to shine in the spotlight and while some were more memorable than others the characters did a nice job supporting the main cast. Visually Bofuri is a nice appealing show to look at. Silver Link tends to up and down with the visuals of their shows. I’m glad to report that Bofuri is one of the better-looking show’s that they have done. Outside of the odd CGI work for Maple’s shield mech thing, Bofuri visually feels alive and immersive. The character’s designs mainly from the Maple Tree guild are digestive and nicely detailed. The background scenery is appealing, filled with some nicely drawn locations. The animation is well-choreographed, smooth, and consistent. The soundtrack is outstanding. I adored the various, upbeat, wholesome, and adventurous tracks that Bofuri had to offer. The insert song Good Night by Rico Sasaki is one of the best and happiest insert songs I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s the type of song that makes you happy no matter how sad and angry you are. Every time that song plays in the show, my mood drastically improves for the better. Both the opening and ending themes are catchy and heartwarming to listen to. Bofuri’s English by Funimation and Crunchyroll is excellent and well-produced. Megan Shipman did a fantastic job voicing the wholesome hair head Kaede. The dub features a lot of strong Funimation talent. You have Caitlin Glass as Iz, Tia Ballard as Kasumi, Brittney Karbowski as Kanade, and the best performance in the dub, Jad Saxton as Risa. Of course, the Seiyuu talent is top-notch if you prefer the original Japanese option. In conclusion, Bofuri is a brilliant and fun show. I can’t believe it took 20 years to reach this point, but Bofuri is the true VRMMORPG anime experience. It may not be as multi-layered as Log Horizon, but it makes up for everything else. A glorious blend of fun, style, and substance, Bofuri perfectly achieved my ultimate wish and it didn’t have to try. If you’re looking for a true VRMMORPG experience that respects its characters and setting, then Bofuri is the show for you.
____This review contains spoilers, you don't want to hurt the spoilers, cause they'll max out their
defense.____
In a world where a girl enters a virtual MMO game, and realizes she has a special skill, she now has a
bunch of defensive attacks to rely on her adventures. This is story of BOFURI, an anime about defense
skills in a virtual MMO.
# ____THE STORY: 10/10 ____
The story begins with Kaede joining a virtual MMO, and deciding to create a character named Maple, but
with her defense attacks, she learns how to use them and gains skills along the way. Alongside her
adventures, she invites her friend, forms a guild, and recruits more members along the way.
The crew also take part in events, most importantly the orb collecting event that is important to the
final 4 episodes of this anime. Watching Maple go from an average player to a leader of Maple Tree can
surprise you at how she has come so far.
In a sea of gauche power fantasies and wish fulfilment, it is easy just to pigeonhole Bofuri as nothing more than that. However, Bofuri easily surpasses this tragically low bar to be a show that is earnest about its subject matter: what it is like to play an MMO. While it still does have a superficial similarity to isekai in that its focus is squarely on the game world with little seen of the characters’ real lives, it is still fundamentally different enough such that it stands outside the genre. Its “power-fantasy” elements are entirely played for laughs and the situational comedy that ensues shows it never aims to give the viewer vicarious gratification through the character's powers. Bofrui does not pretend that it is about high stakes or building up another world that conveniently revolves around its protagonist. Instead, it is a refreshingly earnest show about someone who just wants to have fun in an MMO instead of being a quest to dominate every other person and call it entertainment. The aims of Bofuri are made abundantly clear to the audience from the outset through its feel-good and light-hearted tone. Maple mostly stumbles into a damage-over-time tank build by accident through finding ways to enjoy the game. From its outset, the show signals that this is not a story about gaining superiority over other players or the comedy being just another guise for asserting the protagonist's power. Instead of a journey to be the best, Bofuri tells a tale of immersion into an MMO. Through finding exciting things to do, meeting new friends, forming a guild, farming for materials and experience, and finally, entering guild activities. In a way, it is still a story about another world. However, it is one that remains connected to our real lives instead of pure fantasy that is supposed to supplant reality for the characters. And most of all, it captures that feeling of the honeymoon phase with a new game where you become endless immersed in it’s world and systems. The MMO that Maple and her friends play is best described as a cross between Breath of the Wild, Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft. In many ways it is an unattainably complex MMO where you are rewarded for exploring and there are endless creative ways to combine abilities. Bofuri accordingly plays on and stretches video game logic and game design trends, giving it a sense of actually being played by its characters. Though in reality, a game like this would be too granular and easily exploitable, it does provide a fun and creative sandbox for the characters to interact in. The show assumes audience familiarity with RPGs and uses that to convey a lot of information in short-hand. It does not get bogged down in trying to overexplain things and remains subtle about the game mechanics it's playing on. Any contrivances or inconsistencies in the mechanics can easily be handwaved by the audience in the name of creating compelling scenarios or comedy since this is not a game we need to interact with but rather a narrative being told to us with the author in full control. Beyond a doubt, what demonstrated Bofuri's understanding of the MMO experience was showing characters farming for materials or grinding experience to prepare for events. This alone places it ahead of most other shows claiming to be based around an RPG. Bofuri does not just pay lip service to its MMORPG elements but makes it a relatively central part of how its narrative moves from scenario to scenario. When it comes to the action, characters fight by employing their abilities as tools, using them in creative ways like players would. It is not concerned about breaking the game world's aesthetic