Let’s Play Initial Series Review
Nine years ago, I was browsing on the WEBTOON App and keeping up to date with some of the comics I follow when I came across this relatively new one called Let’s Play. Being a gamer and an aspiring YouTuber, I knew right away that this series had to have something to do with video games. Lo and behold, as soon as I clicked on it, I was happy to see that I was right. It was this romcom/slice-of-life comic created by a talented creator called Mongie, and it had me hooked from the first panel. Sadly, due to issues with WEBTOON, Mongie has since moved the comic to another app called Tapas where they’re post all the old chapters before giving us a fourth season. In the meantime, though, Let’s Play has joined the growing list of webcomics and manwha that got made into a TV show, this time as an anime on Crunchyroll.
Having already seen another popular webcomic get the anime treatment earlier this year, only for it to be a massive letdown, I was skeptical. I got burned once, and I didn’t want it to happen again. However, I couldn’t help but remember all the good, and it made me want to give it again without giving it a bad review. Which is important, considering how the catalyst for the entire series is someone giving a bad review of something the main character worked hard on out of ignorance.
Sam Must Be Protected at All Costs
Meet Sam Young, a young (pun not intended) computer software developer and lover of video games. She spent a lot of her life in and out of the hospital due to health problems, so video games helped to keep her going all that time. That, and seeing a let’s player by the name of Marshall Law playing video games on ViewTube. And like some gamers, her love of games led her to try her hand at making her own game, Ruminate, a free-to-play puzzle game in the style of an RPG that she posts online. And it manages to do great…until Marshall Law decides to play it.
This is what happens.
This isn’t just because Sam made the tutorial too confusing to understand, by the way. This is because Law failed to read it altogether, resulting in him playing it wrong and causing his fans to tear her to shreds online. It threatens to end her career before it can even begin. But then comes the twist: Marshall Law ends up moving in next door to her. And that’s when the drama really begins!
It’s Nice to See this Series again
As one of the first people to start reading the Webcomic when it first came out, I have the beneift of already knowing a lot about the cast and what happens going in. Therefore, I was a little surprised at how the plot of the opening episode is structured. It’s more or less taking several of the early chapters and combining them into one, while also mixing up what happens when. This is done so that the show can give us a crash course on who is who and their basic personalities. Surprisingly, it manages to do a good job at it. We get to know Sam’s friends and family, all of whom have their own distinguishing traits. Out of all of them, though, I’d say the quirkiest has to be Sam’s dad, the CEO of the software company she works at. He’s the kind of dad who dotes on his daughter to the extreme. It gets to the point that when he thinks somene is hitting on her, we get a cutaway imagining him strangling the guy. It’s pretty funny, if you ask me.
As far as the animation goes, I’m still not entirely sold on how it looks. What can I say? The look of The Beginning After the End left a bad taste in my mouth. That being said, watching this episode reminded me why I fell in love with Let’s Play in the first place. Besides all the romcom and office drama taking place, this series contains a lot of shoutouts to video games. From platforming classics to RPGS, there’s going to be plenty of things from games present in this. As a gamer myself, I can appreciate it, even if I don’t always like the art style.
I was actually on the fence about whether I wanted to cover this series, but after watching the first episode, I think I might give it a chance. At the very least, it’s a great way for me to get back into Let’s Play as it works its way to a fourth season on Tapas. If you want to read what happens, then I’d recommend you go read it there. Otherwise, enjoy.
