Feeling a little tired of late? Having trouble keeping thoughts organized? Well perhaps you need to D-Frag, or so the title seems to suggest. This show is a Haganai/Seitokai no Ichizon type clone with overly vivid personalities and a rather unique combination of attempted coolness and comedic cuteness. Basically, a supposed wannabe delinquent, with Sonic the Hedgehog sharp hair, named Kenji is coerced into joining a game development club. Except that they don't really develop games. Rather, they just lounge around and occasionally play some games, and occasionally get into trouble with other groups.
If you're looking for a very lighthearted slice of life with some not-so-realistic personalities, this may be a good choice. I say maybe because you'll either love or hate the overall feeling of the show. Personally for me, the attempted coolness came across as immature and rather dull. Others have shown a very different opinion though so you might want to give the first episode a shot and see if you enjoy it.
Animation:
The animation is fair overall with a vivid color scheme and a lot of over-dramatization. Backgrounds are fairly average and likewise for shading. The characters are pretty unique in styling though I felt that facial animations were a bit lackluster as characters didn't seem to respond much to external stimuli.
I guess there is a bit of action though most of it is extremely light and more of the comical nature. Fighting by splashing water or dirt on each other? Kind of cheesy if you ask me. There is a slight amount of ecchi though more like suggestive references, they probably tried to incorporate something like Seitokai Yakuindomo but didn't really succeed very well. Otherwise you just have bouncy from Buchou and a bit of cross-dressing.
Sound:
The Engrish OP is pretty representative of the show, taking a very shonen-based cool and combining it with cute-ish female voices. The song is pretty discordant with little melodic value. The ED is a bit more melodic but still has the overly-playful vibe that just feels much more fitting for an elementary school. The BGM is pretty light but serves its purpose. There are a lot of effects, due to the comic nature of a lot of events.
There are a lot of veteran VAs here but I feel like they over-cast for a lot of the roles. Shizuka Itou is the standout as Buchou but most of the other roles just didn't have enough characterization to merit the strong VAs. Especially painful were Kana Hanazawa and Kana Ueda's roles; what's the point if their character can't act cute and tsundere, respectively?
Story:
This is frankly a glorified slice of life show that is based heavily on character-interactions, so I wouldn't expect much in terms of a central plot. If there is anything holding the story together, it would be the repeating pattern of someone or some group trying to get the fake gaming club closed. The oddball group works together to somehow try and overcome impossible odds. I guess it helps that the student council chair, who you never see actually doing student council chair-like stuff, is in the club. Some episodes are episodic while others clump up to form mini-arcs. There is a bit of a climax near the end but nothing mind-blowing.
The more important thing to note here is the over-the-top nature of the characters and antics in this show. If you're just watching for the comedic aspect, then this is all fine. However, if you apply an ounce of thought into it, be prepared for very little to make sense. Besides the numerous plot and character holes, the school apparently has multiple infamous gangs and groups running around and causing messes, with relatively little discipline being given. A lot of behaviors and events are just so out of the ordinary that the merest thought of plausibility is cast aside.
Character:
Granted that this show isn't going for realism, I still find it annoying that the characters were so two-dimensional. Yes, the characters have interesting traits, but these feel unshakable in an unnatural way. A good example is Roka, a seemingly quiet and chibi figure who apparently possesses the comic ability to "conquer" others by putting bags over people's heads. Yes, she's interesting in a curious way but you never get the sense that she's remotely relatable. The sadistic student council chair, Chitose, acts cool all the time but just once you'd like to see her out of that annoying facade- don't bother waiting. The only characters that really have any merit in my mind are Buchou, who harbors some feelings for Kenji, and Kenji himself. Everyone else, and mind you this includes a huge amount of secondary characters, are just fluff. While it's true that the character interactions had a lot of character (no pun intended), it was painfully lacking in depth.
Value:
It's probably pretty clear by now that I didn't have a very pleasant experience with this show. Maybe I've outgrown this genre, but I still feel there are much better works out there that provide much more entertainment value without having to resort to meaningless gimmicks and outlandish, unrealistic personality traits. While the show has some comedic value and a drop of relationship value, it is spread out too thinly to make much of a positive impact. If you agree in opinion with my other reviews in the genre, I'd pass on this one.
