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Description
Hello! I am the shield LordCamelot. Now as for those of you who read these description boxes may recall my mentioning of wanting to talk about the I suppose still controversial Neptunia MKII conquest ending but I still need a bit of time on that but as I rewatched the scenes I took a break to rewatch the anime and with the new OVA coming July 8th I think a look review from the 12 episodes to the 13th OVA episode is an order to recap where the anime is at.

for those who don't know Hyperdimension Neptunia is a game series that came out in the PS3 era of 2011. This came out during a time when various game companies ranging from Gust, NIS, Idea Factory, Marvelous, Compile Heart were constantly doing a lot collaboration projects. there have been a few but the ones that stood out to me mostly cause these were the only 2 to come to the US were Cross Edge and Trinity Universe where these had characters from various game franchises with a set of original characters for that story to play as and were all fun in their own right. not long after that Idea Factory and Compile Heart would work together more often where after that came the longest and one of the best JRPG's in a long while Record of Agarest war and it was during this game's development that a bold idea was thought up. an idea that not only would serve as satire on the gaming industry as a whole but also treat the game industry as an entire world where events and story elements are based on what's happening and even comment on things that happened in the gaming world. This idea would come to be known as Choujigen Game Neptune or as we English speakers call it Hypderdimension Neptunia.

when the first game came out it was... weird. okay to be fair the game play mechanics and even the game engine used to run it was about as basic as a game can get to the point you'd swear this was a steam release game. before Steam became a big thing. looking back on it yeah it was clunky as hell and the gameplay was pretty slow but that's not what people who played this game seem to remember it for. oddly enough despite mostly negative reviews and issues on the gameplay the thing people seemed to enjoy were the characters. living characters who were not only parodies of Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation, and X Box but were very waifu bait and had a lot comedic charm to them and seemed to connect with eventual fanbase that would follow whether it'd be cause of the commentary it had or the meta 4th wall breaking jokes. over the years in the coming sequels and spin offs the characters who yes are all based on game companies or game franchises to symbolize who put their money in this series to promote it. for every new game it seemed to gain more game companies to want to have a mascot character represent them in this series in some way or form this also included music companies. in a lot of ways you could say Neptune is pretty much what Konosuba founded itself on only instead of making the characters likeable the author focused on making the konosuba cast the worst kinds of people you could ever meet lol but n the for real it's pretty obvious Neptune's popularity in how it satirizes a lot of the gaming world would inspire others to do something similar and Konosuba is one example of it. for whatever reason the popularity and love for this series grew so much where after better successes in the sequel MKII and Victory followed by a re release and retelling of the original first game came the subject of this review. Hyperdimension Neptunia the animation.

Now when it was announced there was a lot of mix of yays and nays which were understandable. much like Hollywood movies based on video games, Anime based on video games had it as bad if not a worse reputation than Hollywood films based on games and here's why. the common big issues they had is much like Hollywood films based on games these anime based on games often did not focus on the original story or missed important elements of the story that take away the importance of why those were so good. sometimes the pacing was all over the place and never seemed to know what the story was about like the anime studio just picked it cause it was popular and others were just plain boring. like boring to the point where they had nothing that made people excited for those games they were based on. granted there have been good adaptions but in recent years the trend of bad anime based on video games has changed since series like persona 5, tales of Zestria and a few more were doing better but I argue the changing point in that was Neptune's anime. So what is it that this did right and wrong when it aired?

first off the overall story. now rather than be a line by line and page by page retelling of one game they decided to do all 3 games even though by this point Megadimension Neptunia VII was in development. oops. lol but anyway, most anime adapted from games usually did something original or told one story based on one of those games and usually had mixed or failed results. Neptunia did the crazy and went for everything. so it's important to note that because rebirth 1 was retelling the original game's premise and also served as a way to introduce the cpu canidates properly which even then that game came in japan right about the time this anime aired so rather focus an arc on the first game the first 8 episodes basically mixed a little of rebirth 1 but based after it had already ended to avoid potential spoilers for that game while still referencing the original ps3 game in its own way on the first episode. it took some liberties to change the story of MKII in how the CPU canidates would gain CPU forms and how they'd save their sisters. so yeah sorry Yuri shippers. no IF kissing Nepgear in this adaption to make her go CPU form lol Episode 3, 4, and 5 is where the retelling of MKII's plot would be handled which yeah like most game adapted anime it's a bit disappointing to see it all be so short but given what they were green lit for and in the context of the anime it does work well to serving the narrative where you're getting the basic idea of what MKII covered without needing to play the game but that still meant you could just play the game to learn the full actual story. no episodes 6 to 12 and even the OVA took a different turn to tell the story of Victory. instead of Neptune ending up in another alternate universe it's Plutia who ends up coming to their universe to look for a something she never explained to what exactly what which oddly enough was somehow Peashy even though they didn't explain why or how... yeah that's kind of another weak point in the story and I'm not gonna pretend Victory did a better job of explaining why it had to be Peashy but then again despite the success Victory had issues in terms of story and character handling. but then the last 3 episodes basically made Chaos Heart the final antagonist of the anime who went by the name of Rei Ryghts. If I'm not mistaken I think her whole character was based on the continuing attacks on the gaming community in how it should be handled for public safety reasons and what not and I could be wrong in this but I think her CPU form Chaos Heart probably represented other gaming consoles like the Atari or turbographics 16 but that's not important right now. the story in the anime does have a few pacing issues and not everything is properly explained but I think it was actually well done is something you can get compelled to watch. I mean jesus this had 2 moments where you legitimately felt like crying. freaking 2 in a 12 episode anime. god damn it, Neptune who knew you had it in you to do that.

