What They Say
Shinichi’s mission is to bring “otaku culture” to this new world in order to facilitate effective commerce between the two worlds. As an expert in anime, light novels, manga, and dating sims, Shinichi is revered and admired in the new world, and an unexpectedly fulfilling real life awaits him!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The last couple of episodes of Outbreak Company have been pretty self-indulgent, but I think this marks the first time that Outbreak Company’s fealty to otaku tropes outweighs jokes about those tropes themselves. Naturally, this is the swimsuit episode. But no mere swimsuit episode: A swimsuit episode where Shinichi declares it’s the swimsuit episode and has Myucel recall swimsuit episodes from other anime in order to know how to act.
The story is that Minori has too much vacation time and needs to use it for the good of the AmuTec company. The best place to take a vacation while still in Eldant is the Imperial Villa, where there is a lake. Of course, everyone comes along, and thus the swimsuit episode is born. The camera functions as Shinichi’s eyes, Minori tells him not to speak to her breasts, he rubs oil on her back, he and Myucel get into a splash fight. It’s pretty much as lazy as they come.
What doubles the disappointment is that Romilda, the elf girl, is attacked by mysterious intruders on the way to the villa. Minori thinks they might be remnants of the anti-foreign terrorists in episode three, and this would tie the beach episode in to a longer narrative in an interesting way. Imagine: A beach episode that had ramifications for the larger plot! Now that would be playing around with the formula. But alas, the intruders are just JSDF guys in disguise there to take pictures of Minori in a bikini. How trite.
You could almost skip the entire episode and miss nothing, except this episode has one of Outbreak Company’s most shameless and successful gags to date: A council of elders has been appointed to decide on the perfect swimwear for Empress Petralka, befitting her age and station. They pass around magazines with all kinds of bikinis depicted, but one elder has something special in mind. The scene is barely animated, and mostly consists of stills of old men in deep contemplation. When the punchline strikes, however, it’s a knockout, and the image is almost destined to become a meme. It’s just a shame the rest of the episode is so by the books in comparison.
In Summary
Outbreak Company finally panders too hard and is unable to regain balance with clever observation. Still, it’s not a bad record. Swimsuit episodes have driven far better shows than Outbreak Company aground. And yet, the council of elders may end up being Outbreak Company’s single most memorable gag. We end up with a skippable episode that’s not to be missed. Maybe Outbreak Company is fiddling with the formula after all.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: Sony VAIO 17″ HD screen
