Master of Epic: The Animation Age

Comedy is such a broad genre. It can be slapstick, it can be subtle, it can be dark, it can be most anything you want it to. As it stands, this form of comedy, which I will call sketch comedy from now on, is something I have had little interaction with so far (in the anime world that is). And as such, it dawns on me that this review will be exceedingly hard... or maybe exceedingly simple depending on your point of view. This is because, Master of Epic... or sketch comedies in general, only have one real requirement... Comedy. Characters are there, but don't ... really need much personality. They usually have one simple trait for the sketch they are involved in. And plot is basically non existent. So its hard to rate something like this (if I'm trying to be as un-biased as possible), when comedy is purely based on the viewer in question. But I will try my best:

Mast of Epic: The Animation Age is an anime based on a Japanese MMORPG called... well Master of Epic. The game hasn't been released outside of Japan so don't bother looking for it. This anime was made really to promote the game itself, and so is quite good in explaining small facets of the game itself. At the beginning of every episode a small explanation is given of a certain game trait, and the rest of the episode tends to be kind of themed around that first point. Also after every skit, a little "the more you know" style factoid will pop up and explain a little something from the previous skit. As an advertisement agent, this thing is actually quite effective... But considering you probably have no way of getting the game, thats not really a big point is it... How does the humor hold up eh? Wellll...

Master of Epic does quite well in the humor department. Although it is based on one particular MMORPG, it does a very good job of satirizing many of the small idiosyncrasies common to most RPG's. Some examples include going AFK, being resurrected from death, random monster spawn, combat and non-combat skills etc etc. It has some other jokes too, but really you will probably want to be somewhat of an RPG fan... or at least understand RPGs to find a lot of this funny. Still, as a fan myself, I found the humor to be quite simple but effective.

Ummmm and that's it really. The music isn't that great, but the art is pretty good for a little known show like this. Its sad to see that so few people have managed to find this little gem, because its really quite good. As a sketch comedy, I honestly can find nothing wrong with it. Characters are simple but memorable enough, the comedy is funny, there are 7 or 8 repeating sketches that you can enjoy every time they come back. All in all, if you like RPGs, and like this kind of un-connected random comedy, then you'll definitely like Master of Epic.

To be honest, I thoroughly enjoyed this series, and I personally watched the hell out of it a few times already, but this show is utter garbage. The characters are flat one dimensional, even when they are portraying different archetypes of people you encounter in games.

The show is set as skits, and they are very nonsensical, and they draw on the nonsense to go about getting you to laugh, I didn't laugh much at the skits and their premises much, however, they did have one segment i enjoyed a lot and those where wenever the Waragetcha 5 showed up.

The art... honestly is pretty bland, ... definitely felt like a low budget anime, but then again when i did check out the game the anime was promoting... the art style matched the game well.

Music was not really worth mentioning as it wasn't really memorable... maybe except the intro to the waragetcha 5 only because it is such a self poking song.

All in all, the humor and the premise of this show caters a really narrow number of people, and i can't say i know people who could enjoy this show... unless they are into bad gags and some weird slapstick comedy. The show doesn't take itself seriously, almost as if it knows it's bad, which is probably what drew me into watching the show... having a feeling that the staff did the show just for the giggles.