The anime essentials series has afforded me the opportunity to talk about older anime
in a way I simply couldn’t before. And not only has that been a lot of fun, but, especially
in the case of my recent Anohana video, I think it’s allowed me to produce some of
my best work. But there is a problem with the series as
a concept, that’s baked right into the title: the anime I talk about have to be essential.
which doesn’t leave much room to explore the older shows that are creative interesting
or well made, but definitely aren’t must-watch masterpieces, or influential cultural touchstones.
The guilty pleasures, popcorn fodder, and filler shows of seasons past that are good
and deserve to be talked about, but don’t really belong on anyone’s bucket list.
So, to give myself space to talk about these… Anime (Non)Essenials I’m creating a new
sub-series. And the first subject I’ll be tackling here is Outbreak Company, a satirical
Isekai anime that came out just as the Isekai Boom was first hitting full swing.
This video is sponsored by Bookwalker, Kadokawa’s official ebook store, where you can read hundreds
of English-translated light novels and manga, including outbreak company. In fact, from
now until September 30th, they’re giving away the first volume for free! Stick around
to the end to learn more. The original Outbreak company light novels
entered publication in 2011, and funny enough, their anime adaptation first aired in October
2013, the same month that Konosuba’s first light novel volume hit store shelves.
As I hinted in the title, I do think that that fans of Kazuma and Co’s adventures
will find a lot to love in this show – maybe even enough to sate them until Crunchyroll
releases the new movie. But you shouldn’t go into Outbreak Company expecting an isekai
“parody” per se. Its interest lies less in skewering overused tropes, and more in
using the “trapped in another world” premise as a lens to examine the real target of its
parody: Otaku Culture.
Outbreak Company shares its base premise with the aggressively mediocre GATE: one day, a
fantasy land appears in the heart of Japan (in this case, deep in the “suicide forest”
of Aokigahara) and as the government struggles to deal with this new scenario, they enlist
the help of an… otaku guide of sorts. Since this isn’t a work of masturbatory
military propaganda, the fantasy empire on the other side DOESN’T blindly jump into
a war they can’t win with a world they have zero intel on. Instead, the Japanese government
sends a party of emissaries to explore the portal. They’re swiftly brought before the
empress, and before long the suddenly neighbouring nations enter tenuous diplomatic talks. Each
with their own agenda, of course. This pre-industrial land is a treasure trove
of untapped natural resources, even before you consider the staggering potential of its
magical properties, and Japan wants to capitalize on all of that. But they need to offer an
export of equal value in exchange. And, noticing that this world doesn’t have an entertainment
industry… the visiting bureaucrats hatch a brilliant scheme.
Foreign nations in our world already go nuts for anime, manga, and other pieces of otaku
culture – it only stands to reason that a populace starved for entertainment would
love it even more. Needing an expert to curate their new export business, the government
puts out a hiring call for Otaku, and Shinichi Kanou, a hikikomori high school dropout, aces
his interview and lands a job as the new CEO of Amutech.
Before he knows it (literally, because they drug and kidnap him on the spot), Shinichi
finds himself living and working in this new world, under the watchful eyes of a shady
government bureaucrat named Matoba and an expert JSDF soldier (and closet fujoshi) named
Minori, who serves as his bodyguard. He’s not… trapped in this new world, per se,
but since its existence and the location of the portal are both national secrets… he
may as well be. Though his otaku knowledge is impressive,
it’s his inherent disposability as a jobless teenage shut-in that made him the ideal man
for this job. Still, it’s not all bad. He gets to live in a massive mansion, with an
equally massive anime and manga collection furnished by the Japanese government. And
he enjoys being waited on by his beautiful half-elf maid, Myucel, and his Lizard-manservant
Brookes, who is equally beautiful in his own way. They both become Shinichi’s first converts
to otakuism. Initially, much of his time is spent explaining
the nuances of anime and manga over daily tea with the almighty Empress of the Holy
Eldant Empire, Petralka. Who looks like a little girl because *sigh* of course she does.
Although thankfully, she is 16, just 3 years younger than our hero, so as far as anime
goes... it could be a lot worse. Still, it could be better – shinichi does
get very excited about petralka’s looks before he knows her age - and if that’s
setting off alarm bells in your head, this might not be the anime for you. Outbreak company
has more than its share of hit-or-miss pervy otaku humour – muchof it concentrated in
the first few episodes – and it doesn’t handle it nearly as well as the likes of,
say, High School DxD. At his worst, Shinichi can be a creep on par
with Mineta from my hero academia, ogling and making lewd comments about every girl
he meets, often before learning their names.. And while that kind of thing ranges from amusing
to tolerable when it’s coming in small doses from a supporting character, it’s a little
hard to stomach in a protagonist. Especially when the girls don’t really reciprocate
and that protagonist never takes the hint. Thankfully, It’s not his defining character
trait, and he does mellow out as the story goes on, but it bugged me, and I can see it
putting some people off the show entirely. Or it might not bother you at all. The first
time I watched this, when I was 20, I laughed at a lot of jokes that made my eyes roll today.
