New Game!

I hate to simply reiterate what others have been saying, but no other phrase fits this anime more perfectly than "cute girls doing cute things." Anime like New Game are usually classified as moe, a genre that is one of the most common out there, with multiple titles airing every anime season. While enjoyed by some, others have become exasperated over seeing what is essentially the same basic thing continuous done over and over again in these shows without much difference between them. So what did New Game's author do to add a little flair of originality to his work? He changed the setting.

That's ... right, instead of taking place in a high school, New Game takes place in the frightening world of adults, specifically at a game development facility. Now we all know that this hardly changes anything, just the motivation and goals of the characters. Oh, wait, since the girls are in their twenties (besides eighteen year old protagonist Aoba, who looks like an absolutely adorable thirteen year old) it does mean that the girls in this moe anime can legally get drunk, which they do often.

Now at this point it may seem like I'm disappointed with this anime because it isn't "different enough." However that is not the case. I didn't watch this anime to find something "new" and "innovative," and you shouldn't either. Instead, come in to this anime expecting a bunch of lighthearted entertainment. New Game does a great job of being what it was designed to be, and that's a show filled with adorable characters, well executed comedy, and fun situations.

Plot: 5/10

New Game follows protagonist Aoba as she experiences the benefits as well as hardships of life after school. She is very determined to succeed and enters work directly after high school (I'd personally wait until I received a college degree, but each to his own). After receiving a position at her dream job, Aoba assimilates herself into the work force. She is initially nervous about meeting her co-workers, but is relieved to find that they are all very kind, though incredibly quirky, people, who also happen to be all young attractive females. I'd love to have a work environment just like that when I eventually get a job. And by that I mean having friendly co-workers. I'm definitely not referring to the "quirky and attractive girls" bit. Essentially the anime follows the daily lives of Aoba and her friends as they work to produce video games. While this anime has many adorable moments, no significant plot details can be found, hence my mediocre scoring of the plot section. Of course, some "elitist" anime watchers may nod their heads in disgust at the simplicity of the story presented in this anime, and I agree that it is quite basic. But once again, I'll iterate that for shows like New Game, one shouldn't consider the plot to be as important in scoring as it is for more advanced anime such as Fate/Zero and Steins;Gate. Instead, simply sit back, relax, and enjoy the cuteness of this show.

Art and Animation: 9.5/10

The gorgeous visuals of New Game are the reason why I started watching it in the first place. The very beginning of the first episode was animated beautifully, and the quality of the animation remained strong throughout the entirety of the anime. The characters are designed with many vibrant colors that allow them to stand out against the fastidiously animated scenery. The girls are drawn in a lovely manor, and I particularly appreciate the detail on the eyes. When Aoba is occasionally shown walking outdoors while surrounded by cherry blossoms, the entire scene looks absolutely breathtaking due to the high quality of the art. The only reason why I can't give this category a perfect score is because there aren't many backgrounds in this show, with the most reoccurring one being the somewhat simplistically designed office room where the characters work at. While it doesn't look bad, the office room is rather plain, especially when compared to the outdoor scenery.

Sound: 5/10

New Game has a group of seiyuu who manage to make their characters sound as adorable as possible, especially Yuuki Takada, the voice actress of Aoba, who is only in her second anime role. Also the more experienced Yoko Hikasa, who voices Kou Yagami, does a great job as well. The soundtrack provides a lighthearted feel to the anime and the opening and ending themes, while musically basic, have a cute and upbeat vibe. The sound is all around fine, but nothing particularly stands out.

Characters: 6.5/10

It is quite apparent that many of the characters seem to possess the same qualities as characters from similar shows. However one must understand that there must be a reason that the same personalities are constantly reused (and I vehemently refuse to believe that it's just lazy writing). It's probably because these traits just work the best for the characters in these settings. Each girl in New Game has her own little quirks that are fun and cute to watch, and it just works. While they may not be anything special on their own, the girls in this show manage to keep the viewer entertained throughout the course of the anime, and I'd call that a success.

Entertainment: 6/10

This was a fun show to watch. I smiled and sometimes even let out a little chuckle during a few of the scenes. Each episode was filled with the adorable cast getting themselves into funny and cute situations as they proceed with their daily lives. Each episode is structured in a similar way, so, depending on the individual, watching this show can get boring as it progresses. However I personally feel like each episode provided fresh comedic material and new and interesting situations, so I remained entertained throughout the majority of the anime.

