Maoyuu #01 — Jun Vs Boobs

January 4th, 2013

 

This one I do know who’s winning.

Impressions:

Certainly didn’t start well. The intro pre-OP exposition dump is par for the course, but from that right into Fukuyama Jun screaming about breasts? Ugh. They never missed a chance to have the camera pointing down her dress either. The background music was also waging a war against the voice actors and frequently trying to drown them out. Let’s turn the volume slider down a few notches, eh? Oh, and there’s also the creepy background CG people. Always a ‘welcome’ addition to any show, right? In short, it is not what I would call well put together.

It just wasn’t a very eventful episode either. Not that everything needs to begin with explosions (although it helps), but 20 minutes of Red monologuing punctuated by the occasional scream in terror of a low cut dress is far from a hook. Neither character has endeared themself to me, although Red did have her cuter moments, especially more towards the end of the episode. It was quite a bit more comedic than I expected, which was welcome, but the dull, dull exposition that I basically got from 5 seconds on Wikipedia anyway far outweighed the jokes. Killing bad. Harmony good. I got it. These are not concepts that require twenty minutes to… well, I’d say show, but they really didn’t do that either. Explain then. Ugh.

Hopefully now that the adventure has actually started and what was essentially a prologue finished, things will pick up a little bit, or at least have a little less terrified mammory-induced shrieking. Since this is ARMS though, I expect there to be an equal chance that she’s molested by a land octopus instead.

Posted in Anime | 12 Comments »

12 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • algorithm says:
    January 4, 2013 at 12:40 pm

    Now I’m curious to see if this pseudo Manyuu Hikenchou Demon Queen failure of a design will stay around long enough to kill Aroduc with potatoes.

  • Longing says:
    January 4, 2013 at 12:59 pm

    To be fair, after reading (what is currently translated) of the manga, this has no need to be an anime. It’s a LOT of dialog. There’s a reason this started out as a novel.

    I’ll be as clear about this as possible so you don’t have to waste your time. It doesn’t really “pick up” in terms of action (barring a fight scene every now and then). The story is entirely about the demon queen attempting to change the world to become a better place. Usually by slowly explaining things to people and drilling it in for an entire chapter until they get it. Most of the “action” happens when politicians come in and argue/war about stuff.

    In short, it’s a non-typical fantasy story where instead of focusing on a small group of people trying to defeat something, it’s more about what the world becomes as the demon queen tries to change it.

    Personally, I like it. But as I said, there really was no need to make it an anime. And it’s kinda sad to see them attempting to fill the lack of movement with chest shots.

    • Flood says:
      January 6, 2013 at 5:42 am

      Thanks for this information. Much appreciated.

    • Anonymous says:
      January 6, 2013 at 3:24 pm

      Actually, I took a look at the original story on 2ch (you can also find the first few chapters on Baka-Tsuki if you’re Japanese impaired) and the original ‘novel’ is literally nothing but dialogue. There’s no narration; it’s written like a screenplay without any stage directions.

      So yeah, might not work out that well in anime format.

  • moridin84 says:
    January 4, 2013 at 2:32 pm

    I was kinda impressed that they went out of the way to avoid talking heads.

  • Baby Choo Choo says:
    January 4, 2013 at 9:50 pm

    I actually enjoyed this. I’ll admit the whole “not-even-2-minutes-in-and-we’re-already-focusing-on-boob-jokes” thing kinda almost killed it for me, but other than that I was pleasantly surprised.

  • The Phantom says:
    January 5, 2013 at 12:17 am

    This was a lot more boring that I was expecting, is pretty much talking heads since episode 1…

  • anise_punter says:
    January 5, 2013 at 7:13 am

    Fukuyama Jun screaming about nothing is oddly more watchable than just about anyone else screaming about nothing.

  • CucarachaEnojada says:
    January 5, 2013 at 9:59 am

    For those people that complain,there is a reason why this get animated.

    This is good.

    Not many shows can have that simple reason to exist.Look at “insert name of new crap from KyoAni here”,for example.

  • Anonymous says:
    January 6, 2013 at 2:15 pm

    good for people who like to think things through… in between the obvious response to the demon king’s smokin’ bod. sticking with it could be good assuming you don’t just sit there ignoring stuff looking for flashy action scenes everywhere.

  • slicedice says:
    January 7, 2013 at 12:55 pm

    fsdjgdsgfedsigfieg;sed! Her horns aren’t even real! How could anyone compare this to Spice and Wolf?! Spice and Wolf at least had a heart? This pile just has a gaping orfice to repeatidly screw over and over!