Hangyakusei Million Arthur

Recommendation: A very fun action comedy. Its type of humor isn't going to work for everyone, but I thought it was hilarious personally. Easily one of the best gacha adaptations I've seen so far. Review covers both seasons.

Positives:

+ It's really funny. It's hard to sell this without explaining jokes, which is never funny, but I found it hilarious and absolutely ridiculous in every way. Episodes are often about fighting an Arthur that has, for example, a sniper rifle that turns people into radishes, or a woman that embarrasses her enemies with a giant paintbrush that creates BL fan art of them. ... It's very creative and the episodes never get boring even though they're fairly formulaic because there are so many wacky ideas bouncing around.

+ Fun characters. Each episode tends to put together 2 or 3 of the 6 main characters (along with their fairies) and just let them go off on their own and bounce off each other in funny ways. Everyone gets their moments, but my personal favorites were Tekken, the dumbass Gym Bro that punches everything, and Dancho, the dumbass captain that no one respects. Everyone in this show is at least a little bit of a dumbass and that's part of what makes it so fun.

+ Surprisingly well-animated for a gacha adaptation. It's not perfect and the seams start to show at times, especially towards the end of season 2, but the action scenes are pretty cool and exciting. They made good use of effects to make things really pop and there are few, if any, CGI shortcuts that I noticed

+ Strong voice acting. It's pretty much an all star lineup, and even the fairies are stacked with VA talent.

+ Self-deprecating/parody humor is funny. Sometimes it can be really annoying if a series is too meta, but Million Arthur hits the right balance. Every once in a while, you'll get jokes like a character getting amnesia and saying "It's too confusing" when they try to explain the premise of the series to her, or someone reacting to the introduction of a new character with "12 people is already too much", and it's just subtle enough that it hits in the right way.

Negatives:

- To say that the worldbuilding is bad would be to wrongly imply that there was any effort put in at all. The setting is supposedly medieval Britain, but in reality it's whatever the hell they want it to be, and they will never even attempt to justify it. Why are there functional security cameras in medieval Britain? Or Japanese-style hot springs? Why is the South Britain soccer team exclusively made up of people with Japanese names? Why are there fucking laser gun fights in a fantasy setting? The answer to all of these questions is "just go with it". If you're the kind of person that is bothered by plot holes, this series will drive you to insanity.

- This sort of lack of attention to detail applies across the board. Plot elements like "Invaders" are introduced as though they're going to be a major part of the story, and then immediately dropped and never explained. The rival Arthur Hunter group, Hebrides, is just sort of introduced randomly and then they never do anything but make occasional cameos. There's not really any reason for them to exist. The whole plotting and planning of this series is very sloppy overall. In the end, this is a pretty mild criticism though since the show itself doesn't really care about the plot and treats it exclusively as a launching point for goofy villain of the week episodes.

- There are 12 main characters (each of the 6 main protagonists has their own fairy) and the show just throws you straight into the deep end with all of them, again with no explanation of anything. Eventually you get to know them all pretty well, and it's very rare for all 12 to features in the same episode (they usually find a way to sideline all but 4-6 characters), but it can be a bit overwhelming at first.

- Dancho can be a bit too weird at times and the show probably deserves an ecchi label for her antics. Making the show's token pervert be the main character and leader of the group is kind of a questionable decision.

2018 has come and is near at end but with no short anime to tide weirdos like me by. Indeed, we’ve been through an entire year without a single season of Teekyuu and the drought can be felt throughout. The likes of hyper wacky fast paced comedy doesn’t seem to have much of a pull as it once did many moons ago...

Fear not however! For an adequate replacement exists! For you see, at the very end of every Million Arthur episode is 2 nutrition filled minutes of the secret season 5 of Ai Mai Mii (season 4 being Square Enix’s ONA series from 2015), providing ... you and your family with well needed stimulants to keep your brain running through tough winters.

Head over to your local cat themed restaurant today and get your copy of Jakusansei Million Arthur today!

(The actual anime's pretty good too. Like a weaker Last Period, but still enjoyable nonetheless. Ah what a great year for mobage adaptations~)

From the year 2018 and ongoing, there will be more split-cour seasons to lessen the burden of new series coming into play, and that's the cause of this popular smartphone game that is Million Arthur. And I have a nitpick: With how this initial season already played its cards, I wouldn't be surprised if Season 2 in Spring 2019 will be more of the same.

Hangyakusei Million Arthur may look like the generic game adaptation that so many others have tried to imitate, and isn't good, but as it stands out, it's the typical wash-rinse-repeat formula of fighting some evildoers with their weapons called Excaliburs (which ... gives them powers), and the 6-man team (Dancho, Renkin, Kakka, Rurou, Yamaneko and Tekken) must traverse through all periods of time to exterminate a million people for their mission to be accomplished.

As par with its premise, it's really nothing special but it does good on its own. Characters are what it is (none from the game itself), and the amount of action is good and balanced enough. Still, nothing to trifle about.

Based off on Square Enix's popular RPG, there shouldn't be a surprise that J.C.Staff could pull this off with minimal effort. Great choice of art and animations that follow strictly from the game itself (or rendition), and honestly, it doesn't look too bad. Same goes to the very generic music too, nothing that really captures the most wanted attention, but it fits and as far as I'm concerned, also a non-issue here.

But...I'm not ashamed to say that if you want to watch this, I'd much suggest you wait until almost the end of Spring 2019 to binge-watch this split-cour from start to end (like around Episode 22/23 then start from Episode 1 way back in this season). Not to say that I enjoyed this anime, but there isn't really a whole lot to say about it.