Shichisei no Subaru First Impressions

“Be careful Amo, it’s really easy for noobs to die here. A game over means your account gets deleted immediately. We’re lucky enough to have the Sense to be players, so let’s avoid that please.”

Even though this series doesn’t quite qualify as an isekai (For those who are unaware, Isekai = “Oh no! I’m a normal guy transported to a fantasy world” series), I think it’s fair to say I’m experiencing isekai fatigue. I’m getting worn out by the cliches that populate that genre, and unfortunately Shichisei no Subaru shares countless irksome traits with its isekai brethren. The one it most closely resembles might be Death March, since both series have an annoying and uninteresting game world, and I’d much rather spend more time learning about the real world drama. Then again, it may take after SAO more, due to both shows being set inside video games apparently designed by blisteringly incompetent and concussed businessmen who have no understanding of basic game design. But more than any isekai series, what Shichisei no Subaru really seems to be ripping off is Anohana. In theory, there is a semi-creative idea at work here. Take the drama inherent in the premise of Anohana and apply it to a VR Video Game in the vein of SAO. Unfortunately, as I stated before, the scenes that take place in game are largely uninteresting and unengaging. It was the IRL drama that had me wondering if this show might actually have a modicum of potential.

The premise is that once upon a time in the VR game Union there was a legendary party named Subaru. Actually, time out. This is a trope that I barely could forgive in Log Horizon, and that at least had the decency to be well written. This show makes is even less credible. I haven’t played a ton of MMO’s but, from what I can tell, “legendary” players and guilds are just not a thing that happens. These games have numerous servers and countless guilds per server. The idea that a small group of people or even a single person could be memorable to the point of receiving recognition from the greater community is just ridiculous. Anyway, this group consisted entirely of members with special abilities called Senses. When you joined the game there was a chance you would be given a “Sense” which served as a game breaking special ability that essentially made you Kirito. This is not good game design. Also, Union was a permadeath game. Not only would you lose your character if they were killed, but you would be unable to create a new one. This is not good game design. Actually, this might be the WORST game design. Oh, and all the members of Subaru were elementary school students. Foul. I call foul. Flag on the play. Yellow card. Other sports metaphor. As I’ve already established, the idea of a “legendary” team is difficult to swallow, but having it be a team of kids in elementary school is just the 250 lb. timber pylon that broke the camel’s back. Nothing about this game makes sense. The community doesn’t make sense. The basic business practices don’t make sense. Hell, even the Senses are nonsensical. But fine, let’s get an industrial crane in here and see if we can suspend disbelief for just a little while longer. The central idea of the premise is during a particularly difficult raid one of Subaru’s members is killed & simultaneously dies in the real world. However, when the game is relaunched years later under a new title, Subaru’s leader is shocked to find his deceased companion alive and well in one of the dungeons.

I had to rush the plot summary a bit towards the end there, since the dearth of logic behind the Union game is truly frustrating, and its updated version, Re’Union, is even dumber. It’s hard not to get sidetracked on the problems present in that facet of the story. The character designs and production are bland in the stereotypical way that one comes to expect from Light Novel adaptations. The game world has a flat lifeless quality to it, and the boss monsters we see are bland CG constructions that further emphasize Union’s generic atmosphere. I also found the party of Subaru to be insufferable. I know they’re technically supposed to be kids, but they don’t look like it in-game. Furthermore, they come off as so incredibly self-assured that a small part of me was relieved when we jumped to the funeral scene, because I could at least empathize and relate to them in that context. The production studio behind this adaptation is Lerche Inc., and, while they don’t have a huge body of work, I have to admit I’ve come to expect more from this studio. This is the studio behind Assassination Classroom, Classroom of the Elite, Magical Girl Raising Project and School-Live!. Their efforts here are better than what Silver Link turned in with Death March back in winter, but I’d still say the animation and design for this series fall below the average.

Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:

• It doesn’t help things that our elite team, “Subaru”, shares its name with Re:Zero’s protagonist and the character design for the lead character of Shichisei no Subaru looks more than a little like Konosuba’s Kazuma.
• When our main character, Amo, gets coerced into playing Re’Union by his inexperienced high school friends we get a look at some pitiful character designs. Neither of these two friends seem like they’ll be major players moving forward, but instead of going with the bland style that the show had used for other minor characters (and its main characters as well), here the show went for a more silly approach. Hell, the guy has blue novelty sunglasses on his head!
• After watching the first episode, I’d actually planned on completely ignoring How Not to Summon a Demon Lord due to it being the most generic and bland type of cheesecake comedy isekai series, but apparently it was a highly anticipated title… for some reason. If no one else wants it, and I have the free time, I may devote an evening to asking, “Why the hell did anyone want this?”
• It only just hit me, but female leads are pretty rare in isekai anime aren’t they? There may be a few (Do The Vision of Escaflowne or The Twelve Kingdoms count as isekai?), but given the flood of them in recent years, I’m surprised I can’t think of more instances.
• Oh, and I almost forgot. This show’s exposition is TERRIBLE. Characters just prattle on about world details in a way that makes Christopher Nolan look positively subtle!