天下制覇

So quiet…

Impressions:

These ribbons are at least four or five times larger than they should be. Half the distance shots make them look like they’re wearing gigantic bowties. Which may or may not be the most amusing part of the episode. It’s a little hard to even tell what they’re trying to do with it. Sparse is a very good way to describe a lot of the direction, especially the music. When they bother to put any in, it’s just elevator music. Well, and the sentai parody for the intro and interstitial. It got a little better once they started doing their little play acting, but the first 10 minutes or so are just really really empty. I guess it at least didn’t have weird drifting shots over walls or scenery, but it’s probably because they had to ration their music carefully.

The second half was notably better, but again, the direction wasn’t doing any of the mediocre jokes or parodies any favors. It was just spastic enough to not take any character seriously, but not actually far enough over the top to be funny. Like the comedic version of an overwrought soap opera. The jokes were there, they just weren’t ever any good and almost all delivered terribly. It does a lot of stuff I should like; it doesn’t take itself seriously, uses its style to compliment its humor, no long pans over posters of the Undertaker, but I don’t know… There’s just something about the delivery of most of the episode that wasn’t clicking. I’m going to chalk it up to the artists/animators putting a lot more effort into it than the director. …Which isn’t to say that they put in an impressive amount either, but at least they weren’t letting down the side.

Let’s not even acknolwedge the existence of the live action cosplay ED. Please.