Absolute Duo

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.

Anime cliches have been around for a good many years now. The characters troupes that we become accustomed to, certain kinds of scenes, as well as genres have all become rather well known in the anime community. It is with this that finding anything really out of the ordinary becomes a somewhat hard task. And then we have Absolute Duo, a show that touches on both sides of the argument.

Story (6.44/10): In the world of Absolute Duo, there is a kind of people known as Exceeds, people who are able to harness the power of their soul to form weapons ... known as blazes, ranging from all forms of pre-gun weapons from swords, to daggers, bows, lances, and even a snakeblade. It is here where we follow the story of Kokonoe Tor, a boy who goes to attend Koryo Academy, a place where they train Exceeds so that one day, they can reach the highest level of power, Absolute Duo.

From a story standpoint, Absolute Duo does show promising development. A lot of anime that involve a lot of sci-fi/fantasy elements do have that little spark that make them different from the others, thus expressing the uniqueness of a show that I feel is necessary to earn any viewers. With the idea of the Duo System (which is basically a battle partnership) that this series has, as well as the idea of weapons made from the soul, I felt like Absolute Duo did have quite a bit to promise in terms of story idea, and it did, to a certain degree.

What I felt was lacking a lot about the show is more or less the amount of detail that was being expressed at a given time. Throughout the show, the story hints at these past events that our main two protagonists have that drive them to becoming a soul weapon wielding badasses. Rather than fleshing that out, the show puts that in the backseat of the show and progresses along with a plot that really at times, wasn't all that exciting. A major gripe I have about the show in regards to the backstory, is just how forced it feels, thus creating the "vengeance" cliche, as I call it. Basically, this means that the ONLY reason our characters really bother in becoming an Exceed in the first place, is to hunt down and seek vengeance on the person who slaughtered someone near and dear to them without ANY indication over who that person is or what their purpose was. To me, it hurts the story more than anything because an idea like this is guaranteed to never be touched on again, and that really is a shame since a lot of anime share this cliche, and none of them follow through.

Another fault I find is the fact that the show really doesn't try to be different. While the story idea may be interesting enough, the actual scenes, aren't. What this means is that the show falls back on cliches whenever it's trying to tell a story. In any given bit of plot progression the show relies on a reused scene idea used hundreds of times in order to explain what is going on. Having a conversation during a battle is fine, but saying that your only reason to fight is to get more powerful and power is the only thing that matters is dumb. Having a girl make a full 180 on her character after the MC beats her? Seen it, used it, copyrighted it. The impact from this mostly equates to making the series just lackluster in presentation.

Overall though, Absolute Duo's story was more disappointing than anything. While I didn't expect very much from the people who made Infinite Stratos, I felt like Absolute Duo could've turned into something just a little bit more. The series simply just solves the problems that the series created during the spur of the moment, and not any of the underlying problems like the revenge that Tor is so sought after.

Overview:
+ Interesting story idea
- Lackluster presentation
- Original problems not solved
- Very cliched storytelling

Characters (6.42/10): Characters, similar to story, follow a similar path to the story, riddled with cliche anime troupes everywhere, and that one interesting character that sorta turns your head.

Up first, Kokonoe Tor. Or, as everyone else likes to say: Kokonoe-kun, Tor, KOKONOE TOR!, Danna-sama, Toru, etc. As expected by someone who is played by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Tor is the harem lead character of the series, being nice to everyone, spouting the "I will protect everyone" speech, and overall being the affection of several girls' desires. However, unlike the other characters of the series, Tor's Blaze is a shield. (Unlike a certain swordsman played by the same seiyuu.) Aside from that one difference, Tor doesn't really play off as any real unique character. Because he plays the chivalry card, there really isn't much you can say about him other than the fact that he wants to protect people, resulting in the fact that he barely changes in the series. But at the very least, you won't forget his name! Cause it's not like they mention his name every 3 minutes or anything like that, maybe consecutive times for the antagonist.

And then we have Sigtuna Julie, our main female protagonist. As the main female protagonist of the series, Julie is the Duo of Tor, aka his battle partner and roommate. (Try and imagine all the non-H things they did. Whatever you're thinking, the show probably did it.) Similar to Tor, Julie bears the vengeance ideal, seeking revenge on the person that killed her father using two swords that allow her to spin and slice through whatever the hell she wants. While Julie herself isn't a bad character, she does come off a little weak in any actual development, similar to Tor. There really isn't enough emphasis on either one of them, rather putting them both together to make them like a whole with each of them as a half for the other. Because of this, she, like her Duo, doesn't stand up by themselves as a proper character, and the way I see it, isn't smart to have characters that rely on each other on personality.

