Itai no wa Iya nanode Bougyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu.

I really love this kind of anime specially in terms about the online games in the old days.. Because it was very fun and more exciting and lastly you can related in terms of battle style and guild wars experience... Even though I can't really read in the light novel but I know what will be happened next scene and there are lots of speculation that will be happened in the next scene so that it will be more exciting and more spectacular moment in this anime...

About the characters: it was a good, even most of them are broken character, but in terms of battle ... Style, knowledge and most of the all is the quickly decision specially in terms of battle strategy against the boss or even the guild wars that easily to trick and easily to defeated without sweet against their opponents...

In terms about the sound and art style.. That was a awesome and I want give the score of 10/10 in overall rating that's all..

BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense. Fantastic Job.

so in mmorpg it is known that their are types of players. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartle_taxonomy_of_player_types

Maple is a Explorer type with subtype hacker.
maples's friend is a Killer type subtype Griefer

the makers of this anime have done a fantastic job of showing this, and is worth watching just to get a feel for this.

this review is written at only 5 episodes out.
...
but something that's vary realistic is the runners of the MMORPG had to restrict a rules combination Maple found.

I think this is the conflict/plot Maple Vrs the runners of the MMORPG.

animes where the hero takes on the entire fabric of their reality are always good, that's why they make a lot of them. make more of them.

but the best thing about this anime is it's just enjoyable to watch maple exploring and leveling.
I know sounds really dull but it's not some how it's not.

the show really makes the viewer feel rewarded when maple is rewarded.

it feels like if FLCL and Flying Witch were mated.
and then that offspring mated with one of the Sword Art Online family.
I recommend watching it.

I would really to see it at some point I would like to see the anime breed with Kakegurui in a future season.
maybe do this with throwing in a cryptocurrency element the way some MMORPG's have.
that is if you run out of ideas it's great as it is!

Sure, the story may be lacking in some areas of depth as the show only has one main premise: MAPLE IS OP AS HELL. Although it's predictable most of the time what will happen in battles, Bofuri is super fun to watch Maple completely decimate her enemies. The art and sound design are all super high quality, making the show a great eyegasm. Only problem would be that the character development in the show is not the best, but overall I feel that this anime is really just for a lot of fun, and hence I don't mind the story and character development lacking in ... some areas.
Many people say that Maple being way too OP ruins the fun of the show, but I think otherwise. It's relaxing to see just how absurd one can get and is a great fresh take on a isekai where literally everything will go right for Maple. The plot being ridiculous and stupidly lucky for Maple only makes the show more fun to watch in my opinion. Without a plot complex as a harem rom-com anime, Bofuri the most refreshing and enjoyable shows I have watched so far.

Itai no wa Iya nano de Bougyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu, or also called BOFURI is a new quirky and colorful entry into the “accidentally OP” MC genre of MMO/isekai or alike anime - and I am genuinely in love with it.

Any educated viewer might slide their eyes over the poster and premise and immediately shudder in horror or smirk in a condescending disgust to have spotted another shlocky, bland and generic MMO “kinda isekai, but not really” trash that the anime industry has served us. Yes, the character designs look like SAO rip-offs, specifically Maple’s main armor looks like the armor set the ... dying girl - Konno Yuuki - wears in Mother’s Rosario, or the Great Shielder, who literally looks like Klein from the same show – but do not be deceived because; Bofuri is actually greatness in disguise.

I do not consider Bofuri high art nor a means to an end time passer to ramp up my completed anime count on my anime list. Many other anime serve these purposes, but in Bofuri I see a fun, quirky show that fills me with joy every time I watch it as it fulfills my MMO gamer heart.

There are certain parameters I rate isekai/MMO shows by. One of these are the setting and level designs, character designs, level or skill system, variance in spells and an assessable power scale, entertainment factor in watching fights unfold; and like any other show – how enjoyable it is to watch its production (It is not very enjoyable to me if it looks like ass).

Bofuri excels in creating an awesome setting design, with pretty great background art with different fantasy vegetation and monster designs for each level and fairly memorable bosses that have a overseeable and logical skill set for their species. The noob town spawns you right next to a multiple-branch waterfall tree and the houses have giant green leaves on top. The forest is riddled with apple bunnies (Japanese like to cut their apples in the form of a bunny) and the multi-branched trees and some other plants have a glowy ball that emits light in the middle.

I was immediately invested in the series as a production seeing this in the first episode, because it showed me that there was put specific thought and care into a show that looks disappointingly generic on first sight. The second level’s city is only made out of grey rocks and the third level is a mechanical steam-punk area. The anime focuses mostly on PvP events, forming alliances with other players and creating a guild later so we get to explore a vast collection of different game areas and building structures no matter if caves, green flatland or snow lands.

The series also explores the deep-dive VRMMORPG technology a little bit in Sally and Maple visiting a magical night-sky-restaurant with drinks and food “from the sky” that change your eye color and food you can really taste in episode 3. The whole scene has a beautiful starstruck night sky as a background and was fairly creative as a concept.


Watching Bofuri is like actually going into an MMO as a first timer, winging your skillset and beating a boss with a friend and exploring the different areas and climates the developers created. Bofuri on the other hand doesn’t infodump you on any system mechanics, at best it explains the effect and purpose of a skill by the player reading out the skill for you, but otherwise you are on your own figuring out this world with the characters.

The ways the players, mainly Maple, gain skills is very interesting and mostly funny. In the first few episodes Maple has to fight a poisonous Hydra and ends up eating it, gaining summoning rights for the Hydra, becoming invincible to poison and to that – the scene was hilarious. Who even has the idea to just eat the boss? I’ve seen this mechanic used in MMO isekai manga before but none of the characters who started to eat their enemies were still of the human race, so it was ridiculous and fun to watch a small, teenage-anime girl with a high-pitched voice starting to bite away at a giant not-CG 3-headed snake monster.

There is also really good effect work in this show. The 3D-CG elements are well implemented when there are any, and the Hydra is made out of sparkly purple digital effects that looks great animated, and I tell you this show is fairly well animated - and threatening at the same time.
I wish to not have this 3 headed monster targeted into my direction.

