A new anime season is upon us, and I’m doing my best to keep up with the flood of new shows. One series I started watching last night is Outbreak Company, a fun anime with lots of fantasy themes. When a doorway connecting Japan and an alternate world is discovered, the Japanese government gets the bright idea of using moe culture as a bridge between the people in the other world and Japan. They hire Shinichi Kano to be Japan’s “otaku ambassador” whose job is to introduce anime and manga to the residents of the Holy Eldant Empire to help them understand the Japanese people better. The show accurately captures the ineptness of the government of Japan to really understand 2D culture and why it’s become popular around the world — one government official describes it as, “Akiba-kei, tsundere, moe, you know, stuff like that.” In addition to being a vehicle for making jokes about otaku culture and how it’s seen by outsiders (e.g. foreigners like us), the show has quite a lot of interesting social commentary to make, and the story seems quite well developed. it’s also got the cutest half-elf moe maid character I’ve ever seen.
Outbreak Company is a fun new anime series.
