In a game called Union, one group has risen above the rest to legendary status - Subaru! Consisting of six friends, the team each possess what the game calls a "sense", be it the ability to predict the future, use magic or excel at fighting, Subaru is the only team to possess all the senses in the game, and as such they are an unstoppable force. Despite this, they're really just a bunch of primary school kids playing a video game, with all but one of the group being a local friend.
As their confidence grows, they decide to take on a boss that is, thus far, unbeaten. Unfortunately, one of the girls, the mage Satsuki, has a crush on Haruto Amō, the team's principle fighter. Wanting to confess her feelings, she finds herself seemingly beaten to it by Asahi, the rear guard member. Subsequently the team do not gel as well on this most dangerous of missions, and Asahi's character is killed in the battle. In Union, there is no returning to the game once your character dies, and more tragically, Asahi dies of heart failure in the real world seconds after her character, devastating the circle of friends and causing the closure of the game.
Cut to several years later, and the game is being revived under the title ReUnion (which is quite clever). Haruto is nagged into signing up by his friends, who have been lured in by the fact that success in the game could mean a position at the company that created the game. Entries are limited to those who demonstrate the sense ability so well utilised by Subaru, and of course that makes Haruto a shoe-in.
It's getting harder to tell some of these anime titles apart, with so many now utilising the reincarnation in a fantasy setting, or just online fantasy game series. The details may change, but the theme is commonplace with titles such as That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, .Hack, Sword Art Online and so on - the last fantasy/real world anime I saw was Recovery of an MMO Junkie, and honestly they could all be playing the same game and nobody would notice.
The character designs in this series really don't stand out, though that could just be my age. There's a very bland look to this show, and coupled with the workmanlike animation, it doesn't really stand out in any way. Contrast this to my previous First Thoughts article, Banana Fish, and it really is night and day.
That said, despite the familiar feel to the show, its not bad per-se. I like the premise that Asahi is, by the end of the episode, seemingly alive and well within Re'Union. It's a good hook, and despite myself I'm quite intrigued as to what exactly is going on. I'm not sure if I'm easily suckered with a puzzlebox or if the show genuinely handled it well, but I do feel inclined to give it another go with episode two.
Overall I'm not exactly bowled over, and I feel like I'm possibly about to watch a rerun of a show I've seen countless times before, but the end credits had some interesting looking characters, the central mystery could be interesting and it really wasn't bad, just not something that will set the world on fire. As ever with these First Thought articles, only time will tell.
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