YMMV / Bofuri: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense.

• Awesome Art: The backgrounds and scenery in the anime look gorgeous, and not an episode goes by without a shot allowing the viewer (and the In-Universe players) to admire the scenery of New World Online.
• Awesome Music:
  • Good Night, the insert song that plays whenever Maple is doing something crazy. It may be filled with broken English, but the composition is still fantastic. Additionally, there is also an instrumental version of the song in the OST that makes watching even the most lighthearted of fights enjoyable.
  • This track, simply known as "Sally's Theme", is frenetic with a wickedly fast piano to go along with Sally's focus on speed and swashbuckling.
    • Bonus points for being a good evocation of a JRPG Boss Battle theme, and playing for the first time during Sally's first solo boss battle.
  • Play the World, the upbeat ending song which also highlights the lightheartedness of the show.
  • As You Wish, the Sweet Dreams Fuel anthem that succeeds "Good Night" as the main "montage music" for Season 2.
  • Logical Battle, which first plays during Maple and Sally's fight against the Power Copying grimoire boss in Season 2 Episode 3. From then on, it can be counted on to start playing whenever something epic is happening.
• Broken Base: As is common in stories where the MC is ridiculously OP, there is a major divide in the fans over Maple's insane abilities. The supporters find it fun and entertaining, with the fact she keeps breaking the game and finding exploits that cause the devs to stress out being absolutely hilarious, while the detractors find this incredibly annoying, as it takes almost every ounce of conflict out of the story, along with them considering it to exemplify the writers knowing nothing about MMOs and game balance. That said, the split is only in regards to her abilities. Her actual character is something almost everybody enjoys as a refreshing take on an OP light novel protagonist.
• Escapist Character: Maple fulfills most of the criteria. While it can be argued that she carries Mary Sue qualities (gaining abilities others don't have often through coincidence, amassing a following of players that praise her and are in awe of her anytime she displays a new skill or solos a boss, and instilling fear in guilds with more experienced players and the game developers), some fans still find enjoyment from how Maple, as a new player who doesn't quite understand how games are intended to work, unintentionally finds ways to break the game by creatively implementing certain skills and mechanics together in a way that typical players wouldn't think about doing, all while having the absolute time of her life. Additionally, her being a rare case of a defense-oriented protagonist is a welcome breath of fresh air in a genre where most of the spotlight is placed on offensive weapons and DPS.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Due to the fact Maple is a shield-user with a heavily defense-focused build to the detriment of any offense, many have taken to referring to the series as "Rising of the Shield Loli", with Maple herself also being called "Mash Alter" due to having similar-looking armor with a dark and foreboding color scheme. There are also a few fans that choose to call the series "Maple's Story" instead.
  • The Deadly Breath/Paralyzing Shout combo that Maple uses on a mob of players in the first event has been called "the War Crime Combo".
  • A decent number of fans have taken to referring to Kuromu as "Klein", due to how similar the two look, especially in Kuromu's first outfit.
• First Installment Wins: In terms of the anime, the general consensus is that the first season the better of the two seasons, with Season 2 being criticized for its rushed pace (in particular, the first four episodes, which covered three volumes worth of materials) and the lack of some elements that made Season 1 fun (not much moments of Maple doing something crazy, no real conflict to move the story forward).
• Ho Yay: Has it's own page now.
• I Knew It!: Around the time monster companions became more widespread and Mii and Payne got a phoenix and dragon partner respectively, there was a theory that there would be a fourth guild leader that would complete The Four Gods theme that is represented by them and Maple. Following the 8th event, Velvet, the leader of thunder storm was introduced, with her representing Byakko through her white attire, lightning-based attacks, and the ability to transform into a giant white tiger.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Slime Shield Online ^Explanation Right from the very first episode, a lot of viewers have made numerous comparisons to other light novels with adaptations. The three here are the most referenced, with Maple gaining powers by eating monsters like Rimuru, her wielding a shield while having massive defense and negligible offense like Naofumi, along with her character being overall broken gameplay-wise plus the game being a buggy VRMMORPG like Kirito and the VRMMOs he plays.
  • Rising of the Shield Loli. ^Explanation  As the anime went on, more than a few viewers had noticed Maple having an increasingly large number of similarities to Naofumi beyond having a shield and a defense-focused build.
