天下制覇

That's always the missing piece to the puzzle.

I've got things to do until the early afternoon, so the exciting disappointment that are Komugi and Utawarerumono will have to wait.

Impressions:

Well, it's not going to win any awards, but it does compare favorably to its other cell phone game spawns like Divine Gate. Very high praise, I know. Like I alluded from the 10 minutes of pre-air before, it most just exists without doing much tremendously wrong or right. The protagonist is competent enough without being obnoxious, and interacts with other people/danger/family in ways that make it easy to get behind him, without a mountain of accidental gropings or kissing them for transformation and whatnot, although it was disappointing to have that brief yell at the end about the standing living with the magical girlfriend. People gotta be saved. Crap's gotta get done. Someone's gotta take actual command here. And while there is more exposition than it probably needs, it's not overwhelming as so many shows this season have been.

I think the biggest problem that'll be its doom in the end is that the production here's just not that good. The CGI 'enhanced' action scenes are awkward-looking at best. They're infrequent anyway, so it makes me wonder if they're even going to be the focus going forward or if he's going to be bouncing between the harem he's taken over. The whiney sister who wants to keep him from going back into fighting is also a tad annoying, and they might as well kidnap/brainwash her now just to get that inevitable awful arc out of the way. There are also a few tone problems. I feel like it could stand to take its gigantic lava pigs a little more seriously, especially if they're going out of their way to show charred people being carted off in ambulences.

It's easy for me to watch a show about characters I can actually get behind, even if a lot of the rest is… a bit squibby. I also can't get it out of my head that the only other shows today are Utawarerumono and nu Komugi (well, and DRRRRRR and some ugly-looking CGI thing), so I'm sure I'm probably giving it a lot more leeway than it deserves. This was a very solidly mediocre episode that introduced okay enough characters and setting without dragging too badly for the most part, but simply wasn't impressive in any way, shape, or form.