天下制覇

You may want to take another swing at that, Gonzo.

Impressions:

So, Gonzo… What are you bringing to the table? This opens with the lead character stripping down to nothing but her poofy underwear and garters as she comically sleepwalks off the ship. And then the OP begins with the female cast naked and splashing around in water …And when she’s flying, she puts on headphones with cat ears. …I think I see just what lesson we took out of your last successful solo show, Strike Witches. And of course, just to recapture their former glory, Dio’s back from the grave and shouting IMMELMANN TURN. "Remember that!? Remember when you liked us!? We remember!!" Maybe we should… you know… tone it down a little, Gonzo.

Production was… average I guess. It’s hard to feel much of anything about CG that looks like barely better… if not worse at times… than an Ace Combat game from five years ago, and that was clearly supposed to be the exciting part. It never meshes with the actual animation well either, but that’s nothing new. Mostly though it looks like they spent more time focusing on modeling the giant warships that just sit there like bricks than caring about doing anything interesting with them. Yes. I see them. They’re very… brickish. I don’t need to watch them slowly drift around in the sky multiple times. Along those lines, the direction was exceedingly suspect during a lot of those ‘dramatic’ moments too. For example, I have no idea why the camera was upside down when the ship was pointed straight up. And more confusingly, at one point, a princess was holding her dress down from flipping around and blowing in the wind (indoors remember) while she was on her feet just fine… as if gravity was affecting her dress and the camera, but absolutely nothing else in the room… and there was a stiff wind suddenly blowing. I think the director was high.

So… meh. It’s not insultingly bad like some shows this season have been, but it does absolutely reek of Gonzo just taking Last Exile and soullessly reworking it to focus on a bunch of silly cute girls. I didn’t even like the original Last Exile much in the first place, and another version with a super extra helping of pandering? Yeah… this isn’t going to happen. Good luck there, Gonzo.

Preview:

More slowly moving airships.