Anime Review: BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense Episode 1

Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense

Studio: Silver Link

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy

Streaming: Amazon Prime

There’s a noticeable lack of female-led isekai anime out there, but in most recent seasons of anime, it seems like this is finally starting to change. Last season we had light novel adaptation Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!  and this season we have another light novel adaptation with I don’t want to get hurt, so I’ll max out my defense (Shortened to Bofuri). Like the latter, this is a series that relies more on the comedy and slice-of-life style storyline over a more serious one.

From its first episode, however, Bofuri appears to offer a lot more potential than the more generic Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?. Set in a VR world, we follow young teen girl “Maple” in her first forays into the fantasy video game world, New World Online. It has echoes of Sword Art Online, but with a lot more joy to it. See, Maple isn’t really a gamer – she was actually persuaded to play VR by her friend and so it’s a wholly new experience for her. It’s charming to see her exploring the world and engaging in the environment. Her naivete is where the whole premise of the show comes from – when leveling up, players are able to spend experience points to upgrade their stats and Maple decides to spend them all into one ability – defence. This results in the hilarious side effect that she is essentially useless in battle, but no monsters are able to land any hits on her.

Visually, this anime is vividly coloured with interesting character designs and the world and creatures are a lot of fun. Whilst Maple is the main focus of this first episode, there are little cameos of other characters who pop in and out who look to become part of a more solid recurring cast in future. For now, though, it’s Maple in the spotlight and thankfully she’s entertaining enough to keep you engaged.

My one complain however would be with the characterisation of Maple. It’s a little worrying that both female-led isekai so far have centred on the main character being rather clueless and having this played for laughs or ‘cuteness’. It’s something you rarely see in the isekai with male protagonists and suggests that females within an isekai setting are often well out of their depth. As a female gamer myself, this ideology gets grating pretty fast and I’m really hoping that the next female-led isekai with have a more intelligent and adaptable protagonist to serve as a representative.