Overall: 6/10

By now you should realize that New Game and shows like it don't have any deep and significant plot elements and don't boast characters with ample portions of development and depth. However that's not their point. They're made to provide tons of lighthearted comedy and entertainment and showcase adorable and lovable characters doing, well, cute things. New Game is a nice show all around, and while it did not bring anything "awesome" or "epic" to the table, it was still enjoyable to watch.

New Game is a unique title that holds its' own individuality among other " let's create-a_____" type shows.

Story 6.5/10

New game is supposed to be about an 18 or 19 year old girl Aoba Suzukaze, whom after graduating High-School joins the game company Eaglejump... You know what, you can just read all this in the synopsis…

Getting the most difficult things out the way early, the major re-occurring flaw in this title is consistent story-telling and maintaining the plot. Rather than focusing on the main plot which is completing the game Fairies Story 3 (I think that’s' the title.) The plot is completely detoured by somewhat ... unnecessary and intrusive sub plots or as the young people say “filler.” Some may argue that this is a bad thing however; I believe that a majority of the filler shown are quite tolerable for the most part. This is because if the show stuck with a straight-forward approach, the entire series would be fast paced, avoid paying attention to details and more than likely uninteresting. Creativity and freedom to explore outside the office, the characters workplace, is shown to make the show more about "cute girls, doing cute things" while making video games or just having free time. It would not sell very well with serious, fast paced dialogue and actions. The slow pacing allows viewers the opportunity to not only see but, butt-cheeks, understand who the characters in the story are.

The story introduces an all-female cast, that had always left the possibility of yuri or "girl on girl romance" lurking. This "unsurprisingly" caught my interest. It made me want to see what direction the story would go in if they actually allowed romance between the characters. Fan service featured through-out the story appeared to be forced. I do not know any developer or person that has to strip into their underwear in order to be comfortable enough to work. I understand that there are people in reality that like to strip down to fight, or to "play" video games for money but in a workplace environment that isn't porn or modeling hell even sports, I doubt it.
The camera moving onto areas of the ladies bodies like their asses, panties, boobies, etc. were in bad taste too. I am unsure whether or not the fan-service is displayed in the manga this way. However, I would hope they go for a more naturally approach next time.

Overall the story department could have used some patching up (Ha, get it? patching more game puns are coming) especially in the presentation and story-telling. They needed to just stick with "one" or at the very least "two" plots at a time and leave it at that. I felt that it was just all over the place to the point where a majority of it just came off as filler... bad filler. After a few episodes you're most likely going to realize that New Games' main plot isn't the most important thing. It's' constantly side-tracked, and inconsistent. I ranked it a 6.5 out of 10 from IGN for the effort.

Characters 7/10

The characters introduced in New Game have one-sided personalities and act upon common.. or typical anime archetypes. Archetypes like the gundere girl, dandere girl, moe girls, etc. Now character growth or development does exist in this title. Each girl learns something new about each other which makes them grow closer together, like a work-place family should. The girls all share a common goal to bond with and I like seeing them interact with each other, they really show of that teamwork! I would rank the characters a 7.0 out of 10, featuring Dante from Devil may cry. These video game references, are they working?

Art & Animation 7/10

Art and animation was pretty solid. The use of 3D models, digital art work and software like Autodesk's maya were present, although altered as to avoid copy-right. With anime similar to New Game, it’s not uncommon to see little references to real programs. Having the characters use programs on real world tablets like Wacoms’ and computers show the viewers all the effort and struggle developers... well most developers go through in order to create & finish a project. Character designs were pretty nice for the majority of the series. As mentioned earlier, the characters are designed to be “cute.” Their “cuteness” or appeal rather is the bait used to hook and reel you in. The background settings are pretty nice to look at. The office is the most appealing in particular. It is full of work related objects, personal items that the characters collect etc. All objects animated are neat, vibrant, and standout a bit.

Sound 5/10
The soundtrack was “okay” at best. This is a show that I wouldn’t consider even downloading a single track from. I was not impressed with the background music, opening title song, outro song, etc. The music composed just seems to play in the background and doesn’t add any sort of “enhancement” or “ambiances” to the show. With titles like these, music really isn’t the strong-point though. This was rather upsetting too because Hajime Hyakkoku (worked on K-ON and Kokkuri-san) is a great composer. Voice actors were pretty good. I think that they all did an amazing job with their perspective roles. Lastly, I think that each actor’s voices matched their characters personalities perfectly. Overall I think the sound could’ve been better however, music wasn’t the shows focal point.

