Slap Up Party # 01 — Slap What Now?

April 4th, 2009

 

Not on the first date, you don’t.

New Season Disclaimer:

I prefer to give every show a chance. You never know when your dream-eating insect wielding Mai HiME knockoff will turn out to be a psychological romantic thriller, or the strange moeblob show will be full of wit and urine jokes. However, my preferences are still my preferences, and while I’ll endevor to at least convey why I do or do not like things, there are genres of shows that I just plain don’t particularly enjoy. My opinions are based on nothing more than a gut reaction to what I watched literally 10-15 minutes prior and should be construed as nothing more and nothing less than that.

Impressions:

Well, this was strange. There seemed to be a very weird disconnect between the tones, not to mention an overall failure to adhere to any sort of consistent visual style. Sometimes it’s comic, but then the silly little goblin lets out this booming menacing voice and you have to wonder what the hell the director was thinking. It was overly dramatic at the start, full of booming opera and the noble self-sacrifice of some demon woman named Roxie to kill a shadow thingy… and then she immediately popped up as the irritating little sprite familiar of the irritating hero, who is not at all sillily named Baron. To be honest, the gunner is far far far far far more irritating.

That’s really the biggest problem that I have with it so far. Production is decent eough thus far, but it’s got all those little Gonzo tells that irritated me when they pitched in on ZKC episodes. It really feels like it’s a Saturday morning cartoon, and not the good kind like Jackie Chan Adventures or Spiderman. The kind where characters have anvils dropped on their heads or scream BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL. It’s probably more accurate to say that it’s like a bad early 90s RPG cartoon, which admittedly, appears to be what they were going for. Not that I’m praising it, just saying that it’s doing a pretty good job of emulating something it probably shouldn’t.

Juvenile is really the best word I can think of to describe it. Extremely juvenile. Since Gonzo’s at the helm here, past performance says that it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better ends.

Slap Up OP

Slap Up ED

No next episode preview.

Posted in Anime | 8 Comments »

8 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • sage says:

    Jackie Chan Adventures was fairly entertaining, yes.

  • shio says:

    Hmm, actually the OP’s not so bad. But judging by the screens, I think I’ll keep holding out for Gonzo’s VASTLY SUPERIOR project this season.

  • Capt.Jackanape says:

    Hmm, havnt seen this yet, but I probably will agree with you (on everything except that spider man was awesome, we’re talking about the old cartoon, not the new Sean Galloway ver. right? That ones pretty damn flash too though).

    I do gotta say though I kinda dig the ED, mostly because Im a sucker for old midi style music and pixels.

    Ehh, I guess Ill give it an ep. Couldn’t be worse than queens blade… I hope.

  • GreenStains says:

    Wow, Some of the pics make me doubt this is even an anime.

  • Sheep says:

    Hmmm….kind of reminds me of “Gokudo”. Not to say that’s a good thing.

  • Taki says:

    This was one of the new series that I wanted to see the most. I hope it gets subbed soon. Looks intresting.

  • Eirias says:

    You aren’t mocking He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, are you?

    ‘Cuz if you are… there will be trouble.

  • Aroduc says:

    My only lasting memory of He-Man is them using a harp to find the right note that resonated with some monster or wall or something and make it fall apart.