Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Some Quick First Impressions: Dragon Crisis, Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? and Level E

by psgels, posted in Dragon Crisis, Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?, Level E, Some Quick First Impressions

Dragon Crisis

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a cute girl who can only think about him.
Hmm, this is one with a lot to like and a lot to dislike. To start with the positives, it has one of the best soundtracks of the season so far (and with this season, that is saying something), the animation is surprisingly good for a Studio Deen series and this feels unlike any other series they’ve done before. The action is creative, the car chases are exciting and the characterization for half the cast was actually pretty decent. Ryuuji may be very girly for a guy, but this show actually acknowledges it and gives him more personality beyond “ew, a naked girl!”, and Eriko also turned out to be much more than just that fanservice character which she appeared to be at first sight. Now, the bad thing about this show however is that it just doesn’t make any sense, and it believes that it actually does. This leads to some bizarre situations like hordes of incompetent faceless mafia members that are involved in a plot that has so many holes that there is no way that it can ever be explained, a guy who just skips school for the heck of it and BY FAR the most clingy female lead I’ve ever seen. It’s a very strange combination between something that tries to tell a serious story and something that just wants to act as wish fulfillment by having cute girls continuously spoon over the male lead. The different parts of this episode didn’t mesh well together at all, but I do admit that there’s some potential here.
OP: One of the most unique OP songs I’ve heard in a long while.
ED: Again unique, but this time in a bad way.
Potential: 60%

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives together with two cute girls.
Here is one that turned out better than expected. Of course, this show still has a completely stupid premise and it had quite a bit of fanservice, but it’s surprisingly well executed: the male lead has an actual personality, the scenarios are well written, the jokes are well built up and actually very funny and the action too was surprisingly good for a Studio Deen series. It’s a pretty effective romantic action comedy that knows when it needs to be completely over the top, and when it needs to be completely serious. Because of this, the few serious moments actually worked well and didn’t end up cheesy, and yet the crazy jokes also fit this show. But yeah, if you want to check this out, be aware of the fact that characters have bizarre costumes and very easily lose their clothes in this series.
OP: Decent song, but especially the visuals are nice.
ED: This one is just terrible, though.
Potential: 70%

Level E

Short Synopsis: Our lead character starts living together with an alien.
Hell yeah! Level E just delivered the best first episode of the new season, it had the most interesting back-story, it was the most intriguing opening of the entire season, it neither was overly moe or bishie, it had the best jokes of the new season, the best OP. For me, it completely blew all of the other episodes that have debuted so far this season out of the water. It’s one of those series of which I have no idea what genre it’s going to be: it has a high school student as a male lead, and yet it’s miles away from your average high school show. For a shounen series there was too little action, for a shoujo series there was too little sweetness. For a slice of life series it had a plot that is just way too interesting and a drama also doesn’t really fit. The episode was wonderfully told and I love the creativity that was put into a simple concept of an alien crash landing on earth. The chemistry between the lead characters was just fantastic. None of the characters here are typical. Hell yeah, if only because of this show, this season is going to rock!
OP: Best OP of the season BY FAR. Excellent song, great visuals.
ED: Much more generic J-Rock, but nothing bad.
Potential: 100%

Some Quick First Impressions: Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has a sister who is in love with him.
Oh… the pain. Why did we have to get yet another KissXSis? There are too many things just wrong with this series. Or what? Do Japanese siblings screw each other on a regular basis or something? IS IT THAT HARD FOR THE BOTH OF THEM TO JUST FIND THEMSELVES A BOYFRIEND OR GIRLFRIEND? The worst thing is that this doesn’t even have the worst production values of the season, nor the series with the worst comedic timing or dialogue. With this execution it could at least have been a half enjoyable fanservice comedy (for fanservice comedies’ standards of course) if only the subject matter wasn’t this completely deranged, and overused. How many more retarded incest (or quasi-incest shows, in this case) shows do we still need to get before this fad dies down?!
OP: Boring J-Pop
ED: It’s gonna be a harem!?
Potential: 0%