Enjoyment -/-
I’ll say this; the show wasn’t the best thing out this season. Compared to the other shows I was watching, new game didn’t offer as much enjoyment. Yeah its’ cute however, that’s about the only thing it has going for it. The story was weak; the plot was a mess and the events happening lacked any excitement. As mentioned earlier New Game is literally just “Cute girls, doing cute things.” There is always “this” sort of show every season. Almost a majority of them are the same thing with different circumstances. I cannot say that I didn’t enjoy New Game however; I can say that it wasn’t as good as I would’ve liked it to be so I left enjoyment blank at the moment. I highly doubt I'll ever come back to edit this review.

Overall,

The show is a mess! The plot is all over the place, characters are the only main attraction and astonishingly, Composer Hajime Hyakkoku didn’t put forth his best effort composing songs. I simply was not impressed with a majority of the features that New Game had to offer. While I wanted to give this show an overall rating of 7/10 for introducing cute and friendly character appeal along with fantastic environments & animation, I simply cannot deny the fact that bad story-telling coupled with messy a messy story & plot were a huge fault. I gave the show a 6/10 "Fair" because I believe that the show could've had more to offer. They stuck with a route that people are more familiar with and for the most part it worked... and I think that is fair enough.

TL;DR: New Game; Old Hat.

Relaxing. Uplifting. Familiar. Pleasant. If a few words could sum up Cute Girl shows, these four would surely be included. Rather than wanting to see true to life struggles, the audience seeks the comfot of watching an ensemble of high school girls, in a class or club, as they endeavour to make friends, create lasting memories & generally try to get through the “best years of their lives” with determination, cheerful enthusiasm &, if we're lucky, maybe something insightful.

New Game takes the Cute Girl formula & transplants it with barely an alteration into a workplace setting. Aoba, newly graduated & debating ... what to do next, takes a gamble &, instead of going to university with her friend Hotaru, opts to take a starting position at EagleJump, developer of Fairies Story, her favourite JRPG series. For reasons explained by the company director having a fancy for the female persuasion, Aoba finds herself on a staff consisting entirely of young women, who in looks & personality will seem oddly, or rather intentionally, familiar to viewers of high school shows.

Familiar, but likeable. New Game's ensemble do a decent job of standing out as individuals & pleasant enough company when on screen, except for Hotaru who is the personification of tinnitus. They fit their various positions within the company well enough, though one wonders why they'd employ Aoba as a character designer, given her complete lack of experience with 3D modelling. Yet at the same time the experience is more like watching a high school club than a professional company.

While the characters personalities & relationships make for enjoyable viewing, they are also very boiler plate. Aoba makes up for her lack of experience with her enthusiasm. Yun insists on being treated as a senior despite being Aoba's age & often acting immaturely. Hajime is the quirky character who simultaneously wants to be taken seriously by the younger students – sorry, employees. Rio & Ko, the equivalents of club president & vice president, have what might be considered New Game's “yuri baiting” relationship, wherein Rio often is frustrated that Ko doesn't seem to take her job & their friendship as seriously as she does. Is this sounding a little too recognisable yet?

Oh, & the animal mascot character is Mozuku the fat cat. Because that's the level of humour we're working with.

One might argue that this is testament to the flexibility of the Cute Girl formula - & there might be something to that. In New Game's case, however, it's perhaps more appropriate to say the setting is almost irrelevant. The characters are supposed to be 18-30 year old adults, yet they look, sound & act like the same, infantalised 15-17 year old's Cute Girl shows normally focus on. They're supposed to be crunching to finish Fairies Story 3 in time for release, but it might as well develop itself for all the effort they put in. Sure, there are plenty of late nights, but those are treated more like sleepovers than signs of struggle. Heck, they seem to spend as much time drinking tea as they do working.

Obviously, one didn't go into New Game expecting Shirobako, but it makes for a useful contrast. Both shows share a rose tinted view of their respective workplaces, but in Shirobako they at least have to deal with difficult employees, production delays & the sheer stress of working at an animation studio. More to the point, it's hard to picture the characters in another setting, steeped as it was in the work & culture of anime.

