Aired on 01/07, an anime based on a popular MMORPG 'Master of Epic' or Moepic. Animation by GONZO.
This is a real oddity, to say the least. I was expecting a fantasy adventure, instead this is an oddball comedy sketch show set inside the RPG world. Basically it's a parody, lampooning the conventions of RPGs with some subtle and not so subtle humour. The first ep is broken into three main stories...
Spoiler:
...after a brief intro, hosted by two elves (a Deedlit clone and one that looks like Negi the Elf), the first story 'Friends' is a touching tale about two woefully generic RPG characters (a knight and the warrior girl from the picture above) and their impossible love (and desire to level up). There's some excellent gags in this part highlighting the absurdities of RPG conventions such as eating in cafes after battling monsters, unarmed fighting when you lose your weapon, healing and levelling up. This part also has the best animation in the show, which is quite shiny in some places especially the griffin battle.
The second story, the shortest and the funniest, is about the pitfalls of finding food in an RPG. Proving that fishing is complete waste of time. Needless to say I felt very sorry for the bat
Third story introduces a band of rampaging elf lolis called War Ages (accompanied by Fizzgig!) that strike fear into the heart of anyone unfortunate to cross their path with their hideous singing (I assume it's meant to sound that bad?) and combat skills. They're like Baka Rangers on crack. Admittedly I was baffled by this whole sketch, but it was fun nonetheless. War Age Black though deserves her own show.
The funniest thing is all these characters in each of the sketches are based on a handful of generic templates introduced early on (in the intro skit you even see them training them
). Each have slightly different hair colour and clothes (and occasionally masks) which makes the whole thing hilarious to watch as you spot the generics reused again and again, just like a real RPG. I expect a future episode to have these characters musing on their hopeless existence as they wander the game world in search of an identity.
As ever, screenshots:
There's probably a slim chance of this getting subbed any time soon, which is a pity as it's got some great gags in it. Unfortunately some of the jokes and sketches (like the intro and the wierd Japanese businessmen) I didn't get at all. Maybe a group will pick this up. Certainly if you like comedy shows or oddities with off-the-wall humour, check it out.
