Answer: Musaigen no Phantom World
Ok, but seriously, MnPW has me hot. Like mad irritated. The light novel has a concept already interesting enough to draw from as source material. But an adaptation does not HAVE to be the source, and that's ok. MnPW could have had an interesting premise without taking any dark turns. It could have had strong characters, an interesting plot line, and comedic elements that let's the viewers know that a show can be strong without having to take itself TOO seriously. Fun is allowed every now and then, right? However, MnPW has none of these elements.
Warning , this review contains a hint of extremely vague spoilers! (There's nothing that could really ruin an experience, but just to be safe.)
When it comes to the plot, all I can sum it up in three words: extremely lazy writing. It's possible Kyoani doesn't know what foreshadowing is, and if that's the case, someone ought to tell them to use it more than two times in all 13 episodes. There is little to no continuity until the last 2 episodes and all that MnPW relies on is a little "communication device", which Haruhiko picks up "by chance". The plot presented in ep 12 and 13 could be called interesting, except for it is lazily tied up in the span of 15-20 minutes. Such an present box ending could be acceptable if the arc didn't last all but TWO EPISODES. AT THE END. It's obvious Kyoani wasn't gunning for the "twist ending" from the LN, so they have no excuse to try and conceal all plot points in an effort to bring shock value. Even stories that try and do this usually use foreshadowing, but are good enough at it that by the big reveal, you find yourself almost annoyed at how you couldn't see the big twist ending coming.
Two, when it comes to characters, all i can say is WASTED POTENTIAL, and I mean WASTED. At the start of this anime, the most developed character was Reina, but towards the end, Reina takes a backseat to Mai, who is the strongest character by far. Of course, Mai takes a backseat to Haruhiko in ep 13, since he suddenly becomes extremely useful to the team and levels up by 500%. Haruhiko said it best. "Humans can grow". lmao. The weakest character with potential in this anime is definitely Koito, who the writers could have done so much more with. I actually really liked Mai so all I can say in conclusion is that all I feel is a mix of "wow what a let down" and "what a waste of my time- but what did i expect".
Three, finally, the comedic aspect. The "comedic" aspect dominates 11 ep, and then takes a back seat to the "plot". Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not some overly edgy individual who can't enjoy comedy because it's not sophisticated enough for my "intellectual" tastes. There are many examples of comedies who do not need to be governed by the rigid lines of continuity. I think if the comedy was strong in this show, it would have made it much more tolerable. However, there was nothing extremely funny about MnPW. Out of the 11 comedy focused episodes, I only found three to be enjoyable: The episode where Reina gets a temporary fake family, the cat episode, and the episode where Mai becomes a stand in mom. I even had trouble trying to recall some of these, that's how unmemorable these 2 were, (with the exception of Mom Mai. I would have watched an anime all about her being a parent alone.)
When even the comedy is weak, there is really nothing to this show that saves it. Nothing for it to fall back on. What irritates me the most about this, outside of the lazy writing, is that I wanted to like this show. The premise was actually interesting. I actually found myself attached to Mai, who acted out of the "tsundere childhood friend" trope. Yet I received nothing in return but lazy writing, boring comedy, weak characters, and a few tastes sprinkled in of what this show could really be. This was weak as hell.
