Anime Review: Girls Beyond the Wasteland (Lights, Camera, Action!)

Girls Beyond the Wasteland (UK Rating: 12)

Hojo thinks he's lucked in when Kurada invites him to a date in Yokohama, but it turns out this date is more of an interview. If this sounds familiar, it's a premise seen ridiculously often, quite recently here on Cubed3, in fact, with Amagi Brilliant Park. Kurada isn't introducing Hojo to a world of magical beings - she has a much simpler desire. Kurada has a dream to create a Bishoujo game and after seeing Hojo's work on the school play, she wants to enlist his help as the writer of her game. A game takes a lot more than a duo, though, and Kurada has secretly set up the "Marketing Research Club" to gather a full team to make the Bishoujo game she always wanted. Hojo is also tasked with finding the rest of the team, too, and soon enough this is a slice of life, coming of age tale of a group of strangers becoming friends and a team, all working towards a united goal.

Even with being a short season - there are only 12 episodes - the first episodes absolutely speed through storylines. The first sets up the premise to the series. The second element sees Hojo begin looking for the other staff members - a team that requires a writer, a producer, an animator, a programmer, a CG artist, and a voice actor. At first, this is hinted to be quite the arduous task as Hojo attempts to recruit some seemingly useless individuals - it seems perhaps this gathering of individuals will be the core of many episodes. Nope. The entire situation is wrapped up in the same episode. The third episode introduces fractures already in the young team, again all of which are wrapped up by thr episode's end… Plot points of Hojo suffering from writer's block and their artist suffering from exhaustion are wrapped up in under 10 minutes each.

These fun characters manage to make some funny and enjoyable episodes. At one point, Hojo falls so far behind with his writing that he won't be able to meet his deadlines and so the group locks him in under house arrest until he finishes. There's also quite a charming romance that develops over the series, but is never really given enough time or attention. The finale gives a last burst of interest, too, as a rival game developer appears and attempts to steal the members of the team before becoming a challenge, and so the group has to come together to overcome this.

Girls Beyond the Wasteland's adaptation was produced by Project No.9 with some very mixed quality. The character designs look good and the environments are gorgeous. Many anime series incorporate popular locations around Tokyo, changing up little details to ensure they don't step on trademarks and copyrights. Girls Beyond does a great job of translating some familiar locales into the show, getting even the smallest details spot on, making any Japanophile feel those homesick pangs and get them searching for cheap flights… From the layout of Akiba, to Yokohama's Hakkejima Sea Paradise, it's uncannily familiar. That being said, the animation looks very poor, and it really detracts from the art. Admittedly, this isn't a particularly dynamic series, so doesn't have a lot of fast movement, but every scene just looks frozen.

4/10

Subpar

An utterly forgettable and mediocre series punctuated by the odd enjoyable episode. Being a series based on the world of amateur doujinshi development, Girls Beyond the Wasteland could have been something like Bakuman, giving an insight into the world and industry. It completely misses this opportunity, though. There's also a fantastic pairing here with a romance waiting to bloom that just never does. It's also lacking on the extra features front, with only the clean opening/closing and Japanese dub. This is one that might indeed be worth skipping.