And then we have the other characters for the series, such as the rest of the harem girls, Miyabi, Tomoe, and my personal favorite, Lilith Bristol, who wields a freaking rifle. In addition, we also Tora, Tatsu, Imari, and a couple other characters making up the side cast. Aside from Lilith, the rest of the student characters that bear any importance suffer a similar problem to the mascot characters of the show, which is not being able to stand up on their own. A lot of the time, you see the characters fall back on their partner for support and conversation, which for a series that has this for its main plot point, does make a lot of sense. However, the way it's done makes it so that no one character can really make him/herself stand on their own two feet. They are restricted to getting their minimal amount of character growth from other characters and individually, they feel hollow and incomplete. (Also, I kinda hate the bunny teacher. I know that there's a fandom devoted to her, but I honestly can't take characters like her, what with that stupid bing-bong crap and the dual personality.)

Overall, the characters of Absolute Duo weren't really shining examples of what could've been. I didn't expect much actual character development from a show such as this, but I wanted something more than just troupes and character reliance. No one really stood out as unique, (except Usa-sensei, sadly.) and the series did fall in that regard. Antagonists in Absolute Duo are also lackluster as well, so don't expect anything deep or meaningful with their evil plots. (Like seriously, who the hell obsesses THAT much over a guy whose only real weapon is a goddamn shield?)

Overview:
+/- Anime character troupes. (Helps ease the characters into the character's heads, not so much in terms of significant development.)
- Character reliance for personality
- Stereotypical and overused villain troupe

Art and Sound (7.21/10): Absolute Duo was produced by 8-bit, the same studio that made La Fruit de Grisaia, Avengelion Ewol, and the show featuring out favorite harem MC, Infinite Stratos. (Fucking Ichika.) Likewise, Absolute Duo is done in a similar quality to those shows. The art for the series does look rather aesthetically pleasing with some pretty nice designs for the Blazes. The art for the series is standard for the current age of anime, so there's really not much to say beyond that.

There are however, some...bugs in the artwork. At times, the art quality both dips and raises up a little bit, making the show waver in appearances from one scene to the next. In addition to the lack of artistic regularity, 8-bit also pulled up its IS schematics and used a bit of the wonderful... wonderful CGI. More than anything, it just looks awkward, and glaringly so.

On the music side of things, Absolute Duo hosts a somewhat decent soundtrack. The most memorable of the bunch being its opening, Absolute Soul, which is a song that I have grown to love. The opening has a very unique sound and rhythm to it that makes it feel actually quite memorable. Aside from the kickass opening that you could probably listen to for hours on end, the rest of the soundtrack is kind of lacking as nothing else really stands out.

Overview:
+ Decent art
+ Kickass opening
- Art wavers in quality a lot
- rest of the soundtrack isn't as memorable

Personal Enjoyment (7.00/10): While I may have been hacking and slashing away at this show for all its worth throughout this entire review, I can't honestly say that this show isn't completely bad. While unwanted and tired cliches are prominent and plentiful throughout this series, the show itself isn't completely unwatchable. Of course, the show does literally shoot its characters down with guns of all sorts, but that's not what we're worried about at the moment.

Did I like this show?

From an entertainment standpoint, the show gets good marks. Absolute Duo isn't as far as I can see a show that should be taken with the thought of being wowed. I went into this show thinking that there were going to be some disappointing elements, and I turned out to be right. That being said, the idea of the soul weapons "Blazes" and some of the fights do actually make up slightly for the mountain full of troupes and cliches that make up a lot of the show's screentime.

What didn't I like about this show?

What I didn't like was simply just how cliched it was. (Yes, yes. I am aware that me writing cliched a bunch is turning into a cliche.) A lot of the show could've been handled in a way that would've made for a more interesting storyline and/or view. The show goes from one of its more higher points into one that comes from a troupe you've probably seen several times before, and it's this where I find the majority of the problems for the series, aside from, you know, giving us a read the manga ending cause neither one of the main characters have completed their self-appointed task.

Would I recommend it?

Absolute Duo in my opinion serves more like a bit of fluff entertainment more than anything. The show wasn't executed in a way that I felt was worth more than just a show you could watch in your downtime, as reused story points plague its entire 12 episode run with old, tired harem troupes. (In addition, 5 of the girls in this series basically have balloons sticking out of their chest. I'll leave the rest to you.) Absolute Duo could've potentially become more than it already was, it had a good bit of groundwork it could've used. Sadly though, it relied too much on established anime harem scenes, troupes, and characters that I think hurt the show in the long run. If you want a harem sci-fi show, Absolute Duo does fit the bill.

Overall Score: 6.45/10

Absolute Duo, based on a decently received light novel series. It enters the competition of generic battle harems of spring 2015 - and clearly doesnt make the cut. The absolute unoriginality of the characters, the linear and terribly explained story and terrible pacing and conversations make watching all the twelve episodes a clear waste of time.

