Hyperdimension Neptunia the Animation Episode 1 Review

The Legend of Foreshadowing 2: Neptune's Awakening

Oh boy. OOOOH boy. It's time to do the episodic reviews of probably one of the most highly anticipated animes I've been waiting to do. Hyperdimension Neptunia The Animation!

Seeing as I LOVE Hyperdimension Neptunia and I LOVED how it made me suffer through the first game, I was hyped. So let's go!

The episode starts with some awesome colors, followed by Purple Heart announcing her arrival.

What, 24 seconds in, and we have our first fanservice shot.

Sexiest logo ever.

Purple Heart broadcasts to all the landmasses that for years, war had completely tossed their nations into disarray, and thus decided to call an end to the wars.

Lastation, and holy hell Kei's actually a girl.

Blanc, the Randy Orton of the 4 Goddesses.

Mina didn't even change her outfit at all!

AND NOT A SINGLE CHIKA WAS GIVEN THIS DAY
(No really, she wasn't there at all)

Proof that IF doesn't actually wear a dress.

Purple Heart declares that no Share Energy be taken by force, and that the only way to get Shares is by making the country better than it is.

With this the treaty has been signed.

Cut straight to the after-party, and Purple Heart reverts form to the one girl I am truly accustomed to, Neptune!

Fingers are important, cosplayers.

Of course, the other Goddesses are completely jealous over the fact that Neptune hogged all the spotlight (well, Blanc was), but all the other Goddesses agreed that they were now all friends, and there's no longer any point in fighting amongst each other, with Vert even saying they'd sound immature.

So a month passes from that fateful day. What does Neptune do? Piss away the ENTIRE month playing videogames and doing nothing, which grinds Histoire's beans.

Nep, I think it's more than just your brain that turned into mush

Histy is Pissty, the new series only on FOX TV.

When Oracles Play With Electricity

Should be on the WWE Don't Try This At Home ads.

Right, who broke the 4th Wall THIS early?

And thus the theme song starts. I love Nao so damn much, for what she did in fripSide, and Dimension Tripper is probably my newest favorite songs now.

Theme song over, Episode 1: Planeptune's Goddess starts, and we're immediately introduced to Compa and IF.

#BestInTheWorld

#1800-CompOut

Compa was just finished with her work and is headed to see Neptune at the Basilicom, of course, first bumping into...

REI RYGHTS SPOTTED

Meanwhile, inside the Basilicom, Histoire explains that the Shares are getting lower every day due to the citizens falling out of love with Neptune. She defends herself by saying that she hasn't done anything to piss off any of her citizens, though Nepgear interjects that she hasn't done anything to make them love her either (in a semi-scary tone). IF and Compa overhears the conversation and enters. IF outright agrees with Histoire, whereas Compa shows the flyer Ryghts made to Neptune, eerily saying that she has to work hard.

Neptune decides to head to Lastation and learn what it is to be a Goddess from Noire... with hilarious results.

As such, Neptune heads to Lastation.

That's beautiful.

But... instead of going to learn how to be a proper Goddess from her, she decides... to take a nap.

Our heroine, ladies and gentlemen.

Of course, Noire refuses, citing the fact that she shouldn't help Neptune. Neptune argues back that they're friends, but Noire reiterates that they're competing for the same Share energy.

Out comes Uni, who just wants to be acknowledged by Noire. In the end, she doesn't and gets sad. Nepgear decides it's the perfect time to help her buddy out.

Right in the Pagoda, Neptune.

 Give me big anime eyes!

Uni, the DeStorm Power of Neptunia.

Another case of 'I hope senpai notices me' syndrome.

Uni gets depressed, leaves and heads into the park where Nepgear tries to console her. Uni mentions that they can't transform and wants to beat Nepgear, Ram and Rom to it. The N-Gear makes an appearance and Nepgear finds out that Uni told Rom that she'd be in Lastation. She gets envious because Ram and Rom can't even leave.

Yes, shippers, there's your ammo for this week.

"I hope senpai notices me someday."

...Why? You could do it so well in mk2.

Nah, according to story progression, it'll be Nepgear.

(Un)friendly competition begin.

Cut to Lowee, where Ram and Rom get jealous over the fact that they can't go out but the other two can. Ram decides to scream at Blanc until her ears bleed, which pisses Blanc off. Ram and Rom decides to leave while Blanc and Vert talk over Skype, regarding some sort of plan.