The sounddesign of the show is also really decent. Great explosions don’t bust out your bass like recent Fate incarnations do, no one’s microphone is broken (I am looking at you, Carole & Tuesday) or voice is annoying and the soundtrack has some banger tracks in it too. I really liked when they played the song “Good Night” at every SOL-like activity as it is a very funky but beautiful and chill song. Since I binged a few episodes, it felt like the track was overstaying its welcome, but it is not the only track in the OST and the OST otherwise is noticeable and gets its job done.

The voice cast is pretty stacked with Klein-rip-off (his actual name is Kuromu) being voiced by Shirou Emiya’s seiyuu aka Noriaki Sugiyama, the sword-samurai-princess with an honorable personality Kasumi is voiced by the soft voice of the lovely Saori Hayami, the totally a shut-in traps-specialist nerd of one of the opposing guilds is voiced by Akira Ishida, the Nr. 1 player of the entire game and white knight Pein is voiced by Kensho Ono and our quirky and fearless heroine Maple is voiced by Kaede Hondo, which is funny because Maple’s irl name is Kaeda Honjou. There was a certain intent in this casting.

Speaking of skill-sets, the already mentioned mechanic of eating your enemies to gain their skill-set is funny but isn’t overused, because only Maple knows of it. Everyone else as well as Maple gains skills through quests and events. Other players like her best friend Sally, who acts as Maple’s second-hand and veteran helper also takes the role of the second main character in the show, specializes on speed and melee combat; while they also have a constructor and a summoner on their team, as well as a great shielder Kuromu who has a demon armor that grants him a special passive that I will not spoil, but the moment was cool. We occasionally also see other guild players use classes all cross the board, like the pure fire-user Mii, the trap specialist Marx, the healer priestess Misery etc. None of the actual classes names are audibly mentioned, but anyone who has ever played an MMO for a little bit and watches their skillset and character designs will be able to tell. Being able to figure out all these by simply watching the show and experiencing the fights is very enjoyable and rewarding to me. Unlike other anime that will make the main characters audibly speak out the other character’s class and limitations and therefore unnecessarily info-dump you. The show flat out shows you several spells that I’ve never seen in other anime before. One guy was able to split his sword in 10 parts and telekinetically aim them at his enemy, how cool is that?! Same with the Hydra summon and Maple’s later forms. All of these are probably overpowered but the anime is aware of this.

There is one funny moment where Maple roams a city and encounters a crying mother at her childs bed, the mother starts to notice Maple and a quest begins. Maple is a little overrun and weirded out by the NPC-mother overly dramatic dialogue as her child is dying and watching Maple fairly easily beat this quest while the NPC is so stressed and serious is hilarious, at least to me.

In this game there seems to be no element limitations, so even though Maple gained a dark-element-class spell she can still use other skills from the element light. If there are actual class-elements that one is limited to, it at least isn’t established in the anime by text, but I do not consider this a flaw. It made the anime a little more enjoyable and fun to watch. It is though established that the game is kinda broken and the developers, that are shown in cute avatars from time to time, as well as people in chat rooms or other players occasionally comment on this fact. Especially the developers are voicing their concern about Maple exposing too much of their flawed game design, which makes them slightly despair on-screen. All of this is comedic and shows what kind of series Bofuri wants to be. Definitely not a life-or-death game MMO or something that takes itself all too seriously.

Character designs can look stupid (or unoriginal like prior mentioned designs) like the black-green and white-pink combo of Yui and Mai - but while actually watching the show it didn’t bother me much. In more anime-like MMOs the designs some people can go for do look way too bright, colorful, dumb. So, I will give it a point for realism. Otherwise they are all fairly decent and logical character designs even if generic - and not overly sexual. I don’t feel second-handily sexually harassed by the characters. My favorites have to be Mii, Kuromu with the demon armor and Maple though.

From rating off all my parameters, Bofuri checks off all the boxes. It has an interesting and non-generic setting and level designs, a variance of spells, skillsets and classes and is a fun watch the whole way through.
The only thing “lacking” in this regard is the lack of a coherent power-scale. But since the point of the show is to show a newbie MMO player expose shitty game design in overpowering most veteran players in absurd ways by gaining skills in back-handed ways, I wouldn’t say the show does a bad job in making the other players and guilds look strong or great at the game - they are still noticeable strong and knowledgeable of the game mechanics. The big, strong guilds are still up way higher than Maple’s on the board. I would even say Maple isn’t even as strong as Rimuru from the Slime isekai.
I was always invested in any fight Bofuri had to offer, no matter if it was mobs, bosses or the PvP events. I personally am not big on PvP MMOs myself, but I enjoyed myself watching it nonetheless.

The animation, art and direction of Bofuri is mostly solid with some occasionally great action cuts here and there. The prior mentioned effects work is not only good with the Hydra, it applies to any other magic as well. The only bad thing about it really would be the subpar character art that meanders my enjoyment by just a little bit and that the direction isn’t all to inspired but it does have a few great compositioned shots. If the production had been a tad stronger and the characters a little less simple, I would’ve considered to bump up my score to a strong 7, maybe an 8, even.


With Bofuri I had a great time. It put a smile on my face and with season 2 already announced, I can see it eventually being an 8 in the future.
The only points I will dock it are for the fact that while the characters are enjoyable, the only ones with a one-dimensional personality are Sally and Maple, everyone else has what their skillset and archetype has to offer.


Bofuri isn’t a deep show. The characters just play this game and there is nothing else. There are no real-life problems, they hardly even talk with anyone in real life. The conflicts are reduced to only PvP battles and have no hard feelings involved. Everyone is friendly with each other. That might be a flaw to some people, for me it’s imply what the show is and exactly what I want from it.


Bofuri is simple in what it does, but it does it really damn well. It’s a comfy, considerably well made MMO show with an OP MC and I love the heck out of it.

If you watch isekai or MMO anime for the themes, this is not something for you. If you want some fun time and cool action gameplay, and can get behind the OP gimmick, you may be satisfied with Bofuri.



