There are a lot of shows about video games in anime. It certainly seems to be a strong genre, although it’s more action/adventure oriented than merely watching some otaku NEET trying to beat the Final Boss on the 99^th Level of “The Tower of the Abyss” or whatever you wish to call it. But this show, “The Silver Guardian” (“Gin no Guardian”) puts an interesting twist on things.

Riku Suigin is a student at the prestigious Shinryou Private Academy, the place where the elite of the elite and the wealthy of the wealthy send their children for the finest education anywhere. Now, how Suigin got into the school is a mystery, but he does a ton of part-time jobs to pay for the incredible tuition. Late at night, when it’s all said and done, he sneaks to a private location to play this fabulous on-line game, ‘Dungeon Century’. That is him in his on-line persona. Do not let that very cheap outfit fool you; he is one determined player.

One day, he has to dive into a pool to save his pet cat, even though he cannot swim. He is saved by the beautiful, the gorgeous, the very rich Riku Rei, whose father owns the company that put out ‘Dungeon Century’. In fact, she is a player in this game as well (that is her character up there). However, the game is going to be discontinued, but a better, more fabulous, incredibly amazing game, “Grave Busters”, will be coming out to replace it.

But there are evil machinations afoot…..that I cannot reveal, as it is a key plot point, which reveals additional key plot points. Let me at least let you know that Suigin gets transported into actual game play and how things unfold in his ultimate challenge.

This show runs hot and cold for me. The game play aspects of it work quite well, especially when we see how good Suigin honestly is. The problem is reality (and there isn’t a man jack among you who would argue that point.) Certain actions and events take place where the multitude of people stand to one side and watch it unfold, preferring not to get involved. Also, Suigin may not be the sharpest blade in the razor, so he lets some opportunities slide by, as he just doesn’t know any better. Game play he understands; real life is more problematic, as it doesn’t follow a predictable arc.

I also wondered why the episodes had to be only 10 minutes or so in length. I feel that there was ample opportunity to run these things fuller. It feels that a lot is not being given to us to help understand, or to allow for a longer, potentially more cohesive, flow of the plotting, to see things played out to the max. Instead, we get this truncated version and everything feels rushed. This guarantees a second season, as the final goal has not been achieved and there is still that final Final Boss battle.

As always, short run series have to be binged and things play out a whole lot tighter by doing it that way; otherwise, it does come off as episodic and slightly disjointed. It’s just going to play up the missing elements more acutely.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork           7 (Game art is better than real life art)
Plot                  7 (Seen it before)
Pacing              8 (Run to and fro)
Effectiveness   7 (Too many initial plots)
Conclusion      5 (It reaches a ‘coupler point’, but hasn’t ended)
Fan Service     3 (A similar show would be “Wedding Peach”)
Bingeability    9 (It can take it on)

Overall            7 (Good story, hurt by the episode length)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. Log on.