Got lazy with this one. Should have talked about it at the end of Winter but got distracted. What could have been the reason? Find out as we quickly check out BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense!
I have a feeling the number of people who understand me will be outnumbered by the majority of peeps who relished the show.
Alternate Title: Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu
Genres: Adventure, Isekai
Themes: JRPG, Virtual Reality, MMORPG
Number of Episodes: 12 (Season 1)
The show is about a girl who would become better known as Maple who was convinced by her best friend to try out the latest Virtual Reality MMORPG (Online Multiplayer RPG basically). Thing is, Maple dislikes getting hurt. She got the idea of prioritizing ALL HER STAT INCREASES toward Defense from the start of the game to each time she leveled up, thus becoming a nearly unstoppable killing machine. When Sally eventually joined her…let us just say one of my (only) favorite running gags was the game developers constantly losing their minds over Maple breaking the game.
Maple in her Hydra Armor.
As for what kind of show it is. Think Gun Gale Online but without offline death threats…so far. It is about Maple, Sally and the party members they recruit joining up to play the game by going on quests, participating in events, Player vs Player matches, dungeon crawling and other stuff common in digital RPGs around the world, not just Japan. I do not know if it is similar to Log Horizon as I have yet to watch the show but I assume it is something like that. All the stuff I mentioned is fun to watch and refreshing. It is not often we see an Isekai show where no lives are at risk, only bragging rights and bruised egos…for now. The show, so far, is meant to celebrate having fun playing games and making friends with people across the globe. That is cool. The show looks good and the music is delightful.
So why did I not relish it as much as many on the internet, including yuri fans? First of all MMORPGs and online multiplayer in general does not appeal to me. The former is because I prefer contained stories that can be enjoyed in Single Player and the Multiplayer is optional. I know there are MMORPGs like Guild Wars 2 where that is possible but I just cannot get into them. The second, and the biggest reason why, is because the main cast are all…fine. Every character on the show is fine. None of them annoyed me, which is very good. Problem is none of them were super fun to watch.
One of my peeps mentioned disliking most shows with an overpowered protagonist because it does away with all tension. I disagree because so long as the protagonist and the rest of the cast are interesting/fun/cool/entertaining then it is fine. One Punch Man is like that to me. We know Saitama can crush most of his foes with a single blow but his world and cast are interesting (though personally I am more invested in seeing if Saitama will ever find an opponent that pushes him to the limit). Back to my point. Maple may have powered herself up to nigh gaming “goddesshood” but were she and her merry party as fun to watch as say, the cast of HameFura or Abilities Average , then I would be good. Alas, to me everyone on the show was just…okay. That is my honest thoughts on Season 1 as a whole, it was okay. Had some moments, like the running gag and later battles but most of it was decent at best to me.
Even Maple X Sally’s yuri development was average. Had it aired in a season with not as many other strong yuri shows/shows with yuri potential then it could have been noteworthy…but it aired in Winter 2020, a season with shows like OshiBudo and Koisuru Asteroid to name a few. It had potential to be as great as those powerhouse shows but as far as S1 goes it did not go far enough to leave as strong of a yuri impression. Maybe in S2.
Basically I thought the first season of BOFURI was average. Some of the battles were cool and strategies were interesting but the main cast were all average at best to me and the yuri development did not make as strong of an impression compared to other shows that aired in Winter 2020. The best compliment I can give the show is it did not annoy me anywhere as much as Jashin-chan or Satanichia (Gabriel) Dropout did so I will watch the second season and see if things get better.
Everyone who disagrees and thought the show was awesome do not let my “it was okay” sentiment change your minds. Cherish it and get hyped for S2. I will join you all, just with less hype is all.
The Yuri Empire 
I did enjoy this show a lot, mostly what crazy combo can Maple “come” with.
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I enjoyed it for how broken Maple got
As for the yuri, I agree. It was pretty average. They didn’t give all that much. Fortunately I was having so much fun watching Maple break everything and be this happy go lucky Kirito, that it wasn’t a big deal to me. It’d be nice if Season 2 did better on the yuri.
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I quite enjoyed this show, between Maple Mapling her way through the game, and the scenes of Maple and her long term girlfriend Sally.
It was a nice change of pace, seeing an established couple hanging out together. Gay mom slice of life when?
Waiting for season 2 and some light novel translations.