Overview

Story: 5/10 – Average but serves its purpose.
Art & Animation: 6/10 – Good animation, decent action cuts but subpar character art and mixed character designs.
Sound: 8/10 – Good tracks. Good Sounddesign.
Character: 5/10 – Nothing to write home about, but enjoyable.
Enjoyment: 7/10 – Rise and grind.
MMO: 7/10 – Broken but I love it.
Overall: 7.0 (range: 6.5-7.0, strong 6 to light 7)

One of the most fun shows this season, and probably will be for the whole year, comes to its monetary end. Sort of picked this up just because I saw the main girl used a shield and the animation looked cute, couldn't have made a better decision. Had an absolute blast with this show over these past months. Bofuri I didn't expect much going in but honestly from the first episode I enjoyed it. Maple immediately captured my heart with how is it plain adorable she is. Even before becoming a powerhouse she was just so cute. Trying her hardest with that little shield not ... wanting to get hurt even in a game. She was a fantastic lead to follow throughout this show.

Entire cast of characters I had a great time with. The whole guild of what would become Maple Tree had variety in the characters. Sally a great right hand woman for Maple, Kasumi the badass swordswoman, Yui and May almost equally adorable to Maple with their hammers, Kanade with his badass book, Koromu a great big brother to them as the veteran player and Iz a great support. Suffice to say I loved every single character, not a single one to dislike with how they're written. Even the enemy guilds with Flame Emperors and Holy Sword had great members, loved Payne and Mii.

Story itself isn't that concurrent other than just following Maple and eventually her whole guild through their adventures in the game but that's honestly fine. Every episode had some degree of fun with Maple getting a new overpowered skill. With how this game works her gaining skills is so fun to see cause it could go on so many exciting ways. Each one being so crazy it makes you scratch your head but still be in awe at how crazy powerful she can be while only dumping her points on it vitality. She plays the game her own crazy way and it's a blast.

The big events later in the show really cemented how enjoyable the show really is. Once the game events started and the entirety of Maple Tree formed it got rolling. All the battles they had to fight were awesome. Especially of course The two bouts against Flame Emperors and Holy Sword. Payne and Mii were worthy adversaries. The animation always looked incredible with how Silver Link did it, can tell they put care into this show to make it shine. Every fight and crazy skill looked fantastic. Couldn't praise the visuals enough.

That's about how I feel about most things in this show. Couldn't say enough positive things about it. Maple is a great lead, the action is entertaining along with a dynamic cast. Even with her crazy skills I'm excited to see the challenges that come her way. So glad a second season was immediately announced! Cannot wait to step back into the game with Maple!!

9/10

In a world where VRMMO began taking over in the anime community, one series rises to the top through it’s unique charm and an idea so insane that it actually worked. No one would have thought that a main character with so much power could still lead an anime to such great lengths; however, BOFURI broke that idea this time around. Take realism out of the equation because there’s nothing realistic about this anime. Instead, you can have a cute, yet broken main character who gets through her life in the game through her clumsiness and extreme luck.

Unique story & concept:
With a fast-paced story to ... help drive the energetic and quirky nature of the main character, there’s not much time for the audience to actually breathe. Episode after episode, the main cast is either training or competing in some sort of event showing off the new skills and abilities of everyone, especially the powerhouse herself: Maple. To top it all off, none of this happened to Maple by sheer skill or intellect but rather her insane luck aiding her in each of her encounters.

“The best offense is a good defense.” This statement proved to be true for Maple as the story progressed and her power grew along with it. Despite fighting against strongest foes in combat power, her skills and defense was enough to crush her competition along with their hopes of ever beating her. Normally, a main character that has unmatchable power would look like a poorly written character; though, Maple’s charm is how oblivious she is to the luck around her and her fun personality. She’s not some boring OP character with little to no character development. Maple actually learns from her mistakes and grows as fighter despite her appearing to be an airhead.

Fantastic art:
The animators of this show have shown us time and time again how great they are with a simple animation software. Each new environment always looks clean and well-drawn, and the fights are no different. There wasn’t a single fight where the audience would be left wondering “Are they saving their animation for later?”. Actually, it was easy to tell that each fight had a lot of effort poured into it from just living the experience by simply watching the anime. Finally, the use of CG really put the animation over the top compared to any other anime. It was fairly difficult to piece together which parts were CG and which parts weren’t making transitions between the two animation techniques smooth and crisp.

Great soundtrack:
The entire soundtrack for this anime was done well. Each OST fit well with the given scenes and overall sounded great. I could pick out a couple that I’d listen to on repeat because of how great they sounded. Not only the OSTs, the OP and ED were both equally as amazing to listen to. If anything, the OP has become one of my favorite songs.

Fun & lovable characters:
Along with everything else, the characters in BOFURI were done incredibly well. All of the characters had moments in the spotlight and showed off a bit of what made them different from the rest. I found it especially impressive that the leader of the Flame Emperors had a very vulnerable side shown on screen. It broke the standard mold that any opposing ‘boss’ or ‘leader’ didn’t have a glaring quirk about themselves that made them particularly unique.

Never-ending entertainment:
There are plenty of comedic moments in BOFURI that have really hit hard when they come up in the show. Watching Maple’s guild come together is pretty entertaining to watch because their personalities really gel with one another. Additionally, watching how the other major guilds worked with one-another was fun to watch. Each main group of characters played off each other amazingly well and provided a lot of enjoyment throughout the show.

Final thoughts:
BOFURI was an anime I wasn’t expecting to get this season, especially since it was announced as an VRMMO related anime; however, the journey these characters went through was fast-paced and entertaining to watch. The episodes went by in a flash and left me wanting more. This anime crushed my expectations and will probably sit high in my rankings for quite a while. [9/10]

There is literally nothing entertaining about this anime.

It is neither funny nor compelling.

The characters are neither complex nor parodically interesting.

The setting is boring and uninspiring - made worse by the fact that it's a video game.

The visuals and audio are fine, but that's nowhere near enough to make up for a complete and utter lack of substance. I can only imagine the fact that it literally *looks* decent is the reason it has a 7+ average rating on this site.

