天下制覇

Everything’s so white.

First Episode Disclaimer:

I watch the first episodes of almost every new show. The 15 second premise blurb means very little in my book, but there are still genres and archetypes that I simply cannot stand. Feel free to share your own opinions.

Ha. Got to class 20 minutes early and got to watch it. Then sort caps etc during the 25 minute intro where I was told that I’d have to start blogging for credit. Faaaaantastic.

Impressions:

Well, the first minute or two of this episode (and the OP) were a hell of a lot better than what followed, and frankly, I prefer that to Bund’s approach. As is the case with all too many male protagonists, Hiro sucks, and with most of the episode revolving around him, that’s the anchor dragging everything else down. He’s even got a jealous sister in a wheelchair built right into his family and a glomping childhood friend. They feel ripped right out of the Big Book of Bad Cliches. Of course, knowing that one of them (probably both) is some kind of soul sucking monster did make things a little better, but on the other hand, those male school uniforms make them all look like effeminate sailors escaped from a Village People kickline.

Outside of the sort of gimped up Peach Pit character designs, the show looks decent enough. The music did a good job of setting the tone too, although it wasn’t really particularly notable outside of consistently matching the scenes and providing a little more menace in certain places to keep the pastoral stuff from being too mind numbing. The supernatural segments were excellently done at least, in tone, music, and animation. It kind of reminds me of how I thought of Bund in a lot of ways (although I feel sola may be a better comparison in overall setup and themes). Most of the show was not very interesting at all, but at least the boring parts felt like they were actually a part of the show instead of just tacked on to be ‘witty’ or fill time.

The major issue for me is that Thursdays are looking packed. Hidamari, Railgun, Kiddy Girl, and this now… and I could see myself following almost any of them. Railgun and Kiddy Girl’s stock has been falling heavily lately, but I’m not really convinced yet that this is going to be good enough to take over for either one. I’ll give it at least another week to see how it’s going to develop, but honestly, I’m not making any promises about any of the Thursday shows until I have a chance to mull things over and take a look at the next episodes.