Some Quick First Impressions: Mitsudomoe 2, Beelzebub and Freezing

by psgels, posted in Mitsudomoe, Some Quick First Impressions

Mitsudomoe 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character saves the world from evil.
The big question for Mitsudomoe was: would it have enough inspiration in order to fill all of its eight episodes. The answer, based on this episode: yes. This episode was completely different from the first season, but actually in a good way that still remained funny. Unlike the first season, it wasn’t divided in smaller sub-arcs, but instead it was entirely devoted to a parody of Super Sentai Shows. Unlike Beelzebub, I really laughed quite a bit at it, especially at how it was completely silly, yet the characters took themselves 100% seriously. The amount of toilet jokes was also surprisingly reduced here, and it actually worked well. This is actually very surprising, because often comedy sequels just try too hard or just can’t seem to work as well with with the new style they’ve chosen. This is a great exception, though. I really hope that the rest of the season will have more of these gimmicky episodes that work surprisingly well, and the fact that this show is only listed for eight episodes seems a great hint to that.
OP: Quite lame, but that was probably the entire point of it. ^^;
ED: Nice little gimmicky ED putting the regular characters in the role of the Gachi Rangers.
Potential: 80%

Beelzebub

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a juvenile delinquent with superpowers.
I wasn’t looking forward to Beelzebub, because it was being adapted by a bunch of people who are notorious for their bad adaptations. And indeed, about 70 to 80 percent of the jokes of this episode fell flat. They were either badly timed, badly acted, or just consisted of random yelling or unfunny toilet jokes. This episode was in many ways obnoxious, it already repeated some of its jokes ad nauseum (most notably that electric shock attack). now, the music was quite good, and there were a few jokes here and there that were quite funny. It feels like there are some interesting ideas in this one, but most of the time it doesn’t really know how to use them. It’s not the worst opening of a Shounen Jump show I’ve seen in recent years, that probably goes to Fairy Tail, but at the same time I have no idea why Beelzebub is so highly regarded by so many people, just based on this episode. And please don’t tell me that it’s the type of story that only gets good after fifty episodes or so.
OP: Decent rock song that at least fits the maturity level of the series.
ED: Surprisingly decent.
Potential: 40%

Freezing

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has a dead sister complex. A very severe one.
This episode was actually very good for the largest part. There sure was a truckload of fanservice, but at the same time it really treated itself seriously. The action scenes were intense and well directed, with a surprisingly large amount of gore that worked quite well. The build-up is great, the soundtrack was excellent as well (this really is the season of awesome soundtracks here), and overall as an action series, I really could see myself enjoying it. But yeah… then the final two minutes came. What the heck was that? I don’t even want to explain what just happened. Just… watch it if you really want to know…
OP: Decent rock song with nice animation.
ED: Fanservice slide show, but the song could be worse.
Potential: 50%

Some Quick First Impressions: Cardfight Vanguard, Gosick and Wolverine

by psgels, posted in Gosick, Some Quick First Impressions, Wolverine

Cardfight Vanguard

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a wimp.
Now I’m sure of it: this is the season of awesome soundtracks. When even the silly shounen cardgame show has some excellent music, it really is a great season for the audio department. Anyway, this show is definitely completely silly with a ton of bad engrish, but for a kiddie show about card games, it’s not really that bad. I especially like how the creators managed to create the biggest wimp in existence as the lead character: it’s nearly hilarious to see how much this guy lacks a spine when he’s not in a card game. It was very pleasant to see those bullies just walk up to him and steal his best card with so much ease. It’s still ridiculously silly, though, full of bad acting (not to mention that school teachers actually use the cards of this game in their lectures). I have to give credit for some actual good monster designs (emphasis on monsters… the characters themselves look just stupid), but it’s still obviously a “buy our cardgames” show.
OP: Surprisingly good for a kiddie show. Very cheesy and hot blooded, though.
ED: This one’s just cheesy, though.
Potential: 10%

