Setting expectations: This review is being written under a subjective lens and mainly enjoyment. The amount of spoilers will be as minimal as possible to none. I dont talk more about the plot points except in spoiler text. There are some image spoilers but its all out of context and I took too many screencaps lol. If you come to expect opinions from a very critical sense sorry but Im not your guy as we may have different tastes. Ill try my best to explain what are the things that worked for me and what doesnt in this review. Then youll hopefully be able to understand my point of view and maybe come to your own conclusion about what this will be like for you. I preface because a lot of people online come to expect reviews to fit a mold of what they want which isnt always realistic. For me I just like to talk about anime I enjoy. And so this review is about such things. Sorry if this aint what youre looking for. 1000https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/409951964949118980/738629033549496400/10.PNG Verdict Princess Connect / PriConne has been labelled as diet KonoSuba and theres a good reason for that. According to AnimeNewsNetwork KonoSubas Director Takaomi Kanasaki was this shows a Director b Series Composition c Script eps 17 913 d Storyboard OP ED eps 17 1013 e Unit Director OP. ED f Sound Director Source: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=99659 This guy literally did an ironman and you can see how much of his flair resonates throughout the whole show to the point where that comparison is made. Aside from talking about the director Princess Connect Re:Dive is a 13 episode TV anime series released in Spring 2020. It was animated by CygamesPictures and is based on the mobile gacha game of similar name produced by Cygames. If you arent aware a lot of anime are adapted and produced to serve as advertisements for their respective source materials. This anime is no different as it serves to push the viewers to play the mobile game. Understanding this fact this might explain why certain decisions have been made. Regardless PriConne is a hit or miss show. If it hits I think youll be having quite a good time. If it misses its generic of an anime you can find anywhere however I think its a much more wellpolished show overall and this makes it aboveaverage over the generic anime you could find. I will recommend this show based on you the viewer/reader liking one or multiple of the following factors: Slice of Life / CGDCT Cute Fun Characters KonoSubas Comedy / Style Isekai / Adventure / Fantasy Great Storyboards / Shots Episodic Anime Typical Anime Tropes tsundere isekai etc. Dont let these factors deter you from trying the show. Maybe the show will hit with you. It definitely did for me in its 1st episode and I wasnt expecting much out of it. I think the first 3 episodes should be enough of an indicator to show what youre getting yourself into and help you make your own conclusion about whether or not you find this show entertaining in future episodes. For me I have found myself enjoying this show a lot more than I expected to. It was a very enjoyable treat which explains my rating of a 9/10. I believe for many others it wont be as high but this was a really strong entertaining show overall personally. 1000https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/409951964949118980/738631743464144986/17.PNG If you would like to understand more about the rating and reasonings read the sections below. Explaining my Rating Scale I think the common mistake with ratings is that we all tend to judge and associate each review rating on our own personal scale. When people see an average anime they see that as a 5 some see that as a 6 and others as a 7. As you all know we all have different tastes hence different rating scales. Hence why Ill post my scale below. My Personal Ratings Scale Anime: 4 and below = I wouldve dropped this show already but made myself suffer through it for some reason. Regardless this is the drop zone generally. 5 = This was really meh and I wouldnt take the time to rewatch. 6 = This was meh and I wouldnt watch it again unless I was forced to. 7 = It was okay and acceptable it was good entertainment and you enjoyed the ride. 8 = This was a great story and you enjoyed the show/movie but it wasnt considered one of the best experiences. Just a great time overall 9 = If you watched this show/movie for the first time youll love this a lot. It aint lifechanging but god damn youll have one of the best experiences. 10 = This show resonated with me so hard chills and intense emotional catharsis. 1000https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/409951964949118980/738632392327299122/18.PNG Background I got roped into this show by a preacher Neppington. Then another friend mentioned it was Diet KonoSuba and it was a 9. Ive loved KonoSuba and this just seems like high praise so this caught my interest and I was bored at the time. Since it was diet I thought it was just a more inferior version and had very low expectations. Really by diet its more of a less crude more derivative version of KonoSuba. Still Ive loved watching KonoSuba 1 2 and the movie so this made me curious on what I was going to witness from the same director as I kept on watching this show. These low expectations and preconceived bias with KonoSuba affects my score to be honest. It surprised me and I enjoyed the ride. Aside from those factors I find myself enjoying most anime but it seems like my preferences lay in comedy action and slice of life. This show managed to hit all of the right preferences/notes with me. Before making this review I saw the TV version and Ive only watched the TV in Japanese Audio English subtitles. 1000https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/409951964949118980/738632139704238130/35.PNG The Review Now the review. Ill be talking about the anime in the following categories: 1 Story / Plot / Characters If I remembered correctly according to Neppington the story being adapted in this anime is a lot of original material except for the characters lore world and hints of the main storyline. This can explain why a lot of the real plot is in the background or barely explored that much as they want you to play the mobile game lol. As a result weve got mainly a slice of life anime exploring the world and people that the cast encounters. If youre expecting a grand adventure go play the mobile game as I imagine thats where the meat is. 1000https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/409951964949118980/738630622574149692/18.PNG The thing is that with this story it mixes in CGDCT Slice of Life Wholesome Moments Comedy Drama and Action. You can infer from the previous paragraph that CGDCT Slice of Life Wholesome Moments and Comedy are the main focal points throughout the series. They do have some action scenes that helps complement the story but not like super epic fight scenes you may come to expect from general action shows. Drama is few and far inbetween. I think theyre really done well though Considering what they were given I would love to see this show attempt to do real drama and more action. They try to do drama for comedic purposes but you can see the show pull off real drama when they want to which makes me curious on what this would be like if given another season and a legitimate dramafocus. 