Anime Reviews (2010-2019): Anime-Gataris: The Complete Season (a Neo-Tokyo 2099 Anime on Blu-ray Review)

If you want a short, entertaining, lighthearted anime series about an anime club trying to get restarted in high school and seeing how people very different from each other enjoying and coming together for the one thing that brought them together…anime. “Anime-Gataris” is an anime worth checking out!

TITLE: Anime-Gataris: The Complete Season

DURATION: (Episodes 1-12) 300 Minutes

BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (16×9), English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0, Subtitles: English

COMPANY: Funimation

RATED: TV PG

Release Date: December 11, 2018

Directed by Morii Kenshiro

Series Composition: Hirota Mitsutaka

Character Design by so-shi

Music by Hoashi Keigo, Takahashi Kuniyuki

Art Director: Gouroku Hiroshi

Anime Production: Wao World

Featuring the following voice talent:

Senbongi Sayaka/Alison Viktorin as Arisu Kamiigusa

Hondo Kaede/Dawn M. Bennett as Minoa Asagaya

Tojo Hisako/Elizabeth Maxwell as Miko Koenji

Alejandro Saab as Kai Musashikai

Kondou Hironori/Brad Smeaton as Neko-sempai

Furukawa Makoto/Cris George as Masato Gomon

Inami Anju/Felecia Angelle as Erika Aoyama

Maruyama Naomi/J. Michael Tatum as Toru Ropponogi

Nishi Asuka/Jamie Marchi as Tsubaki Akabane

Takamori Natsumi/Jeannie Tirado as Ayame Ozaki

Jordan Dash Cruz as Kouki “Aurora” Nakano

Takahashi Rie/Kristen McGuire as Yui Obata

Takagi Miyu/Megan Shipman as Matsuri Toda

Hanazawa Kana/Trina Nishimura as Bei Bei Yang

As if by fate, anime newbie Minoa Asagaya is thrust headfirst into co-founding her school’s new anime club. Unfamiliar with the culture yet eager to learn, she’s getting a crash course in all things otaku! But with the student council hellbent on dismantling their organization and a dark presence lurking behind closed doors, participating in the club might be a lot harder than it sounds!

Back in 2015-2016, animated intermissions called “Anime-Gatari” were shown at Toho Cinemas’ animated films in Shinjuku and would feature super quick chit chat between the characters Asagaya Maya and Aoyama Erika who represent an anime club in high school.

The intermissions were popular enough that it led to a 12-episode anime series (a prequel to the intermissions) titled “Anime-Gataris” which aired at the end of 2017 featuring anime production by Wao World.

The anime series was released on Blu-ray/DVD courtesy of Funimation in December 2018.

In the prequel, we are introduced to Asagaya Minoa (the younger sister of Maya from the intermission) who enjoyed anime as a child, especially a mecha anime series which she loved but doesn’t know so much about but the fact that she kept waiting for it to air and it never showed up on television ever again.

Fastforward and she meets Kamiigusa Arisu, a wealthy, popular student in school who happens to be a hardcore anime otaku who enjoys moe characters. Arisu tries to see if Minoa is a big fan of anime because she wants to befriend her but when Minoa shows not much of an interest, Arisu then is about to get away from her until Minoa tells her about the mecha anime series she enjoyed when she was a child.

She mentions to Arisu that she should reopen the anime club at their Sakaneko High school and Arisu loves the idea, but she’ll do it if Minoa is a member. Immediately recruited (despite not watching much anime), Arisu wants Minoa to start watching a lot of it as they will need to recruit more members in order to make the club a legal club at their school.

The group ends up recruiting Koenji Miko (Minoa’s friends who enjoys reading light novels before the anime is released); the unusual otaku Musashisakai Kai; the popular yet mysterious Mitsuteru Nakano; Aoyama Erika, a third year student who loves cosplay and is tasked to become the president of the club and Minoa’s good friend since first grade, the athlete Obata Yui; and a talking cat named Neko-Senpai.

But as the club looks like it will grow, unfortunately Erika’s childhood friend Tsubaki, now the Student Council President does not like anime and she considers Erika a nuisance that she and the others want the anime club to be shut down.

Will the group be able to restart the anime club?

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Anime-Gataris: The Complete Season” comes with the following special features:

Textless Opening Songs
Textless Closing Songs
Trailers – Trailers for upcoming or currently available titles from FUNimation.

EXTRAS:

“Anime-Gataris: The Complete Season” comes with the Blu-ray and DVD of episodes 53-65.

I think there are many anime fans all over the world who can probably understand the feeling of being part of an anime club and being with others with the same interests.

So, when I watched “Anime-Gataris”, I enjoy the concept of students starting an anime club but also sharing their love for it, but also the anime adds a lot of nostalgic situations that will entertain anime fans in general.

We get to see the group recruit members, we got to see the group attend Comiket, visiting places where anime was featured, Kai trying to gain the courage to tell Miko how he feels and the group wanting to create anime shorts for the cultural festival and then we get a few crazy situations as well. One includes Minoa starting to see anime-related things happening in real life (such as her friends starting to look like ’90s anime or classic anime), the discovery of a secret room and why there is a talking cat and more.

For the most part, “Anime-Gataris” is easy to follow and because it’s only 12-episodes, it’s not going to take a long time to finish.

It’s an enjoyable anime series that is all about enjoying anime and I think there are numerous people who can relate to these characters.

I have been fortunate to have be part of a major anime club, creator of an anime BBS, started my own anime club and my own anime convention and I can easily remember all the fun moments along with the challenges, including traveling all over Japan to many areas where various anime took place (including the same places that these characters are visiting).

The anime is vibrant and colorful in HD and I didn’t notice any problems with banding issues. Audio is crystal clear and both Japanese and English soundtrack are well-acted. Unfortunately, this is a barebones Blu-ray release as there are no special features but the closing and ending themes. None of the Japanese special features released on the “Anime-Gataris” Blu-ray in Japan are available in the US release.

But you do get the Blu-ray, the DVD and Funimation HD Digital Code of the series included.

Overall, if you want a short, entertaining, lighthearted anime series about an anime club trying to get restarted in high school and seeing how people very different from each other enjoying and coming together for the one thing that brought them together…anime.

“Anime-Gataris” is an anime worth checking out!

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