Keima has found his ideal in a game and it’s becoming a hilariously dominating piece of work. Dating Sim 0079 – Go!
What They Say:
One night, Keima is in his room when he picks up a certain game. On the cover is a very poorly drawn heroine, Yotsuba. Will this game change the world as Keima knows it?── Keima Katsuragi, the god who has won the hearts of many girls. Will he finally see his ideal ending…!?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With things wrapped up in the previous episode for Jun’s storyline, the opportunity to do something fun for the final episode of the season in a standalone manner is definitely there. With the greater focus on his gaming in the past arc with Jun trying to get him to stop, at least within school, making the games an even greater focus here can really work well. Especially when he ends up finding a game in his massive stack of games, one that’s old and poorly done with its cover design, only to discover that it may be his destiny as he puts it. The expression on his face as he tells this to Elsie is priceless and the way he completely gets into it unlike any other game is fascinating for someone like him.
Watching this episode as he unfold splaying this very basic game is definitely cute because of this. While he’s often so focused on the games, he plays them with a serious expression or bland otherwise and just puts it in the pile when he’s done, adding it to his list of accomplishments. But here, he’s become enthusiastic about it, showing a variety of expressions as he works through the various challenges, and gets a thrill from it because it’s the one that has come the closest to his ideal. This is the most normal we’ve probably seen him, which is amusing because we see so many game versions of himself in this with lots of hilariously designed characters and even a parody of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
Because of the nature of this episode, it’s definitely unlike all the other ones we’ve seen so far because it is so game focused and it has versions of Keima as seen in the game. Elsie has a reduced role in it, but she still has some great moments and really provides a great counter balance to Keima himself. The various parodies that make t into here is great, especially with the way Keima plays all the roles, especially in the Dating Sim 0079 segment with all of its Keima command staff, pilots and more. This parody/homage goes further than the others and it really is quite a lot of fun while having a very surreal nature about it considering it’s far more expansive than the other parodies. It’s a great way to bring this series to conclusion for the season, and overall if it is to become the final episode.
In Summary:
Few shows get to this stage of this nature where I feel myself really wanting a third season of it to arrive. With its use of smaller arcs rather than standalone stories for the most part, it allows us to see a good variety of characters involved and given enough time to be managed and worked through. And throughout each of them, and with the buffer pieces here and there, we get a much better look at Keima as well and it reinforces him as a very interesting character unlike most other male leads we see. While he’s a caricature at the start of all of this with his videogame playing, and he does spend a lot of time with them to the point of distraction, it all unfolds in a very fun and engaging way, and the closing of this season is no exception. It does a lot to show us some fun moments and humanizes Keima even more. I’d love another go around with this show and it’s one of the few that I think really needs a full on high definition bilingual release in the US. It may be fairly niche overall, but it’s the kind of quality show for this genre that we don’t get often enough.
Grade: A-
Simulcast By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
