English Dub Season Review: Anime-Gataris

Reality and anime collide in an off-the-wall show that ups the antics with every episode.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Though it started out as a simple slice-of-life about a clumsy girl who joins her school’s anime club, Anime-Gataris eventually turned into a clever mix of meta jokes, goofy characters, and a plot that got more insane with every episode.

Basically, Minoa comes to learn that anime is real, but it occupies a different dimension. One of her fellow club members, Aurora, is actually from this anime dimension and is planning to unleash chaos upon reality. Thanks to the bonds formed through their shared love of anime, Minoa, and her friends are able to overcome the obstacles in their paths and save the world.

Our Take:

If there’s one thing that viewers will take away from Anime-Gataris, it will be the laughs. A constant whirlwind of meta-humor and anime references, I think everyone can find something to chuckle at in every episode. From the more anime-centric humor (the show spouts off a long list of anime title parodies) to the more broad jokes (the villain acknowledges that he is a cliche character trope who is constantly revived in slight variations through the years), the humor in Anime-Gataris never wore out its welcome.

Setting aside the comedy aspect, the heart of the show was really just a bunch of goofballs loving anime together. The series has a lot of things to say about how anime can be a positive force with the potential to bring people closer together in real life. I identified with all of the anime club members at different points throughout the show’s run, and I’m sure that other viewers will, too. Despite the crazy plot and rapid-fire humor, it’s clear that the team behind Anime-Gataris had a clear vision from the start. Even Minoa’s final speech about the qualities a director should possess was foreshadowed early on when she directed the anime club’s short film.

As for the English dub, it was overall not too shabby. Sometimes I prefer dubs to subs, but this was not initially the case with Anime-Gataris. Minoa’s English VA is clearly pitching her voice up a bit too high to sound realistic. It bothered me in the beginning, but I eventually got used it. Apart from this quibble, the supporting cast is all very well-suited for their roles. Felecia Angelle, playing club president Erika, has always been one of my favorite English dub actors thanks to her wonderful performance in The Rolling Girls, and she doesn’t disappoint here. Arisu’s VA also does an admirable job embodying a kind yet slightly-snobbish rich kid.

In the end, Anime-Gataris will go down as an ambitious show that broke genre conventions while being consistently funny. It’s brought down by its animation, which was often bland and boring, and the chaotic nature of the plot itself. Sure it was cool, but it also resulted in some unexplained narrative threads that didn’t add up for me (how did Mr. Kitty add to the show?).

I would recommend it to people interested in seeing a comedy about how a group of quirky kids grows to become friends thanks to their shared love of anime. (Oh, and to anyone who loves super catchy theme songs! I rarely skipped past the OP.)