天下制覇

Well, this was different.

Impressions:

An extremely different episode from #00, and while they did ramp the humor down considerably, they compensated by actually making this into a more serious story. I’m a bit annoyed at some of the writing for the moment though. The episodes starts out with a rooftop showdown, then flashes back, and flashes back again, and we won’t actually reach the initial one until next week… not to mention that compared to episode #00, this whole thing is sort of one giant flashback. Koyomi is also something of a cypher at the moment for reasons that I can only begin to speculate on. In her first appearance, she does her little basin trick for Soushiro, and I was thinking that it’d be interesting if she turned out to be some kind of magical idiot savant. However, she also knows Yumiko before they meet, which leads me to believe that she’s been tossed/sent back in time for whatever reason, especially since she’s supposed to pretty much always look like a grade schooler. If I hadn’t watched episode #00 though, I don’t think that would even be a sane conclusion to make.

So, possible time travel, and a continued focus on someone who is not the main character. I’m pretty sure my previous knowledge about this series and/or episode 1 is doing a good job of working against me here. The focus over to action was rather to my liking though, even if none of the scenes were particularly impressive. There wasn’t any pathetic use of stills or the like at least, so watchable without scoffing. I also thought the jazzy music this episode did a far far better job of complimenting things this week. It fits an action show a lot better than corny slapstick.

All in all, a very pleasant improvement all around in my opinion. At the moment, I’m more inclined to stick with this over Canaan for a couple reasons, the main one being that it’s already being covered by everybody and their cat, while this one will probably languish in anonymity. I also had many of the same problems with the second episode of that as the first too, although the fight at the end was great. I continue to find it amusing that a man hanging in powerlines is interesting to crowds, but automatic weapon fire into crowds is apparently not worth paying attention to. Who are those people?

Brief Summary:

Koyomi and loli Yumiko face down a mage (I’ve already forgotten his name… Gibaltes or something) on a roof top. He easily overpowers them.

Flashback to earlier in the day. Yumiko gets in trouble for fighting back when some boys pick on her. When she gets home, she declares herself beyond the normal world, and takes her grandfather’s diary and magic staff and goes off to find Anehara magical school. Meanwhile, Koyomi is with Soushiro looking for his sister. He’s skeptical of magic, so she transmutes some nearby code into a basin. He’s not convinced. Inside the store, Misa’s a little annoyed that her code making people buy things was messed up, so puts down another one.

Back with Yumiko, she’s attacked by a mage after her grandfather’s staff. She runs away, but realizes that she’s got nowhere to go except Anehara and flees there. When she gets there, Koyomi runs out and hugs her, calling her a friend. Giblets attacks again, but Koyomi protects her. Gibralter mistakes her for Misa, and she uses a basin to distract him enough to let them escape. Yumiko ditches Koyomi in the process and thinks to herself that she’s never had friends and doesn’t need them. She’s attacked by Garfunkel’s familiar and forced to run again. Yumiko remembers the spell that he used and repeats it to kill the monster. He moves in for the kill, but Koyomi and Misa both appear to protect her.

Modern Magic OP

Preview:

Koyomi and Misa.