Toaru Ossan no VRMMO Katsudouki

A Playthrough of a Certain Dude's VRMMO Life - What's this, a "Let's Play" playthrough of somebody who has clearly never played a MMORPG in real life who yet manages to chock up 10 years of this seemingly "ambitious" BS fantasy work? That's quite the sus motive. Yes, you heard me right. Novelist Shiina Howahowa started this work as a Syosetu title in January 2013, at the time when Reki Kawahara's Sword Art Online was taking off on its massive popularity, serving as the revival of the Isekai MMORPG genres, spawning works turned into anime, like Mamare Touno's Log Horizon. But you'd have to be amadman to realise that the author managed to come up with the LN, which, as of this review, is a massive 28 volumes long (WTF?), running at his or her own "pace" of what defines a "unique" VRMMO, but never having actually played a game for the most basic references. I'm sorry, but that just does not fly, but other than the current juggernaut that is novelist Katarina's Shangri-La Frontier also airing this season (which is just overall better in every way), I'd bet even ChatGPT could make a better story than this rather nonsensical BS plot. You might be tempted to think that this show reeks similarity to the Isekai and reincarnation themes, but it's not. It's just a VRMMO that's monitored by its engineers, then programmed through AI to suit the themes of its setting, which is where lands the real-life 38-year-old man by the name of Taichi Tanaka, to be portrayed in "One More Free Life Online" as a young boy named Earth. Yep, you're not squinting your eyes; he's literally called Earth. (Why the stupid generic name!?) The rather unassuming young boy, with a rather unrefined skill that once harnessed, becomes a rather "unique" skill that allows him to create better weapons, cook appetising food for the masses, and also gets him to befriend godlike entities like the Fairy Queen. I'm just going to stop here because there is absolutely NOTHING that appeals to anyone about this show, even if studio Maho Film's anime adaptation came just about a decade too late. Not that anyone was thinking of adapting this (albeit with idiotic people thinking that this deserves an anime) and seeing it through as some production committee's "free time" to produce a subpar show that appeals to no one. (Hey, better use your resources for better shows). Speaking of Maho Film, over the course of the studio's 4 years of existence, they've become the 3rd-rate junkyard studio for mediocre to bad Isekai and/or fantasy shows, and watching this show, you can really tell that it does not take debut director Yuuichi Nakazawa, series composer Touko Machida (which I consider to be one of, if not the worst screenwriters in anime), and the staff team much effort to produce this, which, come to think of it, is a rather good punching bag since better works are given to better studios to adapt, leaving new studios like Maho Film to "create anime with magic" of the BS kind. Everything from the lackluster "Let's Play!" playthrough sequence is just awful for both the story and its characters to the literate point of boredom, which, coupled with the rather mediocre production and music, just screams like everyone working on this is "quite content" with getting by with the lowest (not even the bare minimum) of talents. And it really shows: the show's potential that it will not get ANY better. Just do me a favour and make a hell of a skipping runaway from this show. The author clearly is warped by his or her own mindset, and if you take the plunge, you'll be the obvious clown of foolishness.

Imagine playing a cutting-edge, realistic VRMMO filled with amazing combat/life skills, and being extremely good at it! You're top-tier both at fighting and in crafting. So good, in fact, that you have the hot Queen of the NPCs with human-like intelligence (basically super-advanced AIs) falling in love with you, 3-4 parties to switch through and complete dungeons and events, and are frequently awarded a bunch of new objects and skills just for existing. But you want NONE of that. Nope. You're playing a game, but you "don't want to stand out" (nerd face), so you basically spend your time crafting ugly-looking weapons to test out whilesolo hunting trash mobs, or cooking. You even reject said Queen, pushing her away after treating her like trash for half of the series (despite her skills saving your ahh more than once) and even physically hitting her, too, because you can't be arsed spending your time around her. This would've been a decent 6/10 mid game-themed anime, but the MC is so annoying that it almost makes it unwatchable. Dude, you're playing a game, why do you care about "standing out"? It's not as if that's your real face or name, right? Jesus. And why do you treat everyone around you like an annoyance? Spell me out what "MMO" means real quick. For real, just go play Skyrim already.

I wouldn't say that this is bad, but it sure is boring because it makes nothing out of itself for these 12 episodes. "Toaru Ossan no VRMMO Katsudouki" is the quintessential "Middle Of The Road" or "slop on a plate" equivalent of anime; Its super bland and generic with everything you see here done in a different context in other anime, and does nothing overly good, yet nothing overly bad either. Story-wise it makes itself to be based on the video game "Old School Runescape", not to mention it also really wants to be an Isekai but can't really do that because of its VR videogame themes stopping it. And being honest, it really would be better as an Isekai, because the main character would have more of a reason to actually grind to get stronger. This is because he would need these abilities to actually survive, and as such would make more of a reason to your fight a opponents, plus the MC cannot cheap out with a respawn if something goes wrong, adding stakes into the mix. Overall this makes everything feel milquetoast and bland with no real risk. Side-note: The comedy is just poor, it has the "I do not want the fairy queen with wolf ears to be my wife!" unfunny comedy every episode. Not to mention the ending is hot garbage and actively makes the story more mediocre. Not saying that there isn't good aspects to this show, the crafting system that is shown is cool, but that's just a reinterpretation of blacksmiths. Other than that its fights scenes are pretty interesting and unique, and really holds up the rest of the anime with it, since they are very good and have pretty cool tactics. The characters are not all bad, they just do dumb things for no reason sometimes, but they tend to have good character. All in all, its middle of the road type of anime, not amazing by a long stretch, but not bad either. Take that as it is. 🗿 6/10 🗿

It was fun at first chill vibe, likable MC, and light adventure. But that ending completely killed it for me. The way the MC suddenly snapped at the queen felt forced and out of character, almost like the writers wanted cheap drama. Instead of a satisfying conclusion, it turned into “get lost, queen” out of nowhere, which ruined the relaxing tone the series built up. I genuinely enjoyed the earlier episodes, but the finale felt like it belonged in a different anime. Disappointing and awkward, it left a sour taste after an otherwise comfy VRMMO story its a 7/8 for me but now it belongsto the trash list

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