1000https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/409951964949118980/738629429613559868/32.PNG For the plot its an episodic anime. If you binge this show and pay attention youll eventually start to notice a pattern with the progression of each episode as it goes from the morning to the evening. Consume this anime however you wish I think its best to watch it daily to let the episode simmer but binging is fine too. Now lets get to the characters: The MC. Hes a hit or miss. And honestly? Its valid to hate him. His personality is so bland and stupid but for me they incorporate it so well with the jokes and stories that I couldnt help but find him endearing at times. Hes literally braindead a baby just a really stupid kid. The show eventually becomes wiser over time about his personality and that sense of awareness is great. 1000https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/409951964949118980/738628417833926776/14.PNG As for the other characters its a mix of tropes but I really enjoy their personalities and character designs. They all felt quite unique and while I could attribute to them as archetypes I enjoy their chemistry overall. I stan Karyl. While Konosuba has Kazuma and the 3 idiots. Princess Connect has an overpowered baby and the 3 competent parents. Thats how I would describe it. Its not a complete Konosuba spinoff. This is its own thing and I really enjoyed seeing Konosubas director take on these things even if its a little bit shallow. And the depth of these characters its shallow lets admit that. The chance to look further into their personalities and growth comes from the storyline in the end which the show opts to hint instead of fully explore in order to sell the mobile game. In the end most of the show is fun hijinks that aims to have a good time versus a character exploration drama. Is that bad? No. Just set your expectations to watch a fun entertaining comedy/slice of life with minor plot around here and there. This will make the experience a lot more enjoyable in my opinion. 2 Visuals / Animation Holy shit I dont know who they hired or if they got a lot of that gacha money but the visuals look great 1000https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/409951964949118980/738629683586924554/37.PNG Comparing this to Konosuba by Studio Deen the production value in the visual department is a lot better CygamesPictures clearly want this to be the best looking thing they could with the directors funny visual gags/flair. You can immediately tell how pretty many of the scenes look as they do a lot of great environmental shots and character shots. The amount of attention to detail in the lighting department reflecting the different times of day as well as the settings is honestly phenomenal in my opinion. So many scenes that looked so pretty because the visuals were A+. Of course there will be some shots/scenes that dont look as pretty but theyre few and dont last for too long during the show. And sometimes those scenes are drawn like that on purpose to draw out a comedic effect/background or its part of the directors flair. As for the animation it was honestly really welldone. The sakuga and movements for action scenes flowed really well. As for typical animation while walking it was all serviceable nothing too noteworthy but it was all welldone. Nothing looked out of place animationwise and so welldone. 3 Audio / Soundtrack / Voice Acting 1000https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/409951964949118980/738630253773193266/8.PNG The audio design overall is welldone. Welltimed audio gags and the like. It helps that the director also did the sound directing. Comedy complements the sound directing a lot. Soundtrack wasnt too super memorable but it helped fit the setting and achieved its purpose of being background music. There was a lot of variety though and it all served their scenes quite well for what it needed. Considering it sometimes elevates the jokes Ill say its serviceable and not a detriment. Opening is not too memorable but its always fun to watch. Note you dont see all of the characters explored in the show from the opening. Most likely a literal advert for the game. As for the Ending its comfy and very chill to end the show on. Notice how the tone mimics KonoSuba where the opening is super energetic and the ending is super comfy. I cant help comparing it because the guy is literally ripping off his style haha. As for the voice acting I think they all knocked it out of the park. I really enjoyed all of the performances and nothing seemed out of place. Its typical standard anime voice acting you can come to expect but still enjoyable. Minor spoilers near the end neutral comment: 4 Overall 1000https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/409951964949118980/738631188259930112/20.PNG What was something that I expected to not like ended up being a favourite. Quite an experience. Now the ultimate question: was I convinced to play the mobile game? Not really but I can see why they would push me to it or why others would. As an advertisement it definitely did its job. Entertaining af advertisement though. I hope this KonoSuba director gets more work and flexibility like this because this was a real nice treat personally. As for most people I think theyll find an entertaining show and the worst is seeing it as really generic on facevalue. Though I think this show is a hidden gem and should be given a proper fair shot for the first few episodes at least who knows you might enjoy this show. In conclusion hopefully you learned something useful from the review. Thanks for reading. : 1000https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/409951964949118980/738632505430638633/35.PNG
90 /100
77 out of 89 users liked this review