Note: This review only covers the second season of New Game!!
Review
New Game! got me by surprise. For a show about a bunch of silly girls doing silly things it proved to be a funny reverse reality of an industry I've worked and still keep my eyes on. Aoba and her cheerful colleagues made it through the grueling process of creating a videogame with an atmosphere that was all sparkling and gleaming, where sleeping on the office seems an enjoyable experience and the workplace is like a gift from the moe gods. I mentioned I found it hilarious because of this cute presentation, yet slowly the show ended up being less and less of a workplace satire and more about just common girls hanging out.
Now comes the second season, aptly called New Game!! (two exclamation marks). Aoba is already adapted to EagleJump, their game was a success, and so it's time to move to the next project.
- More slice-of-life
This second season ends up being a far more meaningless show in of presentation. It still offers insights of how a small company may tackle developing a game, but this time around we have more about the friendship forged by the girls than the process of adapting to your everyday work as the japanese society demands. The gleaming girls are still spot on on their silly behavior, which makes up for some funny scenes without much of a compromise.
Yet...
The first season was perhaps far too happy. The reverse reality of this industry dominated by cute girls was all about everyone being friendly, every problem being solved with a smile, every deadline being met with parties and procrastination. This time, however, there's more spice to it. Competition kicks in, some girls are given promotions, the tasks assigned are more important, and finally there is a disturbance in the workplace when newcomers with an annoying challenging spirit comes in.
Cute girls aplenty
Jealous girls and some bitching make up for a much better experience and a smart choice. Instead of repeating the jokes of the first season, this time we have a show that makes better use of its established cutie girls while adding a few more of them. Of course there is no powerful drama inserted in the show, but the spice of conflict ends up being enough to make up for the reduced satire. And as far as cute girls can go, Doga Kobo once again delivers an overload of superb quality.
It's also more fanservicey
The first scenes of this second season may give you a hint. Yup. Kou's butt is rubbed in our face for an amount of time that perhaps counts for the entire past season. This is a glimpse of a step up in of fanservice, going from Kou's pantsu, maid cosplay, bathing scenes, and so on. There's not an overload of these things though, the focus here is still the simple cuteness and silliness of our girls,
Comments
New Game!! is a better show, but also a slightly different experience from the first season. While the first was funny because it overly exaggerated the situations of a demanding industry and an enslaving system, now the focus goes more on character interaction and everyday relationships. This ends up making for a more charming, casual, yet less comical experience for the show. The girls end up being more interesting, the small conflicts give us some charming scenes, and so on.
Yeah, it's not a powerful drama, it's still a moe show about silly girls. Yet it is a charming one that doesn't demand any correlation to reality in order to extract fun. Well, Aoba is still stuck in her workplace and doesn't seem to have a life of their own, yet now it doesn't really matter where she is working, but with who she is working with. Moe and 4koma fans rejoice, you can enjoy this with little compromise.
