Series Synopsis
Kenji Kazama
(voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi) is a delinquent, and proud of it. Seeking to
become the strongest there is at his school, he already made quite the
reputation for himself. However, his ascension to greatness hits a unexpected hurtle.
Seeing
smoke from a classroom, Kenji quickly jumps in to put out the fire. Unfortunately,
he unwittingly waked into the meetup room of the Game Creation Club who are
desperately, and I mean desperately seeking new members. Refusing to join by
conventional terms, Kenji is forced into signing up and becomes the newest
addition to the eccentric group.
First there
is first year Sakura Mizukami (voiced by Mikako Takahashi), the water elemental
who is an unpredictable tomboy who is usually seen caring around a water
bottle. Minami Osawa (voiced by Ami Koshimizu) is the club’s perpetually tired
faculty advisor and lighting elemental due to the fact that she always has a
taser. Chitose Karasuyama (voiced by Chiwa Saito) is not only a member of the
club, but also the terrifyingly influential student body president, as well as
the Earth elemental. These three
are…unique to say the least, yet they don’t hold a candle to the president of
the Game Creation Club, Roka Shibasaki (voiced by Kana Hanazawa).
Despite her
small stature, Roka is considered the strongest person at the school. Upon
introduction she claims that her element is fire, but this is only a cover for
her true element, darkness. Her signature attack involves covering her
opponent’s head with a bag…that’s it, there’s nothing more to it.
To his
chagrin, Kenji finds himself in the middle of these girls’ over the top antics.
However he slowly begins to warm up to the strangeness and will defend the club
from anyone seeking to disband it; which is actually a common occurrence.
By doing
this, Kenji often becomes the center of whatever outlandish situation the club
finds itself in or creates themselves.
Series Positives
D-Frag is an interesting show. As a
comedy set in high school, it has many of the elements you would expect from
such a series. On more than once occasion, D-Frag
becomes indistinguishable from any other anime with a similar set up.
Yet what
makes this series interesting is how it doesn’t follow a lot of the expected
troupes. D-Frag, while not to a
fantastical extend, is one of the more unique comedies I have seen in some
time. It certainly has its own feel which usually plays into the show’s
favor.
D-Frag is great fun.
Kenji
One of the
troupes that I was ecstatic to see dropped was with Kenji. For most other
characters in his position, they have a tendency to be complete push overs
and/or total perverts. Anime is so saturated with these types of leads that it’s
hard to see past the dullness, even for the better ones.
Kenji doesn’t
fall into this category. He has confidence, is reliable, and he doesn’t let
other characters dictate what he does or does not do; I say that knowing that
he was heavily strong-armed into joining the Game Creation Club, but he did put
up a commendable struggle. There’s more to him then just being the nice guy.
Kenji doesn’t
get the romantic attention from all or even most the girls which is refreshing
in its own right, but you can easily see where the girls that do develop
feelings for him are coming from. Takao (voiced by Shizuka Ito) is the best
example of this.
The president
of the Real Game Creation Club, which is a different story all together but
another highlight, her affection towards Kenji continues to grow
throughout the show and for tangible reasons. Kenji has a strong sense of loyalty,
but can see many sides to an issue. Even if forced into a situation, he takes
it in stride and follows it to the end. He doesn’t rely on occasionally saying
the right thing at the right time.
Kenji is
also a perfect straight man for his group; nearly on par with the likes of
Takatoshi from Seitokai Yakuindomo.
However as character as great Takatoshi is, he wouldn’t work in a series like D-Frag.
Seitokai Yakuindomo uses a slower pace
and fits well with Takatoshi’s drier delivery. D-Frag is much faster and it’s over the top nature is more
situational based, rather than sexual. Therefore, you need a straight man that
can be calm and dejected when need be, but also able to instantly match the
energy level at any given moment; traits that Kenji has.
He is the
perfect fit for this series.
The Game Creation Club
D-Frag is at its funniest when it is focusing
solely on the actions of the Game Creation Club. Kenji, Roka, Chitose, and
Sakura, as well as Takao are great together. I’m not adding Minami here because
of her being an actual teacher she cannot participate in
some of the more outlandish antics of the group without having to set in; a
shame since she’s funny too.
This is
another series that gets the group mentality down, but focuses it in a
different direction. There is a strong sense of connection between them however
their main goal is simply dicking around for the lack of anything better to do.
It really seems like its just friend hanging out, but they will throw down when
push comes to shove.
The last few
episodes of this series illustrate this point the best and it’s not surprise
that this is also the best part of the show.
Series Negatives
It got way
better near the end, but in the beginning, and especially the
first episodes, D-Frag would drag
on. Where an episode should probably end, it keeps going. It comes off as if
the show ran out of ideas and didn’t have enough material to meet the required
time.
Also there
are so many side characters that don’t do a damn thing. The show tries to turn
this into a joke by constantly commenting on how these are minor characters
with no purpose to the story. Instead of this being funny, it's a constant
reminder that these characters have nothing to do with the story.
Before
moving on, I said that most of the time D-Frag’s
deviation from normality worked in its favor. When it doesn’t though, it’s
rough. This series does go for unexpected, over the top, wild humor. Unfortunately,
and even painfully sometimes, this shatters out of insanity into the-f@#$-are-you-doing
territory.Jumps the Shark
There's a
point in the show where Kenji is challenged to a duel. This escalates
and quickly involves the members of both the Game Creation Club and the Real
Game Creation Club. As this was getting set up, I was getting into it because
this seemed like it could lead to something pretty good; except it never came.
Instead it keep
getting bigger and bigger, longer and longer, until eventually turning into a two
episode waste of time. The show spends so much effort creating this elaborate
scenario only to result in a damn boob joke causing Kenji getting knocked the f@#$
out. And since Kenji was the center of it all, we don’t get to see the
events of the subsequent tournament.
D-Frag took a versatile concept and
simply got greedy. What makes it more annoying, since the show wasted its time doing this
and similar s@#$ like it, other aspects of the show get ignored; like some main
characters for example. Sakura and Minami hardly get any screen, and these were
characters D-Frag took quite a bit of
effort, not to mention tons of in your face exposition, to introduce.
This is why
I said that D-Frag was at its best
when it focused on the Game Creation Club because this is what the focus should have
been. All this other bull crap is secondary and cannot work when there is basic
build that has not been satisfied.
Final Thoughts
Despite a
tendency to go overboard, D-Frag is
still worth checking out.
It fits well
within in its genre while also managing to separate itself in a positive light.
It has a good main lead, a fantastic main group, and it’s also really funny
when it hits home. Even when it’s not at its best, it’s still quite good. There
are lots of good ideas left in series and a second season would be more than justified
and welcomed.
D-Frag is not perfect but does a lot of
things right that makes it an easy recommendation.
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