In contrast, New Game's takes such a relaxed approach towards work that it might as well be on autopilot. If it had been set in a high school club, this would be fine, given that failure to finish their game wouldn't really matter so long as they enjoyed making it. Yet we're supposed to be watching adults working on a project whose failure would almost certainly cost at least some of them their jobs, stakes New Game never conveys to the audience. Work might be important, but there's always an inane conversation that takes priority.

& when it comes to New Game's production, those conversations are less of a priority than the characters many, many reaction faces.

New Game is certainly a good looking show, at least in terms of character design. Each character looks distinct while still conforming to type &, fortunately, they didn't use the non-school setting to go wild with their clothes. Backgrounds are pretty standard, though – by accident or design – they managed to have the textures & colours of the office match the characters enough to avoid that sense of characters not being in their environment that plagues modern anime.

In terms of animation, however, it's more mixed. New Game is certainly fine for it's genre, but it's clear that the director had their attention focused on character reactions rather than what they're reacting to. The result is that a typical scene can be summed up as shot, reverse shot cuts between talking heads until suddenly everything comes alive when it's time for the reaction shot. There are also times - & this is true of many 4korma adaptations – when a page seems to have been adapted so literally that you can count the panels, which can break the flow of a scene.

Additionally, there are two things that occur enough times to warrant mention. First is that there will be at least one cheese shot, almost every episode, where we're treated to a leery close up of a characters T &/or A. Pretty standard, to be sure, but by the third time Ko has whipped her skirt off in the office so we can sneak a look at her arse, it gets annoying. After all, this isn't one of those Cute Girl shows were the cast spend all day hugging & flirting with each other.

Second, every now & then there is a single cut, maybe of a head turn or hand gesture, that has significantly more frames of movement than those around it, calling attention to itself despite not being important. It would seem there was a key animator on staff who was determined to get their cuts noticed. Congratulations, I suppose.

It might have new in the title, but New Game is pretty old hat when it comes to Cute Girl shows. It's pleasant enough & easy to watch, but leaves little lasting impression beyond adding some new entries for your reaction gif folder. It's attempt to present a thoroughly relaxed, cheerful workplace conflicts with its setting &, indeed, could have been set anywhere, making it hard to feel invested in what's going on. If Cute Girls doing anything is enough for you, New Game will do. If you were hoping the adult setting might result in a more mature show, New Game disappoints.

As a final thought: with their constant consumption of energy drinks & snack foods, I can only imagine the hellish state their staff toilets must be in.

TL;DR version at the end

~Contains Spoilers~

New Game! surprised me. At it's core it was just another moe slice of life with yuri vibes, but as an anime fan, it's not commonplace to reject this as long as it stands enough on it's own, and New Game! does just that.
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STORY: 7/10

We've had plenty off anime about video games. Too many, in fact. But it's because of those anime that many gamers have shifted communities, and this all leads up to why New Game! is genius: it stars the two things stereotypical anime fans love most: cute girls and video games! I'm not interested in game design ... or anything like that, but I can say I was consistently entertained throughout the entirety of the show with only a few moments that I said 'Really, this AGAIN?' However, that didn't stop me from being bored at parts. The plot moves slowly, and while this may be intentional to further emphasize the realism, it's not what anyone was looking for in the series to begin with. To top it all off, the ending was anti-climactic. I mean, yes they released their game and all, but instead of feeling like the ENTIRE SERIES ended, it just felt like another episode ending.
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ART: 5/10

The art and animation are nothing to write home about; they live up to passable quality and that's about it, honestly. Though I will say I absolutely love the bright colors and light shades, I can't help but think that it made the series look a little too much like baby's threw up rainbows on the screen.
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SOUND: 5/10

Again, they're passable quality. I can't say the OST is remotely memorable in the slightest, and thought the opening and ending theme are pleasant to the ear, they're most definitely a temporary obsession, which in my case has already begun to fade. The sound effects, as well, are standard, and the voice acting... well all the characters sound exactly like they're supposed to...
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CHARACTER: 3/10

See, one of the great things about series that feature a group of characters with almost equal screentime is that everybody can pick one to like. New Game! is the same way, except that none of the characters leave an impression. Instead of all of the characters being memorable, like Baccano, NONE of them are. Which is a shame, because I love Aoba's design.
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TL;DR: 5/10

+Interesting and unique story concept
+Cute artstyle
+Fitting OP/ED
+Some good character design
-Slow paced
-Anticlimactic
-Below average OST
-Forgettable characters

New Game! achieved exactly what it wanted to do, it told it's story and I applaud it for that. However, lots of forgettable aspects to it hold it back from breaking into the 'good' range, and it falls into the slew of countless other anime that just didn't make the cut for above average. As I stated in the beginning, it was better than I thought, but I didn't have very high expectations to begin with.

