天下制覇

And why?

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 at least try and hook me.

Impressions:

Well… it’s a noitaminA show and it reflects that. Poor animation (even worse than normal though) and an off-kilter art style, but relatively decent music. I might have even called it good, but they decided to go with some really terrible J-pop opening… and nothing says 1,000 year old novel like J-pop. I’ll admit that I really don’t know too much about the Tale of Genji, but I was aware that it was basically about some philandering random guy in the emperor’s family and the bazillion women he seduces. True to that expectation, we start off with naked people entwined, and later move on to more statuatory (and Oedipal) matters. From what I know of the story, it only gets creepier, with Genji (not his real name) eventually kidnapping a little girl to raise her to emulate his stepmother, who he is having an affair with.

Anyway, the story is more about court rituals and lots of sex than… well… anything interesting, so unless you’re a huge fan of the Tales of Genji, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that you can go ahead and pass this one up without a second thought and this’ll quickly fade into infamy along with every other anime adaptation of classical literature. Not that I don’t find Masterpiece Theater entertaining, but let’s face it, Poirot is so much more awesome than Genji could ever be.

Opening Sequence