the animation was done by David Productions? that was a thing in Japan? * checks wiki *well holy shit. they were a thing since 2007. you learn something new everyday. anyway in terms of animation quality I think I recall the TV run having a few moments of sloppy or rushed animation and bad editing but when the blu rays came out those issues were fixed and polished to very well done perfection. the designs were done very well and did try to stick to what Tsunako drew for the games even though the original game actually had an anime style opening and yes this had it's own fanservice to give us. not to say the game didn't already do that especially when it come to characters like Vert. but as if to realize fans would wonder about if it would compete with nudity like high school dxd or senran kagura did Neptune went with a more meta answer. if you saw the beach episode then you know what I mean in how they attacked the "censor light" and explained it was a parasite like organism that liked to attach itself onto people. I can't tell if that was really clever or really dumb yet it was hilarious to me. Hilariously Clumb(Clever and dumb merged together). but yeah everything in the animation from a visual stand point with near perfect execution where at best it'd most be nitpicks and subjective complaints from people.

I could talk about music compostion but the music is mostly using tracks from the 3 main games with only a handful of remixes and original tracks for the anime which weren't bad so it's dependent on how you feel about it cause again those 2 legitimate emotional moments really get ya when they used those tracks.

There's not much I can say about the characters since if you've played the games then you know their quirks and personalities well enough. you just get to see them fully animated. I will say however the CPU Canidate arc was handled well in how rather than the original and remake concept of the girls spending 2 years running things and Nepgear being captured with Neptune the anime took the liberty of having them develop and show their inability to transform was more about them learning to eventually grow up and not be reliant on their sisters would always protect them. especially in the cases of Nepgear and Uni who both had similar yet different reasons for being obsessed with their sisters. the other one who had better development in the anime which surprisingly enough is what carried over to VII as it did for Nepgear was Neptune herself. yeah the 4th wall breaking joking main heroine we all love being adorkable. lol I'm not even kidding if you watched episodes 6 to 10 where even though she still acted like her usual self there was a surprising good amount of emotional development and growth for her and I'm not the only one who sees this since it was clear people liked this a lot that it plays into how the story for VII plays out for how it developed Neptune and Nepgear and even gave spotlights for a few of the others too.

overall what do I say about it? Okay it's not Shakespeare or even Fruits Basket quality in terms of story as it does rely on a lot of the usual tropes we know and seen in other anime and manga but like the games this already knew it wasn't gonna be ground breaking and like any good series it relished in the silliness and tropes it used and did meta humor pretty well and it does continue to improve with each new project that comes out with some hiccups. in terms of the anime I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a little game parodying with some good to top tier waifus being gamer girls to heroes while getting a bit of subtle commentary on the gaming industry and as crazy as this sounds I think there's a few moments that are a bit more relevant now than they were back then such as episode 2 showing Blanc and Very going for a partnership like how we see Nintendo and Microsoft did recently in real life with their new shared server stuff. even if the lewd fan service moments aren't your thing I think you'll find yourself laughing at a few things and even get emotional in a few spots too. so for me the anime gets a 4 out of 5 rating from me and is a definte seal of approval on to check out if you haven't already.

If you liked this and would like to see me check out and review older anime or games you feel like don't get enough attention and deserve a review leave in the comments below. if not then just leave a comment and tell us what you liked about the Neptunia anime and games overall? I'll see y'all next time either for the OVA review or hopefully the conquest ending discussion for MKII.