Story: 3/10
High school setting; Powerful MC who cant love with mysterious past; all types of girls that fall in love with him for dumb reasons; a linear antagonist who breaks from his shell and gets defeated by MC with nakama power. Uhm, where have I seen this before? Well, everywhere. ... While the first few episodes definitely arent that bad and actually manage to make the usual harem tropes enjoyable, at latest after the 7th episode it gets just terrible. Even if the story and background sucked, we wouldn't know - there's barely even anything explained. I dont even know what the Absolute Duo is in the end...

Art: 8/10
Credit due where its due - the art style is good. While not as good as shows like Hyouka, it lives up to today's standards. Especially the animations of the rebel group and the AMAZING dance scene in the opening are worth being called good. Nothing special though.

Sound: 8/10
Same story as the art. Voices are well chosen - especially Tsukimi-sensei - and the background music is decent. I loved both OP and ED.

Character: 3/10
Normally I dont dislike the typical dere-characters, but this is going overboard. I havent hated, no, DESPISED a single character ever - until I met Miyabi. Listening to hear and seeing what she does made me cringe every single time and regret watching it. Julie had great potential but got smashed with her demon side. MC is decent, I've seen far worse.

Enjoyment: 5/10
I'm sure you'd expect a way lower rating here. Well, the first episodes definitely werent bad at all, noone could've predicted the following shitshow in the last episodes. Pointless conversations and repetitive subjects clearly destroy the positive aspects that were built up in the earlier part of the series.

Overall: 5/10
While not being completely terrible, if you pay a closer look and actually expected anything from the story, then this will be a waste of time. This show made everything wrong that could've been done wrong while writing the script and planning the plot. Dont watch this.

I hope that this doesnt get a second season and if it does, I hope it manages to develop a deeper plot and turn away from the extremely boring and even annoying characters.

Absolute duo.
now... so many people were very excited for this anime it looked very good and it was good the first episode will leave you excited for more and more the characters are fairly made and very enjoyable .....now to the bad side of the anime .... after few episodes the story starts to fall apart and the anime gets a little boring and in some episodes the animation is poor ... now to the bottom line if you wanna waste some time and watch something that will leave you confused then this is the right anime for the job..... and many people said ... that it was disappointing and it kinda was but give it a try you might enjoy it ....
The main genres are : Action (rarely seen) Harem ( of course there will be harem ) Ecchi ( duh ?!) and supernatural stuff ( nothing you haven't seen before)
you'll like this if you liked : Trinity seven- blade dance

Absolute Duo was my second-favorite anime this winter. However, I recognize its flaws.

Story: 3
The story and characters were the shallowest I'd seen since Sword Art Online, but the series had some redeeming qualities. The story was simply too generic: A school dedicated to magic ended up being attacked for some reason. Worse, the characters were too idiotic to even question the term "Absolute Duo" mentioned by the headmaster, and then their cup sizes ranging from "A" to "F" were used as fanservice devices for the entirety of episode 8. As if that weren't enough, the series was a harem for five whole episodes. The good ... in the story, however, is that after it is ruined by the fanservice, it redeems itself by creating an interesting villain similar to the protagonist in one way, and then finishing it off with good action scenes. What it needed most was an explanation of the protagonist's backstory. At least its open ending made room for a potential second season.

Characters: 3
Each character had potential, but none developed. Worse was the fact that they were "harem" archetypes. Luckily, they were put in a good setting for their characteristics. To see harem characters in a magical school is like sticking a piece of chocolate in curry.
Tor - bland main character, but a nice guy.
Julie - really quiet and kinda cold, but a great partner.
Lilith - my favorite alongside their teacher; badass and assertive.
Miyabi - large-breasted harem crush, but brave enough to confess it.
Tachibana - shallow, but a great friend.
Tora - extremely shallow.
Tatsu - shallowest character I've ever seen in an anime.
Tsukimi-sensei - The most interesting of the bunch, but really just boobs and a split personality.

Art: 8
In several scenes, the CG was well-placed, and in the entire series, the art was good, but the animation and characters could have been more interesting, as they seemed just as generic as their personalities.
The opening and ending animations are vibrant and colorful, though!

Sound: 9 for sub, 7 for dub
Both versions had a really good opening and three endings that are worth buying off of a music store. The opening was catchy and upbeat like Sora Iro Days from Gurren Lagann, and the endings were respectively beautiful, happy, and... awesome. The voice acting and cast were great choices, considering their roles, but in the English version, they weren't as great. Imari sounded too old, and Tora (a student) was the teacher from Baka & Test.
It was a great touch to put the first ending in the end of the series, to symbolize the return to the beginning plot.

Enjoyment: 6
Some people hated it, fewer loved it, and in the middle there are the ones who found it to be okay. I am in the third party, as I found it to be very good in some areas, excluding the middle five episodes. It was good, and then it was terrible, but then, it became the second-most underrated series I'd seen. If you're into watching a series with romantic subtext and able to look past shallow themes, it's gonna be okay.