Ah moe, the sitcom of anime. This genre is so standard that it's hard to find many things about it from each carbon copy that's actually unique or special to make them more than enjoyable fluff that you can kick back and watch an episode of cute looking girls doing whatever they can. So, what do you do when you've beaten the high school made up of only of cute high school girls to death? Make an entire gaming company consisting of ONLY female employees. New Game! Let's go!

Story: Suzukabe Aoba is an 18 year old who decided to ... follow her dreams of working at a game company right out of high school. Upon finding her new job and meeting her fellow coworkers and higher ups, she realizes that this game company isn't exactly...normal (well in real world terms) and that she's working as a new character designer for the third installment of a game series that she loves alongside her idol, Yagami Kou.

Right out of the gate here, New Game shows itself to be a carbon copy of every single standard fare moe show that's out there. You have an entire place populated by girls/women, you have a gimmick to make the show seem unique (with this being the game development aspect), and you have cute little antics including supposed character development over the course of the series, episodic conflicts, and general cute moments from various members of the cast. As a result of this formulaic concept, New Game doesn't really have much you can say in terms of being truly different from your standard moe. But does that mean that New Game is truly generic? No, not really.

In terms of its unique gimmick, the game development aspect, the show does actually spend a few choice moments in the series to talk about the way game development works. Drawing out and designing characters, creating motions for the various models, bug fixing, schedule management, etc. Because of this, New Game does have a few things going for it in this aspect and makes it a bit more interesting overall however minute it might be since the show is still chock full of moe moments.

In the end though, New Game has something going for it, but not much. It pokes at the way game development is done, but it doesn't poke so much that it's the main focus of the show, as the show at its core is still talking about a bunch of cute looking girls running around and doing a bunch of mildly entertaining antics around an office setting instead of hallways and clubrooms.

Overview:
+ Uses its gimmick on a consistent basis
- Still mostly generic moe

Characters: As expected with characters in a moe show, the slices of moe bait we have here are pretty much your standard tropes that you've probably seen in one series or another.

First there's Suzukabe Aoba, our protagonist of the series. Aoba is a hardworking newbie at the Eagle gaming company who acts as the fish out of water character of the series so the game making explanations from other members of the cast makes sense as it's being told to someone instead of just saying stuff directly into the camera. Acting mostly cheerful throughout the whole series, Aoba herself doesn't really change much as a character. She gets better at her job (and her ineptness at remembering her ID card) over the course of the series, but as a character, there's really no sign of growth or change in character over the course of the show mostly due to the fact that this show is what it is.

Then there's Yagami Kou, Aoba's superior who gives her character creation tasks and tracks her progress over the course of the series. Lighthearted with the habit of sleeping over at the company during crunch time moments, Kou is a character that the show treats as the one to gain significant character development but she...really doesn't. A lot of the so-called 'development' for her character is done through flashbacks and backstory moments and never really in the series. Sure there're character moments in the series that focus on her character, but the show usually goes "Oh sh*t, we're supposed to be a lighthearted watch" and switches itself back to moe antics, thus leaving Kou to dry and her development feeling incomplete and/or unneeded.

The rest of characters in New Game fill up general moe tropes. There's the happy go lucky genki girl, the one concerned about her weight, the military one, the shy one, and a few others. Aside from Aoba and Kou, these characters don't really have anything noteworthy. They get a few moments, but they're just there to fill up the cast list more than anything.

Overview:
- Mostly generic one-sided characters
- Any supposed character development feels forced and/or incomplete

Art: Produced by Doga Kobo, New Game takes on the company's style of cute and light appearance from the shows that they usually produce, making a nice and consistent but not really eye-poppingly amazing look. There's not really much to say, other than it looks pretty standard for moe.

Sound: For sound...there's nothing really noteworthy. The tracks: OP, ED, and BGMs are forgettable cute songs, and the voice acting is nothing truly spectacular.

