Break-Age

An impulse watch, which I picked purely out of boredom. A 40 minute low budget OVA with a weird looking cover and a ridiculous sounding plot? That oughta be a laugh. Sign me up. I was pleasantly surprised though. For all the roughness around its edges, Break-Age is actually quite cute. First off, ignore the synopsis listed on this page because it’s completely inaccurate. For some reason, whoever wrote it has tried to pass this off as some hard sci-fi thing which it is absoutely not. This is a rom-com with an entirely grounded setting and no sci-fi to speak of, so I don’t knowwhat was going on there. The plot is ACTUALLY about a super popular arcade game called Danger Planet III from the far off year of 2007, which uses VR technology to allow players to design and pilot their own customisable robots called Virtual Puppets (V.P.s). Kirio Nimura is a special A-Ranked player and prides himself on his skills, yet this changes when he is soundly defeated by a mysterious user named Taka and their brickshithouse customised V.P. Benkei. Itching for a rematch, Kirio and his friend Dai track down the mystery opponent to a neighboring city and discover Taka is actually the beautiful Seria Takahara. Hijinks ensue, tensions flare, and romance blooms as the two aces go head to head to determine who is the superior pilot. Exciting stuff. Break-Age is based off a manga of the same name, which is mostly untranslated and which I haven’t read. The OVA looks to have only adapted the first volume, but the story here is so self contained that it pretty much wraps up perfectly without the need for further episodes. Characters are standard but likeable. Kirio (Kenichi Suzumura, in one of his earlier roles) is simple but overall quite charming. Compared to most other battle game anime protags, he’s actually quite soft and playful which actually makes him stand out despite his lack of real character growth. Seria (played by Sailor Moon regular Wakana Yamazaki) is in a similar boat. Nothing exactly amazing about her character, but her cheeky yet assured nature is compelling enough. Most of the fun comes from the supporting cast, mainly Kirio’s best friend Dai (Yuji Ueda), his sarcastic mother (Michie Tomizawa) and the completely insane leader of the school computer club Takashi (Tomohiro Nishimura, who hams it up to great effect). Takehito Koyasu also shows up as the Chairman of Kirio’s Video Game club, playing probably the weirdest character in the show, who I won’t spoil in case you decide to watch this. All in all, good cast. Charming, fun. Simple, but there’s nothing wrong with that. They play off each other well and each have distinctive personalities. For a 40 minute OVA with a pretty basic plot, good character interactions and dynamics are crucial, so it’s good that the anime doesn’t falter in that department. There’s a kind of homely cuteness to Kirio and Seria’s relationship, despite their lack of notably clashing character traits that are standard in these type of stories. While the OVA ends just as their romance kicks off, there’s a very down-to-earth charm between the two which instinctively makes you want them to get together. Kirio similarly meshes well with Dai and the anime managers to give them distinctive roles in the friendship without exaggerating their personalities. That warm simplicity is something that stretches through the short, making it feel very grounded and realistic despite the strangeness of some of the jokes and side characters. It almost feels like a slice-of-life in a way, despite simultaneously being nothing like that at the same time. Now let’s not beat around the bush. Break-Age is fucking hideous. Forget low-budget, this is nigh-subterranean. Jerky and stiff movement, static shots held for too long, reused animation, characters changing their looks from shot to shot. Any kind of shoddy animation or technical goofs you’ve seen over the years, Break-Age likely suffers from them too. There are a couple of decently stylised scenes here and there, and the frequent dips into chibi-animation don’t look terrible, but 95% of the time this is uuuuugly. It’s not like there’s anything particularly demanding here either, except maybe the mech fight at the end which looks bad, but not completely hideous. It’s mostly still frames and repeated shots anyway. Shame. I’m not asking for some god tier 10/10 sasuga, but at least make it look presentable, you know? I can’t remember a single piece of music that played through this thing, so that’s a bit of a bust, but the voice work is solid and carries the anime where the animation dips. Suzuken’s performance as Kirio might sound a little flat at first, but there’s some little subtleties in his deliveries that really bring the character to life, mainly in the comedic scenes. As mentioned prior, Tomohiro Nishimura steals the show with his over the top performance, and I wish he had more lines because he’s pretty damn funny here. Then again, it might’ve been a little overwhelming if he was barking his way through the whole 40 minutes, so whatever. This is technically a mecha anime, so what of the designs? Thanks to the gimmick being a game where you can customise your machine, the robots featured here are a varied bunch. If you’ve even played Virtual-On, you’ll get the gist of what they’re going for here with most of them (in fact the entire game seems to be a big Virtual-On parody, right down to being made a company called “Degger”. Hurr hurr). Slightly boxy and lanky, humanoid designs with distinctive visors. Nothing particularly eye-catching save for Seria’s monstrous V.P. Benkei, which looks like Metal Gear REX crossbred with a bulldozer. The animation doesn’t really do the robots many favors and it can be kind of hard to make them out in some scenes. Don’t come here expecting some great choreography and action, you’re not going to get it. Despite the poor quality of the animation and the razor thin plot, Break-Age ended up winning me over in the end, mainly thanks to its humor and likeable cast. Mecha fans aren’t going to be impressed by the lack of real action and those looking for a romance anime will probably be turned off by the quaint relationship development and higher focus on comedy/gaming tech. That’s to say nothing of the unpleasant presentation which will likely push everyone away. But I liked it, so for that I have to recommend it. It’s not exactly good, per se, but it got me smiling and it just might make you smile too.