天下制覇

*giggle*

New Season Disclaimer:

I’ll make a post for almost all new series (barring sequels) with a wrap-up and bullet point opinion of each once the premier week is over. Remember that these are just my kneejerk reactions to the first 20 minutes of shows, many of which in genres that I don’t even particularly like, but I do believe in giving every new series at least an episode to interest me.

Impressions:

It’s a Christmas miracle… the first show of the new season to have an OP that doesn’t suck. Of course, Bandai’s got their auto-copyright busters at work, so I couldn’t even upload it. Oh well. The ED is also a bunch of chibis going about their chibi business… also a high point of the OPs/EDs in this season so far.

As for the show itself, there’s definitely some genre confusion that needs sorting out. It reminds me a lot of Hellsing in that way. There’s the albino demon in charge of things, his really arrogant charge, a haunted mansion, and everything has a tendency to turn into wacky super deformed chibis at the slightest provocation. It’s mostly alright, but when they’re building a thriller scene of generic thug #38 being chased around the mansion, and then the Looney Tunes servants pop in for comic relief, it spoils the mood a bit. As long as I’m thinking about the humor, I giggled a little bit every time they tried to say ‘Phantomhive’ (Faaaantooumhaiiivuu), and I wouldn’t pass up the chance to laugh at someone with the same name as Curry Butt. Heck… he was playing gothic Candyland for a good chunk of the episode.

Overall, it was a pretty positive first episode, though probably more fun to talk about and make fun of (in a good natured way) than it was to actually watch. I know all about the whole soul eating thing later, so there is at least that to look forward a bit, and Curry Butt was a lot more arrogant and self-confident than I had assumed he would be, which was also a pleasant surprise. The only thing that really bothered me was the group of inept servants hanging around the house doing slapstick nearly completely unrelated to… pretty much anything and everything going on. Well… and the occasionally oppressive operatic bass singing in the background. It certainly earned a second look from me, though I still haven’t had a chance to watch Quartet yet, so I’m not certain I’ll keep covering it. We’ll see though.

Black Butler OP

Preview:

Curry Butt gets kidnapped.