天下制覇

I was cheering for the Rookies in the World Series too.

Impressions:

There were a number of things going on here. Unfortunately, pacing was not one of them. From start to finish, the narrative, visuals, and music all seemed like completely different beasts and nary shall the three ever meet. The narrative was just an endless drone of exposition from start to finish and you know how I love that… especially when it goes from A to B, then flashes back to finish A, then cuts to C which is between A and B, then back to A before skipping forward a month to D. Meanwhile, the visuals were mostly sight gags and honestly the strongest part of the episode. They usually were barely tangentially related to the narrative and at one point features Hibito pratfalling complete with a bike horn sound effect, but they did a better job of maintaining interest and giving the show character than anything the narrative did. Through all this, the music was dominated by what I feel could be best described as "meadow flute." It was the kind of music you expect to hear in a Disney movie while Bambi and Thumper frolick, and it just never stopped. Ever. There’s only the ticking clock in my room now and I can still hear the haunting tune echoing in my ears.

Tinnitus aside, it definitely was a lot better than I was expecting. Production was fine with the usual hilariously awul CG cars, but A-1 generally does a good job for the first episode or two before outsourcing everything to orphans in Kazakhstan. The main issue besides the omnipresent flute is that it didn’t actually do anything. Plot development, character development, character interaction, nada. I know how the Japanese do so love their first person narratives but Mutta’s endless drone narrating his life is a poor way to introduce him without any particularly meaningful interactions with other characters and as such, the visuals of him as a joke character are far more memorable. The jumble makes it difficult to tell what they were really trying for though and detracts from both. Well, there’s not very far that "20 minutes of self-narration about little happening" can drop, but hopefully you get the point. The whole show would benefit from a moment of silence here and there just to give the ears a short break.

Preview:

Naked space brother.