Gosick

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a genius detective in the form of a little girl.
Good lord… that hair. Heroman’s character designs look just tame in comparison. Who the hell found it a good idea to put such a ginormous horn on top of that detective? On a more serious note: this episode was really tedious to sit through. That hair guy had a lot to do with that, but even worse is the male lead. This is supposed to be an exciting show about detectives, so why is he so bland and whiny? This show seems to be heading the Bakemonogatari route with the “smart girl dumb guy” trope, but the girl here isn’t exactly smart: she’s just tsundere who has access to the script. In the example mystery of this episode (which was very lazily told, by the way), she never really evaluated all of the possibilities, she just stated a ridiculously far-fetched solution that nobody would have guessed. As for the positives: there were a few dark parts that hinted at something deeper than silly adventures (I guess it’s just a matter of patience to see that actually pay off) and the animation, courtesy of Bones is quite good. Especially on the female lead (for quite obvious reasons) and the backgrounds are also very imaginative.
OP: Boring J-rock.
ED: At least not bad, but neither really good ballad.
Potential: 60%

Wolverine

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a bishie with a tragic love story.
Okay, so the big question: is Wolverine as bad as Iron Man? As a matter of fact actually… it isn’t. It’s still very outsourced, but this is nowhere near the mess that Iron Man was. It actually has come up with an interesting story here, in which Wolverine is chasing after some Japanese mafia that took away his girlfriend, compared to Iron Man’s… whatever the hell it was trying to do with its corny morals. The action scenes in this episode also felt better than any of the fights I’ve seen from Iron Man, and the creators actually managed to put down some convincing villains, and Logan himself also is far from the incompetent moron that Tony Stark was. The horrible distorted faces are also gone. The creators are really going for a tragic story here, and so far they seem to be doing a pretty good job, with an interesting atmosphere. It’s nothing great, though: there was quite a bit of hammy acting and the romance was definitely a bit cheesy and should have been fleshed out more, not to mention the transition between scenes is a bit messy, especially at the beginning of the episode. I’m glad that Madhouse actually got some competent people on this, though.
OP: Decent, but nothing special after watching it more than twice.
ED: This one is surprisingly good, though: both in the visuals and the music.
Potential: 70%

Some Quick First Impressions: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Yumekui Merry and IS – Infinite Stratos

by psgels, posted in Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Some Quick First Impressions, Yumekui Merry

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is an average schoolgirl who becomes a mahou shoujo.
Ah, this one passed the first episode test as well. I was a bit afraid since this is Shaft and all, but this episode was fresh, solid and had none of the things that usually annoy me about them. The soundtrack by Yuki Kajiura is excellent as expected, and the visuals are actually used well here: this show has a good balance between simple, regular character designs on one side, and twisted images and background once the magical world in this show pops up. The creators really tried to make another one of those dark mahou shoujo and they really succeeded in contrasting two extremes with each other. Now, there still is the danger of Madoka becoming too pure and her co lead becoming too perfect and serious, but there’s still plenty of time to flesh out their characters. Overall, I’m impressed. Now I really want to ask Shaft to keep this up, because I don’t want to be disappointed by them for the umpth time.
OP: Yuki Kajiura composed this? Hmm, this is some of her weaker work. Visuals have both neat and cliched ideas?
Potential: 80%

Yumekui Merry

Short Synopsis: Our lead character runs into a dream eating girl.
Now this is more like it! I mean, it’s not like Yumekui merry doesn’t have its cliches: it revolves around teenagers, the male lead has multiple romantic interests including a childhood friend whom he lives with, but unlike Infinite Stratos which offered nothing beyond that, this show makes sure to not glorify these cliches, and put in as much interesting stuff as possible. Seriously, this was an excellent episode with some terrific direction and camera work. The way in which it brought the lead characters’ dream world to life is really well done, and it’s especially good at using these tiny details in its environment, like a random can lying around. The entire episode was chock full of creativity, and the action scenes themselves were stunning. The characterization manages to both create charming characters during the light hearted moments, but also hit hard with the subtle yet powerful emotional scenes. Bring on more giant fish-bones!
OP: No cheesy j-pop! Instead it’s got great background art and a pretty decent tune.
ED: Unfortunately cheesy J-pop, but the visuals are interesting here…
Potential: 90%

