this game has a number of sticks in which one is inscribed the king. The rest are commoners. The commoners should follow the king's command at all cost. But since there are only two players this time, we are going to go with a simple game where the one who draws the king will win.
...So why the hell are these two ready to kill each other?!?!?"
-From D-Frag
First of all, let me put the summary of this whole anime in one sentence.
WHY DID YOU HAVE TO EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEND!
...Then, before I actually begin, let me explain that because this is a comedy like nichijou where nothing makes sense but everything is funny, I'll grade this differently.
PS. Absolutely no spoilers, but some words may suggest indirect minor plot points.
Story: 10
I'm wrong? There isn't much of a story?
No, this is not that simple.
Creating a comedy requires more skills than one might think. Especially for a theme like D-frag, one needs to be very thoughtful. This is not just senseless laughter found in nichijou, or a laughter at the dumbness of baka to test. This gets a game as casual and simple as king's game or the war of thumbs and create something funny and interesting. Nobody wants to watch two men playing the game of thumbs, but in this, yes you do. The ability to make something boring funny is a grandiose skill that requires much attention and imagination.
Another criterion that I absolutely loved was the continual unfolding of funny behind stories and mysteries that just cracked me up. I cannot explain this without spoiling, so I will go on.
Story was a work of art. Many will disagree and say there was no much of anything for story, but this, like I said, need to be given a whole new method of grading.
Art: 9
Sure, the animation is not the best in the world, and we can't help but notice the rainbow colors of the hairs.
However, these are not necessary factors when making a comedy.
What D-frag wanted and needed was an animation where one could easily crack up, or be caught in adorableness, and this type of animation was its soul mate. Instead of hiring IG entertainment or Ufotable, the simple and "chibi" animation was what it really needed.
But this alone wouldn't get the anime 10, so I gave art a nine. A fluent movement in unnecessary scenes are also a factor to crack people up, but unfortunately D-frag didn't contain this element. For that I gave art a 9.
Sound: 8
Starting from the seiyuus this time, in contrast to how I usually grade the sound. The sound is in three parts: BGM, OP/ED and voice over.
The voice actors are some of the greatest in the world. For Shibasaki Roka, who needed both the yandere-type voice and cute-type voice, there were not too many in the anime history who could do both but the jack-of-all-trades voice actor hanazawa kana. Roka's voice requirements overlapped well with Sengoku Nadeko of monogatari series, and there was no better candidate than Kana in this voice over. Then, as for our main-character delinquent, we have katsuyuki konishi, the prime voice actor of delinquents. In addition, for the voice actor of sakuragaoka, a girl-like boy who had to sound both like a boy and a girl, we had the voice actor of hayate, shiraishi ryoko. We have the woman who changed Japan towards cuteness, aki toyosaki, for the best girl, along with takao in the story, funabori. Not to mention of course, they all did their jobs admirably. Even the extras' voice acting was admirable. However, there were times when the voicing was a little awkward--especially when kazama played the straight-man role. To begin with kazama's voice actor is not aced in straight-man role. Also, the times when the voice actor shouted "ba-ka!" weirded me out a little bit. Still, kazama's voice actor did his job splendidly and the ba-ka was understandable for the genre of the anime, so I gave voice acting a 9.
As for the opening, I at least hated the song. However, as we learned from a certain song called "Platinum Disco" and the opening of "Haiyore Nyaruko-san", there are songs which deserves A+++ for the music quality and other songs which deserves A+++ for catchiness, and this opening is the latter. Still, the song could annoy some people off, so I gave this an 8.
The ending, on the other hand, was in between quality and catchiness. It was both easily remembered in the ear and sang well. Still, the song was not good enough to be given a 10, so I gave the ending a 9.
Lastly, the BGM's were done splendidly. They weren't cliche or repeated over and over. They were used thoroughly and well. Some songs inspired urgency and even awe and a BGM that does the right job deserves a 10.
So all in all, I gave the sound a high 8.
Character: 8
Don't you just love all characters?
We have all characters with their own appeals, especially Takao and Funabori, who are not in the main 5 characters but are more famous than the main 5's. I cut it off also because of that--the main characters are not given enough attention, especially Sakura. She, although being a part of the club, shows little significance in the whole anime. I also cut off points for the teacher characters that appeared at the last second.
Enjoyment: 10
BUT WHO THE HELL CARES ABOUT ALL THESE?
D-Frag certainly cannot be a masterpiece, considering each categories carefully.However, they can make people laugh like no other, and they don't need any of these categories to do so. The story? WHO CARES! The art? WHO CARES! The sound? WHO THE HELL CARES!!! The characters? WHO IN THE HELL CARES!!!!! D-Frag is simply fun. It does not bring up the nonsensical exaggerated comedy in Nichijou, or the eternal dumbness in baka to test. They are fun because they are. Even if the story is nonexistent, even if the art is premature, even if the sound is annoying, even if the characters aren't fully developed, D-Frag can turn the tables and create enjoyment out of it.
Overall: 9
D-Frag is certainly, without doubt, the best anime of the spring/winter of 2014. There might not be stories to be awed at, or arts to be awed at, or sounds or awesome character developments to be awed at, but this definitely is an anime that you can be awed at.
It most definitely needs more attention. If you haven't watched it, you should immediately start watching.
Then, happy anime-ing and may the anime be with you.
