New Game takes the trend of the development of the industry this time being video games and as much as New Game isn't trying to be the next SHIROBAKO as it's genre is more of a slice of life comedy (as it was based on a 4-koma), but as such it does use of the information from the game industry as it's main crux of the anime with ALOT of comedic and *cough* yuri undertones it has.
In terms of characters we have a ragtag bunch of characters with their own eccentric quirks such as the main character Aoba Suzukaze voiced by Yuuki Takada who graduated from highschool and joined the game company of EagleJump as an intern, Hifumi Takimoto voiced by Megumi Yamaguchi, a character designer and the "shy one", the ojou Yun Iijima voiced by Ayumi Takeo another character designer, Hajime Shinoda voiced by Megumi Toda a movement animation designer and Rin Tooyama voiced by Ai Kayano the art director. LA's favorite character?...Kou Yagami voiced by Yoko Hisaka, the senior member of the character design team and mentor to Aoba, why?...well it wasn't just because of Yoko Hisaka but because of her underlining yuri undertones to Rin...also her comedic moments helped alot. From typical girl doing cute things anime, the characters are eccentric at best and LA really liked it for what the cute girls doing cute things anime does and New Game easily met that criteria.
As for the plot, as it focuses on the industry it follows in the management of developing a game a la character designer and for the huge amount of comedic moments that DOESN'T have much to do with game development and focuses more on the character themselves with their wild antics, they at least do give a scenario as to what game development (mainly character designing) entails. If you solely wanted nothing but focusing on what it takes to make a game...the your gonna be disappointed, if your in it for the comedic moments with sprinkles of game development and just like seeing cute girls doing cute things...then this is easy choice to watch. The final two to three episodes does however heavily rely on the final days of the game development, the game's release and their after party.
Comedically...since New Game is based on a 4-koma manga, the comedy ranges from typical character jabs at their personality or actions they do (Hajime and Nene being obvious examples) to a boke to tsukommi routine (manzai routine) that works to varying degrees, however the comedy does shine for LA as the character's chemistry with each other does get heavily focused on which works to the comedy's advantage, overall for LA, the comedy was pretty funny throughout.
In terms of animation, Doga Kobo, the animation has a poppy and vibrant color palette with both it's character designs and backgrounding which again fits to it's 4-koma atmosphere. The character designs in-universe (you know the 3D models Aoba and Kou works on) were also done a great detail adding in the moments the anime focuses on the game "character design" development.
New Game quietly improved however balancing both comedy and the look at the game industry with Nene Sakura voiced by Madoka Asahina, a friend of Aoba as she becomes a debugger for EagleJump as well as trying to see how Aoba is doing, it also helped with Umiko Ahagon voiced by Chitose Morinaga, the programming chief of the game company and gun nut and Shizuku Hazuki voiced by Eri Kitamura, the director of the game which helped delve a bit deeper into game development and naturally hilarity ensues.
New Game is by far LA's greatest guilty pleasure for LA for Summer 2016, with Kou Yagami being LA's second favourite character in that season as well. Be it with New Game's strengths to it's comedy and eccentric characters, but sometimes lack of focus to it's game development at times and people's obvious distaste for "moe" and "girls doing cute things" at times can make New Game mixed, however for LA, New Game was a pretty fun look at the gaming development industry with their eccentric characters and LA loves New Game for that...
