During the last episode, I saw people commenting on how the series lacked focus. Now guess what? Everything in the past arc is really starting to come together wonderfully. This episode connected all of the seemingly random stories with each other, and it’s not even got to the meat of this arc! What an incredibly well written series!
You’ve also got to love the attention that this series puts in its concept of magic. This season is a true gem for well-developed magic systems, with this series, Full Metal Alchemist and Darker than Black II: all of them have their own concepts and don’t take anything for granted. And most importantly: people really do die when they’re hit by a fireball.
There are more similarities though: all of them have characters with very strong beliefs against killing, while not overdoing this theme at the same time by featuring enough characters who don’t think anything of deaths, which provide a great contrast. All three have gorgeous production-values and a truly excellent soundtrack.
And yet, while all of them belong around the top of the current season, I really like the Armed Librarians best, even though we’re only seven episodes in. The show just hardly has any moment of weakness, or in which it’s dull, compared to Full Metal Alchemist, which does need to take a step back once in a while for aftermaths and building up.
at this point, I’m really curious to see how the next episode is going to tie everything together. Why did Zatoh kill that meat, and why was this book so important? Volken will probably not be involved in this arc, but there is plenty of other stuff going on. Noloty’s wishes to refrain from killing were anything but cheesy, and rather they were detailed and contrasted well with the rest of this setting.
It’s at times hard to explain why I like this series so much, but for me this series has what I’d like to call the “X-Factor”. There’s one other series this season which has that one as well for me (Aoi Bungaku, of course). What’s also interesting is that the past Spring and Summer Season, while featuring a lot of truly excellent series, none of these series really had this “X-Factor”, not even my favourites, surprisingly enough. That really makes me look at those series in a different way, especially because I still have no idea why some shows do have the X-factor for me, while others don’t.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Great review im really liking the variety this series brings it just seems its moving a tad slow i feel all that happened in this episode was abit dragged out
Another great review,I must say that you put up some good reviews these past few days đ
My theory on Zatoh is that since his dominant trait is stupidity(according to Minth),he may be just one of the successful “monster” experiments from the church that read too many books.Since he’s said to be stupid,he may be just overwhelmed and got influenced by the people he saw in the books.Who know,he may got his evilness from Hamyuts herself XD
From his past, it seems like Zatoh was mainly had powers of lightning. But when he attacked Bantorra, he used a variety of magic. I guess he branched out in all types of magic?
Reltair I think he got those magic by wining those battle (reading those book).
is that Minth laying on the ground, how the hell he outrun Noloty. Minth pretty fast i guess
I wonder if the “X factor” is related to the “newness factor”. Cross Game and FMA have been airing for six months already, so you’ve gotten to know most of the characters and the setting pretty well, whereas Bantorra is still in that exploratory “new” stage, so it feels completely fresh.
If that were the case, I would also have had it at Cross Game and FMA’s start, which wasn’t the case.
i didn’t like the first episode but after seeing how much you like this series maybe ill give it another go. or just wait for it to finish so i dnt have to wait every week haha
Although the storyline is indeed a little confusing, the show is still darn interesting to watch!
Anyway, i’m begging you, please blog this series till the end! I’ve been following your site since i watched Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, so don’t go dying on me now!
Although this reminds me i think this is the first time i actually posted on your blog….hmmmm…..my bad for lack of participation….
I totally agree on your sentiments about this show. At first I was really hesitant, but I look to your blog a lot to see if some shows I’m on the fence about are worth continuing. I’m really glad I invested some time in this series, it’s just really amazing.
The thing that makes it really awesome is how it has the same old action formula, but they present it in a very creative and engaging way. Like you mentioned, there’s almost never a dull moment, it always feels like something interesting is going on and keeping your attention. What’s amazing is we have such a strong diverse cast of characters, with the “bad” guys just as interesting as the good guys. You don’t often get to see such strong character development for almost every character you interact with.
I mean Colio, who I thought was shaping up to be a very interesting main character, got killed off in the early episodes! I love unpredictability like that. Volken the perennial good guy goes and betrays his friends for some reason. Hamyuts looks more evil than all the supposedly bad characters. It’s just amazing.
“The thing that makes it really awesome is how it has the same old action formula, but they present it in a very creative and engaging way. Like you mentioned, thereâs almost never a dull moment, it always feels like something interesting is going on and keeping your attention. Whatâs amazing is we have such a strong diverse cast of characters, with the âbadâ guys just as interesting as the good guys. You donât often get to see such strong character development for almost every character you interact with.”
Totally agree, I can’t wait to see more as this show continues to develop.