"Absolute Duo" is a pretty good anime without stereotypical villains or heroes, and with a genuine plot and drama that develops interestingly. It is filled with many comic and occasional semi-sexual moments that provide added interest. Although romance is a part of it, there is no hard-line romantic story; it is more the honor and loyalty of the individuals that is abundant and important; this provides a positive outlook and tenor for the viewers.
The girls are all pretty and sexy, most fairly busty, which is not unusual for this kind of thing, and there are occasionally some provocative scenes with the females in one state of undress or another, but this is not an overwhelming feature of the series. The males are largely handsome, but again, one is not overwhelmed with that. It is their various fighting powers brought on from each person's "blaze," a skill and power that allows them magically to forge weapons from thin air, that makes them all unique and truly interesting. There are various factions which work against the main characters, and pretty much everybody winds up fighting them, as well as each other in training battles at the school they are all in for that purpose.
The villains have their own specific purpose for being bad guys, which is typically some self-centered, power or revenge thing, and that is the case here. The heroes and heroines also have their own reasons for attending this school which purports to make them stronger, something that each of them needs for their own reasons. All that is brought together at their academy and generates most of the action.
The story basically follows two students, Julie and Tor, who become bound together as a "duo," which means they take care of and fight with each other to the end. Other couples in the academy band together the same way, and they fight each other and villains as part of the drama. There is some cute and sometimes lightly sexy interaction, and a developing respect of each student for his/her duo partner as they all pursue "absolute duo," which they never completely explain, but is some kind of mystical powerful state of one's soul and body. This provides everyone's reason for being there at the academy and why they all endure the hardships of learning they must all go through.
Altogether, this is not a deep, overpowering feature, but a surprisingly pleasant and captivating one with interesting characters who have some good fight scenes and provide you with some pretty young lasses and a chuckle now and then, which will make you want to continue with this story until the end.
