Story: 5
There's NOTHING special about Asterisk War's story. A generic plot for a generic light novel. There's this academy, you see, and there are six factions. They all train people in this super cool magic technology fighting thing, where you have weapons called Luxes and magic called Prana and stuff, and there are races like Strega and Genestella, and you have battle terms and tactical messages like setting-type and-
Yeah, it isn't going to cut it.
The story of this isn't necessarily bad. It's incredibly generic, for sure, but I can see potential. A lot of the world was introduced but not gone over, so the watchers are left in confusion about what this item is or what that is, who this group is. That brings me to plot holes and foreshadowing. There is SO. MUCH. FORESHADOWING. In this show. It's not even funny. Watching this feels like every couple of minutes a new character or threat or even start of a new arc is put into action, and these things will be completely ignored for the rest of the show or foreshadowed multiple more times without any consistency, leading to a very contrived and seemingly dynamic plot that just has holes and confusion. On a technical aspect the story is a wreck, but this messy, generic, harem does have potential to be fleshed out for a legitimately good story. That's about all there is to it.
It's typical of light novel adaptations though. Look at No Game No Life, they ended on a serious cliffhanger. Asterisk War isn't all that different. It wraps up like, half of an arc, but there's still too many things left unexplained to be considered acceptable.
Art: 7
This art also has tons of potential that isn't used. Let me just say this, the animation is BEAUTIFUL. The effects are top-notch; they're flashy, colorful, fluid, all that. The opening is just a visual orgasm. The 3-D effects are amazing, and it's excellent how it zoomed through the bases of each of the six factions. Great job for the opening designers.
But anyways, the art has potential that is wasted. I can only explain this feeling as the animators were "lazy." The environment wasn't breathtaking nor was it abhorrent, but it was just lazy and didn't stand out. Another thing was, the art worked too hard to bring focus to one character. Some scenes felt like one character would speak or move around and the others would be frozen until their turn came. It was too linear and sequential.
Another thing is the fights were lazily choreographed. Some of the fight moves seem contrived and forced, not to mention illogical. I mean, if you're going to block a sword swing, would you block it with the very tip of your weapon when you could be safe and use the main body? If you're going to attack, are you going to practically fall forwards if you miss, leaving yourself open for a direct hit on the back? Remind me how long your sword is; not that long, right, so you should probably move a bit closer before you attack if you want to hit anything. And some of the fights defy physics. I get that it's like magic and super powers and whatever, but we don't get an explanation on the limits of these magi-tech weapons and their users. They can block a lightning fast two-handed overhead strike with an upwards motion using one hand, yet they don't know how to redirect a weapon clash and slide forwards to attack?
TLDR, too many inconsistencies with combat limitations and physics. Everything just seems like everybody is in god-mode, except for the losers.
Sound: 5
Hey, I don't harp on sound or anything, I usually don't care. However, there were some extreeeeemely cringe-worthy voice actors that I realized, SUPER annoying. Kirin, Korona, for example. Everybody else is just a generic voice. Other than that, the music was fine. The sound effects were good- especially when Saya pulls Ayato's head into her chest. That was good.
Character: 6
With a generic light novel plot comes generic light novel characters. Here's the roster:
-Protagonist-kun Ayato is noble, overpowered, and usually random when it comes to how he behaves. Oh, and he's completely oblivious to his harem. Sound familiar?
-Tsundere deuteragonist Julis who is extremely predictable and also pretty overpowered.
-Deredere sadist Kurodia. She has huge boobs and is flirtatiously aggressive.
-Anti-social gun-loving childhood friend Saya. Loli, ahoge, laid-back, calm..
-Airhead Kirin. Loli with huge bust, squeaky voice, and vanilla sword skills.
-Autonomous robot AR-D. Mechanical, powerful, but still gets his ass kicked by RM-C through sexism.
Those are the main characters, protagonist-kun and his harem. AR-D only shows up in like, half of one episode, but he's easily my favorite character right after Saya. Everybody else falls under a couple of categories. One is "mysterious character who isn't memorable and has too many ulterior motives." Two is "villain with too many ulterior motives." Three is "supporting character who shows up randomly." Four is "not important generic NPC placeholder."
Characters are generic, nobody special. Gets a 6 because AR-D is funny as hell and needs more screen time, and Saya is my favorite type of girl. But anyways, the most overused archetypes there are.
Enjoyment: 8
I can't say I didn't enjoy the first 7 episodes. Until I watched Digibro's videos, I happily took in this show for what it was worth. Sure, it was generic and predictable and full of bothersome mysterious plot contrivances and nonsense, but I like that kind of stuff. Of course it was no longer a masterpiece after I started paying attention, but that's okay. I don't hate this show.
Overall: 6
It was alright, to be honest. I enjoyed it, but there are problems with the show. Much like Sword Art Online, where the plot jumps around and doesn't make sense because nothing is really explained to you, and plot holes are skipped over in favor of random arcs and crap. Much like Sword Art Online, where the protagonist is just overpowered and doesn't have much trouble with anything because he's just naturally good. Much like Sword Art Online, where the side characters really don't have much screentime and personality consistency, and also the second main character is a tsundere. Much like Sword Art Online, where the art and sound weren't exactly shit but could have been put to much better use. Much like Sword Art Online, because I fucking loved it until I realized how bad it was.
Yeah, I know it's a dick move to compare this show to SAO. Everybody does that these days. The two shows just share a lot of issues that led to their downfalls. I should write a recommendation for them.
Don't take my words for granted. This show has a wide variety of reception: from people rating it complete garbage because of all the errors to people rating it ten because of how cool it was to them. If you're at all interested in the tags, give this show a try because it's a bit better than most of its kind. If you're interested in the plot synopsis.. don't watch it, the plot really is just an appetizer or something here.
