天下制覇

What’s with cat allergies lately?

First Episode Disclaimer:

I like to watch almost all of the first episodes of new shows just to give them a chance. Sometimes I’m surprised, sometimes I’m not. C’est la vie. Feel free to share your own opinions if you so desire.

Impressions:

I’m having some serious issues with Yuuto. He’s visually a clone of Macademy’s Takuto, only apparently gone through puberty in the year or so between the two series and now has an unnaturally deep voice. It’s creeping me out far more than anything else.

Uh… my own personal hangups on ZEXCS recycling their character designs aside, this was pretty much what I expected from them, for weal or woe. The music was a tad off-kilter, sometimes really good (the chanting surrounding many of the Himari scenes for example), sometimes really horrible (Rinko ranting on the roof, or Himari crawling into bed). The direction was also a little weird at times. I wasn’t expecting to see those ugly cut-ins so soon after 11eyes finished abusing the hell out of them. It was nice that the show felt like it was moving right along through the entire thing though. They certainly could have stretched either Himari’s intro or the whole Rinko vs Himari stuff to fill entire episodes if they had felt like it.

ZEXCS remains proficient enough in the production department. I wouldn’t call it impressive, but it’s still better than the vast majority of shows out there. I could have certainly used fewer screen filling panty shots… and it’d be nice if Rinko were just written out of the series completely. Hopefully she’ll at least be marginalized as the rest of the demons start showing up. Who gives a rat’s ass about the whiny clingy normal girl when there are soul devouring demons wandering around? Yuuto could use more of a personality too… or any personality for that matter, but at least he wasn’t particularly annoying. Just, not even present almost. The entire episode would have turned out pretty much the same if he had been a chair.

Considering that it doesn’t really have much (any) competition for my attention on Wednesdays (Bakatest being the only other show airing in the same general timeframe), and I didn’t mind watching it, I’ll probably continue with it. Don’t take that as a particularly strong recommendation if this kind of light comedy/action series isn’t your thing though, because it really hasn’t distinguished itself in any particular way as of yet either.