Common Name: Akiba's Trip The Animation
Score: 6/10, 2/5
Length: 13 Episodes
Genre: Comedy, Action, Supernatural, Ecchi
Summary: Akihabara is a city in Japan that functions as a veritable Mecca to all things nerdy and otaku. It is also, however, the home to an ancient race of beings gifted with long lifespans and incredible strength, speed, and dexterity, known as the Bugged Ones. During one of his trips to the center of otaku culture, Tamotsu Denkigai is attacked by a group of Bugged Ones who have been infecting the Akiba locals to fulfill some nefarious plot. The only way for him to survive and keep this sacred land of hobbies safe is to accept a deal with a high level Bugged One named Matome Mayonaka and become a Bugged One himself. Now, in the name of justice and all things nerdy, Tomotsu will strip away the threat of the evil Bugged Ones one piece of clothing at a time.
Review: Out of all the shows to feature a remix of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" this was definitely one of the strangest, but I can't help finding it strangely appropriate. To anyone who is unaware of its history, Akihabara is a community that sprang up within the city of Tokyo. Over the years it's grown from being a marketplace that specialized in electronics and appliances into the homeland of the otaku. While its critics might call it a hive of scum and villainy due to the rampant and shameless promotion of the seedier side of anime, manga, and game culture, it is also a place that constantly celebrates a culture frowned upon everywhere else. It is a shopping district, haven, and home to those who define themselves with the media they love. So, it makes perfect sense that those fans would one day make something of a love letter to the place that brings them so joy--this show is an "Ode to Joy" in the place that brings joy to so many.
Including the all those foreign weabs.
Unfortunately, that's about as interesting or poetic as this show gets. While it is nice to see each aspect of Japanese nerd culture (idols, various brands of games, anime, figurines, etc) get an entire episode to show off, each episode begins and ends in much the same way. We start with Tamotsu or one of the other members of Electric Mayonaise, the Bugged Ones busting team, getting caught up in one of the many facets of otaku culture. The group learns that they've been lured into a trap by the Bugged Ones. Then we end with Tamotsu stripping people because, for some insanely contrived reason, the Bugged Ones can only be killed by stripping them. If memory serves, it's because the Bugged Ones are allergic to air and will die from overexposure, but it honestly doesn't matter. At the end of the day, there's no way to make "saving people by stripping them" sound like a noble and heroic deed.
Sounds more like the ravings of a madman.
There are, of course, other aspects to the show that try to make up for the fact that it's premise is super messed up, but none of them really get enough attention to warrant any amount of investment. For example, there's something of an underlying romance between Tamotsu and Mayo, the girl who turned him into a Bugged One to save his life. It's too bad he's about as interested in romance as he is patrolling for Bugged Ones which is to say he's only interested when the plot demands it. So, in the end, there's not really much to this show. I could try to make it sound less awful by listing off all the things I actually enjoyed, but that wouldn't change the fact that Akiba's Trip is ultimately a dull mess with a few gems to be found within rough. It's a bare bones plot propped up the objectively absurd nature of otaku culture and the various in-jokes present within each subset of that culture. The animation is passable at best, and a parody of itself at worst. While I might have drawn some attention to the show's music by mentioning the "Ode to Joy" remix, there really isn't much to talk about apart from that since the show had very little in the way original pieces. So, I suppose I'll leave it at this: I'm inclined to believe Akihabara deserves all the love and admiration this show tries to express. If that's the case though, it deserves something far better than this amateurish rendition of "Ode to Joy."