I cannot think of a single thing this anime does well. Again, there is literally nothing entertaining about this anime whatsoever.

Itai no wa iya nanode bougyoryoku wo kyokufuri shitai to omoimasu.

Translated, it would be "I don't like painful stuff, so I guess I'll want to maximize my defense." That’s a mouthful of a title, but that also makes sense. Unless you’re a masochist, we do prefer things when they are the least painful. The very first thing that came to my thoughts when I came across this title is that the main character would be playing in a non-orthodox way, like being an unstoppable tank which lets her teammates take the kills with her indestructible support.

The story of this anime starts with a friend, Risa, ... inviting the main character, Kaede, into playing a virtual reality MMO—quite a normal way to start a game. As Kaede, “Maple” in-game, starts the game, she allocates all her points to vitality, significantly thinking that it would save her from experiencing as much pain as possible. While this idea has a point, it greatly puts Maple in a disadvantage—she doesn’t have any points in strength and agility, making her slow and weak—making her a pathetic character overall.

That is, if we’re talking about real life games. In this series, Maple becomes, in a gamer’s point, a carry tank, where she soaks all damage as well as dealing the most damage. Unbalanced, right? As of this point, I was ready to put away all common sense and invested myself in just enjoying this anime—which I really did. I loved how the lightly-themed story this anime has. From a newbie to an insanely character because of a mindset that would otherwise not come upon other players’ minds. I also loved how the comedy in this anime was executed, laughing when the situation presented itself.

I love how Maple turned out to be very adorable, especially on scenes where she finds herself in unexpected situations that would give her overpowered skills, throwing the game off-balance, but that doesn’t make the show boring. Her friends and party mates were also worth taking note for, especially for her best friend who recruited her in the game, who will turn out as crazy as Maple is—no, scratch that—with this anime’s ridiculous premise, who knows, everyone else around Maple may become as insane as her. Even if that’s the case, each of the characters are unique in their own perspective, which keeps this show from being bland. I didn’t expect any normal character development, and I wasn’t let down in that regard. It’s very amazing.

The character design is also very cute; I liked how the artists managed to draw such cute characters adapted from a light novel, and I must say that their personalities alongside with their art was well- blended. My favorite character for this series is Frederica, a mage, and I really love how she is designed—makes me want to draw.

If we’re talking about MMOs and anime with similar genres, then of course, there will be lots of skills, magic, explosions, battalions, mobs, bosses—lots of things that would require a greater deal amount of effort in order to draw than other types of stories. I wasn’t let down on that regard either. I love how the scenes of battle were animated, it really lives up to my expectations. I like how the bosses were designed, making them very intimidating if not for the absurd power of the characters that overpower it like it was nothing.

The opening and closing themes of this anime is really amazing as well. To be honest, while writing this review, I was putting both OP and ED on loop—I don’t think I’ll get tired of them for a while. Their melodies and lyrics are so meaningful that they reflect the story and characters within. The OST weren’t just jokes, either. I like how the music were light in theme. The battle music were also outstanding, especially when the characters were in pinch, then applying more epic music when the characters find their resolve and defeat the enemy.

I was very impatient waiting for each episode as time passes, because I really enjoyed the anime since episode one. I had watched Sword Art Online, another game anime, but I liked the premise of this anime better, especially that Maple being overpowered is part of her appeal. Overall, I’d say this anime is a must-watch, especially for those who are into VR and isekais, because it offers a unique storyline where a player does a mistake of allocating points into one stat, but becomes powerful against other players playing with balance. Isn’t that just crazy? Even so, once again—it’s part of this anime’s appeal—and it did a great job in portraying so.

Now that the second season is announced, I am looking forward for it’s continuation! I hope they do another great job in adapting the anime!

So, right after the ending, I tried create a character in one of my RPG games and allotted my points in Agility to see if I can do the same thing, and while I the chances of enemies hitting me became minimal, my lack of Strength and Defense made me feeble. Imagine being influenced by an anime but ending up being like an idiot doing so.

I am sad.

Bofuri is one of the most enjoyable animes ive watched, to the point i'd say its on par with Konosuba in terms of humor (although i need to stress the two shows have VERY different humor)


Story:
Honestly, story is probably the weakest point of the show, yet at same time it is very good at what its supposed to do. The story of Bofuri is not meant to make lot of sense or be deep, its just supposed to string along characters to next fun event and shenanigans.

Art & sound:
Bofuri art is beautiful, although i can nitpick about animation at places. Still, overall its very well ... done. Same with voice acting and music. The most used insert song in the show is always a sign that something fun is about to happen. Everything about the show oozes fun time.

Characters:
As said with story portion, dont expect very much deep stuff here, but again, characters do their roles justice and are extremely fun to watch. Maple is obviously star of the show, but rest of characters are powerhouses and colorful in their own right, although not everyone has time to have much impact. Hopefully it improves in season 2

Enjoyment:
I have to say, this show has set the bar extremely high for 2020 in terms of comedy/action anime. Like i said, it compares even to Konosuba (although, again, humor is very different) and i actually prefer Bofuri myself.
Definetly the best show of winter season 2020 alongside "Somali and the Forest spirit"

