kulas.lauren - 2014-06-30 03:20:01

Story: Haruno Shizoaki is a young high school student living in a Japanese rustic small village. After sixteen years stuck there, she wants to leave her hometown and find some new purpose in life, but is uneasy about the future that awaits her. It all changes when she meets Cynthia B. Rogers, an Australian who has ridden her motorcycle through many countries around the world and is now going to work at Niwa, a café owned by her (Haruno´s) family. Cynthia´s presence makes Haruno a bit annoyed at first, but then slowly starts to think about the many things and inspires her friends to consider a more adventurous lifestyle.

You know for only about four episodes, the story is very simple to fill out and the pacing was really fleshed out. There is no filler or pointless dumb scenes, even that one fan service thing wasn't there for long and didn't effect the story in any way, shape, or form so kudos for that.

Animation and Artwork: The animation is very fluid and there are no choppy moments in the show at all. The artwork is really pretty to look at, the backgrounds seem realistic and are nice to look at (especially the motorcycle scenes, there aren't many of them however). It may not look detailed and obscure like other shows but its simple and clean to look at. The characters are also nice and cute, the show does a great job on portraying a real take on life (reminds me of Non Non Biyori, even though this was made before that) :)

Sound: The voices take a while to get used to, especially with Cynthia's obvious English accent, but once you get used to it, it sounds nice and silly to listen to. Cynthia's English is hilarious XD

The music is also really good, the OP song plays while the episode still plays out which I really like since it shows a bit more about the characters without lines of dialogue and it's the second anime that uses this (first being ARIA, which is my favorite anime ever :D) and it makes me happy. The ED song is nice and catchy also~

http://www.freeanimemusic.org/anime/one-off/

Characters: The characters may not be the most original, but they're some of the kindest people in the anime world I've ever seen. I wish I could be friends with them or at least hang out with them.

Haruno, the main character, enjoys riding her Honda Giorno and has a habit of daydreaming. She has a rather pessimistic look on things, believing the impossible is in fact impossible, but when she meets Cynthia she starts to change her perspectives and attitude on life.

And by the end she changes into a different person and also promises to travel and meet her back in Australia...

Cynthia is an eccentric and goofy blonde with blue eyes (I don't like that cliché to be honest) who tries to cheer her new friend up and get her to open up to other things around her.

The other characters don't have as much development or personality as the main ones, but they're also nice and play off of the main characters really well, actually this anime vaguely reminds me of Tamayura except this show sadly doesn't have a TV show based off this which is kind of sad. I kind of wish there was more of this but I did like the ending fine and stuff.

Overall: I really enjoyed this anime. As a slice of life, it's one of the best I've seen in quite a while and it reminds me a lot of Tamayura and ARIA only with motorcycles instead of cameras or gondolas... and I don't have a problem with that. It's also THE best OVA I've ever seen, more so than Tamayura :3

I wish more people would watch it and I highly recommend checking it out for whoever wants to see a good and short slice of life story about friends, bikes, and fun.

Pros: Fluid animation, neat artwork, developed main characters, hilarious voice work, great ending, simple story that fills up four episodes

Cons: Side characters aren't well developed [or at least as much]; there isn't anymore of this unfortunately

Thanks for reading my 45th review~

myles.abbott - 2014-01-31 10:09:30

"One Off" is a very simple story. It's all about overcoming the obstacle of negative thinking, things that you may think are impossible can actually be more easily attainable when you are working towards that goal and thinking positively. If anything, you will feel better.

Nothing good comes from negative thinking except for just that, more negative thinking.

This is your basic slice of life story with mopeds, motorcycles, the eagerness to travel, and Honda (yes, the vehicle company) as the main subjects. With one of the best directors when it comes to slice of life works, Junichi Sato.

It's not original, but does anyone really expect that when it comes to slice of life stories? I like it, it's executed well, has a great atmosphere, and is fun to watch if you like slice of life stories.

The art is excellent, very much up to standards here.

The music is very well done, the opening by RoundTable is always a nice touch in an anime, and the ending and insert songs are pretty catchy as well.

The seiyuu act their characters with great enthusiasm.

There's not much character here, but the little that there is, serves well enough for the story and execution.

For a slice of life series, there's actually a small bit of ecchi in this show, and that is the role of Cynthia (You'll see when you watch it).

---

I enjoyed this short series more than I expected.

One Off serves as a feel good slice of life story that is as short as a motorcycle or moped ride to a convenience store.

It's very well done, and if there was more, I would watch it.