IS – Infinite Stratos

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the only guy of his class.
Ah, this is one for the production values. The battle scenes are well directed and exciting and the soundtrack is really solid, courtesy of Hikaru Nanase. … so why was it wasted on this kind of crappy story? I had hoped that this episode would give a more interesting story behind this whole series rather than just the “guy who is surrounded by girls” (mind you, with the right execution it could have become a great series despite these cliches), but this episode was just… unbelievable. It’s entirely about harem hijinks. The antics between the lead characters are all horribly dull and typical, with the same spoiled brats, fangirls, childhood friends, tsunderes and “walk into shower”-scenes that we’ve seen a thousand times before. Beyond that: nothing. Throughout the entire episode, there were no hints whatsoever at anything deeper and the only thing that wasn’t utterly boring was the action scene at the beginning. Even the OP just kept hinting at nothing but silly fights and harem hijinks. This episode seemed to go on for bloody ages because of this. The final nail in this one’s coffin was the very bland characterization: nearly the entire cast is just a walking stereotype and acts incredibly predictable.
OP: Bland J-pop. They got Hikaru Nanase here and they don’t even use her properly…
ED: Even blander.
Potential: 15%

Some Quick First Impressions: Showa Monogatari, Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season and Rio – Rainbow Gate

by psgels, posted in Kimi ni Todoke, Showa Monogatari, Some Quick First Impressions

Showa Monogatari

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a regular kid who grew up before WWII.
Whoa, where did this come from? Wasn’t this supposed to not air for three months or something? Anyway, this was a pleasant surprise: it’s basically a slice of life series of a young boy in what I presume to be the part of the Showa Era somewhere before WWII. I’m especially impressed with how much the creators did in just one episode: they showed about him, his friends, his family and even a friend of his sister. It gave all of them a bit of attention and personality, and it even included some good drama that centred around the typical problems that a guy of his age had. By far the worst of this episode was voice acting of the different children that appeared. I have to applaud the creators for making them sound like kids, and the rest of the voice cast is also pretty decent. But the voice actors for the kids just can’t act. This especially hurts when they’re just unable to raise their voice when they’re angry. In any case though, this thing has potential. Whether the second episode airs next week or next year, it’s something to watch our for if you like historic slice of life series.
OP: Minimalistic, but effective.
ED: Neat idea to use a radio tune from those days.
Potential: 80%

Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season

Short Synopsis: Our lead character hardly ever appear in the start of this new season.
Okay. So it’s been more than nine months since Kimi ni Todoke first ended. The staff has had plenty of time to prepare for the second season, so naturally they start off with a recap. Yeah, this episode pretty much retells Kurumi’s side of the story. But then again, like with a lot of other series that take FOREVER to get from A to B, it wasn’t really bad for a recap: it neatly compacted Kurumi’s story into a digestible 20 minutes, rather than the seemingly endless 17 episodes that it took up in the first season. And also, this episode wasn’t bad at all in the technical terms. My problems with this series really lie when you look at the big picture: it’s pretty much angst, angst and more angst; Sawako is too pure, Kazehaya is too perfect and the angst itself is decent, but it lacks fleshing out and therefore it has no chance of remaining fresh for a whopping 25 episodes. Let alone this second season!
OP: Granted, by far the best theme song this series has shown. Neat visuals.
ED: Bland song, neat visuals.
Potential: 50%

Rio – Rainbow Gate

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a really famous dealer at a casino city.
My biggest concern about Rio Rainbow Gate was whether or not it had its mind in the gutter. As it turns out, it did: the camera just refuses to focus on anything other than Rio’s ass or boobs and the entire premise of the show is meant to get her into as many sexy outfits as possible. Beyond that, the direction for the most part is also pretty bland and the acting also leaves a lot to be desired. As for the entertainment value this show has some potential, though: the climax of this episode was ridiculously stupid, but surprisingly enjoyable in a “so bad it’s good”-way, including a pretty creative depiction of Poker. At this point, the only way that this show can make it is as a guilty pleasure, but for that it needs to pack variety: think of many crazy anime variants of casino games and vastly different premises other than “let’s stuff Rio in the umpth sexy outfit here”. At the very least, this show really knows that it’s a silly fanservice show and there are no signs whatsoever of teenaged romance or an annoying male lead or shallow drama.
ED: Another one of those boring fanservice EDs.
Potential: 25%

