Studio David had us believing that they were going to do pretty well by this adaption. And in the first few episodes, that’s the impression you get. But from there on, it all goes downhill. It’s unfortunate, but the end product turned out to be a bit of a rushed mess that only captured a fraction of what was so loveable about the games.
The first thing that’s noticeably off about this adaption is the character designs. Tsunako, the original character designer, is practically the master of detailed and attractive moe character designs. These designs don’t translate too well into this anime. The designs just don’t look as good as Tsunako’s. There were even some shots where the characters looked sloppy, uneven, and oddly proportioned. To be fair, it can be difficult to adapt designs from a game into an anime using a completely different character designer. But it isn’t as if it’s impossible. The anime adaptions of Tales of the Abyss and Persona 4 are two in particular that succeeded in looking very close to their original character designs. And AIC did a much better job of adapting Tsunako’s designs in the Date a Live anime.
The animation is not bad, but nothing spectacular. There are some flashy transformation scenes that we’re treated with that are never to be seen in the later episodes. The backgrounds are bright and colorful, fitting with the spirit of the series. The fight scenes are very minimal, not serving as much excitement in terms of action.
Another gripe I had with this adaption is how they portrayed the characters. The girls of Hyperdimension Neptunia are loveable and hilarious. There’s a girl out there for everyone to love: the tsundere, the yandere, the genki girl, the little sister character, the rich girl, and much much more. It’s true, they are typical anime archetypes that we’ve seen time and time again. But what made them fun was the comedic banter and playful interactions between the characters. In the anime, these interactions aren’t always as fun or funny as they were in the game.
Not only that, but Studio David literally shoved two games worth of characters into a twelve episode anime. Yes, over twenty characters had to duke it out for screen time in an incredibly short show. So to remedy this, they gave the most popular characters, Noire, Neptune, and Nepgear the most screentime, while neglecting and sometimes outright ignoring other characters. Fans of the three most popular characters won’t mind at all, but it sucks for those of us who are bigger fans of the other characters.
In the game, the girls may have been typical archetypes but they rocked it and even made fun of it several times. There’s no self-awareness in the anime so they just seem like generic characters, and to make it even worse the anime sometimes wants us to actually take it seriously. What is this sorcery!?
The Neptunia games have always been about jokes, good fun, parody, and humor. But here we go with the melodrama in this anime. Cringeworthy melodrama at that. The Neptunia games have never been about being serious. Even in moments that seemed serious, someone would crack a joke or do something silly to remind us “Hey! This is a parody you know!” The melodramatic moments aren’t handled well, and they stand awkwardly next to whole episodes that involve silly humor and jokes. It’s off putting and it’s just not Neptunia.
Here’s a fun fact: One possible ending in the second game was one that was incredibly shocking, dramatic, way too serious, and a bit disturbing. The fans hated it so much that Compile Heart chose not to include anything like it in the third game. Okay. So it’s been established that the fans don’t like that sort of thing. So what made Studio David think it was a good idea to put seriousness in the anime as well?
My last gripe with this adaption is the overall execution. It’s a mostly original story, only loosely following the events of the second and third game while adding some new scenarios. This gave the story an enormous amount of potential. Unfortunately, as stated above, this story had no flipping clue what it wanted to do with itself. It jumps from serious to silly at the drop of a dime. It can’t decide if it wants to be an action anime or a slice of life anime. Characters are severely neglected to give the three most popular characters screen time. In turn, we get characters who we meet for one or (if they’re lucky) a few episodes and then quickly forget about, such as CFW Trick, Linda, Abnes, and Anonydeath, who were hilarious characters in the game. Their origins don’t resemble what they were in the game; in fact, they are sometimes not even mentioned at all. So they appear then disappear and we aren’t supposed to care or even notice. Good god, I could have directed this anime while drunk.
Now despite my harsh criticisms, I did enjoy this anime a little bit. And it does have some redeeming qualities. The voice acting is as good as it’s ever been, with most of the voice actors reprising their roles from the game. The soundtrack is a mix of original tracks with the splendid music from the game. The transformations, though only appearing a few times in the beginning are flashy and much nicer than the simple transformations they introduced in the second and third game.
There is a small sliver of the Neptunia spirit in the episodes that focus on parody and silliness. The video game references and jokes are still there and although the animation is subpar, it is nice to see your favorite Neptunia characters up and at ‘em. After all, the cutscenes in the games were mostly visual novel-esque scenes.
Overall, this adaption is not good but not terrible either. It’s hard to recommend this to anyone who isn’t already a diehard fan of Neptunia. One who is just being introduced to the series through the anime might not have a positive impression of the series at the end. The second and third games would be an ideal starting place if you’re looking to get in to Hyperdimension Neptunia and experience it in its original, silly, over the top glory. If you’re going to watch the anime first anyway, it’s imperative that you keep an open mind and not write off the entire franchise due to this anime. Studio David really did try, but the end product just wasn’t as good as it could have been.
