天下制覇

Touma: Olympic Gold Medalist in the World’s Slowest 5 Yard Spring

Impressions:

Ah, my old enemy "Amnesia Plot Device"… we meet again. It’s not as bad as usual though because while Touma’s brain was trashed, the magical brain wipe was nice enough to not make a liar out of him and his ‘heart’ still remains, whatever the hell that means. He can at least bluff that he still remembers things at any rate, so it’s not the usual total reset of character development and progress, which I’m eminently thankful for. It’s not like there’s anything particularly interesting to flash back to though, aside from maybe Kaori stomping on his face.

Pacing was really weird through the first half of the episode. Touma and Index held that beam for a good five minutes or so while they all kept talking over it, and then once Kaori and Stiyl got involved, Touma took almost another two full minutes… them talking the entire time… to run across one room of his apartment. He wasn’t even slow motion dashing, they just kept showing him running in place in his squalid little15x15 flat. The very end of the episode was also a total downer compared to the rest. For all the weird pacing, I did at least like most of the episode. Then Stiyl and an upside down computer-person droned on for a solid four minutes to set up the next arc. You could tell that even the animators got bored of the scene when they put the camera on its side and walked away.

Well, more or less on pace for the usual JCStaff action series. I give it another episode or two of mediocrity before it gets good for 6-8 episodes and then finishes sort of awkwardly. Really, all that they need to do is give Mikoto more screen time. Also, between this and Abyss, I can’t wait until Saturday becomes The Clone Army day.

Also, what the hell was up with Stiyl sending Touma a letter in a pink envelope with hearts? Is he trying to tell us something here?

Preview:

None of these people shoot railguns. Tch.