天下制覇

LIFE IS SO HARD AND BEING A PSYCHIC IS SO HARD AND MIDDLE SCHOOL IS SO HARD AND NOBODY LIKES ME!

Impressions:

I’m not sure I could survive this one afterall. The angst factor was so unbelievably off the charts this episode in the stupidest of ways. Ran did better than her friend on a pop quiz, which sent the friend running out into the hallway, nearly in tears and sulking. Are you kidding me? I realize these are supposed to be middle school girls, but give me a freaking break. Whose psyche is so fragile that it would be utterly crushed by a single pop quiz? There was also a huge amount of angst from Ran, mostly fueled by Midori calling them monsters, but that’s pretty much a staple whenever there are telepaths around. Ran certainly didn’t make matters any better by constantly resorting to "I’ll never forgive you" every time Midori did anything. Immaturity is one thing, being a whiny little brat is another altogether.

Making matters worse is a massive collapse in the production values this episode too. Before they were decent, this episode, they were middling to awful. I’ll take dogs shooting flames over slow motion blur effects to show movement any day of the week. That scene was just horrendously awful all around. Aside from craptacular (good word) animation, there was almost a full minute of Ran trying to reason with a dog before deus ex mechanica psychic powers kicked in and the man in an opera mask and a cape controlling it ran off. Yeah, apparently it’s one of those villains, probably on loan from Sunrise.

So… yeah… I wasn’t wildly thrilled about this show to begin, but the pleasant surprise has given way to annoyance and derision. Not like I’m hurting for stuff to watch on Saturdays anyway.