天下制覇

Serious tea for a serious battle.

Impressions:

Better than I expected, and I certainly can’t be mad at them for starting off with five minutes of Beowulf/EVIL Kyosuke wrecking stuff, but then again, after the previous SRW adaptations, expectations were pretty low. I also feel that it has been entirely too many years since I last played an OG. The show does definitely have the same kind of problem as UBW in that it assumes that the audience is already pretty familiar with the universe. There’s still recap mind you (and how), but this episode was a tad overwhelming with the sheer number of characters and things it throws at you, especially since the first five minutes is spent on… well… evil crazy Kyosuke breaking things.

The most pleasant surprise is the lack of CG. Most of the action wasn’t all that impressive or interesting, but it was at least omnipresent. They made up for that with all the non-explodey scenes being as visually thrilling as watching mud congeal. If they could strike a better balance between the UN recap, captains sipping tea, and things blowing up, they could be a little better. There’s definitely a lot that the director could and should be doing to liven up both the talky and the mecha-y sides of things here. The least pleasant surprise is that I’ve apparently been listening to Ex’s voice through rose-tinted ears for awhile because ouch. The visual design in general wasn’t great either. In particular, Kyosuke’s chin seemed to gain and lose its point with about the same regularity as Excellen’s breasts gain and lose theirs.

They’re clearly trying a little harder than the first time around, but I can’t really say that I’m terribly excited after this first episode. It was okay, but I’m not enough of an SRW fan to squeal in delight at every little cameo or have to change my underwear after beholding the ‘glory’ of the Gespy Mk III. I’ll probably give it a few more episodes, but Fridays are packed, so I make no promises.

Preview:

Lamia touches down.