天下制覇

Very very shiny.

Impressions:

Let’s get the bad out of the way. The first half was almost all recap. Thankfully though, it was all new footage and didn’t drag too badly. It’s about what I’d have expected if this had aired right after the previous episodes as a general cooldown episode, but years later, taking 15 minutes to get to new content is not something I’m going to praise either. Also, as I mentioned in the Evol post, the artwork for the show still continues to be… inconsistent, shall we say. The change in animation studios from TMS to Brains Base did do the art overall a lot of good for the most part. A lot of that comes from better shading and making the character designs a lot more sleek. Miu in particular looks much more attractive now instead of some kind of bizarre purple alien with watermelons strapped to its chest. She could stand to probably be a little less shiny. She almost looks like she’s covered in a thin veneer of baby oil, which very well may be true. Speaking of her, Kugyu also managed to choke down her usually irritating shrieks and sound like a real person as her new VA. Another pleasant surprise. Maybe it’s just Honoka’s existence out-annoying her. The music’s… okay. It doesn’t have that fun rock tinge that the original had, but it’s not horrible either. He says, toeing the line like a champ.

Thankfully, things pick up immensely at almost exactly the halfway point when all the recap starts. It’s still far from well-animated or choreographed, abuses speedlines and still repetition like someone’s getting off on it, and it would really be nice if they stoped monologuing in the middle of it, but that’s part and parcel of the whole Kenichi thing and 50 episodes into it, well… I can’t not make fun of it for pulling this crap. It’s still enough action to be entertaining without the breaks being obtrusive or obnoxious to get in the way, but the show, low budget as it usually is, has certainly seen better action scenes in non-OVA from than in this assumably higher budget iteration.

Overall, I think fans of the original will like it, and I did like the original, so I’m more or less pleased with it. However, even with all the recap, it’s not a great jumping in point if you weren’t already a fan. Take that as you will.