Full Dive: The Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life! Is just as absurd as the name suggests, yet also the first anime I can genuinely call humorous as a comedy anime this season.
The True VR Experience
The anime follows Hiro Yuuki, a gaming enthusiast high school student, and former track team member. On the day his favorite VRPG is released, Hiro is robbed of his money by a bunch of school bullies and is forced to look for a cheaper place to acquire the game. He then ends up in a random store where he meets Reona, a boisterous, well-endowed, and pushy store clerk who tricks him into buying Kiwame Quest, a ten-year-old VRPG promoted as “more real than reality” with realistic graphics, advanced NPCs, and more. The only problem with this game is that it is way too realistic, forcing the company that made it to shut its doors and all players to abandon the game, save for a few devotees.
Of course, Hiro had no idea what he was getting into until the first day of playing the game, where he accidentally kills his in-game best friend and is forever tagged as a murderer, titled “Best Friend Killer” while on the run from said friend’s lunatic sister.
As you can tell, the anime hits the ground running and wastes no time in introducing viewers to its wacky premise and characters, so much so that it does a noticeably lousy job of setting up its characters and overall story. The little bit of effort to show us who Hiro is as a protagonist seen via flashbacks of his apparent humiliating defeat on the track team is quickly rushed in order to get to the more entertaining bits of the story. However, we can at least piece together from the first two episodes that Hiro is kind of a wimp. He isn’t used to or fond of opposition and hardships both in the real world and in games. This is made apparent when he chooses to pay off his bullies instead of standing up for himself or his disinterest in staying in the track team after one loss. He chooses a life of escapism in games which is an all too familiar trend in the self-insert world of anime.
For Comedic Effect
Breakneck pacing aside, I can honestly say that the anime’s formula is working so far, as I found the premise and its insane introduction one of the more interesting ones this season. Kiwame Quest is almost like a metaphor for how the games industry prioritizes realism overall and seeing how the hypothetical scenario plays out in the anime was quite entertaining to watch. The anime also starts out by letting viewers know fully well that this isn’t your usual generic stuck in a game/ isekai anime and instead puts up an unusual and humorous front where the wimpy character is forced to undergo difficult hurdles in a way he otherwise wouldn’t. The anime also has very dark humor as it has no problem torturing its main characters for a joke or two. Where an anime like ReZero torments its protagonist for character development, Full Dive does it to make the audience laugh and then maybe a little character development after.
What further increases the anime’s humor is the fact that its premise is very much a parody of anime like SAO as most will notice it takes the tropes from these types of anime and inserts some humor in it seen where Hiro immediately checks to see if he can log out after realizing how realistic the game is just in case, and Reona showing up on later on in the first episode in a Yui outfit makes it even more blatant. Another aspect of Full Dive that distinguishes it from others is its impressive animation quality, especially its crisp visuals and character designs that show off unique eye structures.
Final Thoughts – Full Dive
Overall, I must admit I’m enjoying Full Dive so far. While it’s nothing new to the genre, and it doesn’t show a lot of depth; it’s humorous and entertaining enough for me to keep coming back to see what becomes of its main characters and world. If you’re looking for a comedy anime to dive into this season, I recommend this one.
Full Dive: The Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life! Is available to stream now on Funimation
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