天下制覇

The physics are mindboggling.

Impressions:

Punie will always be the gold standard when it comes to cavalry battles. Anything less than all-out war is just insufficient, and this didn’t even come close. Plus, I question the wisdom of letting Shikikagami be in any position that requires stability. Although… this was the longest that she’s been upright in the show’s entire run. Apparently she does well when she has Selnia’s giant butt stuffed in her face. Now… how to harness that… Actually, I’d rather not think about it.

But of course, nothing was resolved and Hino remained completely ignorant that anybody woud ever desire him. Let’s be fair though, I have no idea why anybody would be after him either. Maybe he’s not an ignorant doofus. Maybe he’s so cognizent of how worthless he is that it has never even crossed his mind. No… that would be giving him entirely too much credit. I’m falling back to my "he’s secretly dating the stripping bishie" theory. I certainly could have done with maybe three fewer "I won’t lose" speeches this episode, the OP insert, or the entire cast crowding around Hino and berating him for giving both the tickets to the girls while he sat there and contributed "Hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" to the conversation, but I really didn’t expect too much more at this point. I did have the brief hope that the two would kiss him together instead of slapping him at the end. It would still have been a huge cop out, but at least it would have been something.

Final thoughts below.

Final Thoughts:

Well, the successive episodes after that terrible first one were certainly better, but it still never grew to anything more than mindless T&A. There were a few chuckles here and there… mostly from the random bishie and his crotch lens flares… and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I think Xebec really nailed making Selnia adorable, but that’s really the best thing that I can say for this one. Even the T&A didn’t really bother me that much. Given how much of it studios throw around anyway with blatant fog just to sell a few extra DVDs, I’m going to roll my eyes and ignore it regardless.

The show was a marked improvement over its spiritual predecessor Kanokon at the very least though, and I do think that it flirted a few times with becoming a much better story, but it just never developed. Part of the problem is that Hino has the personaity of a dead possum, but the bigger problem is that like so many of these romantic comedies, the writers wanted to have their cake and eat it too. I’ll never understand the aversion to definite endings in these things. It’s not like they’ll stop the fans from waving their banners or the like. I bame lazy lazy writers.

It’s worth a couple laughs and wouldn’t kill you if you’re just trying to blow off 20 minutes on a lazy Tuesday. Otherwise, this’ll be forgotten well before the end of the year. Hopefully Xebec will keep improving though. If they keep this up, it’ll ony be another four years before they become almost sort of not quite respectable.