I drink and watch anime

D Frag! is a Darkness Type

Irina

D Frag box art

 

Kazama is enjoying his high school reputation as a terrifying delinquent. One wonders how he ever managed to earn it in the first place since he’s such a sweet guy but no matter. Now that he has it, he and his little gang of childhood friends \ hoods are going to milk it for all it’s worth at their new high school. Kazama just hadn’t expected to get (somewhat literally) roped into the school’s unofficial game creation club, along with the school’s adorable underground boss, frightening yet beautiful president and superpowered first year sweetheart. Even the faculty advisor seems unhinged. At this rate, Kazama will be lucky if he survives high school with his life intact, let alone his reputation.

Do you guys watch anime on Crunchyroll? If you do, you know that instead of the cover art, shows get a static screenshot from whatever episode you’re at. Do any of you know how those screenshots get generated? It seems impossible that they would be manually chosen, but we also never get a blank screen or some random object. Would an algorithm by able to detect if the image was significant based on predetermined variables?… Ok I literally just went of on a tangent while writing. I have a feeling not many people are going to read this review and that makes me sad because I’m really curious about those screenshots now.

Anyways, I brought it up because the first episode of D-Frag shows a visibly disturbed Kazama all tied up while Roka is taking the bag off his head. That is the total information I went on to add it to my cue. Not to brag but it was exactly what I expected!

I guess it was pretty obvious

D-frag is a rigorously average offering in just about every way. I think average has gotten a bad rap lately. I don’t mean that as an insult. I just mean it’s average. The ar’t is fine. I would qualify both the art style and designs as “anime like”. The animation is competent and the sound design is unobstructive. I didn’t notice anything in particular about the voice acting.

And by this I mean I have no particular flaw to pick at. It’s possible that I wasn’t expecting that much out of this show but it also didn’t let me down in any way. The visuals are consistent and the audio is never unpleasant or distracting. Let’s call it a win!

And this harmless mediocrity is carried over in the story. It should be noted that I recently started watching Shin Sekai Yori, and it quickly became obvious to me that I would need a light, amusing little show to balance it out. This is how D-frag got to the top of my list. It also plays a role in why I didn’t drop it in the early episodes. Although I have nothing against the first few episodes of D-Frag, I also didn’t see any particular reason to keep watching. However, as a distraction and palate cleanser, it did the job quite well.

thoroughly cleansed

To be fair the series did also grow on me and I was honestly enjoying it on its own terms by the last arc. In fact (possibly due in part to me underestimating just how much SSY would hit me) I ended up finishing all of D-Frag by the time I got to episode 9 of Shin and I had started 3 behind. Don’t get me wrong D-Frag starts out was a mostly harmless forgettable comedy / harem (heavy on the comedy, light to pretty much nonexistent on the romance) and ends up as a fairly forgettable pleasant enough one.

The characters are basic harem stereotypes pushed to ridiculous extremes but oddly enough more likeable than a lot of harem honeys I have watched. There’s also an unusually large and present cast of male characters who are their own brand of assorted weirdos.

Trying to give you an accurate idea, I would call it a comedic school club based slice of life with some harem inspiration. After rewatching the Daily Lives of High School Boys recently, D-Frag didn’t live up to it on a comedy side but it manage to get a few chuckles out of me.

For me, the best part of this agreeable little series is the characters. No D-Frag doesn’t offer any deeply touching moments or stirring revelations. It likely won’t make you rethink…well it likely won’t make you think at all. And the writing falls short of truly hilarious. But with all of this, I have to admit I cared more than I would have thought about those students. Even though everyone is a caricature, right down to Kazama being an extreme example of the boring male lead, the show manages to give them just enough substance for viewers to have something to hang onto while not overusing anyone to the point of making their extreme personalities annoying. That’s actually pretty impressive.

it’s actually kind of hard to find a pic of Kazama NOT tied up

So what’s the verdict. Well I don’t think I would suggest anyone go out of their way for this one. For me love tyrant (I’ve been watching a lot of harems lately…) was more entertaining for instance. But if you’re looking to distract yourself with a show that could occasionally make you laugh and is unlikely to offend you, this is a fair option.

Oddly enough I am curious to know what other people thought of this series. Maybe it’ll help me get a firmer stance. So if you have seen D-Frag, let me know your thoughts.

Favourite character: Minami

Diet Tip: When you think your hungry you may just be thirsty. Drink a pitcher of Sangria and see how you feel

Suggested drink: Monopoly

second best girl
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