Either way, shinichi does have plenty of good points to offset the bad – he’s intelligent,
observant, kindhearted, and surprisingly considerate in other contexts. And… personally, I find
it hard to completely dislike any character – or show – who starts dropping Kaiji
references in episode 2. I know that sounds a bit shallow, but Outbreak
Company is one of the most passionate – and inclusive – love letters to Otaku media
out there. If you enjoy anime and manga – no matter what your tastes are – it’s all
but guaranteed that you’ll spot a copyright-safe parody of at least one of your favourites
in the background of just the first few episodes. And depending on how hardcore of an otaku
you are, I’d almost recommend it based on that alone.
There’s not many shows where you’ll find nods to Hataraku Maou Sama, Scrapped Princess,
Inazuma Eleven, Prince of Tennis, Attack on Titan, Doraemon, Tokimeki memorial, Gundam,
Rental Magica, Minami-ke, Hakuoki, Milky Holmes, The Matrix, Shaolin Soccer, Haruhi, Anohana,
multiple Miyazaki movies AND my boy Kaiji – plus dozens more – in the space of just
12 episodes. And it goes well beyond simple references.
Episodes 6 through 10 of the series all offer sharp satirical takes on various aspects of
otakudom, including hilarious parodies of sports anime and obligatory swimsuit episodes,
and explorations of more esoteric topics, like the culture of Akihabara, Tokusatsu film
production, and the Hikikomori lifestyle. The more anime you’ve seen and the more
you know about Otaku in general, the funnier this show will be for you – though, of course,
conversely, that means that a lot of the jokes will be lost on more casual fans. The references
are so dense that even I missed quite a few. You’re either gonna scratch your head, wondering
why every time someone gets knocked out they happen to land like this, [dead yamcha pose]
or you’re already giggling about it. That’s just the kind of show this is.
But, as inside-jokey as Outbreak company is, what I really love about it is that it’s
not *exclusionary.* Shinichi isn’t interested in gatekeeping his fandom – he wants to
share the shows, books, movies and games he loves with as many people as possible. And
the only kind of fans the show paints in a truly negative light, are the ones who put
others down or get into heated arguments over differences in taste.
It draws direct parallels between that kind of fan bickering and the vitriolic interracial
mudslinging inherent to its tolkeinesque setting. And when Shinichi eventually founds his otaku
school – where children of the eldant empire, noble and commoner, human, dwarf, and elf
alike – can come to learn both Japanese and key cultural concepts like “absolute
territory” and the difference between semes and ukes… he strives to use the education
he’s providing to break down both of those barriers.
The power that education has to enrich our lives and make us better people is something
that Outbreak Company really loves to hammer home. Moreover, the show asserts that Manga,
Anime, Games, and other pop narrative media are very much LITERATURE. That, with the right
mindset, they can be just as useful textbooks as the ones we sell our kidneys to buy and
then use for a single semester. And as a guy whose main job is writing literary analysis
of anime, THAT is a message I can GET BEHIND. And it’s far from the only one here. Outbreak
Company was written by Ichiro Sakaki, the creator of Scrapped Princess and Coffin Princess
Chaika – a pair of more serious, dramatic fantasy stories with some genuinely interesting
philosophical underpinnings. So, while it is a lot goofier in tone than either of those,
this anime is surprisingly deft at exploring thought-provoking topics when it wants to.
And the characters who drive its comedy have a surprising amount of depth to them.
The anime sadly doesn’t have much time to dive into that outside of its core cast, but
there’s more to almost everyone than you’d first think. In particular, I really enjoyed
Petralka’s character arc. While she’s initially a bit insufferable,
she grows a great deal after finding – essentially – her first ever friends in Shinichi and
Myucel, letting go of deep-rooted prejudice, learning to be a more level-headed leader,
and becoming a lot less entitled as the series goes on. (though she still has an ego, as
is demonstrated in the gut-busting conclusion of the tokusatsu episode.)
My favourite part of her arc is episode 8. Overwhelmed by her responsibilities as empress
and the trauma of how she got that job at 16, Petralka retreats into her room, resolving
to live as a hikikomori, playing games, watching anime, and reading books all day. Shinichi
– a former hikikomori himself – uses his expertise to help her indulge herself and,
eventually, get it out of her system. The episode highlights how guilt over being
a burden on their loved ones, coupled with social anxiety, can trap people in this shut-in
lifestyle making it harder and harder to leave their rooms the longer they retreat from their
responsibilities… but ultimately, it posits that such fears might misplaced. It turns
out Petralka’s attendants and family are just worried about her, and they respond to
her emergence with relief and love, not the scorn she’s expecting.
