天下制覇

I’m already tired of writing out the title.

Impressions:

This could have certainly been better. It’s weighted down by a cast of characters that almost competes with Kiddy Girl’s in terms of raw undirected stupidity. It’s truly painful to see Ken Sai stand up and give a speech about how he’s not the demon king, and they should destroy the world if people think that he is. Or somehow come to the decision that breaking into a girl’s room through the window in the middle of the night is the best way to apologize. This goes well beyond simple bad writing and into some otherworldly sphere where mortals dare not tread. Junko’s not much better, but she falls into more of the "so cliche that it hurts" category than stupid. The random censorship around her ass was pretty funny at times. I have no clue what this is covering up, but it’s fun to speculate. I’m putting my money on a vestigal coccyx.

Production was okay, although the music was often very wonky. It would belong right at home in any number of RPGs, but doesn’t really work so well here. I did like the ED, or OP, or whatever the hell that was at the end. Takashi Kondo also turned in a very convincing demonstration as to why he’s an average voice actor at best. We could have done without the corny CG supertrains too. Is it really that much cheaper to use bad CG to make vehicles all the time? Or is there just a package of CG vehicles that all animation studios are given upon incorporation?

I’ll give it and Angel Beats second looks, but I really can’t say that I’m thrilled about either of them. If Angel Beats solved its direction issues or this solved its writing issues, either could become at least watchable without heavy mockery, but I’m really not optimistic about that happening.