"The Rising of the Shield Hero: Heroine version". Better title than the actual English Name of this anime.
When I first read the synopsis of the show, I was already thinking that in my head. I was hesitant on watching it but was coerced by my friend to give it a try. I did not find it as a masterpiece but it was fairly good so far. There are those that find this as utter trash or as a top moe anime. I think this is a fairly cute seasonal anime.
As others have mentioned, there truly is no story so far. NO antagonist inflicting harm ... to others, yet. Theres is NO scenario in which the MC is trapped in the game, yet, but most likely not. It is purely about a cute character, with no experience with mmorpgs dropped into a game called NewWorldOnline( without a doubt a reference to everyones favorite online game anime), and doing actions players would never think about like eating exploding ladybugs and becoming OP as fudge.....let that sink in.
But, despite no actual story, yet, this is just cute on its own. We get to see the wonderful Maple doing innocent things and exploring the game world with her friend.
Whenever an anime is tries to insert a main character into a game, I like to analyze the mechanics they try to implement into the game. The game itself would be very cool. By performing the same action multiple times, players are able to gain special skills related to said action. For example, by getting poisoned countless times, the player will overtime gain an immunity to it and poison will be ineffective to poison. At this point, the MC does actions no one would ever think of aka eating creatures. But the thing that struck me the most was the fact, the anime still reminds us that its a game. Word spreads that the MC is able to do OP moves and game devs actually develop a patch to nerf her abilities. Instead of letting the MC run off with OP moves, there are still the elements of balancing the game to keep the player base happy.
Moving from that, lets talk about character. Maple herself is is your typical sweet girl and the usual character who is given OP powers that people wish they had. Everywhere she goes, people find her to be nice and happy-go-lucky and wish to protect her, granted she could probably destroy them. Her friend who joined her, is already an above average gamer who has won some esports most likely from some hints. She is Maples friend and the person that introduced Maple to the game. So far, she follows Maples suggestions but she can hold herself well in a fight. I think the show itself will not have as heavy character elements on them like other shows.
The show gives us a game that grants people skills based on certain actions and a toxic-free player base so far. Gamers dream am I right, To people that know the truth, many games will have a toxic player base and the game could never happen given the current tech we have. But, it lets people fantasize.
I rambled on to much and lost my point so ill get back to it. Compared to the other shows of the current anime season, this is just something for those that want to relax and want to watch something very cute. Its a nice change of pace from other shows that rely on fanservice or based solely on its plot. I give it a 7/10.

Well first off, as an ardent MMO player, the game is clearly broken in a million ways and not to be taken seriously as an example of game design in any way, shape or form. With the price of things nowadays I assume the developers must not have been able to hire a QA team. OK, after watching six episodes, what the core of the show is, is an Iyashi-kei or healing-type series. I could be wrong, but Bofuri has built up my trust and that even when it threatens with a punch, they'll pull it back before I can tense up. Bottom-line, I am ... liking this show more and more every week. Bofuri is wholesome, with very little fanservice, it's truly a feel good slice of life with an MMO theme. Just don't take the game part of it too seriously, obviously there's no way that Maple would be the first to exploit those things in the first few episodes, if we're being realistic.

Ok, so if we suspend belief and get past the origin story, what we find is well-meaning characters and a lighthearted foray into the show's VR game world, New World Online. The characters are likeable enough, if a bit generic. Indeed the selling point seems to be Maples complete lack of MMO experience and how her seemingly newbieish decisions breaking the game. So far the story has been constrained almost solely to the MMO world, and the MC, Maple's experience in it. No RL drivel to up the stakes, just a normal, broken MMO, with a normal girl who finds a new exploitable action seemingly every minute. A great show if anime RL is too much and you just want to escape to an MMO while in an anime.

Is this a show that's going to revolutionize the genre and be talked about for years to come? Very doubtful. But if you're not beyond watching a show purely for smiles and enjoyment, this is recommendable. Basically moe meets MMO, and not just for an OVA, but an entire cour. I for one am totally on board as I always wished for the mmo part in the Lucky Star OVA to go on forever. So far it is good at what is does, maybe you can use it as a palette cleanser of sorts.

Also Maple = Konobis' Usami, Risa = Yuuki Yuuna's Karin. Someone had to say it.

Sometimes, anime has the power to get you interested in things you don't believe you would enjoy. One of the greatest examples of this is the impact of sports anime, but this can also be done by anime of other genres. What BOFURI has done for me is gotten me interested in the isekai genre, something I didn't ever think I'd become too invested in.

I attribute this mainly to the fact that BOFURI is a complete isekai parody. It contains all of your standard isekai conventions (transportation to a whole new world, the creation of a hero that has no business being as strong as ... they are, unique weapons, allies and hierarchies, etc.) and completely inflates them. It's just hilarious seeing how dramatically overpowered Maple becomes as the series progresses. Things you might see done by isekai such as Sword Art Online are completely bastardized in BOFURI, and the result is a pure comedy that's fantastic for anyone who's a fan of isekai and/or video games in general.

There are also a few aspects of BOFURI that might not get enough credit. First off, the pacing is phenomenal. Being a pure comedy/parody, it doesn't let itself fall into the pitfalls of forced drama or consequences for actions. As a result, there is absolutely ZERO filler. Everything that happens is key to future events, as silly as they may be, and I respect the hell out of that. Secondly, the CG animation has some of the best implementation I've seen in an anime. It's not Land of the Lustrous-quality CG, to be sure, but it's so well-implemented and doesn't detract from the anime's overall flow at all. There is an abundance of terrible CG in the world of anime, and much to my surprise for a show that doesn't necessarily want to be taken seriously, BOFURI pulls it off very well when used.

Even with RPGs not being my preferred genre of video games, I found a LOT of enjoyment in this series, and I'll absolutely be watching the second season as it airs.

P.S A bit of spoilers in this

So basically a VRMMO anime that is actually like an MMO cause I have played MMOs before and know the fun excitement and everything else MMOS bring to life and this show actually acts like it so I would like to call it a generic VRMMO anime but it is not


It actually makes sense people actually look like they make it and update it occasionally and other stuff normal MMOs have so I like that about it aside from that Yeah you don't feel the rush or life or death stakes in anime like Sword Art Online ... where we know it's like a game but not I'm glad that there is an anime like this that has stakes and enjoyment


That being said I don't wanna see almost all the episodes and the MC does not do anything that at least advances the story a bit so I would say this anime is a mix of a generic also a mix of excitement or more so to the end


I would recommend this anime In my eyes this anime is not so bad tho others would disagree I will say give it a try it's pretty funny and you should give it a try if you like isekai or VRMMO anime or both or just need a new anime to watch I say give it a try

Maple is a Mary Sue.

And if you thought that would mean a negative review of this series, think again, as this is one of those exceptions.

