天下制覇

  

Oh god no! Not tastebuds!

Impressions:

This certainly had the strongest opening bit of all the shows so far, although I spent most of hook hoping that none of what anybody was actually saying was going to be important (it rarely is) since I couldn’t make out a word over the blaring music. Only the orgasmic laughter was apparently important enough to carry over the din. I can’t say that the direction in general is particularly effective either. It makes constant use of reds and blacks to try to show supernatural elements, but the entire world, normal or supernatural, has a bit of a fluorescent glow to it whether or not there are undead glowing a slightly different shade of neon. Pierrot did put a surprising amount of effort into this at least. The animation certainly isn’t what’s letting it down. 

Pretty soon in though, it made a fatal mistake; it introduced the astonishingly abhorrent protagonist. I know Japan loves its pantywaists, but this guy takes it to a truly ridiculous level. To its credit, the show does indeed go on, covering more ground than the other three things I’ve watched so far today combined, but all he does is cry, whether it’s watching a news broadcast on tastebuds or trying not to eat some kid. Cry and curl up into the fetal position. You can’t even blame it on turning into a flesheater either since he was a socially maladjusted pathetic lecherous worm without any thought but “Gonna stare at some titties!” to start with. As with the direction, there needs to be contrast. Pathetic to patheticer isn’t enough. Take something actually away from him. “His humanity” is what they’re going for, but that’s a poor argument to make considering the small glimpse we had of his life. Besides which, the protagonist has to be an actor in the story. Otherwise, it’s nothing but a sadistic exercise in watching an idiot suffer while he bemoans his fate.

There certainly are enough things here to make it worth a second look, but I have my doubts that I can get past my detest for this protagonist.