Mixing a rom-com and otaku culture together is a dangerous recipe that covers a lot of my interests. On the surface, 2.5-jigen no Ririsa looks like the perfect storm that could steal my heart this anime season; however, it’s all about the culture and the presentation! Seeing how it’s about cosplay, there will be some comparisons to Bisque Doll here but is this another clone, or does this perfect storm do enough to stand out on its own?
Let’s go!
First Episode Synopsis
Okamura is the president of the manga club which has a whopping total of 1 member… him. However, not all is lost because he loves it this way. He can be alone and fawn over Lileh, a fictional character that he proclaims as his waifu. Whether it’s the TV anime, the movie, or the video game, he obsessively relives every moment and worships the character so much that he has sworn off 3D girls forever!
Enter a 3D girl named Ririsa who claims to be a fan of manga. He has some serious doubts and feels that once she learns that the manga club is all about sexy girls, she’ll get repulsed and leave. Well, it turns out Ririsa is just as much of a Lileh fan as he is… in fact, she wants to cosplay as her! When her knowledge about his waifu blows him away, he has no choice but to accept her into the manga club… and accept her proposal to take a picture of her in the sexiest Lileh outfits imaginable!
No time like the present to start because she instantly undresses and gets into a costume immediately! Then (in one small animation error moment), he takes photos of her in landscape and reviews them with her as if he took them in portrait! (oops). Things seem to be going well except for one other thing… the two of them are falling in love with each other!
Worth Watching?
MAYBE – I called this show the perfect storm for me in its premise… it has a cute girl, it has prime otaku culture, it has a main protagonist who is getting to live out his dream, and we, the viewers can live vicariously through him… so why am I giving this a MAYBE instead of a resounding YES?
Because it contains the one thing that I absolutely HATE the most in any comedy… 90% of the dialogue is over-the-top screaming. As soon as we were 30 seconds in, I had a bad feeling about this show and by the end of the episode, I was right. If that’s your style of comedy, have at it but I cannot stand it when characters have to scream and overreact to sell a joke. It annoys me to no end and causes severe irritation. I’ve instantly dropped shows before because of this one facet to them but… I’m not about to do that to this one… yet.
I’m going to give this some time mainly because the premise for it is so up my alley, that I can’t just turn a blind eye and ignore it. Maybe it’ll be one of those that grow on me but it’s going to have to keep the plot’s quality levels up pretty high to keep me going the entirety of the season. If this show can manage to do that, I’ll give it 4 stars in the review on general principle (bookmark this first reaction to call me out on my BS if I screw up in about three months).
If it didn’t have the screaming, this could have been a guilty pleasure of the season show for me. Of course, the premise itself isn’t going to win Anime of the Year… it’s just too trash… er… cultured for something like that; however, it is a brainless show you can just sit back and laugh at and, again, if screaming and otaku culture is your jam, this will be a hell of a watch. For me, the plot and comedy is going to have to carry this one hard to get me not to drop it. We’ll see.
