天下制覇

Well, it is more animated than Blade of the Immortal, at least.

Impressions:

As if to prove me right about Assassin's Pride's sound work, this starts out with a ringing phone and someone rhythmically tapping piano keys before the OP kicks in with screaming and electric guitars. The best comparison here though is undeniably Cop Craft, because it too had a great OP that promised high octane action that was at stark odds with the rest of the episode being a nigh-on unanimated dude grumbling and no interest or sign of providing any action, high octane, low octane, or even in the form of stills. It also has a little girl sidekick, but she spends the whole episode unconscious instead of being jailbait, so it's a sideways move at best. Or maybe it's a he. I don't know. Was unconscious.

At least it quieted down after the noisy opening, but it was still a very dull episode. Any attempt to make the Gun-face lead cool as a hardboiled detective falls flat when every time a female flirts with him or he sees cleavage, it shifts to an SD art style for him to go "Squee! OMG!" Or when he comes to and sees his partner with a chunk taken out of his head (which is less immediately fatal than you'd think), he goes "ZOMG!" and his barrel comically spins. You wouldn't catch Golgo 13 doing goofy takes like that. And twenty minutes of listening to an old dude with absolutely nothing in the way of visuals is… trying.