One thing I was grateful towards New Game was the fact that it does not take place in a highschool setting. Instead, we follow Suzukaze Aoba who has turned 18 and we see her starting her job at Eaglejump, a game development company that inspired her with the game Fairies Story. The fact that we are looking at an actual company makes a big difference because what the characters do here become so much more important compared to if it were a highschool club. Plus, it is a great change from the usual settings we may see in anime.
The anime does do a pretty good job at focusing on the process of game development, which is what you would expect from it. We see the dilemmas the characters face at each step. Even things such as the characters working overtime or even going as far as to sleep at the workplace all fit within the realms of the game development process. We see the characters especially Aoba learning from mistakes and constantly trying to better herself. All of that makes it so that this anime actually has the right atmosphere of it being a game development company.
However, this anime does not fully focus on the processes of game development. In fact, a lot of the times, the actual important processes are being introduced but then skipped till the end. Filling up the extra time are the characters doing other things when they are taking breaks or when they are done for the day. And while that isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is kind of upsetting that this anime kinda feels more like a casual anime series than an anime that truly delves into the process of game making. If I were to add, the whole anime feels overly light-hearted and it never feels like the characters are serious in getting the game finished before the actual deadline.
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And I would have to say that the use of padding was most obvious especially after Nene decided to do part time work at the company. The biggest one was definitely the pudding dilemma. Now putting that aside, I will say that the last 2 episodes really saved this anime's ass. It was here that it felt like things were getting serious. And I was very glad that the anime ended after the game had been made. It was weird though to see the last episode resembling so much of Shirobako but I loved it that way. And the last moments in the anime, yeah, I'd say that was pretty darn touching.
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Now, time to comment a bit on other minor details. Firstly, the comedy. In this particular series, Doga Kobo didn't screw up. I did find this anime to be rather hilarious and many of the jokes were actually really creative and they definitely got me. Next, the fanservice. Although it was not really a problem, I must say that there was a little bit of an overuse of fanservice. A lot of the overuse was due to inappropriate angles at rather inappropriate times. But keep in mind that that only covers a small portion. Most fanservice is used during ok moments and even for comedic purposes.
And as I've mentioned, this anime was handled by Doga Kobo. I absolutely love the bright colour palette used as the art style which makes it very nice to look at. The animation in this case was actual really well done even if there wasn't a huge presence of action going on. The character designs seemed rather different at first but it soon becomes easy how this was done by Doga Kobo. Although, I will say that the white circles at the bottom of their eyes do make them seem like they are crying.
And then, the opening theme. Wow. I fell in love with it almost instantly. The chorus part especially was super catchy and it easily gets me pumped for an episode every time. The ending theme though wasn't really all that interesting to me and I really paid little attention to it.
So overall, I would say that this is definitely one of Doga Kobo's better works. While maybe it might lose out to Himouto Umaru-chan and Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, it was definitely really interesting to watch. Although, it would good to eventually see one that I can give a 9/10. The anime is basically already a complete package because it actually went from start to finish. I just wished it had spent more time focusing on the process of game development similar to what was done in Shirobako. But regardless, I really do not think there is a need to make a sequel to New Game. Unless it is going to bring a new look into game development, a sequel would more likely make things worse than better. These 12 episodes could have been better but the story is pretty much complete here and I see no point in tampering on it.
