Absolute Duo

Individuals who can materialize weapons from their soul are called "Blazers," and they attend Kouryou Academy High School in order to harness their abilities. Each student is required to partner with another, in the hopes that one day, the pair can attain the power of Absolute Duo.

Tooru Kokonoe hopes to attend this academy in order to gain power after his sister and friends were slain by a mysterious man. However, at the opening ceremony, he is forced to duel against the person sitting next to him, with the loser being expelled. As Tooru prepares to give the match his all, it is not a weapon that manifests from his soul, but a shield, an irregularity which catches the attention of a foreign student named Julie Sigtuna.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sigtuna, Julie Main

Yamamoto, Nozomi Japanese

Bristol, Lilith Main

Yamazaki, Haruka Japanese

Kokonoe, Tooru Main

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Hotaka, Miyabi Main

Imamura, Ayaka Japanese

Tachibana, Tomoe Main

Suwa, Ayaka Japanese

Tsukimi, Rito Supporting

Tamura, Yukari Japanese

Tsukumo, Sakuya Supporting

Horie, Yui Japanese

Nagakura, Imari Supporting

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Tatsuno, Ryuutarou Supporting

Kawahara, Yoshihisa Japanese

Torasaki, Aoi Supporting

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Kaminaga, Keisuke Producer

Itou, Makoto Producer

Oonuki, Kazuo Producer

Reviews

Jul 2, 2015

SirRabbit

Recommended

Well.. It's Harem and Ecchi genres, whenever it involves both kind of categories together, i wouldn't expect too much about the story and character development, but a good fun, enjoyment and laughter. Mainly, as you know, it's more of a fan service type of anime.

I wouldn't recommend anyone who is looking for a fantastic story and a good character development for this anime. The story progression is quite how you would have guessed as the episodes progress, yet i think it is rather interesting of how the characters are able to use their unique ability.

For anyone who enjoys a fairly good artwork with ecchi and ... involves harem in it, i can say that you would enjoy it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 10, 2015

torrapamii

Mixed Feelings

Absolute Duo is like a raisin cookie, everyone thinks it's a chocolate chip cookie and it will be good, until you eat it and realize it's not what you expected, unless you actually like raisin cookies.

Story: 5/10

The story is somewhat unoriginal, mainly because it's those types of anime where you are embedded a certain type of weapon that you carry on for the rest of your life, having the ability to summon it anytime you want. The only twist is, you're in a duo. Now, every time you're in a duo it's likely that your partner is someone of the same sex, right? Well in ... this anime the partner is a girl, and they both have to live in the same room. That calls for a shit-load of accidental boob-grabbing in the middle of the night. Not only is that there, but it's a harem. It's not needed for this kind of action anime, mainly because it's set on a duo, not a triplet or a quadruplet. For the action part of it, it's actually somewhat decent mainly because I enjoy those types of anime where the main character is a 'special/chosen/OP AS FUCK' type of character.

Art: 9/10

The art is very smooth and nice, just by looking at the cover photo. The colors are very bright and easily catch your eyes and the animation is smooth. The details in the eye are quite new to me, but hey new stuff means good stuff right?

Sound: 7/10

The OST is very modern and fits each scene nicely. My favorite in the sound section is the OP. I first heard it while playing a rhythm game (osu! kek) and instantly to me, it was catchy and stuck to my brain. The ED was the same with the OP, (I also heard it on osu! wtf) but not as good. It's based on apple tea, which is pretty weird for an ED.

Character: 7/10

Kokonoe Tooru, is a high-school boy who has a dark past. Tooru may look very weak, but as the anime progresses, he does get much more powerful. He's a very kind person who has the resolve to protect Julie and his other friends. He is an irregular.

Julie Sigtuna (heh tuna), is a high-school girl who also has somewhat of a dark past. She is introduced as a very powerful character and as the anime progresses, she gets much more powerful. She's very attached to Tooru and possibly has feelings for him. She is a very quiet girl and likes apple tea.

Together, they both make a duo.

Bristol, Lillith is girl who graduated and came all the way to Japan to meet the irregular, who is Tooru. She was introduced as a small antagonist but as the anime progresses, she develops feelings to the point where she even mentions of being his future wife. She is a prideful girl who would not let anyone stand above her.

Hotaka Miyabi is a high-school girl who is introduced a very shy character. She is introduced as weak and a not-very-athletic character, but as the anime progresses, she starts to also develop feelings for Tooru. A very kind girl who wants to be with Tooru.

Tachibana Tomoe is a high-school girl who is introduced as a strong character and is skilled at martial arts. She is the type of character who has never thought of being in love.

Miyabi and Tomoe are both a duo.

Enjoyment: 8/10

Although the story wasn't original, I still enjoyed it mainly because it was made in 2015 and I thought it was going to be something new.