That’s probably a message a lot of people in that situation need to hear, and that episode
represents one of the most thoughtful, nuanced explorations of the hikikomori phenomenon
I’ve seen this side of Welcome to the NHK. In general, Outbreak company isn’t afraid
to address the more toxic aspects of otakudom, and I really appreciated that.
I wish I could say the show was so competent in handling every sensitive topic it tackles,
but it does have some major blind spots, particularly in how it addresses racism. It’s not all
bad – it presents the doublethink of bigotry in an impressively realistic manner, I think
the way the otaku students slowly move past their prejudice really works… but…
There this scene where our hero sees the absolute dictator of a racially stratified empire screaming
and hurling slurs at a terrified half-ethnic maid, and his first thought is “this is
exactly like that time a girl turned me down because I’m a nerd.” Which... is a can
of worms in itself, but let’s stay focused. The intent of this, I believe, is to help
the show’s otaku audience empathize with Myucel’s plight, and demonstrate how awful
prejudice is, which is a good message. But sending it in this way creates a false equivalence
that utterly trivializes the horrors of real racial injustice. Myucel had to earn her citizenship
by being a CHILD SOLDIER. The woman screaming at her leads a government that forced her
to kill people. Shinichi can take his sexually entitled first world problems and shove them
I do want to focus on the positive in this video, so I’d maybe have let that slide
if shinichi didn’t immediately follow it up by saying
[quote: ep 2 19:05 to 19:18] Do I even have to explain what’s wrong with
that statement? Maybe he’s talking about the ideals present
in otaku media, and not how his country actually treats minority groups and foreigners. But
without making that distinction, it sure sounds like he thinks Japan is free of racial prejudice
and inequality, which makes him (and by proxy the show, since his statement goes entirely
unchallenged) seem to be totally… infuriatingly clueless about the whole topic.
And since the first arc is largely ABOUT that topic, getting through it can be pretty rough.
Though to be clear, I think it’s worth powering through the frustration to enjoy everything
else the show has to offer. It’s not like Outbreak Company isn’t critical
of other aspects of Japanese culture. Matoba is as close as the show has to a main villain,
and he’s basically the living embodiment of shady politics and the right wing nationalism
of Japan’s ruling party. An ideology the show seems to take particular issue with – considering
that the villains of the first arc are ultranationalist terrorists, the soccer episode highlights
how sports can fuel dangerous jingoism, and the last arc…
Well, I don’t want to spoil too much, but it doesn’t exactly paint the Japanese Government
in a positive light, and it advocates strongly for cultural cross-pollination in otaku media.
Unfortunately, the show doesn’t give that arc NEARLY enough time to explore all of the
interesting ideas it brings up. I’m only just starting to read the light novels, so
I can’t be sure, but the jarring tonal shift going into those last two episodes really
makes it feel like they rushed and rewrote some plot points to give the show a more conclusive
… conclusion. Fun as it is, Outbreak Company is one of those
anime that feels like it’s being held back by the constraints of its adaptation. But
as critical as I’ve been of its worst points, I do still heartily recommend it overall.
The first arc is a bit slow, and the last arc is a mess, but Episodes 4 through 10 are
great, and the show works exceptionally well from beginning to end if the main thing you’re
looking for is a lighthearted, geeky comedy. With great music, voice acting, and especially
animation on top of that – seriously, some of these action scenes had me picking my jaw
up off the floor – I think most anime fans will be more than satisfied with outbreak
company, warts and all. That said, I am getting the impression that
the Light Novels might offer an even richer and more satisfying narrative, which brings
us back to today’s sponsor, bookwalker. Because if you’re interested in reading
those original light novels, there’s never been a better time.
Until the end of the month, in partnership with J-Novel Club, bookwalker is giving away
the first volumes of In Another World with my smartphone, Der Werwolf, Sorcerous Stabber
Orphen, I Saved Too Many Girls And Caused the Apocalypse, and, obviously Outbreak Company
for free to all users! So if you sign up now, you will IMMEDIATELY have five great new books
to read. And if any of those entice you to read further,
you’re in luck! Because until September 30th, subsequent volumes of all those series
are on sale for 20% off. which means that if you use my promo code, basement, to buy
volume two of, say, outbreak company, the 600 yen discount you get will bring the total
price down to a little under 60 cents. Which is an absolute steal – especially if you
think of these geeky works as textbooks. For the low, low price of free, there’s
no reason not to at least sign up and download those books, and that promo code – basement,
once again – will work for the entire first month of your membership, so you have a good
while to figure out which work of otaku literature you most want to use it on.
The next basement book club will be covering A Silent Voice, so that’s a good option
too. I’m Geoff Thew, Professional Shitbag, Signing
out from my mother’s basement.