KANLen09

Move over, Grand Blue (despite the MAL score) and Hinamatsuri (Spring 2018's best comedy)! Asobi Asobase is here to take your place not just as AOTS for Summer 2018's super weak BUT strong comedic presence, but also AOTY for the overall yearly comedy genre, and I have the full experience to tell you why this series is damn underrated, and hidden behind it is pure insane high school gag-comedy...AT ITS BEST AND FINEST! If there was a rating above 10, I would give this series a multiplier 100/10, because this is more than just some mindless AF comedic masterpiece. It's comedic execution will creep you with itsinsane amount of gag comedies, obscene figures, face expressions and all-so-you-desire thoughts straight in your face that make you question much! Oh, and the endless amount of references that got us SO DAMN GOOD and satisfying! Not every episode is perfect, but I'm willing to forgive the little boring moments it has for the never-ending amount of laughs and tears combined freckle down my face as I wait upon every Sunday night for this series to start my week into, and I was never once disappointed, not one bit. Oh, what is Asobi Asobase about? Sorry, I'm still laughing and crying at the metajokes it contains...I can't breathe...which series SUCCEEDINGLY sells your soul away in a good way in just 3 minutes, that makes you feel like this is something special? Asobi Asobase not a story in itself, but rather the characters themselves who form the core of the series with their distinct personalities: Hanako Honda (CV: Hina Kino, Toji no Miko's Sayaka), she is that kind of friend where she wants to desire fame and recognition and the likes by hanging out around normies, just with many screws loose, and her constant insanity striking out as always. Oh, and her weird fashion sense. Together with her assistant butler Maeda, he is the ultimate of ultimates, always helping her out with his shogi butt-beam, super-weird stuff ensues. Kasumi Nomura (CV: Konomi Kohara, Tsuki ga Kirei's Akane), she gives off the vibe that feels like the outcasted member of the class, and with her serious but scary punk-ass attitude, along with being a study nerd, she is the least of the 3 girls who would stand out, but damn, she's noticeable once we come into her senses, immediately realize she is not all the others would say: calm and elusive on the outside, but determined to follow-through on the inside. Oh, and her illterate struggle of English and her constant bad luck in games. Olivia (CV: Rika Nagae, Frame Arms Girl's Baselard), she is the oh-so-typical white girl which makes her look like the natural-born foreign exchange student, until you realize that all that is a trick, a demeanor to surprise you: She CANNOT speak a literate word of English, was born in Japan, but the best part about her is that despite her shortcomings, she tries to blend in with no F's given whatsoever. Oh, and her insane otaku of a brother, that despite his appearances, blue eyes blue in similarity, and he's the culmination of gross, smelling high school girls' scents. "Praise be to raw middle schoolers." - Olivia's fatso Onii-chan Oh, and not forgetting the side cast: - The female teacher responsible for the Pastimers Club, - The general-purpose teacher who confines along with the 3 girls, like licking lied-pee (but is water) and their game antics (with the insane Sailor Moon and DBZ references), - The Student Council Prez and vice-prez, who literally has no holds barred, - The Occult Club, who knows what the 2 girls are doing in there, anything they concoct up is always up to no good. Honestly, the best part about them is the relatively new Seiyuus that take up the roles of the 3 girls, because they are amazing, showcase their talents well and you can tell that they had absolute fun doing this, especially Hanako's VA with her constant screaming and whatnot. Simply nothing short of fantastic from all the characters here. Lerche is back at it once again for this series, and "Who ya gonna call"? Seiji Kishi, director for Angel Beats!, Tsuki ga Kirei, Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero, that's who! And wow oh wow, just like the big hitters he has, this sleeper, underrated series truly adds to his marvelous directing talent. And I really hands-down applaud studio Lerche this time because of how much insanity is done to propel this series forward, from the key visual PVs and the actual anime adaptation of the manga, it's like "no time and talents were wasted here, not even the slightest"! In my initial review, I've called out the moe-CGDCT aethestics because of the resemblance, but look how far we have come: Only the watercolour art style followed through with the oh-so-funny facial scenes of the characters. Another area where I will NOT expect to be turned-on so nicely is the music, particularly the OST, which is the main joker aesthetic. "Anime is saved (YET again)!" - Pipimi, Pop Team Epic. Why the reference thou? Because every episode starts out with the cute and sweet moe OP, letting you know the characters and how they are like on the surface. THAT IS HEAVEN, expectations run wild. By the time the episode starts, and you've been through the insane absurdity, you're NOT spared yet! The God-tier Pop Team Epic reminiscent ED rocks on you the reality, the harshness of it all with the full metalcore vibe. Now THAT IS HELL! Couldn't have asked for a better OST, and one that has surpassed expectations this season, and tuned in from the beginning to the end, never skipping both the OP and ED gives you the full mindf-ing experience. Asobi Asobase is a wholesome experience not to be missed, its God-tier levels of trickery will mock you hard and bad if you're not prepared for what lies ahead. I'm really glad that I didn't skimp myself out on this masterpiece of a comedy, how shallow the series is, was never once a complaint when you've been damaged this much. Easily the biggest surprise of Summer 2018, and it will confront you all-out on its full comedic-gag force!