Overall: 6/10

The anime to me was very rushed, because other things have not been explained, like the history of Exceeds, why this or why that. I doubt that there will be a season 2, because of the low ratings it got. It didn't live up to my expectations though. Would I re-watch this anime? Maybe, because I might have missed a lot of stuff.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 24, 2015

ZephSilver

Not Recommended

Have you ever had trouble spotting a bottom-of-the-barrel title? Finding the product of studio algorithm, where the intent is solely that of a product and nothing more? Shows with as much integrity as a used car salesman with a tacky poker-dot tie, or as much validity as McDonald's promoting "health" through thinly cut apple slices and a bottle of processed milk? Hogwash that pretends to have artistic merit? And if so, would you like to sift through bottom-tier anime before so much as letting it occupy time on your media device? If you've answered yes to this, here are some quick tips to help you ... out:

▸Is there a typical school setting? ☑
▸Is the protagonist a pussy magnet? ☑
▸Is there a beach or hot spring episode? ☑
▸Is there a love interest story that goes nowhere? ☑
▸Is there unnecessary fanservice in the cover photo? ☑
▸Is the lead easily flustered by anything involving females? ☑
▸Does it go from tensionless fights to school rom-com at the drop of a hat? ☑
▸Is there some kind of a pussy beta-male protagonist with a "unique"/hax superpower? ☑
▸Is there a lot of instances where your lead is viewed as a pervert due to stupid misunderstandings? ☑
▸Is there at least one obligatory scene where this meta-male either walks in on a girl changing or accidentally gropes them? ☑

If you answered "yes" to most, if not, all of those, then congrats! You've just found yourself a mouth-breather tier anime title. Either that or you've accidentally watched this piece of garbage, Absolute Duo. Absolute Duo does absolutely nothing new. It's the same cookie-cutter assembly-line product regurgitated yearly from the anime industry. With a few slight tweaks here and there, and a fresh coat of paint to mask the stench of unoriginality, these titles are excreted out by the dozen on constant demand. Absolute Duo is just another statistic.

Why bother writing a compelling narrative when excessive info-dumps and monologuing could do the trick? Why bother to make something with a modicum of artistic expression when you would just flash a few pantsu to win over mouth-breathers? Why bother trying when the audience being pandered to don't even demand anything more? It's hard not to be sardonic about titles like these, especially when the problem stems far deeper than simply "the studio's fault." And in the case of Duo, what we have here is a symptom of audience complacency. Here's a world that exists byways of audience participation to do all the legwork for it. The show doesn't try because it's effectively harvested a viewership that doesn't expect it to.

The world of Absolute Duo is that of a dystopian future. A detail that's rendered entirely pointless given that it all takes place in a high school setting, with the purpose of even addressing the nature of the world's construct only coming to play to allow these teens the ability to wield supernatural weaponry—no, that's not a joke, the show is really that lazy. And as is the tradition for these kinds of stories, we're given hints of a manipulative government faction. We're given hints at a budding school romance. We're given hints that the powers in the show have something more behind its mechanics than what's being told. We're given hints at a troubled backstory for our protagonist. We're given A LOT of hints but that's all, as this is yet another "read the manga" kind of title, where its entire purpose of existing hints towards being an advertisement for the source material. An ugly-looking, drably produced advertisement at that.

The color placement is flat. Its environment evenly lit, like the backlight of a computer monitor or the glow of a tracing table. This is an anime that can't be bothered with the trivial task of having a personality. It would much rather slouch about. Cardboard cutout characters designed with no discernable feature from its usual counterparts. Personalities equally as stock-piled, their behavior as lackluster as the color choices used to bring them to life. Not a single characteristic that expresses passion. Just a heartless product pumped out by the iron presses of a studio machine looking to make a quick profit with as little effort as possible.

It's hard to find anything here worth mentioning, as the only thing interesting about Duo is just how much it manages to fail. All you simply have to do is look at all the genres it's supposedly made up of and see it misses the mark with all of them:

▸It doesn't work as a school title since the school is just a backdrop and was never truly utilized.
▸It doesn't work as a romance since nothing ever happens between the main love interest and the protagonist.
▸It doesn't work as an action title since the fight sequences were barely animated with any sort of energy or dynamics.
▸It doesn't work as a supernatural show since none of the power mechanics or lore gets fleshed out beyond face value.
▸It doesn't work as a harem since the protagonist is a typical beta-male that freezes up at the thought of a woman's touch.
▸It doesn't work as an ecchi title since it's not titillating, made worse when titles like Queen's Blade exists with amazing "plot."

This is a title that quite literally fails at everything it attempts to cover, and as such, I can't see how this could be anything less than a waste of 4 hours of your life.

Overall: Duo/10

Absolute Duo is Absolute Garbage. It's a cheaply made cash-grab that serves no other purpose than selling the source material it's adapted from. A quick glimpse into the ugly side of the entertainment industry, showing just how far a studio is willing to compromise its principals to make a quick buck.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	Poll: Absolute Duo Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Feb 1, 2015	115 replies	by LordCrueltyV »» 7 hours ago
	Poll: Absolute Duo Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jan 25, 2015	145 replies	by LordCrueltyV »» 11 hours ago
	Poll: Absolute Duo Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) bastek66 - Jan 4, 2015	284 replies	by Dark__Abysse »» Sep 24, 4:10 PM
	Poll: Absolute Duo Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Mar 22, 2015	220 replies	by Baka_God »» Sep 11, 7:33 PM
	Poll: Absolute Duo Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Mar 15, 2015	99 replies	by Baka_God »» Sep 11, 6:52 PM

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