English Dub Review: Anime-Gataris “Erika, Cosplayer x Cosplayer”

Things get intense as the anime club battles to stay alive.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

While waiting for the school council to approve their club paperwork, Minoa and her gang of anime lovers take a field trip. They visit Akihabara, an area with plenty of stores selling cosplay gear and anime merch. Getting the group outside of the school allows for further bonding over their shared interests as they geek out over costumes and accessories.

But there’s an unwelcome surprise waiting when they return to school the next day: the student council has declared an emergency meeting where they hope to vote and shut down the anime club for good. (Their hatred of the anime club has left a mystery, but it’s hinted to have caused the closure of past anime clubs.) While Erika and Kaikai are fine with just meeting unofficially, Minoa, Arisu, and Miko want the perks included with being a recognized club. During the emergency meeting, Minoa the anime rookie is somehow chosen to be the one to deliver the pro-anime club speech. Written by Arisu, it’s comically over-dramatic and bombs pretty much instantly. But Kaikai comes to the rescue with a passionate defense of his love for battle anime. Enthralled by his enthusiasm (and his fall into Kouki’s arms), the students of the school vote to approve the anime club.

Our Take:

In the third episode, Anime-Gataris continues to have some fun moments, while also staying relatively tame and predictable. (And they still aren’t expanding on the talking cat, who gets a single scene towards the end.)

All of the anime in-jokes are neat, like how the characters lambast the ‘three episode test’ in the third episode of the show itself. Arisu’s flamboyant speechwriting is filled with dialogue that would fit right into an anime that takes itself too seriously. (Arisu is definitely one of my favorite characters in the show currently. It helps that her English VA delivers the best performance of the bunch.) The group of kids themselves is interesting and unique, especially Kaikai, who basically thinks he’s living in a real-life battle anime.

If the show continues to be a simple school club comedy filled with silly anime references, it’ll make for a good watch. But if Anime-Gataris manages to find a way to make itself stand out from the crowd, it could get even better.