Zaber_san

At first, I thought this anime will be your typical girl show with no comedic element whatsover. Why did I expected that? The opening. Openings are always the one that summarizes the plot or the composition of the story of an anime. And I was definetely wrong. I actually asked myself "Am I watching this on YouTube right now?" because I got clickbaited really hard.... and I love it. Comedy anime will always be there this season. It is a rule already on the anime industry that at least 1 comedy show will be a talk on the anime community. One of them this seasonis "Asobi Asobase". Story The plot is not really chronological as each episode is divided by "content" or "parts". This is no issue for comedy shows for the past years as long as it makes the audience laugh out loud. The plot revolves on three stupid but laughable girls named Honda, Hanako (the unbelievably smartest one in academics but idiotic as hell), Olivia (that girl who looks like she mastered English through genetics but mastered Japanese instead), and Nomura Kasumi (The girl that has glasses... and... the one that has the serious face. sometimes). We watch this girl meet each other with misunderstood expectations, thus making the "Pastimers Club" where they engage each other with games... to pass time... (nice logic)... In the Pastimers Club room, we always see them sitting together, thinking of absurd activities to do from playing in an inflatable pool to playing a penalty-ridden game of sugoroku. Of course on every clubs there are chances other clubs will come by and have some absurdity (well in anime only...i bet) to one another. The Occult Club for example with Oka (the girl with the weird eyes and witch hat) had visited the Pastimers Club for some instance, as well as fights for the club room like the Shogi Club. Not to mention the involvement of supporting characters like the Student Council President, Maeda, Chisato Higuchi (club advisor), Olivia's weeb bro, Tsugumi Aozora and many more becomes part of the story's hilarity and madness with each contributing their characteristics to the story making it funny. Characters: The people/characters of an anime will always contribute to the plot's aim either to make us excited, laugh, thrill or horrify. Asobi Asobase have a wide range of well-done characters, each contributing to the show's aim... which is to be comedic. We have the three main girls of the series. Honda, Hanako, who is the genius as well as the idiot of the group who hates popular girls and such. Oliva, the blonde-hair girl who you think will be part of the cool kids/popular kids group but it turns out she is faking her accent and english and she's just your typical japanese girl. Nomura Kasumi, the only girl in the group that has glasses and probably the most dangerous one as her face gets serious, you are done. But on the other side she writes BL/yaoi novels making this her primary embarassment. These three makes the show very enjoyable. Let us not forget the supporting characters as well. The two teachers, the club advisor and the male teacher have both made some scenes funny. Tsugumi Aozora, whose gender still unknown picked curiosity to the Pastimers and so on some episodes, she was the focus. The Occult Club member Oka having a thrilling and mysterious atmosphere makes the vibe even stronger. Olivia's otaku bro who we thought that will be a handsome looking guy but it turns out it is your typical fat weebo (except his damn eyes were a beauty) and let us not forget Maeda. Maeda the best butler at the service of Honda Hanako that have anal issues. Sound: Ahhh the sound.. The Opening song's soothing, cheerful and playful music "really" introduces us what are we going to expect on the series. Actually, no it doesn't. I love how they made us think that this will just be your typical high-school girl anime because of the opening song but then we stumble to realize how clueless we are as we watch and then we hear the Ending song, instead of having those angel-like voices, it was replaced by demons now and I love it. Art: When I first look upon the visuals (like when I saw the first episode with the opening), I thought "Oh no.. The art is... not that good i guess?." but as I progress through the episodes, I didn't think of the visuals at all anymore. In fact, the visuals are okay on normal scenes but when the "shock" or "anger" scenes come, we can see how the art changed drastically going higher levels. Not to mention the Opening's heavenly-like visuals was damn false as we go through the episode and then we get a pitch black ED with some line drawings of the three girls. Visuals matches the anime perfectly along with the sound. Overall thoughts and Enjoyment: I can't describe how much I enjoyed this series. There is no episode that wil make me giggle or make me laugh so hard. Overall, this anime is highly recommended for those who love the comedy genre like I do. And this is the type of anime that when you have a bad day, you can watch this and just laugh your heart out.