Holo no Graffiti

Ahoy~! Yo dayo! Hi Honey <3

Welcome to Holo no Graffiti, a magical show that details the daily lives of the many fantastic talents of Hololive! It’s my pleasure to give you a tour of what Hololive has to offer.

Get excited to taste what Haachama and friends cook up with each and every installment!

“AH↓HA↑HA↓HA↑” You’ll be laughing in all directions while watching each and every episode!

You’ll be biting your yubis in anticipation to see what comes next!

Come and enjoy a variety of skits put on by the girls of Hololive, who all have their own unique quirks, charming looks, and fun personalities. Feel yourself overwhelmed ... by the plethora of memes, references, and shitposts packed into each short segment. Watching each Elite episode makes you feel like your tripping on a heavy dose of Asacoco, and it’s frickin amazing!

Oh, and if you think that the girls lack “depth” or “complexity”, all I have to say to you is NAAAAAAAAAA. For example, Suisei’s story is a heartwarming tale about never giving up. She spent a long time being unnoticed and was even rejected by Hololive once. But she persevered and put in the effort to rise in talent and popularity. Now she shines for thousands like a comet in the night sky. Other members like Watame and Kanata have also had obstacles in their lives that seem incredibly daunting, but they always keep their positivity and push forward. May I remind you that these idols are real people. They’re actually pretty inspirational.

Hololive is also an educational experience too. Crazy, right? I’ve learned more Japanese from watching 6 months of Hololive than 6 years of anime. I’ve been enlightened by words such as Yametekudastop and 草. I’ve also learned how to differentiate between ducks and swans, chickens and phoenixes, and a variety of other animals. Truly life changing.

Just remember, these episodes are short comedy skits, so when you see the multitude of overwhelmingly positive scores towards Holo no Graffiti, don't think that it's because there's a well thought out or deep narrative in place here. In fact, most episodes are a convoluted mess of insanity. But that's what makes it so fun. Seeing these idols just having a blast and being crazy together is a joy to watch, and if you're a fan of Vtubers or are interested in them, I'd definitely suggest giving this a try.

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And one more thing.

Make sure to go and watch the girls’ actual channels! They provide a crap ton of enjoyable content covering a variety of fields that just about anyone can enjoy. So sit back, relax, and enjoy your fall down the rabbit hole!

Ok, so I'm not exactly a fan of Hololive; Not that I have anything against it or v-tubers in general, I just never got into it. I have a vague understanding of some of the more popular characters from memes and stream clips, but I've never sat through one of their streams. I do, however, have an Hololive-obsessed friend who showed me a few of these and now that this show has been added to MAL I am bound by the competitionest's curse to see this through to the very end.

Story: I'd like to say that there is no real story holding the ... episodes together, but seeing as 22 episodes are privated and unavailable as of this post, there could be some light continuity that I am unaware of. The comedy can be pretty hit-or-miss, but I like the way it hits when it does. The jokes are often snappy and some of the references were just obscure enough to give me a brief sense of satisfaction.

Art: The models themselves look pretty good and that's to be expected; after all, they were carefully and thoughtfully designed to be visually entertaining enough to keep one's attention for hours on end. However, the backgrounds and props are an entirely different story. They are often low polly, poorly textured, and downright ugly. This is often used to heighten comedic effect, but that isn't enough for me to count it as a net positive. The animation can also be very sloppy at times.

Sound: There are many episodes in which I notice slight differences in microphone quality. This drives me absolutely nuts. Also, I think some of these girls just aren't cut out for doing voices in scripted media.

Character: Holo no Graffiti is carried entirely by its characters and that's to be expected. After all, they're the reason why everyone (other than myself) is probably watching this show. There is no character development (let alone arcs), but this is one of those times where I'm completely ok with that. Each character carries with them their own chunck of the Hololive lore, and while I'm not exactly familiar with them I still find them pretty neat for that reason.

Even as an outsider to the Hololive Fandom, I'm having a pretty good time with this show. I still don't see myself becoming an avid Hololive fan anytime soon, but I'll admit that my interest has been piqued. If anyone has a link to a place where I can watch the 20-or-so privated episodes, I would greatly appreciate it if you'd send it my way. While you're at it, pitch your favorite v-tuber to me if you want.

Alright, so, just to preface, this review is coming from someone who hasn't really watched much hololive stuff. I've seen a few clips here and there on YouTube (As most of us have at this point, it's inescapable.) but I haven't exactly dedicated any time to watching full streams or remembering many of the members' names. With that out of the way, here's my review of what I've seen of this little anime.

Story - 1

There basically is no story, as each short is a disconnected gag. The stories in the individual episodes are barebones at best, but I understand that this isn't really something you ... ought to rate on its story, so I'm not going to really go into detail here.

Art - 5

It's always nice to see 3d anime, but this one is nothing to write home about. The character designs are nice for each character, if not a bit overdesigned (However that's just nitpicking). The animation is very rough, with complex movements looking awkward, but they keep it snappy enough with lots of things going on that you may not notice it. The backgrounds are mostly either plain colors or seemingly cheap 3d models, but with all of the other things going on this is also hard to notice unless you're paying a lot of attention to detail.

Sound - 5

The only thing that stood out about this anime's sound was the near-constant sound effects and music. While I understand that it's a fast-paced ONA comedy series based on vtuber streamers, this was jarring.

Character - 3

Again, I'm not experienced with hololive. if you're a regular fan, you'll probably love all of the jokes which I don't get. Each episode seems to have a different combination of characters, which keeps it visually interesting.

Enjoyment - 1

I didn't ever feel any particular attachment to these characters, settings, dialogue, etc. It was an experience, but not exactly one that resonates with me, or probably anyone who doesn't really care about hololive.

Overall - 1

I decided to write this review as a different perspective than from what a lot of the hololive fans are saying. I can recommend this to just about nobody other than people who like hololive, or have nothing else to do. If you don't like that stuff - just find something else to watch. Hololive fans though, go for it!