Some Quick First Impressions: Starry Sky

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Starry Sky

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a transfer student who is in love with a cute girl.
Oh lord. You remember this thing that harem series really like to pull? The flashback to when the lead couple still were children, they met each other once and this left such a strong impression on the girl that she can’t stop thinking about anything besides the male lead for the rest of her life? Well, this episode was the reverse harem version of this. And while the episode was only 10 minutes long, it was ENTIRELY DEVOTED to that bloody overused trope. This is the ultimate fantasy for these insecure teenaged girls: a guy you met years ago still loves you and can’t think about anything but you. That’s also his only trait, by the way. Considering how all of the other episodes are going to focus on the other bishies of this show (there are a whopping TWELVE of them, meaning ten minutes per bishie), this episode pretty much spent its entire time glorifying an overused cliche. The episode also tried to play this as straight as possible: it really believed that this was actually a plausible scenario. I guess I don’t have to say that the result was ridiculously cheesy. The voice acting also was typical bishie schlock, so stay away from this one. Gah, even Neo Angelique was better than this.
ED: This one pretty much summarized the entire series, with really cheesy Engrish quotes that didn’t go through a spell check (“Distiny – I don’t want to be bound by anything!” “How can I COME to BELIEVE in YOU?”).
Potential: 0%

Some Quick First Impressions: Haiyoru: Nyaruani

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Haiyoru! Nyaruani

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a lovecraftian alien. Or at least that’s what she supposed to be.
This was just terrible, in every single way. This episode was pretty much three minutes of random talking with the characters trying to make jokes, with a huge emphasis on “trying”. The jokes were lame as hell, and to make matters worse the voice cast was completely hamming it up, making the jokes even worse. The animation is terrible. What happened to the times in which flash anime like Hanoka had some actual ambitions. Just skip this. What kind of TV station is crazy enough to air this kind of crap anyway? Even though this is the first new series of the Winter Season, I have no doubt that this will be the worst out of all of them.
ED: Why is this so long? Why the heck does this have conventional animation? It’s still crap, though.
Potential: -50%

Some Quick First Impressions: Fortune Arterial, To Aru Majutsu no Index II and Togainu no Chi

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Fortune Arterial

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a transfer student.
The thing with this season is that the worst series are far better than usual. There were indeed some series without any potential, but at least there are no series that are outright insults, like KissXSis, Ladies Versus Butlers, Shukufuku no Campanella or Chu Bra. Fortune Arterial, the last series left that could turn out to be a complete disaster, also turned out to be better than expected. Sure, it’s by far the most generic looking series of the season (blame that to ZECXS; I have no idea why they’re still stuck in 2003), and it has quite its share of harem cliches: there’s the transfer student, there are vampires, the student council, walking into each other naked and of course the childhood friends. This episode was more concerned with introducing its characters than parading all over their cliches like it didn’t know anything better to do. The naked scene was a prank, rather than completely forced and random, and the dialogue felt quite natural. The biggest problem is that the lead female is a very typical tsundere, along with a bunch of other voice actresses who can and will get on your nerves. Still, I have to be fair here: the final thirty seconds grabbed me by surprise.
OP: An OP for a harem show in which the singer doesn’t try to be as squeaky as possible?
ED: FANSERVICE
Potential: 35%

To Aru Majutsu no Index II

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives together with a girl who is easily kidnapped.
Overall, this was quite a solid first episode: it had a nice combination between action, comedy and character-building. The new bad guy who appeared had quite an interesting story, and while Index was as annoying as ever, I do have to admit that Touma knows how to make a good joke. I mean, it’s been 24 episodes and his “misfortune”-shtick still hasn’t gotten old. The animation has been better in this series (but then again, when the first season aired, it aired in a season in which JC Staff had three other shows, all of which still have really solid graphics). In terms of potential, I really want to see some more depth in the rest of this series, especially in the character-department. The first season also had a interesting setting, but it only scratched the surface. I expect this season to delve deeper in its potential.
OP: Disappointing in terms of graphics, but the song itself is nice.
ED: The CG could have been more subtle
Potential: 75%

