天下制覇

Although I suspect more people would have understood a KoJikan reference.

First Episode Disclaimer:

What the hell is this? Where’d this episode come from? Dammit ZEXCS! Why must you ruin my carefully laid plans by slipping in an early web airing! In speeeeeectacular 360×202 no less? The resolution of WARRIORS?!  I’ve barely even put down my template! I hate you! HATE YOU!

Awww, I can’t stay mad at you, ZEXCS. I mean, uh… I like to watch the first episodes of almost all new shows, even in genres I don’t usually like. I can be surprised. Generally, there’s at least one show a season that I’m dead wrong about in my expectations, so I feel better giving everything at least a cursory chance to change my mind.

Impressions:

I want to have faith in ZEXCS, even with a kind of abhorrent premise like "middle school girls start an underwear club." Hell, the last comedy they made was about a bunch of otaku gods and demons with a giant flaming Hard Gay angel and a possibly bicurious robot. No part of that should have been as good as it ended up being.

Unfortunately, this falls far shy of that. I will say that it did have a lot more drama to it than I expected though. It’s clear that they’re trying to tell a bit of a coming-of-age story between the three main girls, one bullied for her underwear fetish and the assumption that she’s doing it to attract guys, and the other two because of how their bodies are developing, over and underdeveloping for each. There are definitely a lot of comparisons that could be made to a show like Tsubomi, but honestly, a lot of that feels lost under the mountainous deluge of T&A. Kind of like how most of the more supposedly mature themes of Kodomo no Jikan are lost beneath all the pedophilia, only… without a pedophile. So far.

Production was pretty strong for the most part, but nothing that spectacular. Music was forgettable, and the low quality webcast certainly didn’t help there. Nothing about the story or characters went in any creative directions, but it was all executed well enough. After everything last season has put me through, I feel the need to compliment what is simply competent direction. Some of the jokes were good, but overall it was pretty predictable so the vast majority of the episode fell pretty flat for me, which just left the drama. Again, they handled it decently enough, but it’s hard to match that against the endless jiggling and shots of girls’ crotches, even if it is making an effort.

Overally, it wasn’t a particularly positive impression for me, so I highly doubt I’ll keep up with this one. I may check out at least the start of the next episode (even though I have no idea when it airs) just because I like to give ZEXCS a fighting chance, but it’ll have to be a hell of a lot funnier for me to care. I’m curious if this kind of thing will make it past the network censors. Terrifying.

Preview:

Pornographic meatbuns.