Because you look like a 9 year old?

Yeah and I wanna beat Neptunia Victory without any trouble, but we can't everything we want do we?

Says Blanc who's obviously skyping

#TheBlancSays

Best comeback Ram will ever manage

'Working'

*COUGHCOUGHNEPTUNIAMK2COUGHCOUGH*

*CAN'TSTOPCOUGHING*

You mean to tell me Vert went to the land of Foreshadowing before Neptune did?

Cut back to Lastation where Neptune completely flubs up Noire's paperwork, Noire decides to fill in a quest application per IF's suggestion for Neptune. (Course, it was near Planeptune, and she wants her outta there)

Neptune, worst office worker in the history of Blue Collars.

Says the Neptune.

Per IF's suggestion, Noire decides to sign Neptune up for monster hunting quests.

Border toss!

It's Neptune, Noire.

 Cut to the forest where Noire 'leads' the team to the locations... of course, Neptune starts slacking off. So she quite literally has to poke her with a stick to get her to move.

More fanservice, for me.

As usual for Noire.

Ship ship ship ship ship knowledge

Well... that's new.

Not seen: Noire stabbing a Neptune cushion.

See the stick? Yeah.

Fangirls.

So, Noire... for absolutely no reason but to pander to the fangirls, decides to transform in front of all of them.

Noire Ziggler apparently exists.

I'M HERE TO SHOW THE WORLD, I'M HERE TO SHOW THE WORLD

Captain Unsubtle in the house.

See, Neptune agrees with me.

So, Black Heart finds out that Dogoos have been invading the fields. She 'volunteers' Neptune and Nepgear to help clear them out. Neptune thinks it's a pain, Uni takes pictures, and I have to say, I actually ENJOYED this fight sequence.

Black Heart's New Technique: The 'Under-The-Bus' Throw.

And so, with much volition, they beat the living crap out of Dogoos, because they're the slimes of this anime.

From Planeptune, she is the CPU of Planeptune and YOUR World Champion, NEPTUUUUUNE!

Gotta love some of the animations in this.

 

Fingers!

And now Neptune going for the Saitou Hajime stance here.

 

 

Come on, senpai, NOTICE HER ALREADY.

IF and Compa decide to help!

OOOOH YEAAAAH!

All seems to be going well until they realize the Dogoos outnumber them a million to one. (Oh god, I have to relive that Underverse cutscene. God help me.)

Oh god why.

They get overwhelmed pretty quickly, and IF decides enough is enough and decides to kill everything herself. Black Heart is less than impressed and decides to leave the team for the caves, where there was another request to be done.

BREAK THE WALLS DOWN

IF HAS GONE NUTS!

Captain unimpressed in the house.

Because Neptune's not you and only transforms when necessary? How about them apples?

Well, yeah because the power of friendship is more important than the Goddess' power!

Captain Snootypants in the house.

Black Heart reaches the caves and carves up the enemies in there in her Goddess form. She thinks it's a dead end until she goes toe-to-toe with an Ancient Dragon (aka one of the easiest bosses in the first game) and tries to take it down, unfortunately, Teddy Long shows up and decides this'll be a 2-on-1 handicap match as a Masked Hoodlum shows up and decks Black Heart causing her to fall... and suddenly revert to her human form. She almost gets eaten until Neptune shows up and saves her.

That is... some accurate Ancient Dragon there.

Captain Obvious in the house.

Teddy Long showed up and made this a two-on-one handicap match.

 

Oh no, a revert mechanic!

You done fucked up now, Noire.

Neptune confirmed Sin Cara.

Neptune decides "Fuck this", transforms and beats the living crap out of an Ancient Dragon (and yes, she used Cross Combo)

Makes sense.png

#HereToShowTheWorld

Time to kick ass and chew jelly beans.

And then the rest of the episode is how Neptune messed up when she sent the wrong pictures to the wrong website... uh oh.

Actual review:

I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode, and by god I want more. The message was brilliant. Being able to depend on your friends even though you don't really like them and you're a complete tsundere about it, it's just brilliant.

I loved the animations as well. I can tell David Productions did a heck of a job. I want to sit and see the whole thing.

Story: 8/10
Animation: 10/10
Characterization: 7/10
Message: 9/10

Overall: 8.5/10