天下制覇

Mana shortage? Damsel in distress? Random artifact? Antagonist? All we’re missing is a dungeon and an airship.

Impressions:

I know that I’ve already gushed about the way this show handles its budget at length, but it deserves to be said again. While the vaunted Basara is saving cash by not showing a single person talking and HSotD has to resort to three frame zombies fading in and out, this cheap little show is up to its third OP, and second ED, and is still cutting into them in order to provide more actual show. It’s the little things that matter. One amazing 90 second scene does not forgive 20 minutes of pure tedium and cheapness. A show has to do all the little things, like showing that they spent effort through the whole thing, not just a couple two minute chunks, for the big scenes to have the proper impact. Not that I’m a fan of the Engrish OP, but they’re trying at least, which is a hell of a lot more than I can say for a lot of shows this season.

That said, this episode was pure setup for the finale arc and not terribly interesting on its own thanks to the completely generic RPG plot that I’ve seen a thousand times before. The show already has a pretty low level of energy, but this was a bit below the usual level. At least we were spared any wildly inappropriate fanservice. Mana Ale is undergoing PMS, which is going to mess up Leicester’s beam cannon gardening tools things, which includes Miriam, who is an automata under Aberdeen’s protection and that’s why they apparently are after Minette’s special core. At least we’ve come full circle, complete with some magical widget (The Wheel of the Horizon or however you want to translate it) as the new quest item to recirculate the Ale again and whatnot. I would have preferred Salsa daydreaming about tieing up Leicester and having her way with him instead of more of generic fantasy plot #3, but that’s more or less par for the course for this show, so I can’t really say that it’s terribly unexpected or a dramatic shift either.

Preview:

Drama and bath time.