天下制覇

You better get a bigger gun.

New Season Disclaimer:

I’ll make a post for almost all new series (barring sequels) with a wrap-up and bullet point opinion of each once the premier week is over. Remember that these are just my kneejerk reactions to the first 20 minutes of shows, many of which in genres that I don’t even particularly like, but I do believe in giving every new series at least an episode to interest me.

Impressions:

Well, this action show was a bit underwhelming. As of the 19 minute mark, ToraDora contained more violence and action than this. Sure, that was right before the big final fight scene started, but even that was pretty much just the typical Gainax limb elongations and obligatory flipping jump through the air. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a checklist that they just went down marking off each Gainax cliche they had to get through in order to make sure people remembered what studio did it. Makina apparently doesn’t have any real fighting ability beyond extra lives though, so it was just SMGs blazing and a tackle… not exactly the most thriling direction or choreography. Nana Akiyama also does a pretty abhorrent job as Makina for that matter. Her delivery is completely flat across the boards. She accepts orders in the same flat monotone as she grunts curses while tackling vampires. At least they’re getting their money’s worth out of Horie Yui by having her voice multiple characters (the cat and the landlady) as well as narrating the previews.

It’s a pretty average show as far as production values go… and it’s certainly nowhere near Gainax OVA or TTGL quality here, so get that bee out of your bonnets right away or you’re going to be angry at something… probably me. They do love their massively deformed faces to show violence or shock, but otherwise, it’s probably a little bit above average, but nothing at all that we haven’t seen before. Like many/all of these kinds of shows, they felt the need to inject a useless guy into the mix and have us follow him around for at least 15 minutes instead of paying attention to the premise they’ve been advertising for the last 3 months, but that’s almost part and parcel of any action show with a female lead these days. "Okay, the female’s really strong, but shouldn’t we have a wimpy male to remind her that she’s just a girl and needs to get her nails done sometimes?" "Awesome. Teens love that!" Hopefully Oori will at least be less irritating and useless than Birdy’s Senkawa, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

So, in short, I’ve seen better. Hell, Mission-E had longer and better action scenes in its first 2 minutes than this had in ten times that, and what action it did show, was uninspired at best, and directly taken from a checklist of "Gainax’s greatest action cliches" at worst. I guess if you’re a slavish follower of all things Gainax, then you might find enough to enjoy here. Don’t hold your breath expecting too much more beyond that. Me? I was prophesizing collapse from a number of factors, the least of which is Naruto’s director being in charge of this one. With the baseline starting even lower than I expected it would, my interest is pretty minimal as well.

Preview:

The baby uggs are hatching.