by having skills utilised outside their intended or obvious function. In this, Bofuri successfully captures the essence of MMOs with many clever nods throughout the series. Despite it being a relatively basic expectation of any show that is supposed to revolve around a video game, few others can meet this benchmark. This easily pushes Bofuri to above average with only shows like Log Horizon delving deeper into this aspect, and even then, on a more macro conceptual level instead of following the player experience. As a primarily light-hearted comedy series, Bofuri's examination of its MMO setting is already exceptional. It further integrates the video game mechanics by having them be a core part of the comedy. Throughout the series, this is maintained well with fights involving our absurdly strong protagonist never feeling like gratification solely for them. Even moments like Maple being forced to eat monsters early on to damage them are not shown as some kind of edgy or impressive feat as many isekai shows would. Instead, they are played for laughs when she comments on their strange taste and gaining strange abilities from it, emphasising the absurdity of the situation instead of glorifying it. The narrative progresses her power as a result of sheer luck, earnestness, and asking for help. This very much reinforces her character as being in this to have fun and play the game how she wants to. Accordingly, the tone and humour are constantly derived from watching events unfold instead of feeling some misplaced or vicarious feeling of pride in the characters for stomping over their adversaries. Each time we see Maple gain an absurd ability or fight with it, we never have the desire to "be here" as a power-fantasy would attempt to promote. While the depth and meaning of Maple’s over-the-top powers and that of a generic isekai protagonist are comparable in their overall shallowness, Bofuri renders it palatable since it does not use it to pander to the audience. However, the show does suffer towards the end when the further powers that Maple gains become a bit too coincidental and arbitrary. The initial clever twist and plays on relatively standard video game powers steadily drift in its scope to become Maple gaining vast sets of abilities on a whim. While the spectacle of it does remain humorous, much of this is propped up by the tone remaining light-hearted. The sheer vastness of her powers becomes so far removed from the rest of the world that it veers into spectacle for the sake of it instead of it being comedy that plays off the interactions it creates with the environment or other characters. This is particularly the case for the final few episodes of the series that centre on a guild-on-guild clash for an event. The show starts to frame these events rather seriously as a battle for its own sake rather than a means to create more comedic moments. This is a worrying trend since there has not been enough character work to carry these kinds of stakes and drags on for quite some time. If not for Maple being very much her own character with a desire to have fun and make friends, it might even become mind-numbing or off-putting. She never gets ahead in the game because she has superior knowledge or a cynical intelligence about exploiting others or the game. While not particularly deep characterisation by overall standards, it is more than sufficient for a comedy and to make “serious” clashes with other guilds at least palatable. Conversely, the rest of the cast suffers from chronic under-characterisation, being relatively shallow throughout the season. Much of this is down to Bofuri using the lion's share of its run time to create situational comedy in its various fights. This utilizes the game mechanics to be entertaining, but sadly there is only minimal development of their personality beyond surface-level archetypes at best. This limits Bofuri from having its comedic scenarios centre around characters playing off each other or being caused by the characters themselves. Instead, it relies heavily on external prompting like game events or quirky monsters they encounter. While this is all still passable for a comedy that focuses on its setting, it is a distinct limitation in its potential depth going forward since almost no one has any development of things as basic as character motivations. This is frankly a large disappointment since getting into why different characters play an MMO and what their differing goals are would not only be thematically interesting but also allow characters to interact with each other in less generic ways. Sadly, Bofuri seems like it has little interest in covering much of the potential ideas surrounding being an MMO player. There are only short scenes of Maple's real life, and it never delves into how she balances the game with her schoolwork. A major part of playing an MMO is maintaining the relationships created, particularly in a guild. Almost no time was dedicated to this which would have solidified Bofuri as a show about playing an MMO and given it a distinct identity. Perhaps too much of the show was spent on the more immediately entertaining fights than developing any character-driven humour by exploring the guild's friction or antics. Yet, it feels a little unfair to heavily penalise Bofuri for this since it never signals itself to be particularly concerned with the social side of MMOs. Yet it cannot help but feel like massive missed potential that would have easily made the show stand out. It would have justified its premise since most other shows only use video game aesthetics as a crutch when they should be telling a conventional fantasy story. Ultimately, Bofuri is still more of a love letter to MMOs instead of merely using them as a vehicle for another story. While it is tempting to give it a higher rating due to its strengths, it is also essential to recognise much of its impressiveness is relative to the tragically low bar set by most comparable shows. Bofuri still skirts close to being solely entertaining as a sheer spectacle instead of something that explores its premise or that is driven by its characters. With such shallow characterisation despite the obvious opportunities it had, it cannot help but feel drawn out towards the end as we only see the characters fight together but not bond together. Bofuri feels aptly like a tenuous 7 out of 10 given how earnestly and effectively it is at tackling playing an MMO. However, it is hard to rate it higher since most of its characters rely on a surface-level charm to carry the show and its current trajectory seems to be leaning towards relying too heavily on spectacle.