As a big fan of the Neptunia franchise, especially when it comes to the games, the Neptunia Anime has always been more of a letdown. There were some high parts of the anime and there were some pretty low parts. The Neptunia OVA seemed to be very promising when only Episode 1 was released, but the following 2 episodes left a lot to be desired. Since the 3rd Episode just aired, this will be a review of all 3 episodes of the OVA.
Story: 5
There really was not much to the story at all for any of the 3 Episodes. The trailer for Episode 1 showed a summer vacation and the CPU Candidates getting lost in a different dimension where they meet Adult Neptune. And while Episode 1 does feel like the most well-made from the whole OVA, there isn’t much depth to the plot other than what the trailer implies. The CPUs go on a summer vacation, the CPU Candidates somehow get sent to a different dimension where they meet Adult Nep, and now they have to find a way to get back. That is all it is. There is really not much else to it. The way it was executed was good, but the story was not anything special. The trailer for Episode 2 basically showed that Neptune passed out from overworking herself on planning a festival around her, so now Nepgear and Adult Neptune have to find a way to keep things running smoothly. The story is very generic, there is not much depth to it either, and scenes were pretty strange to say the very least. It was probably my least favorite out of the OVA. Trailer 3 basically showed that all the CPUs (excluding the Candidates) got turned into children and now they need to get back to normal. Generic story once again, but this episode really surprised me. Because our comical villain of the series, Arfoire, is one of the main focal points of this episode, we get to see an aspect of her that is pretty much forgotten since it was only utilized in the original Hyperdimension Neptunia game and Re;Birth1. It was certainly very interesting and my favorite after Episode 1.
Characters: 6
I mean the only new characters here are Adult Neptune, Croire, and I guess you can also count Arfoire as Episode 3 expands on her past. The other characters like the CPUs, the CPU Candidates, IF, Compa, and Histoire are pretty much the same which is what I expected. Adult Neptune’s character is captured perfectly. She is mature and caring, but she is still the same old Neptune on the inside. Croire is a bit more tame here, but since there isn’t anything close to the shenanigans in Megadimension Neptunia VII, she has no real reason to embrace her more chaotic side like in the games. However, her character is otherwise still pretty spot-on. I don’t want to get into too much detail about Arfoire as it’s a pretty big spoiler, but I really like it. It shows an incredibly different aspect of her that was really never expanded on because she suited the role of a comical villain rather than someone ”human”.
Art/Animation/Sound: 6.5
I was never a huge fan of the animation and art style used for the Neptunia anime, but it certainly was not bad. And while there wasn’t much new music that was added, everything was pretty much serviceable.
Overall: 6
I think that the Neptunia OVA is okay. It is definitely serviceable, but it leaves a ton to be desired. Most of the story was pretty generic and each of the episodes did not try to dive deeper into these relatively generic stories to make them all that more interesting. There were definitely highs and lows, but they are very noticeable. I feel like it would’ve been much better to animate some of the side stories from the games, but since the anime already took up the mantle of splicing together bits and pieces from the games to make its own plot, this was to be expected. Overall, it’s fine, but it’s not great.