D-Frag!

"So, I think we're going to start the king's game now. this game has a number of sticks in which one is inscribed the king. The rest are commoners. The commoners should follow the king's command at all cost. But since there are only two players this time, we are going to go with a simple game where the one who draws the king will win. ...So why the hell are these two ready to kill each other?!?!?" -From D-Frag First of all, let me put the summary of this whole anime in one sentence. WHY DID YOU HAVE TO EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEND! ...Then, before I actually begin, let me explain that becausethis is a comedy like nichijou where nothing makes sense but everything is funny, I'll grade this differently. PS. Absolutely no spoilers, but some words may suggest indirect minor plot points. Story: 10 I'm wrong? There isn't much of a story? No, this is not that simple. Creating a comedy requires more skills than one might think. Especially for a theme like D-frag, one needs to be very thoughtful. This is not just senseless laughter found in nichijou, or a laughter at the dumbness of baka to test. This gets a game as casual and simple as king's game or the war of thumbs and create something funny and interesting. Nobody wants to watch two men playing the game of thumbs, but in this, yes you do. The ability to make something boring funny is a grandiose skill that requires much attention and imagination. Another criterion that I absolutely loved was the continual unfolding of funny behind stories and mysteries that just cracked me up. I cannot explain this without spoiling, so I will go on. Story was a work of art. Many will disagree and say there was no much of anything for story, but this, like I said, need to be given a whole new method of grading. Art: 9 Sure, the animation is not the best in the world, and we can't help but notice the rainbow colors of the hairs. However, these are not necessary factors when making a comedy. What D-frag wanted and needed was an animation where one could easily crack up, or be caught in adorableness, and this type of animation was its soul mate. Instead of hiring IG entertainment or Ufotable, the simple and "chibi" animation was what it really needed. But this alone wouldn't get the anime 10, so I gave art a nine. A fluent movement in unnecessary scenes are also a factor to crack people up, but unfortunately D-frag didn't contain this element. For that I gave art a 9. Sound: 8 Starting from the seiyuus this time, in contrast to how I usually grade the sound. The sound is in three parts: BGM, OP/ED and voice over. The voice actors are some of the greatest in the world. For Shibasaki Roka, who needed both the yandere-type voice and cute-type voice, there were not too many in the anime history who could do both but the jack-of-all-trades voice actor hanazawa kana. Roka's voice requirements overlapped well with Sengoku Nadeko of monogatari series, and there was no better candidate than Kana in this voice over. Then, as for our main-character delinquent, we have katsuyuki konishi, the prime voice actor of delinquents. In addition, for the voice actor of sakuragaoka, a girl-like boy who had to sound both like a boy and a girl, we had the voice actor of hayate, shiraishi ryoko. We have the woman who changed Japan towards cuteness, aki toyosaki, for the best girl, along with takao in the story, funabori. Not to mention of course, they all did their jobs admirably. Even the extras' voice acting was admirable. However, there were times when the voicing was a little awkward--especially when kazama played the straight-man role. To begin with kazama's voice actor is not aced in straight-man role. Also, the times when the voice actor shouted "ba-ka!" weirded me out a little bit. Still, kazama's voice actor did his job splendidly and the ba-ka was understandable for the genre of the anime, so I gave voice acting a 9. As for the opening, I at least hated the song. However, as we learned from a certain song called "Platinum Disco" and the opening of "Haiyore Nyaruko-san", there are songs which deserves A+++ for the music quality and other songs which deserves A+++ for catchiness, and this opening is the latter. Still, the song could annoy some people off, so I gave this an 8. The ending, on the other hand, was in between quality and catchiness. It was both easily remembered in the ear and sang well. Still, the song was not good enough to be given a 10, so I gave the ending a 9. Lastly, the BGM's were done splendidly. They weren't cliche or repeated over and over. They were used thoroughly and well. Some songs inspired urgency and even awe and a BGM that does the right job deserves a 10. So all in all, I gave the sound a high 8. Character: 8 Don't you just love all characters? We have all characters with their own appeals, especially Takao and Funabori, who are not in the main 5 characters but are more famous than the main 5's. I cut it off also because of that--the main characters are not given enough attention, especially Sakura. She, although being a part of the club, shows little significance in the whole anime. I also cut off points for the teacher characters that appeared at the last second. Enjoyment: 10 BUT WHO THE HELL CARES ABOUT ALL THESE? D-Frag certainly cannot be a masterpiece, considering each categories carefully.However, they can make people laugh like no other, and they don't need any of these categories to do so. The story? WHO CARES! The art? WHO CARES! The sound? WHO THE HELL CARES!!! The characters? WHO IN THE HELL CARES!!!!! D-Frag is simply fun. It does not bring up the nonsensical exaggerated comedy in Nichijou, or the eternal dumbness in baka to test. They are fun because they are. Even if the story is nonexistent, even if the art is premature, even if the sound is annoying, even if the characters aren't fully developed, D-Frag can turn the tables and create enjoyment out of it. Overall: 9 D-Frag is certainly, without doubt, the best anime of the spring/winter of 2014. There might not be stories to be awed at, or arts to be awed at, or sounds or awesome character developments to be awed at, but this definitely is an anime that you can be awed at. It most definitely needs more attention. If you haven't watched it, you should immediately start watching. Then, happy anime-ing and may the anime be with you.

