天下制覇

I think he's trying to hold in a fart.

Impressions:

It's nice to see Shaft at least temporarily try something slightly different. Not the visuals. God no. Those are all the same "cut and paste" things that Shinbo uses for everything from slapstick to horror to action to drama. What was different is that there was basically no dialogue at all from the angsty dream to about ten minutes in. But then what did it actually accomplish? That the protagonist is the saddest sack that ever existed? That everything he does, he does with a look of utter anguish at the crushing despair of anxiety? It's not exactly telling a story here so much as driving home as hard as possible what a bag of angst he is.

And then we hit the 11 mark and the whole thing takes a left turn into WACKY-GIRLSville. There are still the occasional fits of angst as he listens to the news or flashes back to other times when he had angst, but now it's about half shrieking girls and cats running around, making 'wacky' faces, and being 'precocious,' while he stammers helplessly, apologizes for being such a piece of crap, and yells himself in reaction to the 'hilarity' unfolding around him.

Well, at least it sort of sets itself apart from the many other melodramatic others of its ilk by being a bit more effective at portraying the protagonist as a sack of garbage. I'm not sure that counts as a win though, and the shrieking cast of harpies are nowhere near the rays of healing light that charms the heart that the show seems to think they are, nor does his association with them make an iota of sense.

Next Episode:

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