Cosplay Complex

Summary: >

A new member is about to join the cosplay club. Does she have what it takes to compete against the ace of the East Oizumi Cosplay Club? Chako and the club visit a beach retreat to hone their cosplay skills, when she meets up with a guy she has a crush on. Will she make it to first base? A chance encounter with a rival cosplay club member ends up with a contest between the top members of their clubs. Who will win?

Oddly enough these questions aren't really answered, but that's the story. In the mean time the girls dress up as other characters and it's fan service overload.

Thoughts: >

Cosplay Complex isn't really about cosplay itself. It's more about dressing up like anime characters. That has potential if done right, which Cosplay Complex doesn't do. Instead it's wall to wall brain dead fan service.

As a three part OVA, episodes 1 and 3 don't have much of a story. They're a setup for cosplay "contests". Essentially it's anime characters parading around dressed up as other anime characters. Wait, what? Yeah, I can't think of a reason I'd want to watch that either, and it gets old quick. Episode 2 pulls together something like a story which is kind of okay.

The characters fail. The first episode introduces blond foreign exchange student Jenny. From Italy. Because when I think of Italy I think of blonde girls named jenny. The other characters are typical, but the way they're presented makes them annoying.

Aside from a few (very few) laughs, attempting to identify references adds a bit of a novelty factor. Because the hair color is off, it's not always obvious which title a character's costume comes from. The DVD features a list of character references if you're curious or want to keep score. I'm a little scared how many I actually knew.

Cosplay Complex isn't deliberately terrible, but it's pretty bad. A few things save it from total catastrophe, but there is far too much garbage that's only mildly entertaining - when it even manages that. You're better off skipping this one.

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