Togainu no Chi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is arrested for a murder he didn’t commit.
Here is one series that can go anywhere, all depending on its plot. The animation unfortunately isn’t too pretty, the characters still are pretty static and the plot also could go anywhere, from bad to good. This really was a first impression that didn’t really try to start off with a bang, and so we get a bit of a dull introduction and set-up in which the lead character only gets to fight a bunch of stereotypical punks who have nothing to do with the story, and we only get one glance of what looks to be the major villain. My biggest fear for this series at the moment is a lack of detail: this episode didn’t really put much attention in anything, really: it just told its story, but hardly did anything extra. The characters are standard, the setting is standard apocalyptic, but we hardly get any details on how people are living their lives other than random street fights. What keeps me interested in this episode was that it did create a lot of potential: there’s a ton of room for a grand and interesting storyline being built up behind the shadows, and I’m interested what it’s going to be about. The direction needs to try harder the next episodes, though.
OP: Started off well, until the vocalist opened his mouth.
ED: This one works well. Nice song, simple but interesting visuals.
Potential: 60%

Some Quick First Impressions: Arakawa Under the Bridge X Bridge and Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is working as a waitress.
I’d wish that I could rant about Shaft once more here, but no. Instead, my biggest issue with this episode was that it just went on and on about how waitresses in a maid cafe should behave. It’s another one of those topics aimed solely at otaku and for which I have no interest in whatsoever. Apart from that, though, this was probably the most down to earth Shaft series I’ve seen in a long while now. It still has some of the staples that make their shows so annoying, like the yelling and overacting and the chapter title screens, but again: you can really see that they’ve finally gotten themselves a good budget here, and the animation was much better than what you’d usually expect from them. If you ignore the hordes of maid cafe references and the overacting though, this was a pretty decent episode that simply showed a bunch of people talk to each other and have fun. There is a good chance that this will get boring within a few episodes, but for now this episode was enjoyable enough.
OP: Really good animation. Even for Shaft’s usual standards, this was great.
ED: Obviously inspired by a certain show, but the song is surprisingly good.
Potential: 35%

Arakawa Under the Bridge X Bridge

Short Synopsis: Our lead character hangs around with a bunch of weird people around a bridge.
I did not preview Arakawa’s second season because I’m really biased here: I have yet to encounter a Shaft sequel that did not disappoint me. In fact, the Shaft Sequels are the biggest reason for my huge dislike towards them. But okay, if you really want me to preview its first episode, then I’ll give it a whirl. First of all, I do want to say that Shaft did put the earnings of Bakemonogatari’s DVD sales to good use: this episode was much better animated than expected, and overall it looked pretty good, combining actual animation with Shaft’s visual style works well. But here is something I really want to ask the people who did finish the first season (I never watched past episode 1): is this show supposed to be not funny? I mean, all I saw in this episode was a bunch of characters screaming, yelling and overacting. I could see that they tried to make jokes at times, but I don’t recall even chuckling throughout this episode: everything just felt so forced and humourless. This episode did try to reveal some new things about its characters, but half of those things make me wonder why they weren’t revealed in the first season. I think the worst sketch here was that marathon, especially considering how ridiculously predictable the humour was. I guess that the part I liked best was the very last scene, in which we see what Nino’s dream was about. So is Arakawa Under the Bridge more about the former, or the latter?
OP: Amazing visuals. But then again, it was directed by Ryousuke Nakamura, a guy I can’t hype enough.
Potential: 10%

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a detective who has magical powers. Oh wait, No, she isn’t! Oh wait, I guess she is!
This show is strange. No, really. I expected some generic moe detective series, but this series blew all my expectations by being so ridiculously stupid and nonsensical. I mean, what mahou shoujo randomly strips all of the powers of the lead characters, right at the first episode? This show makes no sense whatsoever, and listing everything that’s wrong with this episode would take an entire essay. At the same time, that also is the charm of this series: it simply had a bit of fun with its characters, it was trying out quite a few interesting ideas, ad it didn’t care in the slightest about making sense or not. This episode was fast-paced and kind of fun, and I enjoyed it. But yeah, there is no way for the creators to keep up with this. The characters are as flat as a pancake, and the reason this episode was fun to watch was because the creators just kept throwing new and surprising stuff at us. Although it will be quite an interesting series if the creators manage to keep the surprises coming throughout the entire series, I see no way for them to be able to do that. It is directed by the director of Lilpri, after all. That one too had a very charming first episode, only to immediately degenerate into nothing but boring fillers afterwards.
OP: I don’t think that the creators couldn’t have been more generic, even if they tried.
ED: FANSERVICE
Potential: 35%