The Series (3.5/5)

OK, so just to get this out of the way I haven't touched a Phantasy Star game since Phantasy Star IV. That being said I was a huge fan of the franchise in the Genesis era, and even started to replay the IVth game earlier this year with my own son, so even though Phantasy Star Onine 2: The Animation was based on a game I hadn't played or a franchise I hadn' touched in over 2 decades I was excited to see it just based on the association. Even with that 2 decade gap between plays, I was pleased with the anime itself, which is actually designed for newbies, and the franchise faithful.

    The series follows 2 students at the Seiga (Sega) academy Itsuki and Rina. Rina is the student council president trying to defend the student body's current favorite spare time activity of playing Phantasy Star Online 2 as it is considered not only a waste of time, but something that is effecting the students. She decides to make Itsuki both her vice president, and her guinea pig. Itsuki has never played PSO2 and so she wants to test the effects of the game on him, and reports the results back to the administration, however, as it turns out there is an effect.  PSO2 is not just a game, but a training ground for people to prepare for battle against Darkers.

   The series was a lot of fun, and had traditional academy elements to it, but also it reminded me of the 80's film The Last Starfighter with its video game as a training mechanism plot.  The series has a nice blend of traditional digital animation and some styled after the PSO2 video game.

Audio/Video (3.5/5)

    The Blu-ray from Sentai has a nice 1080p 1:78:1 transfer that for the most part looks fine. Colors are solid, and detail is good, but some of the more video game stylized moments due tend to be of a lesser quality.  Audio is presented with a DTS-HD MA Japanese 2.0 track. It sounds quite clear and audible throughout.

Extras (2.5/5)

    Extras include Japanese commentary tracks, clean opening and closing and trailers.

Overall

    Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation is a nice mix of academy anime and the Last Starfighter. The Blu-ray looks quite solid, with some decent extras. RECOMMENDED.