天下制覇

 

The secret’s in the hole.

Impressions:

Oh good, a show that understands what a hook is. The rest of the episode didn’t quite live up to that, but it does give at least the hope that in the future, they’ll be able to put together something a little more relevant to the core cast. Or dash my hopes when they blew the entire budget on the first episode like Arms is occasionally wont to do. A groping pervert magic frog seems to be Arms’s main contribution. Otherwise, it’s astonishingly well-animated for them and the action looks pretty good in general. A lot of it is talking, but since they keep things moving from place to place, scene to scene, etc, it maintains at least the illusion that things are in motion instead of dwelling on the same conversation for longer than it takes to deliver a pizza. There is a preponderance of CGI when things start moving though, so I guess it gets zero stars overall and 10 points from Gryffindor. 

What’s really striking about the action (particularly after the other shows I’ve watched today) is how little exposition there is through it, or even in general. While this episode doesn’t really explore a whole lot, it does introduce the bare bones of the setting and general main character motivation, and I’m really hoping it just leaves this as they are. People use magic. Criminals explode things. Characters fight criminals, vindicate the innocent. QED. No strange lessons on the origins of magic, or anybody explaining to thin air the things that are occuring around them, etc. If nothing else, that was a relief.  

Speaking of the characters though, they can be a little bit distracting. It’s not just that they look like they were savaged by a roving band of Halloween costumes and make-up artists either. See this here? It’s part of basically a briefing, and that guy on the left spent the entire thing spinning, and all I could think is “What the hell, guys?” I… guess it’s better than just a still and adds some character to him, whoever the hell he was, but that’s better kept subtle, like the expressive pigtails, not some old guy playing spinny chair. A large part was also that there were just so so many characters that almost all got little more than the first impression which is largely visual and again, they all look like they lost a fight with Cirque du Soleil’s costume department which doesn’t fit well with the more procedural aspect that was the middle of the episode.

I’m going to give WCW and Buddy Complex a glance, but unless one does something particularly noteworthy, good or bad, I probably won’t post anything about it. I think I’ll probably be okay with this, Noragami, and maybe NobunaGun as my Sunday shows if it can pull its act together a bit better next week. So speaketh Aroduc.

Next Episode:

I still don’t think I fully understand what a barrister is.