OUTBREAK COMPANY Episodes 1 & 2 -- Special Review

I would normally hate a show like
OUTBREAK COMPANY. It's pandering, leering, and its story only serves
to set up situations that give it's protagonist a boner.

But OUTBREAK COMPANY doesn't care.
OUTBREAK COMPANY knows exactly what it is and exactly what it's
doing. It makes no apologies about this, but it doesn't hide any of
these facts or mask them as something else. It boldly says "I am
what I am!"

And you know what? I can respect that.

== TEASER ==

The story, as mentioned before, is bare
bones. Super otaku Shinichi Kano takes an online test on a whim and
lands what he thinks is an awesome job. What happens instead is he is
drugged, then dragged to a newly discovered fantasy world. There he
is charged with being Japan's cultural ambassador to try to woo
resources out of this new world by making them love otaku culture.

But again, that only serves to put
Shinichi into positions where he'll get a boner. He's assigned a
buxom military escort, he has a half-elf moe maid, and the only other
man at his house is a seven foot tall lizard so there's zero
competition. Even the empress caters to the loli-crowd by sitting in
his lap and demanding Shinichi read manga to her.

There's some stuff about how the
fantasy world has a strict class system, which is reinforced by
rampant illiteracy in the populace. People beat their servants and
stuff like that. What's amazing about this bit of worldbuilding is
that it again all serves to set up Shinichi. All he has to do is be a
generic, milquetoast nice guy and he will win everything because he's not a dick,
teaching other folks to be not dicks in the process.

And
there might even be something to that egalitarianism thing. Looked
down on his entire life for being an otaku, Shinichi hates to see
others oppressed due to prejudice. OUTBREAK COMPANY asks you to meet
it on equal ground where you judge it after you get to know it.

OUTBREAK
COMPANY is not for me, but if it's for you? Let your freak flag fly,
my friend, and I'll salute it!

Matt Murphy is a freelance nerd who has contributed to many nerd websites. You can reach him by going to where the light meets the shadow, by sending out zeta-brainwaves or by following him on Twitter @Murphix.