Overall: 6
The series is worth watching once, but not worth a rewatch for some people. I'd personally rewatch it any day, but a third of it was terrible, so it was several gigabytes short of a hard-drive. It's still okay. I recommend the novels, or the manga instead, as the characters are a lot smarter.

The verdict:
Watch it, but you might not like it.
I recommend Soul Eater and Highschool of the Dead.

I started watching the show and expecting it to be the Wapanese Animu Industry's attempt at being as cool as Marvel (since the Avengers sequel is coming out). What I've gotten is more of the same. Notably in these few places:

* Tooru; the shounen lead who, despite his powers, still doesn't know how to handle women. "Captain (America combined with) Thor?" Really?

* Basically, nobody in Wapan likes America; as shown with the enemy of the show who goes by the name of "K."

I'll admit that this animu wasn't as brutal towards Tooru as, say, Trinity Seven was towards it's shounen lead. It's still depressing to ... watch because said shounen lead, after defeating the "opponent of the arc" with the help of Julie et al, always manages to get hospitalized. Like there's no such thing as "defeating an opponent unscathed" ohwaitaminute... Kantai Collection's Fubuki and friends.

The bonus panty shots couldn't save the show. The mid-tier animation and the bland (yet symphonic) background music wasn't helping much either.

Ultimately, this show (and it's hidden middle finger to America) is one of the reasons why companies like FUNi should NEVER license a show before / during airing. I don't care how big you are. If a show sucks [at the end], you're gonna be the owner of that "suck."

Absolute Duo, an anime based on a Light Novel series may look like a generic "battle harem school" anime with a decent looking guy, and they have some super powers.... Well, thats exactly what it was, sadly. Lets get onto the review:

Story: 5/10
Though the concept is always interesting and has some promise, there was literally no originality to this story, typical past event that scars the MC for life, and he wants to get revenge. Along the way he meets friends and slowly gathers his harem, meanwhile evil organizations are plotting eeeeviiiillll things. The pacing was also pretty bad, almost nothing of note happening ... for multiple episodes at a time, only really getting down to the story ~7 or 8 episodes in, and even then i wasn't sure what was going on.

Art: 8/10
The art/animation was actually very good, probably the only thing that kept me going with the series, everything just looked so good to watch.

Sound: 7/10
Everything seemed solid when it came to the sound, voices all fit the characters, music went with the mood, though it seemed like I'd heard VERY similar music in other anime, might be the composer. I absolutely loved the opening song though, same singer that sang NGNL opening!

Characters: 6/10
The characters were what you would typically find in your "Battle harem school" anime, the male MC that wants revenge from a past tragedy, the cute girl that he wants to protect, the shy girl that wants to be strong, etc. I personally loved the bunny teacher, she brought something refreshing to the show.

Enjoyment: 4/10
I enjoyed all of the battle scenes, they were all on point, but when the episode came around every week, I found myself thinking "Oh.. Absolute Duo is on.. Eh... Maybe they will have a good fight this episode" It wasn't a very enjoyable series outside of the battles basically.

Overall: 6/10
Absolute Duo is your typical "battle harem school" anime, as I stated a few times already, it was pretty disappointing. I would not recommend this anime to anyone, unless you love this type of anime.

It's good. No, wait, before you kill me hear me out!
(WARNING: Huge Rant! Also possibly clashing opinions)
(Also, there are some spoilers, but they're rather vague so it shouldn't matter)


The reason it's good is because it's what i'd call a Junk Food Anime. It's good because it's bad. For example, HoTD was so bad (imo) that I loved it. Same thing for badly made movies. They have a certain charm to it. Now that i've explained that, let's try to actually make this a review.


The main character, Genericface McEdgelord(Legitimately can't remember his name, because he was just that generic), has a power, same as everyone else, ... right? NOPE, he has a special power, along with a... dark past? No no no no NO.


I'm gonna stop you right there, Absolutely Terrible. Making the main character have an edgy past works, but only if you actually go into details and explain it.


Nisekoi (Unrelated to the Action Genre, but feel free to watch it, it's decent) had a MC with a edgy backstory, but they did it well because they actually explained it within a small amount of episodes.


(Small Spoiler, vague as all heck though so it should be fine. Skip this text block if you don't want any spoilers!)
II
II
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I'm 10 episodes in to this and i'm still not even sure if that chick was his sister, lover, girlfriend, mother, or whatever. Not only that, but in the small amounts of his past i've seen, they don't even really show the murderer's face enough for you to comprehend it. I understand there's supposed to be a certain level of mystery, but that's just stupid. If it's his memory, he'd remember that face clearly.


Now then, let's talk about the female MC...
Uh, let's see, where is she...
Hmm....
Oh, whoops, my bad. I mistook her for a piece of cardboard because her voice actor has one tone throughout the entire anime. The voice acting is decent, but I mean, come on.


