Outbreak Company Review In Few Words (Mini Review).
“Man, little girls are the best” – Kanou Shinichi.
An otaku find a job where his vast knowledge about otaku culture is a great asset. In that new job, he is required to teach people of another world about the otaku culture of Japan. And along the way, he gets to know more about the people in that world, and many other things.
Outbreak Company is not an anime I would recommend if you have not watched many anime, as part of the fun of watching it is to see how otaku culture plays itself inside an anime. And to detect the many references from other anime while watching it. I am not saying that you won’t enjoy it without understand the references, it is just that it is better to watch many anime before watching this one.
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Good things about Outbreak Company
- Contains many parodies and references from other anime.
- The anime, while it is short, wrap everything up by the end of it in a nice way.
Possibly bad things about Outbreak Company
- None so far.
Story
Kanou Shinichi, a shut-in/hikkikomori, and a first-class Otaku (Person who is do nothing but watch Anime, read Manga & play video games). Decides one day to look for a job, so he filled an online survey about otaku culture, and he passed it with a high score, which gets him the job featured in it.
It turns out there is more to that job than he initially anticipated. After all, the Japanese government discovered a gateway to another world called Eldant, a world that is similar to the fantasy world we see in anime, one that has elves, dwarfs, dragons, castles and even magic. And to benefit from this discovery, the government decided to spread the Japanese culture there, and so they looked for someone who knows a lot about this culture. And given Shinchi’s knowledge about that culture, no one is more suitable for that other than him.
As I previously said, many of the things in Eldants are things Shinchi (and us along with him) used to see in anime, and his reactions when he see them are funny, and I guess any of us would react the same way if we ever visit a world like Eldant.
At first, all that Shinchi does is to teach people of Eldant the Japanese Otaku culture, but after some time, he will get to see some of Eldant problems, like racism and few other thing.
To some extent, Outbreak Company is a bit similar to No Game No Life, where an Otaku from our world finds himself transported to another world, and where their otaku skill or knowledge turns out to be very useful in the other world.
The Art
The art of Outbreak Company is good. The art illustrates how Eldant world looks very well, this is obvious in the parts where you see the great scenery of Eldant, like you do during the opening song.
I personally didn’t like the drawing style of the characters much. I don’t know how to describe it in words, but the way the eyes are drawn is not very appealing to me. But that is not something that prevented me from watching this anime & enjoying it.
The references of other anime look a bit different than the original anime they came from, but they are done in a way you can easily tell where the reference came from.
Characters
Outbreak Company Characters
Kanou Shinichi
The main protagonist of Outbreak Company, and a first class Otaku, and a shut-in who spends all his time consuming anime, manga & games. Until he was given the job of spreading the Japanese Otaku culture in the Holy Empire of Eldant.
Shinchi’s status as an Otaku expert didn’t come out of no where, as he comes form a family directly related to the Otaku culture, with a father who is light novel author, and a mother that is eroge illustrator.
Shinichi is voiced by Hanae Natsuki.
Foaran Myucel
Myucel is Shinchi’s maid in Eldant, she is a shy girl & a half elf. From the moment he sees her, Shinchi shows interest in her since she is a maid, and he gets even more interested in her when he know she is an elf.
Myucel voiced by Mimori Suzuko.
Anne Eldante III Petralka
Or simply Petralka, she is the empress of the Holy Empire of Eldant. Despite looking like a little girl (or a loli), she is actually close in age to Shinchi. She has a tsundere character (A term used to describe anime girl who is hostile toward a guy, but tends to have feelings toward him eventually).
Petralka is voiced by Fuchigami Mai.
Minori Koganuma
Member of Japanese self-defence forces (JSDF), and the person assigned to help Shinchi spread the Japanese culture in Eldant.
Minori is also an Otaku, who likes Yaoi (genre of anime about Boy love) so much. And is very skilled at combats.
As a fan service, she has F-cup large breasts, which Shinchi likes to look at.
Minori is voiced by Uchida Maaya.
Other characters
Some of the other characters are Jinzaburou Matoba, a guy from the Japanese governement, and the guy ho hired Shinchi. And En Koldobar Galious, a knight & cousin of Petralka.
Pacing & Enjoyment
The pacing is good during the whole anime, and it gets so fast at the end, which is good thing.
If you are familiar enough with anime & manga, you are more likely to enjoy Outbreak Company. As it features many references for anime for us to look at, from “Hataraku Maou-sama”, to “Papa No Iukoto Wo Kikinasai” To “Toaru Kagaku No Railgun”, and a few more. These references are fun to look at, and they make it more fun to watch the anime. While the producer made a change to the appearances of these references. They are still very obvious to detect, despite these changes.
I really had an argue to post many screenshots of these references in this review. But I thought that may end up spoiling the fun of seeing them while you are watching the anime, so I refrained form doing so, and only posted the one you see below here. :P
Extra Few Things
The opening song
Outbreak Company opening, Univer Page, starts out in a very catchy tone, which makes me think it can be a good phone ringtone for an Otaku. And the song itself is very good in general.
The scenes of the openings are very cute & happy, especially the ones where they show you Petralka & Myucel in chibi. Besides that. The opening shows you various scenes from Eldant, and different characters interacting with each other in different ways.
The DVD & Bluray
Outbreak company comes in either Bluray or DVD. The Bluray version contains 2 discs. While the DVD, is 3 discs. Both the Bluray & DVD versions contains the English dubs as well as the Japanese original voices. Both also contains English subtitles as well.
Anime to watch if you like Outbreak Company
No Game No Life
No Game No Life is based in a world where everything is dealt with through games, No Game No Life, it is one of these mush-watch anime (I am thinking of creating a list of these anime at a later time). This anime is very different from those with similar otherworldly setting, and the twists & the way Sora handles things increases the enjoyment of the anime in my opinion. Unlike what some people think, this anime is not trying to follow Sword Art Online or Log Horizon examples, instead, No Game No Life tries to do things in its own way, and that makes it very unique from them.
No Game No Life is another anime where an Otaku(s) & shut-in get transported to another world, and where their Otaku experience benefit them a lot. I have to emphasise that there besides that, the two anime stop being similar.
And Finally
Outbreak Company made me think of something, since the Japanese government is going to a great extent to spread the Otaku culture to another world, maybe they should do that to our world as well??? I mean, much more than they are doing already. As there are many of us who would like easier ways to access it ^^
Also, Outbreak Company made me think of the same deep thing as No Game No Life did, and is that people can shine if they find the right place for them, the place where they can use what they know for their own success & benefit.
At the end, I really hope you liked my Outbreak Company review, and I hope to see you soon in another review. :)
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Quotes from Outbreak Company
- “Protecting lolis from afar is a gentleman duty, is it not?” – ???
- “Man, little girls are the best” – Kanou Shinichi.
- If you have a good quote from Outbreak Company, please share it with me. :>
Review Credits & Sources
- Some of the characters information in this review are taken from Outbreak Company Wikia
