D-Frag!

Feeling a little tired of late? Having trouble keeping thoughts organized? Well perhaps you need to D-Frag, or so the title seems to suggest. This show is a Haganai/Seitokai no Ichizon type clone with overly vivid personalities and a rather unique combination of attempted coolness and comedic cuteness. Basically, a supposed wannabe delinquent, with Sonic the Hedgehog sharp hair, named Kenji is coerced into joining a game development club. Except that they don't really develop games. Rather, they just lounge around and occasionally play some games, and occasionally get into trouble with other groups.

If you're looking for a very lighthearted slice of life with some ... not-so-realistic personalities, this may be a good choice. I say maybe because you'll either love or hate the overall feeling of the show. Personally for me, the attempted coolness came across as immature and rather dull. Others have shown a very different opinion though so you might want to give the first episode a shot and see if you enjoy it.

Animation:
The animation is fair overall with a vivid color scheme and a lot of over-dramatization. Backgrounds are fairly average and likewise for shading. The characters are pretty unique in styling though I felt that facial animations were a bit lackluster as characters didn't seem to respond much to external stimuli.

I guess there is a bit of action though most of it is extremely light and more of the comical nature. Fighting by splashing water or dirt on each other? Kind of cheesy if you ask me. There is a slight amount of ecchi though more like suggestive references, they probably tried to incorporate something like Seitokai Yakuindomo but didn't really succeed very well. Otherwise you just have bouncy from Buchou and a bit of cross-dressing.

Sound:
The Engrish OP is pretty representative of the show, taking a very shonen-based cool and combining it with cute-ish female voices. The song is pretty discordant with little melodic value. The ED is a bit more melodic but still has the overly-playful vibe that just feels much more fitting for an elementary school. The BGM is pretty light but serves its purpose. There are a lot of effects, due to the comic nature of a lot of events.

There are a lot of veteran VAs here but I feel like they over-cast for a lot of the roles. Shizuka Itou is the standout as Buchou but most of the other roles just didn't have enough characterization to merit the strong VAs. Especially painful were Kana Hanazawa and Kana Ueda's roles; what's the point if their character can't act cute and tsundere, respectively?

Story:
This is frankly a glorified slice of life show that is based heavily on character-interactions, so I wouldn't expect much in terms of a central plot. If there is anything holding the story together, it would be the repeating pattern of someone or some group trying to get the fake gaming club closed. The oddball group works together to somehow try and overcome impossible odds. I guess it helps that the student council chair, who you never see actually doing student council chair-like stuff, is in the club. Some episodes are episodic while others clump up to form mini-arcs. There is a bit of a climax near the end but nothing mind-blowing.

The more important thing to note here is the over-the-top nature of the characters and antics in this show. If you're just watching for the comedic aspect, then this is all fine. However, if you apply an ounce of thought into it, be prepared for very little to make sense. Besides the numerous plot and character holes, the school apparently has multiple infamous gangs and groups running around and causing messes, with relatively little discipline being dished out. A lot of behaviors and events are just so out of the ordinary that the merest thought of plausibility is cast aside.

Character:
Granted that this show isn't going for realism, I still find it annoying that the characters were so two-dimensional. Yes, the characters have interesting traits, but these feel unshakable in an unnatural way. A good example is Roka, a seemingly quiet and chibi figure who apparently possesses the comic ability to "conquer" others by putting bags over people's heads. Yes, she's interesting in a curious way but you never get the sense that she's remotely relatable. The sadistic student council chair, Chitose, acts cool all the time but just once you'd like to see her out of that annoying facade- don't bother waiting. The only characters that really have any merit in my mind are Buchou, who harbors some feelings for Kenji, and Kenji himself. Everyone else, and mind you this includes a huge amount of secondary characters, are just fluff. While it's true that the character interactions had a lot of character (no pun intended), it was painfully lacking in depth.

