Kon Hokaze's quite the fan of online fantasy games - but he was getting nowhere in his latest obsession until a character by the name of Flora asked for his help in the “real world”. Ever eager to be in with a chance of scoring with a girl, Kon found himself unable to say no - at which point the Earth seemed to open beneath him, and suddenly the game was very real... I wanted to hate this so much, I really did. World's most generic fantasy adventure setting: check. Stereotypical characters: check. Trap, clueless villains, and permanently bemused loli princess: check, check and check. On the surface of it, there's really nothing here to like - and when you start getting lines like "I'm not dying while I'm still a virgin" and Kon getting to cop a good feel of trap Marian's junk, the writing on the wall really doesn't look good. But despite all that, I couldn't deny that there's a certain amount of fun to be had from watching it. The show knows that it's a stereotypical as hell and has fun with it - that's really its unique selling point. So while other recent sucked-into-a-videogame-world shows are getting grim and bloody, or dark and angsty (hi there, Accel World, Sword Art Online and BTOOOM!), up pops Ixion Saga, to tell the other shows to cut it out and just have fun. I admire the sentiment, at least. THE GOOD: Knows what it is, plays for laughs, and has a core cast who are at least fun to watch. THE BAD: Not an original bone in its body. Or within about 5 miles of it, either. I stil dunno, mind. Three episode rule applies, again - while this opening episode was fun, I'm not convinced the idea won't run out of steam very quickly. We'll see soon enough. Ixion Saga DT is streamed by Crunchyroll.
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