Sometimes characters with only one or two tones work well (EX: Shiro from No Game No Life, or in the one tone case, Rei from Evangelion) because their character actually acts like that. Julie has a bunch of facial expressions, but only one actual tone and it throws off all the scenes she's in (which is a decent amount, by the way)


Really, there isn't much to say about the actual story. Genericface McEdgeLord is on a mission to... protect those he loves? I'm honestly pretty unclear on the story.


Romance? I have no clue what you're talking about, all I see is fanservice while the MC is conveniently nearby. The "Romance" Between Edgelord and Julie the Cardboard Robot is basically non-existent. Don't get me wrong, I WANT to believe there's romance, but it's just not happening.

The real question is, did I enjoy it?
----------------------------------------------
Well, yes actually. It was bad, but also good. I feel like if they had made the characters less generic and the plot a bit thicker, this could've been a really good anime, up there with (IMO again, keep in mind that I don't watch too much anime, so this is just my opinion) Kill La Kill, and Toradora!(For the Romance parts, anyways...)



Story: 3 (Poor) Not much to say here, it was pretty bad. (Keep in mind I only got 10 episodes in, never finished it)


Sound: 8 (Very good.) The voice actors were actually pretty decent(Subbed, at least), and the sounds they used were high quality, so they got away with an 8.


Character: 4 (Mediocre) They definitely could've been better, as they were extremely generic. Although, they didn't add a mega-tsundere from what I can remember, so at least they didn't go that far into GenericLand.


Enjoyment: 9 (Great) While yes, it was extremely bad, that added to the charm of it all. Would I recommend it for serious anime fans? No, of course not. Would I recommend it for people who enjoy Junk Food Animes? Absolutely!


OVERALL!: 6! (Fair) But wait, I hear you saying, your tears of anger dripping on to your favorite Manga. But it was so bad, how could you give it a six! Well, my Anime Loving comrade, like I said, it was so bad that it was good. That's the same reason I gave HoTD a decently high rating.



Would I recommend this? Short answer, no. If you're serious enough about animes to read reviews before watching it, chances are you want to watch a GOOD anime. So, instead i'm going to recommend you this!



(Honestly not sure if recommending things is allowed in reviews, so if it isn't i'll take this down per request by a mod, administrator, or otherwise)




You came here for action? Try Black Lagoon. The story is a bit ehhh but the action is amazing.

You came here for comedy? Well, I actually don't HAVE a recommendation for this, since all anime comedy is basically the same... (in my opinion! Please don't pelt me with hatemail!)

You came here for romance? Well, if you're into huge cliche'd romance, try Nisekoi. If you dislike Cliche's, then try Toradora! It still has cliche's, but it's a lot less.

You came here to write a review saying this anime is bad? Welcome to the club, please join the line behind the other 5000 people, including me, doing so.

Absolute Duo has the name states it's about forming THE absolute duo. I had high hopes for this series for the this season.. They had my favorite genres which are romance, action and school life. I gave this series a 8/10 at the beginning but right up to episode 5 or 6 i just couldn't take it seriously.

Story: 6/10... I thought the story was pretty original since i don't remember any anime with that sort of plot. So I had high hopes for it. But everything just did not run smoothly they mainly focused on the harem aspect of the show with every girl wanting ... the main male character as a duo at first I actually liked it, but as each episode went by I just found it down right annoying. It does have a little drama though.

Art: 8/10..The art is beautiful.The colours are vibrant and they stand out. this makes it enjoyable to watch. characters are well drawn and animation is up to standards for this day and age.

Sound: 9/10... I have to say, I am in love with the opening theme song , which is called Absolute Soul by Konomi Suzuki; One of my favorite singers for anime Op.. I can't really comment on the ending songs since I didn't care enough to listen.

Characters: 6/10... The characters are likeable. I really like Tor and Julie best. I also like Tomoe since she is like best girl friend to Tor. Julie reminds me of that girl from the anime Sakurasou. She has an innocent and honest personality she is like a little kitten which I love.

Enjoyment: 6/10.. It is a fairly good anime it isn't bad but it isn't good either. I watch it for the sake of seeing Julie and Tor together. Oh and the sensei. I love her 2 personalities. she reminds me of me :)

Overall: 6/10... I would recommend this to the ones who just want to past time and see girls fawn over the main male character.

(SPOILER FREE REVIEW)
Absolute duo was a complete disappointment for me. It didn't impress me at all, but we need to give it a fair trial. This anime turned out to be pretty mediocre, but it clearly isn't a 2/10.

Story:
It started off pretty promising but then suddenly took a turn for the worst. The two main characters have a weird father and daughter bond, but that is all there is to it. It seems they lost interest in the romance aspect between the two main characters after about 3 episodes. It just broke down into this generic harem anime with a boring cast of characters.

