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18if (Anime) add (All reviews)
Sep 29, 2017
People say 18if is like a box of chocolates: there are both good and bad parts and you won't know which one it is until you try. While I agree, I would rather compare it to an expensive box of luxury chocolates: all the flavours are exotic combinations, with ones such as broccoli-mango or truffle-chili. Initially you are turned off because you can't imagine these crazy combinations can possibly be good, but once you try some it becomes clear that they taste much better than they sound. Of course, there will always be some you dislike, but overall it's undeniable that a lot of well-placed effort and experience has been put into them, and that they're certainly worth the expensive price. (Not that the price part applies to this anime.)

18if is a mostly episodic series, where each¹ episode is directed by a different director. The first 10 episodes are fully episodic; you can watch them in any order if you want, or skip episodes you don't like. The last three episodes consist of a short continuous arc that explains questions raised during the first 10 episodes. Note that if you skipped episodes before, you won't understand the references to these specific episodes.

The premise for the episodic episodes is as follows: In every episode there is a different witch, representing a real-world person with Sleeping Beauty Syndrome, and Haruto and Katsumi have to help the witch get back to the real world. In addition, every episode (more or less) showcases some kind of real-world issue that serves as a theme for the episode — ranging from classic themes such as the idol industry to obscure ones such as Cambodian history. I thought all of these stories were quite interesting, but given the nature of the show there will probably be ones you won't like.

Apart from the director of each episode, there is also Kouji Morimoto — known for staff roles in Majo no Takkyuubin/Kiki's Delivery Service and Akira, for example — as the co-director in every episode². This combination leads to the anime being overall very well directed, despite the fact that the episodic directors tend to be relatively obscure.

The music in the show is overall very good too; of particular note is the OP song which I would consider excellent, combined with the unique OP visuals. The ED is different each episode, with the songs being of varying quality. The ED visuals are usually just simple credit rolls with flashbacks to the episode, over varying backgrounds, but the rest of the show's visuals are engaging enough that a flashy ED animation doesn't feel necessary.

The animation quality is hit-and-miss, but it's always at least alright, with some episodes being exceptionally well animated (episode 7 comes to mind). I haven't played the source game, but the anime is strange enough that if someone told me this was adapted from a puzzle game I would just assume they're joking, so I wouldn't expect it to be a very close adaptation. If you've played the game and got a similar feel as what I'm describing, then you probably know what you're in for.

Overall it's difficult to give the show one single score because it varies so much, but I enjoyed it enough that I feel a 9 is adequate, and there are certainly some 10 elements in my opinion.

¹: Episodes 1 and 2 were directed by the same director, but otherwise this applies.
²: One episode was exclusively directed by him.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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