See, Maple is a Mary Sue, but her being one is completely intentional, not to mention completely the fault of the devs of the game she plays. After all, they're the ones who created a game with the loopholes that allowed Maple to become the Mary Sue she is within the game. This in turn results in some crazy stuff going down within the game that wouldn't happen in any other game, and simply because the devs attempted to have ... as many realistic elements they went overboard.

Oh, and they made the mistake of allowing players to be able to stack their stats in one slot, something you won't see in any other games. No, seriously, Maple exists because they didn't think things through, like big time.

To which, while it is true that Maple is intentionally a Mary Sue, that in itself is going to be a turn off for some viewers. It's a good idea to think of the series as a slice-of-life series even though it's not currently marked that way genre wise, as the conflict within the series is more reflective of a slice-of-life type story, with the gamers going through their daily lives, except in game.

There's also a lack of character development because of that, as a lot of the characters fatal flaws are hidden by the fact they're in game and their lives offline aren't at all talked about, because in effect, like with all gamers, that conflict of life offline is left behind. This in turn actually makes it quite realistic to how it is when one games, albiet for some this can be grating not having some of the more common conflict elements one would see in a series with the Video Game theme, such as cheating and hacking, poor sportsman ship.

And it's not needed, at least not at this point, although, in this regard another thing about this series is how it can get repetitive with it being all about the crazy stuff Maple gets up to. Which isn't a bad thing, it's just not necessarily something everyone is going to be interested in.

In other words - true, the series does have some issues one would normally see in those not so great series, but a lot of it is intentional. It's definitely humor driven. Instead of making the series badly written and badly done, it instead means it's a series that isn't everyone's cup of tea.

That said, and this may become an issue in future seasons, is Maple's friend. Her quriks honestly are getting less attention than Maple's are and she feels more like a side kick, whereas the other characters other than Maple seem more developed. And some of her skills become irrelevant later on, or so it seems.

BoFuri is studio Silver Link.’s latest addition to the torrent of video game shows that’s flooded the anime medium since the release of Sword Art Online.

The premise is exactly what you’d expect after a cursory reading of the title. Kaede Honjou, a complete noob, decides to start playing the newest VRMMO, New World Online (I’m not buying that the notion that the NWO abbreviation is an accident), at her friend’s insistence. Since her friend would not be able to log in for the following days because she had to study for upcoming exams, it fell to Kaede to play on her own for a few ... days and figure out the ropes. Once in-game, she creates her character, Maple, and out of fear of getting hurt, stupidly specs all of her stat points into vitality. However, though her build shouldn’t have been effective, through a series of bullshit contrivances, she somehow acquires one broken tank skill after the other and gets so absurdly tanky that she becomes famous within the game’s community and other players nickname her the Walking Fortress.

Let me be very clear. If you’re in any way decent at RPGs or understand basic game design on any level, then Maple’s power escalation will be completely dead to you. Don’t even try to make sense of it. To put it bluntly, this is a video game show for people who suck at video games, RPGs in particular. You have a protagonist who doesn’t understand stat weights at all, doesn’t even know what the concept of minmaxing means, specs the worst build of all time, and creates the most appalling cesspool guild in the history of cesspool guilds.

The twist? Everything works out! It’s wish fulfillment for bad players that says: “Hey, you know how you suck at RPGs because you fuck up all of those basic things? Are you jealous because players who have an IQ barely above room temperature are so much better than you? Do you not understand why your ‘social’ guild that has an open-door invitation policy and pledges to ‘help weaker members level up and get stronger’ isn’t successful? Then Maple is the hero for you!” And in truth, to anyone with any sense and understanding of how RPGs work, she does everything wrong, but what do you know, she turns into one of the most ridiculously overpowered players in the game, and when I say ridiculous, I mean ridiculous.

In a way, I suppose the show tries to make some sort of esoteric point about how you don’t have to obsess about being like the high end try-hard nerds with no lives who minmax everything, what matters is to just have fun.

People often call her the love child of Kirito from Sword Art Online and Naofumi from The Rising of the Shield Hero, but I feel she much more closely resembles Rimuru from That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (which reminds me I have to finish watching that show). Pretty much every single thing she does in the game, no matter how trivial or witless, somehow ends up granting her one godlike skill or stat boost after the other. She LARPs as Magellan from One Piece, literally goes Super Sayian, turns into a fucking Gundam, and even does that thing Kirito did in Alfheim when he turned into a giant demon, pff, all the things!

None of it makes sense. You know what, though? It doesn’t have to. If you watch this expecting it to be a proper video game show, such as SAO or Log Horizon, and critique it as such, then you will be disappointed. However, if you take it for what it is, a wish fulfillment cartoon laden with cute girls just frolicking around and having a good time, then you will have a good time, too.

I clocked what BoFuri was within the first 10 minutes and set my expectations accordingly. As such, I had a blast watching it. It kept me smiling the whole way through, which few series can say they’ve achieved, and I would sincerely burst out laughing every time Maple failed her way into discovering yet another completely broken and unrealistic ability that would have no place in even the alpha of any real game. It truly did take me on a trip down memory lane, reliving all of the confusion and wonder I felt as a newbie in WoW, all the mistakes I made, and all the cockamamie ideas and theories I had about how the game works and how I unironically thought I would become invincible once I learned one spell or another, or obtained this or that item.

The only difference being, of course, that I wasn’t an anime protagonist, so decent players just laughed at me and put me in my place. By far the most unrealistic aspect of BoFuri is how the entire game community instantly fell in love with Maple for how adorably nooby she was, so they collectively decided to look out for her and help her out, because she’s a cute lil’ waifu. Bro, I don’t care how cute she is. Are you kidding me? Ain’t no way. Yes, gamers are a bunch of simps, I’ll grant you that, but they’re shitlords above all else – shitlords first, simps second. Any self-respecting gamer would have mercilessly fucking shit on her for being a noob, and she would have been crying herself to sleep and slitting her wrists before uninstalling. Gamer words would have been flying around on rapid fire mode.

