Any anime fan wants to make his or her own anime one day. If you’re this creative type, you’ll surely appreciate Gacha Studio, an anime dress-up app with a built-in arena. Customize your characters, upgrade them and check their skills!

The idea is simple: it’s a construction game where you build your own anime characters. These can be of any gender, size, appearance… and dress, like the app says on the tin. That’s why it’s Studio of all the features that is in its name.

In Studio you can make six characters of your team the way you want them to look. Anything in their appearance is customizable: height, posture, eyes, brows, clothes and accessories, and even their pets. The pets are a special kind of fun, as they’re as customizable as human heroes, but much more adorable.

The Arena in this game seems something facultative. There are three fight modes: Auto (you don’t have to interfere at all), Element (you select the elements for your next five attacks beforehand, some rock-paper-scissors style), and Skill (you can tap the screen to dodge your opponent’s attacks). Not that any of these requires serious skill or concentration. But it brings some sense into the process of developing your characters, if suddenly you’re not here for the dressing party.

The app is neatly designed, with bright colors, distinguishable elements of appearance, and intuitive interface. All you need to do is pick the element you need by a simple tap, and then tap the right spots in the Arena. The only flaw is the music: not that it’s bad, but one theme is not enough for creative hours. And when the ad starts within the game, their soundtracks interfere, creating an intolerable cacophony. Maybe that’s part of a plan to motivate you into buying Studio+.

Gacha Studio is free, but it has some limitations (say, you can have only 6 characters at the same time, and their fighting abilities are constrained). And yes, it shows ads. You can get rid of the ads and buy some more abilities by purchasing any of premium options. Studio Plus unlocks six more slots for characters and lets you export or import features, if you want two or more of your characters to share some of them. Arena Champion adds 2 XP to you and your pet and activates auto-retry for Auto Mode in Arena. There are also gem packs you can purchase additionally to accelerate your progress.

Pros

• A great anime character constructor;
• Lots of options in appearance and clothes;
• Upgradable characters;
• Bright colors;
• Pretty pets.

Cons

• Lots of ads in free mode;
• The music is too monotonous;
• Arena doesn’t require much fighting skills.