Personal Enjoyment: So, from my standing, New Game! is a generic moe show that only has a smidgen of interesting features to it because the show uses its little gimmick decently well by utilizing it every now and then to showcase how games are made. Was I bored of this show and dreaded every episode? Well, no. Admittedly, while it's not the most spectacular moe show, it has a charm to it that make it entertaining. It's not by any means a masterpiece, but it was a fun watch.

Did I like this series?

Yes, I did. Mostly because it was a fun watch, but aside from that, there really isn't much about it that I would say I particularly loved about it.

What didn't I like about this series?

Because of my average opinion of this series, New Game doesn't really have any particularly bad qualities about it that make me hate it.

Would I recommend this show?

New Game! is a moe show and should be treated as such. If you want to see a moe show with cute girls running around, this show'll probably fit your bill. Aside from that very specific audience, this show really doesn't have much going for it, so if that's not what you're looking for, it's best to skip this show.

Boredom can do some interesting things, like make a derivative piece of candy colored fluff like this palatable.

STORY

The story is largely episodic, but it does follow a basic plot of a fictional game studio working to release the next installment of a popular franchise. The real point of the plot is simply to set up various scenarios for the cast members to bounce off each other for comedy (and occasionally fan service). There's a limit to how serious a series can be when half the plot of one episode centers around one character accidentally eating another's pudding.

ART & SOUND

The art and sound are ... perfectly nice, but nothing special. The Japanese voice actors hit these really high pitched octaves that are murder on English voice actors- dubbing some of these characters would be a major pain. The soundtrack is OK but fairly generic J-Pop stuff. The art is bright and colorful. I used the term candy colored earlier, but perhaps Jello colored would be more appropriate since that what what most of the ladies' breasts seem to be made of. It's all just very... OK.

CHARACTERS

I'll admit I don't have the demographic statistics of the Japanese video game industry just rolling around in my head, but I'm skeptical that many companies are staffed entirely by cutesy waifus who may or may not want to yuri each other. The cast all fit into some pretty common archetypes: the shy one, the earnest new girl, the athletic one, the fancily dressed lolita. They all play the ir tropes perfectly straight too. The airsoft gun-loving Okinawan who picked up the hobby from all the US military personnel on her home island is a new one for me at least.

OVERALL

I'm filing this series under 'fast food anime' that I consume with no delusions about its quality. I can't say I was disappointed because I went in with low expectations. That said, I usually only watched New Game! in a side window while getting some writing done on the other side of the screen.

Are you interested in developing a game?, then probably you will like it.

I dont feel it deserves a deep explanaition so i will review it quickly.

It was fun to watch an anime about game developing, which was kind of accurate in terms of work (character design, programming, deadlines, animation, etc), but i think they could show more of that real working stuff than showing the characters do other shit like going to buy some sweets or the typical "going to drink after work".

Another important thing to consider in this review is that it was fun, but just until nene shows up, which is the worst ... character of newgame.

New Game! It delivers exactly what it promises, a cute girl with other cute girls doing... cute things? In general, this anime is like one of those cartoons you watched as a child, where you're not looking for an experience, but just want to see something silly. If you don't want to waste your time watching something complex, this anime is for you.

Story 05/10: The story is that cliché thing, she's just a girl who's fulfilling her dream of working in a games company, other than that there's no big plot or anything like that.

Character 07/10: The characters are very charismatic, despite having no depth, ... they are cute and you can see that they are very different, and that's cool;

Music 08/10: The songs are perfect for the anime, in a cuter style but at the same time with a touch of technology.

Art: Cute, there's not much to say other than that, it wasn't made to have insane graphics.

Entertainment 05/10: It's funny, it's cute to watch, and you can see in a very parody way, the process of creating games

When it comes to writing a coherent, enjoyable film or television series, many factors can shine. Whether that be thematic significance, mesmerising worldbuilding, or thought provoking dialogue, these can help push a show beyond mediocrity harder than I can abuse the rule of three writing this introduction to the rest of the review.

New Game doesn’t really feature many of these notabilities mentioned prior, but such is often to be expected from a slice of life show; an episodic one at that (of course, there exist plenty of great examples of environmental storytelling that serve as counterexamples, but as it’s obvious that this was not the ... goal of the creators, I digress). Nonetheless, an unchanging character environment without major conflicts of note can work, but ONLY if the humour works. Imagine watching Seinfeld (or any other sitcom for that matter) without the incidental humour. Trying to watch any show centred around comedy that doesn’t “click” for you will feel like a slog; It just doesn’t work. Perhaps if you like underdelivered jokes that have the writing equivalent of a runny egg’s consistency, you’d find New Game a lot more amusing than I did.