Maple’s ascension took me so far back that I even remembered The Ballad of the Noob. If you don’t know it, then I warmly encourage you to look it up on YouTube. It’s a classic. Besides, setting aside all of Maple’s absurd game-breaking abilities, the show is also full of legitimate classic RPG spells and abilities, such as Intervene, Shadow Step, Ardent Defender, Purgatory, Titan’s Grip, Sprint, Vanish, Taunt, Challenging Shout, Incapacitating Roar, Entangling Roots, and many more. I don’t remember what each one was actually called in the show. Regardless, even if you don’t recognize the World of Warcraft names I’ve listed, I’m sure similar abilities exist in a litany of other RPGs. Just the fact that aggro is a real thing that exists in this game in any capacity made me extremely happy.

Finally, my enjoyment of the series and Maple as a protagonist is owed in no small part to the fact that I personally enjoy playing a tank and have a particular fetish for stamina stacking. Even when I know it’s not the optimal defensive stat to stack, and I do know it’s not the optimal defensive stat to stack, I still love seeing a humongous number on my HP bar. Even if healers then bitch at me for having an unnecessary amount of health and soaking up too much mana to heal, seeing a big number on the green bar still gives me the good chemicals!

As for the technical aspects of the show, I will say that I did not enjoy the color design. Some weird fading and saturation choices were made. Shin Oonuma, the director of BoFuri, was a student of Akiyuki Shinbo, the director of most studio Shaft shows. If you’ve seen anything from the Monogatari franchise, then you’ll know Shinbo has a penchant for eccentric visual presentation. As such, Oonuma tries to emulate his master’s style by giving each one of his shows some kind of striking visual flair. Granted, he is nowhere near the level of Shinbo, but I felt he managed to “pull a Shaft” with episode 11 of Chivalry of a Failed Knight. In my estimation, he did not succeed here.

That being said, the animation was solid. It wasn’t impressive by any means, not even in its most substantial sakuga moments, but solid nonetheless. What I appreciated most about the animation was how many CG elements it contained that were actually pretty decent, Maple’s Hydra (you’ll see) in particular. It fills my cold dead heart with optimism for the future. All these years, all of the horrific CG we’ve endured, it was not in vain! CG in anime is starting to get good! Hope is kindled.

Apart from the visuals, two things did stand out about BoFuri. Number one, the song Good Night sung by Rico Sasaki was a lot of fun and had a fantastic effect on the show, giving it a lot of individual personality, much like Glassy Sky did for the second season of Tokyo Ghoul, though not to the same extent.

Second, I was taken aback by how many heavy hitting voice actors the supporting cast boasts, such as Noriaki Sugiyama (the voice of Sasuke from Naruto, Ishida from Bleach, and Shirou from Fate/Stay Night), Kensho Ono (the voice of Kuroko from Kuroko no Basket, Giorno from JoJo’s Bizare Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind, and Hyakuya from Seraph of the End), Saori Hayami (the voice of Miho from Bakuman. and Miyuki from The Irregular at Magic High School), Satomi Sato (the voice of Wendy from Fairy Tail and Ritsu from K-On!), and my personal favorite, Nobutoshi Canna (the voice of Guts from the original ’97 Berserk, Nnoitra Gilga from Bleach, Cu Chulainn from Fate/Stay Night, Kabuto from Naruto, and Gawl from Generator Gawl).

P.S.: What follows comes with a very light spoiler warning. If I feel that the show has genuinely made any mistakes, and that’s allowing for it being a silly wish fulfillment cartoon, then number one, it’s the fact that sometime in the early episodes, right after Maple acquires the first couple of her broken abilities, the game developers are introduced as characters and they try to nerf her, the operative word here being try. That kind of breaks my suspension of disbelief. You want to have a story about a cute lil’ idiot waifu who dicks around in a video game and becomes invincible largely by mistake? Fine, but then that means we’re pretending that things like game balance and nerfs don’t exist. The moment you tell me they still do exist, regardless of how broken you attempt to make your waifu protagonist to compensate, that’s when you start to lose me.

Second, and this is the weirdest fucking thing about BoFuri, it appears that the game, NWO, has the ability to mess with your perception of time. For various reasons, events and such, the game is able to alter your perception of time so that what you legitimately experience as an entire week in-game, like, a proper 7-day cycle (honest to God, people go to sleep in-game during the night and shit), is only 2 hours in real life, literally just 2 hours. So, you log in now, wake back up 2 hours later, but you’re mentally a whole week older now. At the very least, NWO appears to be able to alter your perception of time by a factor of 84. That’s insane. It’s such a weird contrivance and this kind of technology would have so, so, so many potential real-world implications, it’s bizarre to see the show just mention it on a whim like “Oh, yeah, the game can also do this, by the way”, like, wait a second, hold the fucking phone, can we talk about this? This is a big deal! It is just my contention that the show could have handled the long duration of the in-game events in a way that did not necessarily require introducing technology that has Skynet-level implications.

Alas, fun, cute show. Enjoy!

While I would say that it is not the single greatest anime of all time. I cannot help but love this anime. While cute and silly, it is refreshing to watch an anime from a genre that usually takes itself pretty seriously with some small parts that are silly.

I can say that this anime is a Moe spin on the virtual world/VRMMO anime genre with aspects of it that are just straight-up ridiculous and silly, while still being very entertaining. I am usually having a good laugh or am laughing by the end of every episode so far (up to episode 5 at the ... time of this review).

While this anime is not in my top 10 anime of all time, it is definitely in my top 25.

*might have spoilers*

Yet another VRMMO Isekai anime, but the premise of this sounded kind of fun and fresh.
Sadly this anime is anything but not that, it's probably worse than a lot of others.

I realize that this show isn't meant to be very serious, deep or story-driven.. but there's so many other flaws that make this just.. really boring and irrelevant. So I'm gonna judge it on those things it is supposed to be.