Value:
It's probably pretty clear by now that I didn't have a very pleasant experience with this show. Maybe I've outgrown this genre, but I still feel there are much better works out there that provide much more entertainment value without having to resort to meaningless gimmicks and outlandish, unrealistic personality traits. While the show has some comedic value and a drop of relationship value, it is spread out too thinly to make much of a positive impact. If you agree in opinion with my other reviews in the genre, I'd pass on this one.

I just wasted 48 or so hours burning through D-Frag as I was duped into thinking this anime was "it," humor, slice-of-life (sure, you just took a chunk, not a slice, of my life) and overall a funny series but no, D-Frag tries ever so hard to be funny and relevant that it felt drier than the perserved prunes my mom keeps in the pantry, dude, let's start with that Kenji Kazama's guy, his constant shouting is grating to the ears (yes, I know he is supposed to be that guy from Gintama, Shinpachi but...). If you are hell-bent on not joining the club, LEAVE ... and end the series at the 1st episode and spare us all the misery.

Second, what exactly are they trying to focus on here? I am aware this is about a club's survival not to get shut down or was it about trying hard to be funny but only succeeding in making me snort (in sheer disapproval)? Look, if you want a decent slice-of-life, humorous anime go for K-On, you will get more in the bag than with this one, lastly, where can I get a refund for the time wasted on this? Let me know.

Pros:

+ Decent animation.
+ Made me snort only once out of its 12 eps of sheer garbage.

Cons:

- Nonsensical cast of characters. (I don't wanna go in-depth).
- Tries too hard to be humorous but failed miserably.
- Overdramatic monologue and speech for the most inane of reasons.
- STOP.

spoilers:
My reviews almost never has spoilers but I always get in trouble for it. So I am just going to say what this anime feels to me, how I enjoy it, how the characters are and how it could haven been improve without spoilers Ill try not to.

This anime feels like your typical harem anime there is no tag but this is a harem. The girls fall in love with the male MC which seem to be on sight. To give credit to the anime it does say the MC is good looking(i don't know if he is ... it's a drawing), so the girls might like him for that shallow reason which makes more sense than other harem. If you seen Gamers!, Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo, Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta and Ben-To you seen this before they do nothing new they reused old jokes you heard in other anime, the same boob grab, boob joke, girl getting nose bleed over a guy in a dress it been done some have done it better.

My enjoyment of this anime was up then down. The first 1-4 episodes, felt like a tired old harem but they had new jokes made me laugh. Then they started building up the romance/harem in the latter episodes if you can tell this anime has no romance or harem tag because they can't do that right, then it turns to a lame fighting anime that is why i compare it Ben-To. So I stop enjoy it and started hating it.

The characters did not make it any better, the tired old oblivious male MC made me mad not because he is oblivious because he is the character that SHOUT OUT the peculiarity of the situation they get in. Nothing is more queer than him being oblivious to all the girls liking him and all the other guys getting punch, kick, spit on and be emasculated. He does a lot of shouting I guess the author ran out of jokes thought that would be funny, it wasn't but if he was more like Bakugou that make would him better and funnier. The girls character are generic, they like the mc, there is a short girl, tall girl, girl with big boobs and people want to grab her boobs. In the first episode he has two male delinquent friends which I wish the stay around because then it would add a new element to the story(speaking of Kono Oto Tomare! better anime the delinquent friends also join the koto club).

How could it be better in my opinion, have the other delinquents join the club too. It's rarely been done "Kono Oto Tomare!" did it and they have a higher rating, can't name another anime that did it too, people want to see something new. Have the MC not be oblivious or be like Bokugo and wants to fight everyone even the girls and girls would still like him would be alarming but funny(someone will steal my idea). Or at least have a clear direction to where you wanted to go and what this show was going to be. If it was going to be a love story be one or was it going to be a harem go full out and be one. This anime has a game and school tag but no way this is a game anime the games are in the background and they do more fist fight than play a games(reason i compare this to Ben-to), there is a school in the anime but no way it is a anime about school life. Thank you for reading it's ok if you want to leave a nasty reply in my profile if you disagree. LOL