To top it all off, New Game isn’t even particularly educational in its subject matter, preferring to dedicate most of its runtime to idealistic scenes that are slightly more entertaining than watching paint dry. It’s very well animated paint, for sure, but underneath the colourful, vibrant visuals, the enthusiastic voice acting, the fun soundtrack, and the fluid animation, there’s... nothing really of note? The characters show features an all-female cast for no other reason other than to provide the viewer with eye candy, with some of the fanservice shots, while much less common than certain other offenders, being as obnoxious as ever.

I can’t say I hated New Game, but between every fun interaction that could even be humorous on occasion, there existed a plethora of moe fluff scenes I couldn’t get behind personally. While far from the worst offender, I cannot be Stockholm Syndrome’d by the art direction into saying I very much enjoyed the overall experience. Whilst this review may seem harsh, understand that it’s an okay show if you need something cute and thoughtless at the end of a day.

This is really a review for both seasons as my main issue spans both seasons also. I get the main characters are just out of high school w/ one being in college but how many people would actually last long at their jobs if they acted as childish as the characters do?

I do wish they would have made the characters actually look like younger adults instead of 13-14 year olds with matching attitudes and annoyingly high voices. Had I been in their managers position they would have probably been fired after the 1st paycheck.

Besides that, the story was fine and the ... rest of the characters are enjoyable.

Note: This is a broad review with minimal spoilers that encompasses both seasons of the show. Overall, it's a cute show that you might find enjoyment out of. And if you are bigger into moeness than I am, you might end of loving it.

Episode: 24 (About 20 minutes each episode)

Plot: B-: Aoba Suzukaze is a high school graduate that opts out of going to a prestigious art school and instead finds work with a gaming company called Eagle Jump where she gets right to work as a character designer. She is both excited and nervous to find out that her idol, famed lead character designer ... of her favorite video game series: Faries Story, Kō Yagami is her immediate supervisor. Throughout the course of the show, we get to see some of the processes involved in making video games and get a glimpse into the lives of character designers as they make one new game in each of the two seasons of the show.

Visuals: B+ *I often talk about the character designs and much like with K-ON! (since it's the same studio that made that as well) the designs are adorable. Aoba Suzukaze, Yun Iijima, and Hifumi Takimoto in particular were adorable! The color scheme for the show was very bright and inviting. And even though I would have no interest in playing either of the games that the show introduced, the character designs indeed were very cute and it was cool how they showed off how they looked in 2D versus in 3D.

Voice Acting: B *As usual, I went with the dub and for the most part, this is a good one. Most of the characters have cutesy voices that are not unbearably annoying to listen to... with the exception of Alba's best friend Nene Sakura who has a ridiculously high-pitched voice that can make anyone's ear's bleed and Hajime Shinoda who had a loud and obnoxious voice which reminded me of Chuckie from Rugrats lol! Aoba and Yagomi I will give props to because even though I wish I got more attached to the characters of the show, during the sentimental moments towards the ending of the show, I was touched mainly because of the great performances by their two voice actresses.

[ Film Score/Soundtrack: B *In the context of the show, Hajime Hyakkoku (composer for K-ON!'s film score too) had a memorable score that kept a playful tone and atmosphere which helped to make the show fun to watch. But as usual, the few sentimental pieces are where it shines the most. Aside from a few highlights though, I probably won't be listening to it on it's own like I do with K-ON!'s fantastic OST though.

***My favorite track:

Characters: B *The show focuses too much on making the characters quirky and cute instead of showcasing their talents and showing us why they were hired to work at Eagle Jump in the first place. With that being said, Aoba, and Yagami come across as really likable and their relationship elevates this character rating significantly for me. Takimoto started off as your typical super shy and antsy anime girl who can't speak to anyone without freaking out and it was really irritating, but I will say that her development was nice to see as the series went on. And for how annoying as Sakura's voice was, her relationship with programmer Umiko Ahagon was actually really cute and it was pretty inspirational to see her start out as a nobody and to slowly work her way into the company through sheer-determination, passion, and lots of trial and error. (Although there should probably been a longer period of trial and error that was shown in the show) I just don't get why they felt the need to add Momiji Mochizuki and Tsubame Narumi in the last few episodes of the show just to add tension and rivalry. Both of them were really unlikable and distracted from what made the show interesting in the first place: girls working on a game.

