Character designs are provided by Minoko Takasu, with animation produced by TELECOM ANIMATION FILM.
Phantasy star online 2 review series#
PSO 2 The Animation is directed by Keiichiro Kawaguchi, with Mitsutaka Hirota handling both scripting and series composition. EST, and you’ll need a premium account to view it, unless you visit the shadier side of the internet to get your fix for free. If you're a Sega, PSO, or MMO fan or just like watching more "real life" style humor mixed with growing sci-fi action, it's been a fun ride.Crunchyroll simulcasts each episode every Saturday at 1 a.m. It all feels very natural, and very normal, and the series is reaching a point to where it is starting to be less tutorial and introduction and more of finding its own voice and pace. I've watched all the episodes so far, and like watching the characters grow. There is in-game action, humor, and a growing mystery that blurs the real and game worlds closer together. Yes, they plug the game a lot, but it's a series based around the game, so it makes sense that this is what all the kids are talking about. It's not as distracting as some would say.
There are a lot of PSO2, MMO, and Sega references in game, partly to help non game and MMO fans understand the lingo better. They try to figure their own lives out, their role in the game, and each other. You get into the lives of the players, both in and out of the game.Īnd I like the characters. While they do enter the game, episodes based around the game world really aren't the focus here. It's more about the life of the gamers themselves than the game itself. There's a lot of good memories for me that are associated with the game.Įven though PSO2 is not in the U.S., I wanted to see if this series was enjoyable. I've played Phantasy Star from Sega Master System to Genesis, and definitely played PSO1 on Dreamcast. I can't even write a parody review about this series with a straight face.įOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT WATCH THIS, UNLESS YOU'RE DOING SO FOR ENTERTAINMENT VIA CRINGETY-CRINGE-CRINGE. I myself suffered a similar episode once, in which I staged a coup d'etat in a small Pacific island nation, only to force all citizens to join me in writing Luneth-Arc slash fanfi
It's a haunting warning to all female otaku out there, one that I admittedly found all too relatable. She disguises these manipulations as "research" for him to write "reports" about, but the dark reality is that she's intent on manufacturing for herself a husbando that's every inch the ultranerd she is.
She fixates on the male protagonist, abusing her power as student body president to compel him to perform a series of increasingly inane video game tasks. It's only more difficult to watch because while she's taking her words all too seriously, her friends and colleagues can only look on in horror as she loses touch with reality.Īs the series progresses, her crippling loneliness begins to eat at her, and her grip on her own morality begins to slip. Despite her best efforts, gaming inexorably consumes her dignity and self-respect, and she goes from the widely admired leader of the student body to a tragic self-parody, spouting unintentionally absurd statements about the supposed transcendent social power of an online game. PSO2 The Animation actually tells the heartbreaking tale of a young closet-otaku girl's gradual slide into uncontrollable video game addiction. As the series progresses, we begin to see hints that įrom there, though, you're pulled into a chilling and dark narrative which you don't quite see coming. The initial premise is that a standard everyman high school protagonist is roped into the world of online gaming by both his friends and the leader of the student council, the latter of which wants to use him as a test case to show that online gaming can be a positive influence on campuses, to prevent the possible ban of the titular video game, PSO2. At first, it seems like a poorly animated, terribly written, and all-around awfully executed promotional anime that starts aimless and never quite finds its stride from there. PSO2 is one of those series that sneaks up on you with its real subtext.