Characters and ... Character Development:
The characters were interesting at first and had potential, but the producers had something else in mind. For the first few episodes i enjoyed the interaction between Tooru (Main hero) and Julie (Main heroine). After a little while they added more characters but they were so bland. A blonde spoilt girl who gets everything she wants. A weak and clumsy character who just suddenly falls in love with the hero. Then the most interesting addition, the black haired tomboy (by interesting i mean, "kind of acceptable"). Julie seemed to actually have a slightly interesting back story, but then, they revealed it. It was a generic tale of revenge. Boring!

Art and Music:
This is one of the only reasons why i gave this anime an okay score. The OP sounds pretty good and they don't have many quiet moments in the anime. There is always some interesting track playing in the background. The art style was also nice and polished, there isn't much to say about this. It was pretty good in the technical aspect.

Overall:
The anime has pretty good music. That is all i can say about the positives. In my eyes, the ending is PARAMOUNT. The ending for this anime was pretty horrible. No plot twists, no satisfying ending, no NOTHING. It was just one of those, "and they lived happily ever after" endings. The last episode made no sense, and since this is a spoiler free review i can't go to details on it. You will realise when you see it (if you ever decide to watch this anime).

I give it a 6/10, go listen to it's opening song Absolute soul, that is the best this anime has to offer.

Sorry if this wasn't a really high quality review, it's my first one, hope you enjoyed reading it!

Story(5):
Absolute duo is a very generic and cliche type of story that takes place in some what a high school with some action as well as a harem of girls. Basically, it's nothing outstanding nor interesting, the pacing and stuffs is okay, but because it's so generic and the development is not deep at all, I find it hard to enjoy this show. of course for audience who don't mind just watching girls with decent assets fighting and having fun, then they may find it interesting, but to me, it's became some what a chore to watch this anime as I always finish the series ... that I started. It's not that bad, really nothing interesting.

Art (7):
The rendering is possibly one of the best aspect of this show, things are bright and vibrant, easy to see, even for night scenes, it's easy to see what's going on. However, I really don't like the fact that they had quite a bit of CGI used in the show. The buildings and some of the villains in armour are all easily identified as CGI, it just didn't blend in with the characters and the movements are all very mechanical and artificial. Animation wise, generic kind of animation, quite a few derps in the details here and there but it's ok for a budget anime. Fight scenes on the other hand has too many pauses to even make it intense though the addition of perspective makes it look more pleasant.

Sound(7):
Sound wise, the opening and ending are quite memorable and the voices of the female cast are all good, they leave me with a good impression, however the guys are too generic, everyone kind of overuse Kirito's voice actor as their main cast.

Overall(5):
I didn't really enjoy the series in general since it's not a very meaningful show. Things are too cliche and I'm a guy who doesn't really care much about looking at girls once the plot is weak. I'm not too sure what other reviews had said about this series but mediocre is the best word to describe this show

I had a lot of high hopes for this anime when it first started. But by the end of it, I was mostly just disappointed.

A few PROS hooked me from the start:

1.) I liked the opening and ending theme songs.
2.) It had a good cast of voice actors.
3.) The animation was fairly good with adequate effects and nice artwork.
4.) I also enjoyed the general concept of the story...

A school that teaches a duo system for combat, weapons that are manifestations of the soul, a main character whose soul manifests as a shield to protect rather than a weapon to attack with.
...
That all seemed fairly interesting.

5.) To top off, the cast of characters was pretty good to start out with...

Julie is adorable, bunny sensei provides comedic relief, you have a brain and brawn duo, and another duo of typical moe characters for fan service and harem aspects. The problem is that this cast never matures into anything else.

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So here's my view of the CONS:

1.) The main characters get very little character development, if any.

Julie and Tor are given back stories that are never fully explained nor used to advance the story. Their back stories also never receive any sort of conclusion.

Romance is foreshadowed at the start of the show but never advanced. I started to question whether it was ever canon to begin with or if I was just imagining things. Tor and Julie don't change much as a duo throughout the course of the show aside from their growing urge to protect one another. The show even reverts them to more of a father-daughter relationship than anything else.

The secondary characters get more plot development than the main characters too. Bunny Sensei goes from trying to murder the students to protecting them, Miyabi struggles to deal with her romantic feelings, and Lilith matures and learns to make friends.

2.) The secondary characters were not utilized to their full potential.

The little goth principal seemed promising at first. It made it seem like not all of the cards were on the table yet. As the show goes on however, nothing is gained from her character. She seems utterly powerless yet incredibly important for no reason. The show never gives her a back story or a shining moment. At first she reminded be of the "Witch of the Void" (Natsuki Minamiya) from "Strike the Blood" but that comparison ended at the visual level.

The moe duo of Tomoe and Miyabi seemed to only exist to create a harem. I was hoping their character designs were going to be used in a more clever way. It's honestly fine to use tropes and cliches as long as the creators are self aware of this and can poke fun at themselves for it. Use them ironically, try not to have them take themselves seriously, or at least have some sort of intelligent humor behind their incorporation. Saekano, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, No Game No Life, Outbreak Company, and various others are good examples of this tactic.