Description
Hello! I am the shield LordCamelot. Now as for those of you who read these description boxes may recall my mentioning of wanting to talk about the I suppose still controversial Neptunia MKII conquest ending but I still need a bit of time on that but as I rewatched the scenes I took a break to rewatch the anime and with the new OVA coming July 8th I think a look review from the 12 episodes to the 13th OVA episode is an order to recap where the anime is at.

for those who don't know Hyperdimension Neptunia is a game series that came out in the PS3 era of 2011. This came out during a time when various game companies ranging from Gust, NIS, Idea Factory, Marvelous, Compile Heart were constantly doing a lot collaboration projects. there have been a few but the ones that stood out to me mostly cause these were the only 2 to come to the US were Cross Edge and Trinity Universe where these had characters from various game franchises with a set of original characters for that story to play as and were all fun in their own right. not long after that Idea Factory and Compile Heart would work together more often where after that came the longest and one of the best JRPG's in a long while Record of Agarest war and it was during this game's development that a bold idea was thought up. an idea that not only would serve as satire on the gaming industry as a whole but also treat the game industry as an entire world where events and story elements are based on what's happening and even comment on things that happened in the gaming world. This idea would come to be known as Choujigen Game Neptune or as we English speakers call it Hypderdimension Neptunia.

when the first game came out it was... weird. okay to be fair the game play mechanics and even the game engine used to run it was about as basic as a game can get to the point you'd swear this was a steam release game. before Steam became a big thing. looking back on it yeah it was clunky as hell and the gameplay was pretty slow but that's not what people who played this game seem to remember it for. oddly enough despite mostly negative reviews and issues on the gameplay the thing people seemed to enjoy were the characters. living characters who were not only parodies of Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation, and X Box but were very waifu bait and had a lot comedic charm to them and seemed to connect with eventual fanbase that would follow whether it'd be cause of the commentary it had or the meta 4th wall breaking jokes. over the years in the coming sequels and spin offs the characters who yes are all based on game companies or game franchises to symbolize who put their money in this series to promote it. for every new game it seemed to gain more game companies to want to have a mascot character represent them in this series in some way or form this also included music companies. in a lot of ways you could say Neptune is pretty much what Konosuba founded itself on only instead of making the characters likeable the author focused on making the konosuba cast the worst kinds of people you could ever meet lol but n the for real it's pretty obvious Neptune's popularity in how it satirizes a lot of the gaming world would inspire others to do something similar and Konosuba is one example of it. for whatever reason the popularity and love for this series grew so much where after better successes in the sequel MKII and Victory followed by a re release and retelling of the original first game came the subject of this review. Hyperdimension Neptunia the animation.

Now when it was announced there was a lot of mix of yays and nays which were understandable. much like Hollywood movies based on video games, Anime based on video games had it as bad if not a worse reputation than Hollywood films based on games and here's why. the common big issues they had is much like Hollywood films based on games these anime based on games often did not focus on the original story or missed important elements of the story that take away the importance of why those were so good. sometimes the pacing was all over the place and never seemed to know what the story was about like the anime studio just picked it cause it was popular and others were just plain boring. like boring to the point where they had nothing that made people excited for those games they were based on. granted there have been good adaptions but in recent years the trend of bad anime based on video games has changed since series like persona 5, tales of Zestria and a few more were doing better but I argue the changing point in that was Neptune's anime. So what is it that this did right and wrong when it aired?

first off the overall story. now rather than be a line by line and page by page retelling of one game they decided to do all 3 games even though by this point Megadimension Neptunia VII was in development. oops. lol but anyway, most anime adapted from games usually did something original or told one story based on one of those games and usually had mixed or failed results. Neptunia did the crazy and went for everything. so it's important to note that because rebirth 1 was retelling the original game's premise and also served as a way to introduce the cpu canidates properly which even then that game came in japan right about the time this anime aired so rather focus an arc on the first game the first 8 episodes basically mixed a little of rebirth 1 but based after it had already ended to avoid potential spoilers for that game while still referencing the original ps3 game in its own way on the first episode. it took some liberties to change the story of MKII in how the CPU canidates would gain CPU forms and how they'd save their sisters. so yeah sorry Yuri shippers. no IF kissing Nepgear in this adaption to make her go CPU form lol Episode 3, 4, and 5 is where the retelling of MKII's plot would be handled which yeah like most game adapted anime it's a bit disappointing to see it all be so short but given what they were green lit for and in the context of the anime it does work well to serving the narrative where you're getting the basic idea of what MKII covered without needing to play the game but that still meant you could just play the game to learn the full actual story. no episodes 6 to 12 and even the OVA took a different turn to tell the story of Victory. instead of Neptune ending up in another alternate universe it's Plutia who ends up coming to their universe to look for a something she never explained to what exactly what which oddly enough was somehow Peashy even though they didn't explain why or how... yeah that's kind of another weak point in the story and I'm not gonna pretend Victory did a better job of explaining why it had to be Peashy but then again despite the success Victory had issues in terms of story and character handling. but then the last 3 episodes basically made Chaos Heart the final antagonist of the anime who went by the name of Rei Ryghts. If I'm not mistaken I think her whole character was based on the continuing attacks on the gaming community in how it should be handled for public safety reasons and what not and I could be wrong in this but I think her CPU form Chaos Heart probably represented other gaming consoles like the Atari or turbographics 16 but that's not important right now. the story in the anime does have a few pacing issues and not everything is properly explained but I think it was actually well done is something you can get compelled to watch. I mean jesus this had 2 moments where you legitimately felt like crying. freaking 2 in a 12 episode anime. god damn it, Neptune who knew you had it in you to do that.