Cringeworthy Anime Moments: Fanservice. Why did we need a scene where the girls were dressed up in maid cafe outfits? Why did the show need a game director, Shizuku Hazuki, who flirts with every employee she has and makes them all feel uncomfortable? Why do we need slow-mo boob graphics and ass-shots of Hajime periodically throughout the show? Why did we need a scene of the two useless characters Momiji and Narumi where Narumi is sitting shirtless in front of a fan with her massive breasts barely getting covered by a towel? Why did we have to a romance forced on us between Yagami and Rin Tōyama? These elements of the show detracted from the exciting premise of girls working in the gaming industry and it's a real shame.

Opening 1: "Sakura Skip" is a total bop and has super cute visuals to go along with it. An easy add to my My Anime Music Playlist.

Opening 2 "It's hard to decide which OP I prefer. The buildup to the "clap" that kicks this song into third gear is super cute and then it becomes so much fun!

Ending 1 "Now Loading" is cute, catchy, and has a strong enough build-up to the chorus to make the song feel more emotional and helps make me feel like I care about the show. This song is fantastic!

Ending 2 " JUMPin' JUMP UP!!!!" is a bit too extra moe for my tastes. I can see why others like it, but it's definitely not my favorite.

Final Verdict: 5/10 This is a show that should have been so much better than it was. The premise was so interesting and they took it in directions that it had no business going. I understand that moe anime is pretty much described as "cute anime girls doing cute things" but they took that trope too far in several episodes which took away from the otherwise fascinating story and unique work environment that the girls had. I still enjoyed the show for what it was though. I just wish that they shifted their focus on what made the show unique and touched on more aspects of the video game design process and even the parts after the work was finished. Still, the show did touch on some other interesting human problems such as being a young person being put in charge of people more experienced and older than you for the first time and the struggles that such a scenario provides. Or it discusses how volatile the gaming industry is for employees and how hard it is for companies to keep the same personnel for the long-term and they instead typically hire people for projects and then release them with the exception of their core personnel. If it touched more on those types of human topics and more on the gaming process, this could have been a great show. But instead, it was a missed opportunity. I enjoyed it though.

New Game is an amusing enough slice of life work-com that I'm admittedly a bit biased toward because I do 3D modeling ostensibly in the game industry for a living, so the accurate background details showing 3D modeling and texturing were right up my alley. There are some good game industry culture bits, like the airsoft guns in the office reminding me of many a nerf battle, but unless you're really invested in game development it's otherwise just a pretty okay slice of life gag series.

The characters are fun and I enjoyed their interactions, but truthfully not a lot actually happens. Most episodes are pretty ... firmly set the protagonist's cubicle and visually it does get a bit repetitive to look at. The artwork and character designs are good, but visually it never really goes above and beyond and while there are some scenes in and around town, it's kind of like watching The Office if the titular office was even smaller. The gags are cute, but nothing was really gut-bustingly funny, but at the same time I think it's meant to be more of a pleasant background noise kind of show and it succeeds at that. I certaainly don't regret binging the first season over the weekend and I never felt put off of it or bored, I just wish they dug a bit more into the actual work at times.

About cute girls doing cute things Countless animes use this well, of course for the purpose being this (speak the obvious in different ways)

New game does not bring anything new or interesting to make it above average So at all points (History, art, characters, sound, pleasure and in general) He deserves a satisfactory 5

The story is enough for you to accept what’s happening in the environment where the characters are placed but nothing big

Animation or character art is pretty standard. The somewhat strong lighting is satisfactorily supported by the characters' traits and the environment that is more concentrated in closed places like ... the office where they work Simple characters that do cute things again (nothing new)

The sound is also quite normal in both opening and closing in addition to the soundtrack

About the pleasure of seeing this anime putting all these points together, I couldn't stay anything but neutral and having 2 or 3 laughs in the comedy (one that I remember are the scenes with the porcupine aka the best character there)

In the end this tag is quite relative in terms of notes I may have read some reviews that rate 9 for quotes from scenes that they found funny or the characters amusing
But that in the end are just personal statements of why it pleased you so much, nothing that clearly goes for everyone
As it happens here too If you like moe and haven't gotten tired of it yet, go ahead with new game