Campione! #04 — Horse Power!

July 27th, 2012

 

And other euphemisms for erections.

Impressions:

It really is a good thing this airs when the AT-X shows are fresh in my mind. It compares so much more favorably to those than… say… the Saturday action shows. Still, any excitement these fights might have had is buried beneath the requisite 17-18 minutes of dry utterly bland exposition that does its best to strip all excitement and character from practically everything. Nothing says fight scene like characters lecturing at each other against a backdrop of CG swords after all. And after two episodes ostensibly centered around Mariya, the sum total that we know about her is that she’s… uh… flighty? But like I said, given the Thursday night… affairs… it doesn’t compare too badly.

At least through its choking amount of pointless infodumping, it still usually manages to put together a couple minutes of what could be mistaken for nice fighting in a better written show. Plus, there’s still the random other things to make fun of… such as horse power or Erika refusing to let him go from their magic exposition kiss until she had made absolutely sure she had sucked on his tongue… which made his sword go full power. Not exactly the same as perching on a ceiling of the shower, but it’s close enough to make me chuckle. This was still the weakest episode in regards to the quality of the action, despite having the longest fight. The budget here was obviously spread a bit, but it’s still doing a better job being consistent with its action than either of the other two, and you know how I love my consistency.

Posted in Campione | 8 Comments »

8 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Kadi says:
    July 27, 2012 at 10:05 am

    Wow, for one I wholeheartedly agree with you. Did you also enjoy their magnificent running as much as I did?

    • Aroduc says:
      July 27, 2012 at 10:40 am

      I remember shaking my head at it as the exposition continued seamlessly through them awkwardly flailing as they ‘ran,’ if you can call that animation ‘running.’ It didn’t last long enough for me to remember as I was writing it up though.

      • Kadi says:
        July 27, 2012 at 11:52 am

        Let’s look at it positively: We should see the sword only on two or three more occasions. That limits talk-fights and the times they’ll have to use “running” montages to free up budget.

  • meganeshounen says:
    July 27, 2012 at 10:33 am

    Bringing a sword to a fight is okay, but ending said fight by bringing out your Rapidash?

    I’m amused.

  • Anon says:
    July 27, 2012 at 12:53 pm

    Still on volume 1 …

    • Elanassa says:
      July 27, 2012 at 1:58 pm

      Still on Vol1? That’s a GOOD thing. The show burned through one volume in an episode. Another volume in a single throw-away line. Campione isn’t a show that needs to get tighter on the adaption scale, they need to let things breathe so the characters aren’t so stilted and cliche-ridden.

      • Anon says:
        July 27, 2012 at 2:43 pm

        Yes, Athena is volume 1 .. its followed by Voban on volume 2 (I hope you like Yuri and I mean the character not the lesbian thing because its pretty much a Yuri volume), then its … well “episode 1”, then its Perseus (Liliana volume, its the Blue Knight … also starting Athena).

        Of course is current pacing maintains we the end of volume 2 at episode 7 and then ending volume 3 at 10 … I think this is a classic case of “how not to shove a ongoing 12 volume series into a one cour anime”.

        Oh volume 11 is the Salvatore fight flashback volume.

  • Rednal says:
    July 28, 2012 at 9:28 am

    Yyyyyyyyeeeeah.

    But hey, at least giving exposition is now literally a power of the character. XD Most of the time it’s *just* talking, but here, it’s actually his ability.