  • The real Shield Hero. ^Explanation Maple is a much nicer and sweeter person than Naofumi is, and is thus considered a far better match to the word 'hero' than him.
• Moe:
  • Maple's cluelessness about gaming, ditzy mindset, and overall cuteness makes her very endearing to watch, even as she goes on to become a badass and often frightening monster towards other players. In some ways that makes her even cuter.
  • The twins Mai and Yui are the youngest and cutest members of Maple Tree, and the fact they have zero defense and agility makes them very vulnerable, enticing viewers to feel protective of them.
  • Syrup is an absolutely precious little turtle that is constantly doing cute and humorous things in the background when he isn't fighting alongside Maple, and even when fighting he never loses his adorably huggable charm.
  • The character that is the absolute pinnacle of this in the story is Mii. Despite being a genuinely capable commander and fighter and projecting the aura of a confident leader, underneath that mask is an insecure, self-deprecating mess. Whenever nobody else is around, she constantly doubts how good her abilities are, and repeatedly expresses worry that she's an absolute failure as a leader, giving viewers a strong urge to hug her and tell her she's doing an amazing job and that her worries are unfounded.
• Signature Scene:
  • Maple eating a poison hydra after she developed immunity to its attacks.
  • Maple's first transformation into an Atrocity is another due to the sheer insanity it creates. To give an idea how insane it sounds, imagine a cute high school girl who can transform into a cross between a Xenomorph from Alien and Godzilla.
• Spiritual Antithesis: The setting and main characters can be seen as one in comparison to The Rising of the Shield Hero:
  • Both settings are a Fantasy-based world full of RPG tropes, but BOFURI is an MMO that people can voluntarily leave, while Shield Hero is an alternative universe with RPG Mechanics layered on top of it. The Former has only NPCs that are needed for the things related to the player, while the latter has full fledged social structure, a Fantastic Caste System that involves Slavery, Nobility, etc. and similar stuff.
  • Both Naofumi and Maple are defensive-oriented fighters, leaders of their respective groups, and lack the gaming experience of the contemporaries, forcing them to utilize trial-and-error methods and personal logic which lets them achieve heights of power nobody expected. But where Naofumi has trouble trusting others and is forced to be defensive, Maple easily trusts others and willingly chose to put all stats into defense. Additionally, they both have something to do with turtles, but where Maple gets an ally in the form of Syrup, Naofumi gets an enemy in the form of the Spirit Turtle.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: The entire story is a completely lighthearted adventure into a VRMMO where Maple and her friends have fun with zero stakes. Even rival players are just normal people enjoying the game, with any antagonism being nothing more than PVP-based Friendly Rivalry.
• Tainted by the Preview: The tenth episode Season 2 suffers from this. For those reading the light novel or web novel, seeing the twins together in either the preview for the episode or Crunchyroll's splash image for the episode was a red flag that the anime was not only changing some of the events of the section of the 8th Event where Maple Tree is scattered, but, due to Mai being paired with her sister and Kanade instead of Maple, was also cutting one of the more memorable parts of that section, in which Maple does a second attempt at being a beacon, with her having a tea party with Mai while they wait for the rest of Maple Tree to regroup with them.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: If someone has some criticism in terms of Season 2, Episode 10, chances are that part of it was a result of how the anime changed some elements when compared to the light novel. They consist of:
  • Mai's situation when Maple Tree is scattered, with her now being with her sister and Kanade instead of having Mii reunite her with Maple like in the light novel. This, in turn results in Maple not doing much in the episode after her meeting with Mii, whereas the events mentioned above in Tainted by the Preview explained what Maple did after meeting Mii.
  • The idea of having some non-major members of Payne's and Mii's guilds, along with some minor characters like Christmas Rose, survive the scattering and be part of the merging of the three main guilds, thus downplaying the difficulty of the hardest level of the 8th Event.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Many viewers had great difficulty discerning whether Kanade was a tomboy or an actual boy, with there being sparse hints mentioned in-story for the anime. It has been confirmed that Kanade is a boy, however, as shown in the anime's official website, along with the light novel introducing him as such.
• Woolseyism: The French translation localized the "I Don't Want to Get Hurt" part of the title as "Je suis pas venue ici pour souffrir" ("I didn't come here to suffer") which is a popular meme in France.