#アキバ冥途戦争

[imiteeshon]

[gabbyp09]

[a-titty-ninja]

[lachatalovematcha]

[animehouse-moe]

Akiba Maid War 12: A Crowning Achievement of Anime Originals

Watch this show. If there's one thing that people take away from reading my entirely incoherent ramblings on this batshit crazy shitstorm of a delusional ending, it should be that everyone needs to watch this show.

A campy show about the Western perception of Japanese culture via Maids and Yakuza is something you'd never have on your list of potential shows, let alone good shows. But it's here, and has been the entire season. But this ending, this ending takes it another level upwards. If there was a graph of episode count in relation to the seriousness of the show, you'd see an exponential curve. Not that the beginning isn't serious, but that P.A Works drags you deeper and deeper into the abyss where Akiba Maid War exists.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead (both ep 11 & 12)

I mean, they go as far as to literally make comments about maids hosting a funeral. They go all out in portraying the Maids how people see Yakuza.

And it's hardly the start. It's a revenge arc, not an anime revenge arc but a Yakuza one. Nagomi is on a mission for vengeance, and come hell or high water is going to accomplish it. She threatens, she brutalizes, the only thing she isn't willing to do is kill. And it's badass.

But Nagomi's not badass, and she's not a one man army like Ranko. The tables turn quickly and she falls into a delusional state of fear and sadness.

Her insanity really is... something. Not exactly accurate, not quite "beautiful". But closer to fitting, closer to what makes her moments what they are.

Alongside Nagomi's descent into madness though is Nagi's backstory. Which, isn't really shocking to anyone. But, bringing it up and using it in the episode it's very well executed. It's exactly how it should be, used right where it needs to be. And really, that's what this episode is all about. It brings the insanity, it brings the fear, the sadness, the hope, the tragedy, at the perfect time. You might be able to guess it's coming, but it still shocks you. You'll think there's "no way" they'll do something, and then they go right ahead and do it.

It's perfectly unhinged, it perfectly subverts expectations and knows when to deliver on them instead. It knows just when to take things where they need to go, to deliver that gut punch that turns the story around and brings it full circle.

Akiba Maid War is.... something else. It's like using a formula for a completely different question, and still getting the correct answer. By every measure of the imagination, being able to take campy Yakuza media and port it to 80s Maid culture is entirely improbable, but P.A. Works does it. And they hit every note.

The constant and meaningless deaths that perpetuate the cycle and cause future events. The reveals, the guilt, the history. The emotion, the approach, the flashbacks, the foreshadowing. It's everything it set out to be, and by doing so became something even greater than the sum of its parts and origin.

Akiba Maid War is a one in a million anime. It's impossible to find something remotely similar to it, and it's near impossible someone else will come along and do something similar, let alone it be anywhere near as good as Akiba Maid War is. It was the dark horse of its season by a mile, and in hindsight remains probably the best anime original of the year, earning a spot alongside giants like Vivy or Sonny Boy from the year prior. It's something that has no peer in what it does, has nothing that stands alongside it, and it deserves respect for that. Hell, it deserves renown for what it did not only as an original series, but an anime in general.

[hiroshimanthings]

[kumadajanbo]

[gojoumitsue]

嵐子&しーぽん

[gonagaiworld]

La visual key dello spettacolo teatrale di Akiba Maid War presenta il cast in costume Lo spettacolo si svolgerà a Tokyo dal 6 al 10 settembre. Info:--> https://www.gonagaiworld.com/la-visual-key-dello-spettacolo-teatrale-di-akiba-maid-war-presenta-il-cast-in-costume/?feed_id=382698&_unique_id=64ae601453068 #AkibaMaidWar #AkibaMeidoSensō #P.A.Works #StagePlay #Teatro #アキバ冥途戦争

[leoayanime]

Bocchi the Rock x Lycoris Recoil

出自 孤獨搖滾 4,10,11,12 / Bocchi the Rock episode 4,10,11,12 

莉可麗絲 1,2,6,7,8,9 / Lycoris Recoil/Rikorisu Rikoiru episode 1,2,6,7,8,9 

秋葉原冥途戰爭 7 / Akiba Maid War/Akiba Meido Sensō episode 7

[htmillll]

