天下制覇

Or lay off the mood-killers.

Impressions:

Does anybody else feel like this is xxxHOLiC on ritalin? The two start pretty much the same way, with the protagonist being chased by a huge demon, then accidently stumbling onto a cattish benefactor. The difference though, is that Natsume is about as interesting as dishwater and a cat is no substitute for Yuuko. Things do diverge a bit from there, but Natsume is still basically a Watanuki on high doses of mood killers. It’s fine that he’s used to this, but come on… a pair of spirits have invaded your house and are trying to do horrible things to you. Show some fear. Show some anxiety. Show anything.

In short, whether it’s the source’s fault, the VA’s fault, or the director’s fault, I didn’t really care for this one all that much. It just had so little that even threatened to draw me in. Production values were middle of the road at best, music was alright, though some there was this one track when Nyanko-sensei (not his real name) transformed that was just a lazy 2 second riff repeated for about a minute straight. Grandmother Reiko seems like a far more interesting character all around than Natsume, and while I’m sure we’ll see more of her every episode as we find out how she got each spirit’s name, I can’t see myself caring enough to watch just for that. I also found it curious that no matter how large or powerful a spirit is, all it takes to disable them is a swift kick to the head from a pinned down teenage boy. Really? That’s how you defeat giant monsters? One kick with a sneaker? Come on.

All in all, I think I can about muster a ‘meh’ for this one, and that’s about it.

Preview:

Mask of the phantom. Or something.