天下制覇

Go all the way up.

Impressions:

Well, let’s get the negatives out of the way first. Lay off the CG Gonzo. Seriously. Just because you can make a CG handweight/fan/clock doesn’t mean that you need to. The elongated figures also creep me out even more than the xxxHOLiC ones. Hikari in particular has morphing legs that grow an extra foot or two in certain shots. The animation quality was also middling at best. For the amount of action and movement through the episode, there were an awful lot of stills and speedlines all over. The insert song as they were beating up the punks was also just… well… awful.

All that said, this is the first pure comedy that actually made me laugh a few times this season, so it gets props for that. I really like Takishima’s character. Sure, he’s arrogant and cocky, but as opposed to Itazura, he’s teasing Hikari, not trying to crush her spirit. He’s also quick to join her side when outsiders decided to pick on their group. They actually get along outside of her competition with him. Hikari… eh… I kind of hate oblivious characters when a show tries to actually have a plot, but I do like her a lot more than… say… School Rumble’s Tenma, so we’ll see.

It was a pretty fun first episode all around. I wasn’t blown away, but it’s still better than 98% of the other shows that have aired thus far and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a pretty enjoyable run. Not enough to tear me away from Nabari (it airs on Sundays, raw was just in limbo or something for a long time), but I could see myself doing quick summaries if nobody else picks it up. I know Hinano’s a fan of the manga, so she’ll probably have more to say, especially about any changes they may have made. Omni also seemed to be really anticipating it. If both of them pick it up, I’ll probably just leave it to them and watch it on the sly on my own.

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