天下制覇

Boy, that wasn’t subtle at all.

Impressions:

This is basically what I use to pass the time until Symphogear since it airs too damn late. The first half was pretty much as awful as usual. Even when Suigin and Shinku finally ran into each other, they then cut away for three minutes of Jun and pals like they were embarrassed to be in a show about magical gothic dolls. Their rivalry was also summarily reduced to comic relief practically immediately, so bloody well boffo for that. Good job all around, team. More Jun. Less dolls. Skip past even the hint of fights. And then, more Jun!

The second half, however, may have been the first time since the first episode that the director bothered to try. Or maybe it’s just that it was mainly focused on Suigin instead of Jun. Not that it was particularly interesting, or honestly, even really required either. For a sick hospitalized girl, time hasn’t really had much of an effect on Megu’s anime-convenient illness, which the symptoms continue to be nothing more than "is usually in bed." I’m not even sure why they went through sort of a reintroduction to her if they were just going to have Kira eat her either. You’re already assuming that people know the backstory, but now we need an eight minute reminder to a character you’re yanking away? Wouldn’t something jarring be a lot more effective than drawn out? Especially if you’re repainting Suigin as an ally here?

Next Episode:

More Jun.