the animation was done by David Productions? that was a thing in Japan? * checks wiki *well holy shit. they were a thing since 2007. you learn something new everyday. anyway in terms of animation quality I think I recall the TV run having a few moments of sloppy or rushed animation and bad editing but when the blu rays came out those issues were fixed and polished to very well done perfection. the designs were done very well and did try to stick to what Tsunako drew for the games even though the original game actually had an anime style opening and yes this had it's own fanservice to give us. not to say the game didn't already do that especially when it come to characters like Vert. but as if to realize fans would wonder about if it would compete with nudity like high school dxd or senran kagura did Neptune went with a more meta answer. if you saw the beach episode then you know what I mean in how they attacked the "censor light" and explained it was a parasite like organism that liked to attach itself onto people. I can't tell if that was really clever or really dumb yet it was hilarious to me. Hilariously Clumb(Clever and dumb merged together). but yeah everything in the animation from a visual stand point with near perfect execution where at best it'd most be nitpicks and subjective complaints from people.

I could talk about music compostion but the music is mostly using tracks from the 3 main games with only a handful of remixes and original tracks for the anime which weren't bad so it's dependent on how you feel about it cause again those 2 legitimate emotional moments really get ya when they used those tracks.

There's not much I can say about the characters since if you've played the games then you know their quirks and personalities well enough. you just get to see them fully animated. I will say however the CPU Canidate arc was handled well in how rather than the original and remake concept of the girls spending 2 years running things and Nepgear being captured with Neptune the anime took the liberty of having them develop and show their inability to transform was more about them learning to eventually grow up and not be reliant on their sisters would always protect them. especially in the cases of Nepgear and Uni who both had similar yet different reasons for being obsessed with their sisters. the other one who had better development in the anime which surprisingly enough is what carried over to VII as it did for Nepgear was Neptune herself. yeah the 4th wall breaking joking main heroine we all love being adorkable. lol I'm not even kidding if you watched episodes 6 to 10 where even though she still acted like her usual self there was a surprising good amount of emotional development and growth for her and I'm not the only one who sees this since it was clear people liked this a lot that it plays into how the story for VII plays out for how it developed Neptune and Nepgear and even gave spotlights for a few of the others too.

overall what do I say about it? Okay it's not Shakespeare or even Fruits Basket quality in terms of story as it does rely on a lot of the usual tropes we know and seen in other anime and manga but like the games this already knew it wasn't gonna be ground breaking and like any good series it relished in the silliness and tropes it used and did meta humor pretty well and it does continue to improve with each new project that comes out with some hiccups. in terms of the anime I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a little game parodying with some good to top tier waifus being gamer girls to heroes while getting a bit of subtle commentary on the gaming industry and as crazy as this sounds I think there's a few moments that are a bit more relevant now than they were back then such as episode 2 showing Blanc and Very going for a partnership like how we see Nintendo and Microsoft did recently in real life with their new shared server stuff. even if the lewd fan service moments aren't your thing I think you'll find yourself laughing at a few things and even get emotional in a few spots too. so for me the anime gets a 4 out of 5 rating from me and is a definte seal of approval on to check out if you haven't already.

If you liked this and would like to see me check out and review older anime or games you feel like don't get enough attention and deserve a review leave in the comments below. if not then just leave a comment and tell us what you liked about the Neptunia anime and games overall? I'll see y'all next time either for the OVA review or hopefully the conquest ending discussion for MKII.