D-Frag! Episode 5
What They Say:
Thanks to his fight with the Band of 14 Devils, the whole school knows about Kazama’s position as a member of the Game Creation Club (Provisional). Now he’s not only expected to hang out with them after school, but eat lunch with them too!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
D-Frag has definitely had some fun with its cast, but it went a bit above the norm with the introduction of the 14 Devils gang in the school in the previous episode. That allowed the Game Creation Club, newly Provisional, to shine as they helped to save Kazama from their wrath. That was amusing since we got to actually see them work together but we also got to see Kazama realize what a school thug group is actually like, which isn’t exactly what he expected it seems. There’s the badass and then there’s the bad guy, and he had the wrong impression. With some nice nods along the way, it hit some fun notes and definitely made me a fan of Kazama a bit more, though once again it was Takao that stole the show.
The main fallout from all of that though is that there are a lot more people that know that Kazama is a part of this Provisional Game Creation Club and his time now has to be spent hanging out with them more since that’s part of what’s involved with being a club member. Especially sinec they do play games together often, including an amusing boardgame that riffs on Space Adventure Cobra in a very cute way. With Takao getting involved as well, since she can’t seem to stay away from the club and has a certain kind of interest in Kazama as well, it’s a pretty lively place as they play about and the power struggles come out in different ways amongst the students. It’s simple, cute and definitely fun in a very light and not terribly engaging way.
That does make for an amusing first half, but the second half just goes off the rails along the way as we get a few younger characters popping in and a semi-sentai kind of team adventure coming into play that shows us a younger Kazama and the kind of life he was living for awhile. It’s cute in its own way, but it feels very off in the larger scheme of things as even though it has some fun bits, it’s also layered a little too seriously for the series. There is some cute material in the present during this, especially as Kazama spends time with other club members in the classroom during lunch and the like, and that just reinforces his place with them with others. Which isn’t a good thing since the club isn’t exactly all that well thought of.
In Summary:
D-Frag has its moments but as the series has gone on, it’s definitely starting to become a struggle to get a lot out of it. A big part of that for me is that I’m just finding much to latch onto with most of the characters and the general structure of the show. There are cute moments to be had, particularly with the Space Adventure Cobra bit, but there’s little else to latch onto here in a big way. Smiles happen regularly with some of the interactions that go on, especially when Takao is involved, but that can go only so far. The series is one that has a decent setup but isn’t following through with what could be called interesting or quality material unfortunately.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.