"Just Finish Watching D-Frag" Looking at the poster thinking that maybe this is just your another typical Comedy anime but No after watching all 12 episode, I was stunned how Marvelous it is..... This anime has no doll moments at all...Every episode is worth dying to see 'cause how great and enjoyable it is. The only downfall is that there's only 12 episode they should do more maybe a hundred lol. I don't know why they stop....maybe the budget or the ratings but who cares they should do more and can't w8 for the next season...D-frag has no main story at all... It's all about the characters goofing off..If you want to watch a feel good anime try this one it won't let you down. D-frag will you make you laugh and it will make you feel that your in your teens again having a crush on someone it will make you feel in love lol... and after you finish all the episode you want to beg for more episode.... I do. 'Cause now a days it's so rare to find a good harem,comedy with a little bit of romance and school club. The Characters are great,always having a good time, They always making fun of the main protagonist and also the characters are very wacky & crazy but likeable.... The Bottomline is this D-frag is a pure comedy as it's finest and don't take it too seriously,just have fun while watching it. PS: I Recommend this anime only if your a fan of Romance,School Club,Harem & Pure Comedy (Kenji X Takao)

While searching for a comedy based anime, I stumbled across one with a strange title: D-frag. The premise seemed unappealing and boring, with a generic setting that didn't promise anything spectacular. Nevertheless, intrigued by the title of it, I began watching it, and I can say I was pleasantly surprised. D-frag is comedy/harem anime, though it is not your typical ecchi/comedy anime out there. So what makes it hilarious? I will try to explain it below. ~Story~ First of all the comedy is based on the manzai, where a "Tsukommi" (straight man) retorts the actions of the "Boke" (funny man) who creates a funny situation. This isquite frequent in japanese comedy shows, and being a personal fan of this type of comedy, naturally appealed to me. However, if this type of comedy doesn't appeal to you, then this may be not suitable for you. D-frag focuses on the delinquent Kazama Kenji, who with the help of his gang, the "Kazama" gang, intends to take over his school. This doesn't go as intended and in the process he is forced to join the game creator club (temp), composed of the most strange girls. From here on audiences observe how Kazama deals with the bizarre club members, leading to absurd and hilarious situations. These range from typical everyday life situations, to the same events a lot school comedies have to offer, such as territorial fights or festival games, naturally taken to the extreme absurdness. D-frag has little story to offer, besides the actions of the game creator club (temp). The story is split in mini arcs, each with enough comedy to make you laugh, making it perfect for this type of anime. It also tagged with the romance and harem category, though the harem aspect is not the main focus of this show, neither is the romance. Moreover, it is used to enhance the comedy. ~Characters~ Being a comedy based anime, D-frag has a lot of characters to offer, each with its own charm. As it is a harem too, there are a lot of female characters but these are not detrimental to the anime; which is to say, it doesn't exhibit an excessive focus on the females. Personally speaking, the protagonist Kazama was of the most interesting character as it was not your typical main protagonist. He doesn't take romantic interest in the female lead characters, neither does he always accomplish his goals, in fact he is often helped by someone, which is bonus. Other character that stood out, and is my personal favourite, was the teacher Sean Conne Conne, who clearly represents the actor Sean Connery. His character, moral values and actions are very refreshing to the anime, besides enhancing significantly the awe factor of this character. Naturally, character development is nihil in this anime, in addition to the fleshing out of the characters. The secondary characters also play an import role D-frag: these have all certain personalities that makes it easy to distinguish from the others. While the protagonists create absurd and hilarious situations, these are often enhanced and supported by the actions and comments/retorts of the secondary characters, and vice versa. There are also different factions present, each with their