While I usually don’t blind buy, sometimes when a deal too good to pass up comes by, I snap it up. Cyberteam in Akihabara (Akihabara Dennou Gumi) is one of those series. Best Buy had the thinpack on clearance for $20, and having wanted to see it for a while, I snatched it up.

I’m pretty glad that I did. While the series has had some problems so far, I’ve still found myself enjoying each episode. This is mainly due to the character interaction.

The story itself is pretty simple at the beginning of the show. In the not so distant future, every kid has, or wants, an electronic pet known as a “Pata-Pi”. The protagonist of the series, Hibari, is about to start Junior High school. When her parents ask her what she wants as an present for graduating into Junior high, she notices an add for the Pata-Pi pets on the television. However, her parents leave before she gets a chance to tell them. Along the way, her prince that she has dreamed about hands her a Pata-Pi. At school, she tries to show the Pata-Pi (which she has named “Densuke”) off, but in typical mini-robot/monster series fashion, it seems to be defective. While Hibari walks home, she notices a dark ally, which she decides to go down hoping to use it as an shortcut. Unfortunately for Hibari, a masked, scantly-clad woman is waiting at the end to ambush her and steal Densuke. After taking a beating from the monster the woman (whose name escapes me at the moment) summoned, Densuke transforms into an older version of Hibari, wearing an armored suit. Densuke makes short work of the monster, and the woman retreats.

That’s pretty much the first episode. After that, the other members of the Dennou Gumi are introduced with their Pata-Pi. The story then quickly changes from “monster of the week” style, and actually starts to get the plot moving (this is somewhere around episode 8-10). For most of the seventeen episodes, the action sequences are rather lacking in action. The majority of the fights are made up of pans and still screenshots. Thankfully, while the fight scenes are lacking, the story makes up for it. Watching the characters interact with each other is a joy to watch. Even the antagonist characters are charming and enjoyable.

The series still has some plot points to solve. Hopefully, it will address them in the next 7-9 episodes, instead of leaving them to linger as so many other series do. So far, this is a series I would definitely recommend to those who enjoy cute, shojo series.

Sorry for not posting any screen caps, but I’m not sure how to, and I wanted to get a post up.