Brains and Brawn never really do anything important. They don't receive any character development and just seem to be there.

3.) The battle scenes begin to feel repetitive as all of the characters are inexplicably unkillable and the same villain is reused throughout the entire show.

No matter how much a character is injured, they just magically survive for no reason. There's nothing more annoying than when a show overplays the near death experience. I was even annoyed with how Aldnoah.Zero ended season 1 with what appeared to be 4 character deaths just to have every single one of them be just fine in season 2. But unlike Aldnoah.Zero, Absolute Duo seems to do this every single episode, does not retain any of the injuries as permanent, and makes no effort to explain away the damage taken by the characters. The biggest problem with this is that because no one ever dies, the same villain is fought over and over again in the show. At least if they actually fully defeated the villain there would be some sort of forced plot development by having new opponents appear.

4.) Not much plot development.

Honestly the story seems propped up by the introduction of new characters and occasional scene changes. At the end of the show no one gets revenge, there is no romantic progression, the power feud between organizations isn't settled, "Absolute Duo" is never really achieved or explained, the loli goth principal never unveils the master plan, no one graduates, and we still have no idea why the government is even bothering to train exceeds. The story has an interesting setting but lacks any sort of purpose.

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Overall this show seemed like someone had a good idea for a setting and character cast but then never bothered to develop it at all. It just seems like someone wrote an awesome proposal for a series and then sold it off to be turned into filler.

Another big reason this anime may feel so disappointing to me is that all of its PROS are presented right at the start with all of the CONS showing up one after another until the end of the show. There are other shows with just as many PROS and CONS but because they are mixed together and go back and forth, the viewers tend to feel more like they are enduring the CONS to continue experiencing the PROS. Absolute Duo's PROS are all front loaded though so it's all downhill after you get hooked at the beginning.

Absolute Duo... I thought it was ok.

Absolute Duo is ok at best. I felt that this whole show could have been better; it had so much potential to be something cool and exciting, which it did for a while. I was going through this show blind & watching it in English dub on Youtube.

STORY: School, Teenage boys and girls, archaic weapons that no one uses anymore unless your a pro LARPer. As the story progressed onward, I began to enjoy it just a little bit; however, towards the end, it dropped all my excitement. The dubbing did not help either, which was my mistake to ... begin with.

ART: I don't really know what to say about the art. I guess it was alright.

SOUND: The english dub to this was much worse than I expected, during fights. During the rest of the episodes, it was a little better. The male protagonist, Tooru, was probably the only voice that fit. Everyone else was either hit or miss. At times, it's pretty cringe worthy. Especially the ecchi, it just feels like they're reading off a script, especially one character.

CHARACTER: The only character I liked was Tooru, he seemed to be the only one focused on what was going on, even though he could have turned this Absolute Duo to an Absolute Threesome. Julie was tolerable, so was Tomoe. Mami came back with her gun, bigger boobs and a British accent. Everyone else felt useless or burnt out, even some of their voice actors felt bored of their roles halfway through the series. Miyabi was the worst of the worst, I know she was supposed to be this shy character, but the voice put me off and it sounded like she's a virgin until like the last few episodes. The only other character I liked was Kevin, I disliked him, and I enjoyed that. I think that as villains go for any movie, you're supposed to hate them because of their bad deeds; he does it right because of how annoying he is.

ENJOYMENT: Despite its flaws, I enjoyed the show. Its one of those shows where it's really bad, but you enjoy it because its bad.

OVERALL: It had a potential to be different from all the other shows that have: School, Teenagers, Fantasy fighting, and a protagonist that won't give them the Sweet Hawaiian Sauce. Maybe the ecchi could have been "presented" better, or maybe remove the misunderstanding and just do it in a tent. I dunno, I just wish it was better. Personally, I think this is a show you can speed through, talk about how bad it is, then make funny jokes about it.

It was a "Alright" anime i guess. The only thing i DIDN'T like was the lack of character development, it was the typical main guy getting his ass kicked everysingle time then out of nowhere. Beats the badguy in one hit. Rinse and repeat basically. As for the story. I couldn't really say there was much of one since it literally never followed anything on their pasts or what they actually had to do, it showed flashbacks but either than that nothing throughout the whole story involving anything about their pasts or any "Special" characters. So if you're all about the story, i can't recommend ... this but if you're in it for the harem then go ahead there's plenty.

I haven't finished watching the series as I write this but I don't feel that my opinions will change much for the last 3 episodes that I haven't watched.

The anime is mediocre IMO. You have the standard guy "I'll protect everyone" and is kind of weak and embarrassed of himself. Since the anime has a crutch with the "Duo" system, its kind of interesting but his partner aka Julie the loli "Ja!" girl is kind of meh. She is more of a child or a pet to him than a proper partner. She barely has a mind of her own IMO.