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This was a fantastic show! Definitely one of my faves that season. It also actually has quite a lot of Yuri too, so I’m surprised you missed it honestly. Sally and Maple are repeatedly emphasized as the most important characters to one another and have a paralleled in game rivalry that adds to their bond. They go on a romantic dinner date and a variety of other dates/outings. They’re very physically comfortable with each other with Sally having no issues carrying Maple around and picking her up. They talk to each other constantly and think about each other often. They have matching rings and adopt “kids”/pets together. Maple superhero drops in to save her lover Sally from a certain “death.” It’s blatantly obvious in every episode. If either of them were male and everything else stayed the same, this would’ve been a tagged romance series and considered as one of the popular canon het ships for the season. The source novels are even more obvious too. There’s this whole thing about how they want to be each other’s “firsts,” which the anime didn’t show, that in context is first to defeat one another in game (as no one else has), but is also clearly a euphemism for the other type of “first.” There’s a lot of promotional shipping material as well. Their relationship is always at the forefront and no other characters come close to having the same kind of relationship with either of them too. I found the whole thing to be a breath of fresh air, especially considering that normally there’s always some guy thrown in just to detract from the yuri. Or to keep the Yuri in doubt. Luckily that doesn’t happen in this series.
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Even though I loved the show, I can see why all in all, it can seem kinda hi-hum.
In my opinion, from personal accounts, a lot of people seemed to really really like it
a) because it was from a genre where the yuri/all girls denomination attached is rare ( its an uncommon type of show, we are just starting to get these op girl shows)
and
b) its being compared to OP male protagonist shows which, lets be honest, by and large are absolutely forgettable at best, and afflict cancer at worst.
I personally enjoyed Average Abilities more, but this was still very enjoyable and seems to be the catalyst for genre expansion.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good slice of life series or a comedy, but sometimes you want one of the other genres inundated with guy casts.
Genres aren’t gender-coded, hopefully this is the beginning of a trend.
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Please oh please let it be so, and 9999 or 10 year old strongest get adapted ;_;
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Yeah, it was a pretty mediocre CGDCT show overall. Cute, but not really good (or bad). It was pretty relaxing to watch so there’s that….
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I do agree that nothing about this show was particularly outstanding, only nice, like you said. I think my enjoyment came mostly down to the fact that both Maple and the dark-haired one of the sisters are exactly my favourite type of girl ^^ Just watching them made me happy.
My number one moment of the entire show was Kaede offhandedly scribbling those incredible pieces of art in the dirt with a stick while humming cute melodies. Have to love such an artistic girl.
If there is a second season, I’ll expect Sally to chase Kaede more aggressively ^^
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I remember heavily anticipating every episode because I really wanted to see how much more OP Maple gets. The show didn’t dissapoint in that regard and I’m very hyped for the next season.
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one of the best shows I’ve watched this year. I also bought the cd with Riko Sasaki autograph. Here is link, in case anyone want to see, it’s inside spoiler tag on top of my MAL profile. https://myanimelist.net/profile/Liddo-kun
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Having watched Log Horizon, similarities begin and end with them both being VRMMORPGs. You should give it a watch whenever you can.
Anyway, I enjoyed BOFURI for what it was, just a show about peeps having fun with no world ending stakes attached. Also, seeing how Maple unintentionally breaks the game was so funny. I see where you’re coming wrt the characters being ok, though. However, I think Sally/Maple did so many things together throughout the show for that ship to be more than average.
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With a third season coming in the future I suppose I should.
As I said were they the only yuri couple/ship that season they would have received more praise. However, compared to the other couples and ships in Winter 2020 their yuri power was not as strong. Perhaps next season they will further boost their gay energy.
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No argument from me. As good as these two were, Mira/Ao and Hwan/Himeko outshone them by miles.
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I liked the show, I think it’s cool that the show will have a second season. It’s one of the shows that I don’t have to worry about the protagonist. Maple is too strong. The yuri part, Maple and Sally are great together but I don’t see that much development. It’s right there then stuck in that, if you know what I mean. And yes it’s mostly because other shows have stronger yuri than they are. But maybe it was a warm-up season. Maybe season 2 they’ll be going all out. Fingers crossed.
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Hopefully that will be the case. S2 is when the couple really shows off how much they want to be together as much more than besties or gamers.
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