天下制覇

  

Okay, Dennis the Menace.

Impressions:

Actually, the slingshot helped me put my finger on something that was bothering me. It’s the direction, or more specifically, the tone, exemplifed perhaps best by the ED which has what appears to be the entire cast in a can-can line. It’s hard to mix pink robot ball pets, slingshots, and wailing angst and have things come out feeling like everything goes together, and this definitely wasn’t doing it for me. I think it’s also in large part the music, which was all kind of samey, whether for cheerleaders running about or the triumphant moment when the Gundam gene takes effect and Bellri exploded into puberty with a pink cloud. I think that’s what the metaphor was. 

There’s also the characters. While I commend them… immensely… for keeping the exposition about their hopes, dreams, backstories, favorite foods, and favorite breed of designer dog to a minimum, I also don’t feel like there’s much of a connection to any of them. There’s a ton, for one, and despite the camera being pretty firmly attached to Bellri’s shoulder, after two episodes, he still doesn’t seem really necessary and could easily be replaced by… practically any other member of the cast. There was also the Obviously MacGuffin Girl (’cause she’s both racially different and socially a halibut) who was just sort of… there… for the entire forty minutes, hooting and hollering occasionally or being dressed up for fetishistic reasons, despite being the one that the hook at the very start was based on. There’s also the tone thing with them too. Everyone’s always so excited and excitable, no matter what’s going on. Not that I’m a great fan of the standard angsty Gundam brooder, but there’s a vast spectrum of emotions to play with to add some contrast and make sure the situations which could use a little more weight get it.

I doubt I’m intrigued enough to continue, even on weak-looking Thursdays, but I’m not a fan of Gundam or the 80s to begin with, so hell if I know if this is retro-y or nostalgia-y enough for the True Scotsman to enjoy. You might want to crank up some Milli Vanilli and layer up your slouch socks before you give a try to get your mind in the proper decade though. 

Next Episode:

Aaaaaaah! The hairspray burns!