The story is kind of ... bleak. Basically its mechs vs magic weapons. Not a bad concept, but the execution isn't that good.

The anime is both boring and hilarious, because 80% of the girls don't really like the male lead because of love but because of how broken they are inside. It feels like they are like his pets rather than girls that like a guy.

I can't say I recommend this, but if you're bored and don't have anime to watch this might entertain you for the time.

The Usual Suspects this is not, but if you want some average anime with the usual cliches this has it. Many have complained about this, its a Harem Anime that was knocked out by a formula, probably written in Commodore 64 Basic and only requiring a 5 minute load time.

The Male lead is typical ie treats most people ok and that makes the chicks like him. Hmm sounds cliche yes, but i recall high school i was friends with every female and they all at least liked me because I treated them like a human being not like an alien with sex organs. No ... girlfriend of course but I was very thick and naive.

This type of anime is something teenage boys should watch, to learn the basics. want people to like you? be likeable.

THis is anime is likeable, its about as deep as a puddle from a three second sunshower, and as predictable as a ball, a steep incline and gravity. I remember that entertaining my baby sister for hours, of course she could barely sit up at the time but simple things can still be entertaining, dogs and peanut butter, kittens and balls of string, boobs, three things i can watch all day with a smile on my face.

You want deep watch psycho pass, you want gritty Black Lagoon, you want 20 minutes of chill out and not think watch this. you want substance go elsewhere.

Absolute duo is an interesting take on a very old story. It has decent art, using a variety of colors and environments to portray the story. However, this is only slightly above average, and is still probably the best thing about this anime. While it has a certain charm to it and maintains a slight level of comedy, the characters and plot fall short. The main cast is bland and predictable, and some characters only seem to have value as another member of the harem. The main character himself is terribly dry and has such a cliche mindset, and mindlessly acts to "protect ... his friends". This is very predictable, repetitive, and makes me generally loath the character. Still, it was an entertaining story to witness. The characters would probably satisfy most ecchi/harem audiences despite the lack of actual character depth. Some minor characters do give this anime some life, but overall, the main cast falls short.

5/10 really average. A fine example of all the fighting school harem anime cliches. It's not good nor bad, just average, if you are not used to seeing anime you may think it's OK but if you have been watching anime for a long time, at this rate you may be already tired of this mass produced animes with the exact same characters, the exact same plot and the exact same jokes. Only recommended if you are new to anime or you have nothing better to watch... or if you like this kind of stuff (if they keep producing this things it's because there are ... people who like them after all).

(Dubbed version)

Story (4/10):

The story began with great potential, it had glimpses of back story for the main characters, and what seemed like the beginning of a great plot. However it veered away from this and absolute duo became the stereotypical predictable harem/ecchi anime which lacked a good plot and good ending.

Art (6/10):

Not much to say here, the art itself was okay, nothing exceptional but it wasn't bad.

... Sound (5/10):

Sound is basically the same story as the art, it was okay, nothing exceptional but it wasn't bad. Absolute Duo had 1 opening song and 3 different songs for the ending.

Character (4/10):

At the beginning each character especially the MC's had great potential to be interesting characters with hidden secrets and different pasts, which I assumed would be explored as the story and plot developed but this was not the case (it did explore to a certain degree) as the story itself was rushed there wasn't really enough time for each character to develop, so by the end of the last episode each character was the same as they were when they first appeared with just more power.


Specific genre overview:

As an ecchi/harem anime it wasn't anything special it was just the standard.

As and action anime it did okay it had its fair share of fight scenes, (with good fluidity) and power developments.

As a supernatural anime I thought it did quite poorly, mainly because of the story however... I say this because I think if the story had more chance to develop it could of been quite interesting, the concept behind the abilities of the characters (blazes) but as the story fell short so did the supernatural element of the anime.

Enjoyment (6/10):

As my expectations were high going into this anime, I was quite disappointed when I was watching it, however it wasn't completely terrible, and it had some redeeming qualities, that kept me watching till then end.

Overall (5/10):

I had high hopes going into the anime so when it fell short it fell really short of my expectations. If your going to watch this anime I would lower your initial expectations, as the anime wasn't unbearable, but I would only watch this anime as pass time if there was nothing else you have to watch or other options.

I enjoy those typical harem animes. I know that alot of people despise this type of anime but i enjoyed it (So far). Worth watching.

The only problem is the story, It is very badly described and its almost impossible to know what A character's backstory is. Its hard to write a review without spoilers so bear with me. I believe that this anime wouldve been alot better if they focused more on backstory and such, But in the end its a 12 episode anime. and sometimes its not easy to create a backstory for 12 episodes.

So i say that this anime is for people ... who are casual watchers.

Spoiler :

Its overly sexualised ;) Enjoy fellow walruses.