天下制覇

Nobody’s summoning Knights of the Round?

Impressions:

Hey, whattya know, a show with an ending that isn’t terrible. It is a Christmas miracle. Now if they would just confirm another season to go wtih the already announced second game…

Anyway, I will say that the first half was a little light on the traditional comedy in exchange for the battle growing to ridiculous proportions. It was pretty much straight out of Final Fantasy (joke care of Kuro), complete with Sherl hefting a chunk of the ground into space for them to shoot fireballs at each other on. I am a little bit disappointed that all the subthieves were so readily disposed of at the start. Rat in particular didn’t do anything but vomit. I was looking forward to some kind of Sword Rain:Alpha technique from Twenty and his nipples. Alas, it was not meant to be.

The big finale was hilarious though. Sherl faceplanted into Arsene’s breasts and therefore recognized her as Henriette, which prompted the rest of the group to look at her wildly bouncing breasts and then demand what Henriette did with Arsene, only to then immediately forget that it was Henriette again three seconds later. I would pity the poor girl if she wasn’t obviously feeling herself up in front of them for most of the start. After that, toys disappear again, status quo is restored, and Moriarty transfers into the school at the last second.

For a fun extra game, try to count how many times Sherl’s hair rings fall off this episode.

Final thoughts at the bottom.

Final Thoughts:

This ended up being the wonderful surprise of the season. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first and the initial episodes really are too clumsily handled to tell that this is meant to be a parody, but after that, it turns into a really solid old-fashioned slapstick comedy. Perhaps where the show excels the most is the incidental details that make sure there is always something interesting happening on screen. It may not be the prettiest of shows, but it certainly does not fall prey to the usual cost cutting measures that plague other series.

All this is supported by a very likable cast and little overtures at melodrama. What few there are tended to be immediately played off for laughs. There were a few awkward scenes at the start and end where the show tried to get serious and that never worked too well, but it is far more enjoyable to watch a cast of characters who are prone to snapping and mauling giant squid when faced with adversity instead of sitting in a corner to be depressed. Twenty is still the obvious stand-out for the cast thought.

In the end, I wish there were a lot more comedies like this. Visually engaging, snappy, continuously surprising, and happy-go-lucky. If you can get past the rocky first couple episodes, this is an excellent show that sells itself on charm and execution instead of running the premise into the ground. Given how successful it and the game have been doing, I’m definitely eagerly looking forward to seeing it come back again in hopefully the near future.