-Characters:
BOFURI kind of wants to be a slice-of-life show focusing on cute girls doing cute things like so many other shows do. I find that this only works if you have somewhat interesting, ... unique characters. A cute/crazy characteristic/quirk or a variety of personalities that go well together and profit of each other usually achieve the goal of making the audience like cute girls even tho they just do kind of boring things.
However this anime really fails here already.. None of the characters really has something that makes them stand out or makes the interaction between them interesting.. All the girls are basically the same? They're optimistic, friendly and determined. I feel like people are blinded by character design concepts sometimes that tries to indicate a certain personality to a character.. but it's really kind of a trap. Like some books with nicely designed covers but there really is the same story in every each of them. None of them really has a flaw or any depth.. I felt totally indifferent to all of them. Everyone being super OP really didn't help either...

-The game:
Even tho this is a slice-of-life/comedy show you should kind of expect the anime to at least stay realistic in some aspects when it comes to the game design of the MMO the characters are playing. Because if everything is just excused by this not being a serious anime.. then you might as well have no structure or premise at all.
To be blunt here.. the game in this anime has absolutely nothing in common with actual MMO's and how they work. There is no balancing.. the way characters acquire new skills is just ridiculous (like being exposed to poison for a long time = resistance to poison... if it worked like this every player would be resistant at some point). Unimportant characters seem to only ever own 1 or 2 different skills.. while Maple has like 500 OP unique, undefeatable skills in her pockets.. and she also didn't really do anything for them except being silly and lucky as shit.
The characters never really die.. nothing ever feels like a challenge they have to overcome..
It's not a parody either tho.. because it doesn't make you laugh about smth that feels familiar with games you play. Idk where the entertainment is in this really? Would you watch a hacker play through a whole game by just cheating through literally everything? sound interesting? no? yeh you're right.


-The concept of Maple:
The whole premise of the show is Maple putting all her skill points into defense so that she won't get hurt. So initially I thought alright... I guess she will be very sturdy and probably undefeatable while her friends will take the damage job. But oh boy was I wrong..
Maple just gets every OP skill you could ever imagine. Without any effort, no dev doing anything against it. She really doesn't need her guild members at all.. which makes them even more pointless and irrelevant as they already are having no personalities.
Idk what the point of the premise was if you're just gonna give Maple the strongest skills to defeat anyone without even really getting to TAKE any damage.

-The comedy:
So the characters aren't quirky, the game isn't parody-material, the events and general 'adventures' of the characters aren't interesting nor funny nor.. anything.
I tried looking for the comedy in this but I can't find it, I'm sorry. Maybe episode one makes you blow some air outta your nose but that's about it really. All the 'jokes' are really predictable, boring lil things that we have seen dozen of times.

All in all this is one of the most boring, lazy shows I have seen in a while. I'm a little shocked and disappointed that it still manages to impress some people.. because clearly there went no effort into this..Ha. Just like Maple.
Animation and Music isn't really outstanding either.

Not recommending this one.

What can you expect from watching BOFURI? You can expect a fun time, with a very simple story. If you're someone that needs at least a bit of complexity in your story, then unfortunately, this probably won't be the show for you. This is something you can watch for the sole purpose of enjoying your time, and I would say that it does a good job at that!

So what is the this about? As the long title implies, our protagonist, Maple, doesn't like getting hurt, so she maximizes her defense! We're following her quest in this game that her friend (Sally) got her into, as ... she becomes more and more overpowered. Of course, because this is just a game, the conflicts in the story, if you can even call them that, are never that deep. Instead, they’re just objectives of what they (our main characters) want to achieve at a given time. The story does not get more complex than that, which could be good, but it does admittedly have drawbacks. On one hand, the tone doesn't really change, so we have continuous fun times. I personally enjoyed this (A LOT), however, it would be understandable for this to become repetitive to the point of boredom to some people, because let's be very clear: this is pretty repetitive. New thing to do in the game -> Maple becomes more overpowered -> succeed in objective. I found this fun, but it would be fair if others wouldn't enjoy this.

On the other hand, the lack of complexity can be a drawback for people that enjoy more fleshed out stories. I talked about the actual plot a bit, but there is a bit more to it than just that. We don't learn anything about the characters, and their real lives. We don't even learn much about Maple (Kaede being her real name) and Sally (Lisa), who are friends that go to school together. We are shown a few conversations between the two in real life, but it mostly revolves around "Remember to study so you don't get grounded so you can keep playing". We genuinely don't learn much more about them beyond that. I believe that this isn't too much of an issue because of the intention of just being a fun and simple show. However, it's still important to point out, since it would be entirely reasonable for people not to enjoy this aspect of the story.

So overall, who should watch this? If you can enjoy a simple show that's just trying to be fun, then this is should be fun to watch! However, if you don't enjoy simple stories with 1-dimensional characters, then this is something to avoid. If you aren't sure where you lie, then I would say to give it a try!

Disappointed in Shield Hero? Then why not try out Shield Loli?

It's kinda ironic how I dropped this show a few months ago but then came back and gave it a 10/10.

When you mix isekai and drama you get a generic isekai. However, if you mix ( good ) comedy and isekai you get another generic isekai. But good! BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense. is one of the best comedy isekai shows out there which represents how good comedy RPG can be.

Realism? Seriousness? Perfection? Bruh. Sometimes you just have to drop your weapons and ... chill. The comedies from this show makes use of the cliches in this show and allowed them to become one with the comedies. When two of them are combined together, you either become amused or act like an old generation elitist who doesn't get jokes nowadays.

This show was really good and I can't wait for season 2 to come. This show is highly recommended to people who've seen loli isekais and enjoyed watching the majority of them. If you have experience with RPG and RP then feel free to watch this one as well.

I actually can not believe how well received this show is. It is absolutely terrible.

Normally I am totally okay with overpowered protagonists, because of the settings they are in. Yes i know most of the times the op protagonist gets his powers through a really dumb way, but i have never seen it done that badly. The crucial point and why i think that this op protag story is so bad, because it happens inside a video game. But that is not the only reason, because we had op protags in games in other animes as well, but New World is so broken beyond belief, ... you could make a hour long video about it.
Even worse the devs just give up on nerfing the protagonist and list reasons, that make no sense at all for why they came to that decision.

Okay that was enough negativity. If you are able to suspend your disbelief for this broken game system or you are able to turn your brain off while watching you might have a good time with this anime.

I certainly didn't have a good time.