characteristic attribute, for example, the baldies or music bands. The good thing is that these are all simple and not such impressive characters, they're in fact simple people even though the anime portrays them as "badass" characters. ~Animation and sound~ The animation quality of D-Frag is nothing outstanding, though well executed, what is to be expected from a modern show. The art style of D-frag was toned down a bit from the manga, which was at first rather lackluster, and is a welcoming change. Character designs are varied, yet are nothing remarkable. The facial expressions were well done, which was of importance for the comedy gags, as without them it would have been worse. The soundtrack used in D-Frag was nothing outstanding and it could get repetitive at times, yet there were some compositions that fared well with the different sketches and situations it was trying to portray to the audience. The voice actors performed their roles well, fitting with their character's personalities, as in addition enhancing the comedic element of the anime. ~Enjoyment~ I personally enjoyed D-frag a lot; It made me laugh throughout the whole duration with hilarious and absurd situations, as well as the wide assortment of characters. There were naturally some gags that got old or were predictable, besides of having no story direction whatsoever: this was nevertheless a small drawback. So if you are interested in watching a comedy anime with an enjoyable harem, or just are searching for something to watch, D-frag may be something for you. Just don't expect any deep characters or story. Thank you for reading.

Am I the only one who thought this anime was going to have explosions and have a war-like theme? Yeah? Oops. With the title D-Frag!, I thought this would have something to do with a hand grenade. Nope. It's one of those one-guy-bunch-o-girls-in-club anime and I was putting it off until one of my friends suggested it, claiming it was hilarious. Story: 8/10 Sigh. Not again... The plot definitely did not interest me at all. I've watched plenty of shows where a guy goes into a club with a bunch of girls in it, yadeeyada. Despite the synopsis being so bland, I found that the actualplot was progressing at a nice rate. The setting actually moved outside of the club room (phew) and there were a variety of conflicts that the protagonist faced. Art: 8/10 The art is definitely very average. Typical school uniform, typical characters all with different hair color, and typical school setting. The art also tends to focus a lot of attention on the head of the characters. I don't particularly like how the hair is colored - it uses gradient, you'll see what I mean if you plan to watch this. Nothing particularly stands out... until those fantastically inputted little, special scenes. The art will suddenly catch your attention and I guess it is because of this contrast that I paid closer attention to the show. Sound: 8/10 The background music does not stand out too much, which isn't a bad thing. This show is very light-hearted and most of the time, if not all, it fits with the scene. The little sound effects are nice. Voice acting is also great, but personally, the male protagonist screaming all the time gets to me. Character: 10/10 WOAH THERE. Yeah, this anime gets a perfect score for character. Each character is unique, all weirdos. Maybe there's one character here and there who have the generic behavior of all school-related anime but the variety of personalities is extraordinary. This anime somehow makes even the minor characters of the show stand out. It's quite genius, actually. This anime may not stand out much in terms of the other criteria, but I fell in love with all the characters - even those who only appear for a max of two episodes. Enjoyment: 9/10 Each episode did not fail to elicit laughter from me. The oddity of all the characters along with the random plot and plot twists combine to create an anime that does not fail to please. For a school anime, this one does not fail to deliver entertainment. Overall: 9/10 Do give this a try and if you want to test this anime's waters, try two episodes, not one. I felt the first episode does not truly represent the rest of the show. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a little chuckle and fall in love with the characters. However, if you cannot handle the male protagonist screaming for half the episode every episode, this may not be for you (take into consideration that some people enjoy this screaming!).

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