[imiteeshon]

[gabbyp09]

[a-titty-ninja]

[animehouse-moe]

Akiba Maid War Setting Materials

Akiba Maid War was arguably the start to international viewers becoming aware and cognizant of P.A. Works penchant for anime originals, and their continual improvement with each series (though real ones know The Aquatope On White Sand or Appare-Ranman). What differs here is the reception of the material, one popular enough to warrant an art book. And well, I've got it in front of me finally, so I wanted to share it with those that might be interested in it.

In terms of size and cost and quality, it's what you'd expect. It's that same A4 size that a lot of artbook are, and it opts for a horizontal layout which makes sense. The paper is very white and smooth, but it's somewhat thin as you can see in images like this one, letting you see silhouettes of the other side. At its 3,000 Yen price tag I'd say it's a somewhat decent deal, and I'd expect that after initial purchasing dies down you'll be able to find it for even cheaper. So overall, not a bad first art book from P.A Works, and here's hoping we'll get to see more!

Anyways, I'll get into the book. It's very much setting material. There's not any storyboards, there's not any key animations. There's not even any color (probably to cut printing cost). It's a very sleek art book that puts a focus on getting the material down onto the page for people to look at.

And it does that in three different sections: Character Sheets, Prop Design, and Environment Design. Of course, I'll go in the order that I've listed and that they appear in the book, so we'll start with Character Design.

It's a very uniform approach to it, they don't fill the page creatively with the character designs or details, but rather take the actual sheets for the characters and paste them into this book. You have the horizontal lines to make sure that the character is proportionately accurate and consistent, and even a few measurements listed for things like height. You'll have a front side and back view for the more notable/detailed characters, while more simple characters only have front and back.

Alongside that, the lead characters typically have several outfits so the art book showcases those as well (here I've chosen Ranko to display that). In addition, you get facial expressions and different angles too, plus a close up of the design for the eyes of the characters. It's a very robust showing that might not be everyone's cup of tea considering how rigid the display is.

In comparison to lead characters like Ranko, the side characters get a bit of a mix in terms of character sheets. Some of them are just groupings of characters that appear briefly, shown only in a head on view, others have a single sheet with a front/back and a few facial expressions, and some end up having a mix of the two.

Following the Character Sheets we've got Prop Design, which is a somewhat slim section. There's not a whole lot of props in the series, but they do a really good job at properly detailing and designing them. From the various guns, to baseball helmets, to maid related props, they're all well done. Also, in comparison to the character sheets, the prop design pages are typically more full and "creative" as different ideas and designs share a single page.

And closing it out we've got the Environment Design. This part was really cool, and I sort of wish they were able to make the art book bigger so that the scenes could take up more space. These pages are packed with layouts and flows and structures that form the various locations of the series (apologies for the second image, had to retake and natural light was too dim at that point, so the picture is tinted a yellow/orange. The pages remain fine).

Even cooler is how they worked towards building some of these areas. In a few pages within the Environment Art section they include 3D rendered layouts to give a feel for spacing and depth.

It's just a really cool piece to see, and definitely something that P.A. Works seems to care about throughout this art book. They impart a lot of little details and pieces that you might not otherwise see. For example (though it's a pain to make out because of Tumblr image compression), each page/image/layout has a date associated with it. From it, you can see that the character sheets were made over the span of an entire year (effectively from the start of January to the end of December). And they even include little additional pieces like these logos for the various maid cafes that exist in the world.

In general, it's a really cool but rather simple art book, something I'd say is about what I'd expect from the first art book from P.A. Works. It's got a lot of cool material to it, but is forced to shorten it to make it economic and cost-effective. I feel like they could have condensed some of the character sheets as characters like Ranko can easily take up 5 or so pages on both sides. But that's neither here nor there, if you don't mind a less "artsy" and sort of more technical art book than I'm more than fine with recommending it at its price point.

[anime-font]

アキバ冥途戦争

EDクレジット

闘龍

秀英にじみ明朝 L