BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense. Season 2

Episode 7

Even an unstoppable darling dreadnought like Maple deserves a little time off. When Nick and I gave BOFURI the TWIA treatment over one of its bye weeks, one of our only issues with this new season was its lesser amount of chill hangout times across NewWorld Online's visually welcoming vistas, particularly for Maple and Sally. So it's a little funny that this new episode dedicates a huge chunk of its time and plot structure to letting the pair cut out for some cute little dates.

Sure, there are the obligatory antics, like Maple woolling herself up to roll around at the sheep of sound, but there are also more grounded, cozier sights to see. Props to the author for coming up with the idea of watching Maple and Sally go on a tandem horseback-riding excursion. The game seemingly has such a feature not really meant for fast travel or other mechanics, but purely as a recreational experience. That fits with the appeal we saw going all the way back to the first season, as NWO leveraged its full-dive VR format to let players enjoy things like sights, sounds, and tastes at leisure apart from dungeon-diving and fighting monsters all the time.

In the context of this episode returning from COVID hiatus, it particularly feels like playing to this season's strengths. The character animation is simply never going to be on the level it was in the first season, as seen in yet another brisk PVP round between Sally and Frederica, as well as more scattered boss monster battles this episode. But the background artists on BOFURI are still putting their entire asses into the craft, so taking us along those scenic in-game routes makes for the most effective way to pass the audience's time. There's the meadowed valley which Sally and Maple take their horseback tour to; the sky is filled with rainbows and dotted with magical light pillars. There's a twisty treetop section and a wind-swept rocky area where some requisite boss battles occur. And there's the big reward of this episode, with Maple and Sally unlocking access to some sort of secret monster-evolving Chao Garden whose style reminds of VRMMO anime forebear .hack more than anything else.

It is, as the kids say, a vibe, and works because even the boss-battlin' item-huntin' part of this episode's plot is all about exploring different areas of the game. By the time Maple and Sally head out to the middle of the ocean, they're firmly on the trail of actually accomplishing something in the game, but it still feels predicated, in-universe, on something the designers set up to get players to go out and just look at all these areas they worked so hard on rendering. It's complemented by cute touches like Sally capturing an underwater map using an in-game screencap function and multiple musical montage scenes (including one using the song from the first season!).

The Maple/Sally married couple dynamic continues to make for fun contrasts, both in the boss battles and the duel with Frederica. Sally's got the more calculated Gamer mindset which leads to her tactically deploying her skills, whereas Maple's more of an "unga bunga" type who will just throw everything out in a stack because, hey, it's more fun that way. But they still work together with complete trust, down to Sally prioritizing beating a boss even as her GF is getting blasted half a mile away by rocks, because they know their disparate styles make up for each other's shortcomings. Plus the action animation gets to go a little more wild when Maple deploys her ghost girl outfit laser attack. If being a fan of tokusatsu has taught me anything, it's that it is always cool when a hero busts out a new form change.

Even as it's reached a "same as always" stride, the episode still represents a strong point in Maple and Sally's relationship. It's rewarding to watch their kids monsters grow up just a little bit through their unlocked evolutions. Maybe it's this same sort of balance that BOFURI should seek to maintain as it resumes this second half of its second season. It works for what the show's doing now, and hopefully won't overtax their production efforts any more than they evidently already have been.

Rating:

BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense. Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is a freewheeling Fresno-based freelancer with a love for anime and a shelf full of too many Transformers. He can be found spending way too much time on his Twitter, and irregularly updating his blog.