Rental Magica #01 — Black Magic Women

October 7th, 2007

Brought to you by flyingDOG.

Impressions:

Man, what’s with shows today and starting in the middle of the timeline? Rental Magica drops us in the middle of the team hunting and then fighting a monster dog. I say fighting, but really, it doesn’t do much other than chew on some rope and run away until the Miss Summoner has a magical shark eat it. Then we continue to another case where a girl from school has come to their group with a job.

Holding aside being thrust right into the story with absolutely no introduction to anything, it was a pretty decent episode. If you turned Ghost Hunt into an action show instead of a mystery/thriller, you’d end up with this. There were a few moments that made me laugh at the total awfulness. The music, for example, sounds like a theatrical score gone wrong… or maybe something pulled from an RPG. The business card for the Rental Magica company also had Kadokawa’s website for Rental Magica written on it. I also found it highly amusing that interjected into the chase of a flying ghost dog was the sponsor message that Rental Magica is brought to you by… flyingDOG.

Holding aside the really really silly music, the episode was mostly fun. Very much on the side of generic, but well animated enough and if it actually bothers to ever get around to introducing and/or fleshing out the characters above and beyond “THIS IS THE BLACK MAGE, SHE CASTS THE SPELLS THAT MAKES THE PEOPLE FALL DOWN” then it could be pretty quality. I don’t ask for much, just a decent introduction to what’s going on and then we can go back to blowing up helpless magical animals.

Depending on my motivation, I may or may not have the will to cover both this and Prism Ark on Sundays. It’s certainly up my alley and I’ll be watching regardless. If nobody else ends up covering it, I definitely will at any rate. No OP this episode, but the ED (which was just a montage with credits) was really really nice. Sounds like the same group as the 2nd OP for Fate Stay/Night though I haven’t looked up stuff. It’s entirely possible that it’s the OP for all I know. *shrug*

No summaries for the first episodes. I write as I watch, and I don’t know if I’ll care about a show until after the first episode.

Posted in Rental Magica | 6 Comments »

6 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • BluWacky says:
    October 7, 2007 at 5:37 pm

    The “ED” was the OP – it’s by lisa (who did the Melody of Oblivion OP a couple of years ago).

    Flying Dog is the new name for Victor Entertainment, I think – JVC is going to start releasing their anime tracks on said label.

  • kiseki gurl says:
    October 7, 2007 at 6:03 pm

    I acutally LIKED the BGM. I think it suits the show. Or maybe the lack of sleep is screwing with my brain and ears. It’s probably the latter case.

    As far as the episode went, personally I found it kind of disappointing. I was expecting a whole lot from this show and I got a whole lot of nothing at the moment. I’ll give it time (and wait for a sub) but for now…

    And the group that did the Fate/Stay Night 2nd OP is Jyukai :D.

  • Aroduc says:
    October 7, 2007 at 6:18 pm

    BluWacky >
    Yeah, I figured as much. I just found it entertaining that in the middle of fighting a flying dog, they inserted a message that this was brought to us by flyingDOG.

  • Impz says:
    October 7, 2007 at 10:42 pm

    This looks like something I will definitely blog about…Let’s see when I get the file ^^

  • Aroduc says:
    October 7, 2007 at 11:24 pm

    It’s a lot more action-based than your usual tastes, Impz, but the similarities to Ghost Hunt are definitely there… just a lot more as general background and impetus for them to fight monsters instead of as the prime content.

  • Impz says:
    October 8, 2007 at 11:11 am

    I just watched it and I am actually wondering if it is an anime to blog about. It is not that bad to be honest, but it is really hard to tell currently whether it will be good or bad. Nevertheless, let me go blog about it and wonder for a second.

    Cheers with the screenies ^_^;;;