Milestone time! This is going to be the 750th review I’ve written for this site. Only 250 more until I achieve my goal of 1000 ones! And what a random show to end up reviewing with Fireball Charming that just consists out of 13 2-minute episodes that just feature two robots talking to each other and do random things.
It’s the perfect series for if you’re looking for a quick watch, though. The original Fireball series already was this, but Fireball Charming actually manages to improve on the original series in a lot of different ways. Instead of going with much of the same formula, Fireball Charming aims to be bigger, faster, more random and more dynamic and creative. And it succeeds.
What you often see with comedy sequels is that they end up running out of inspiration, and yet none of this applies for Fireball. Heck, I could listen to Drossel and Gedachtnis for ages at this rate. The creators try to stuff a lot more dialogue in each episode than even the original Fireball, making every second interesting. One nasty side-effect of this is that it really jumps around: there’s no lead-up to anything. and the characters just randomly jump from one topic to the other as you’d expect from two hyperactive robot who have been stuck in the same castle for thousands of years.
The biggest difference with the first season is that this time, the creators really like to show off how good their animation is. Not only does this show look absolutely gorgeous and makes full use of 3D technologies, it also takes every chance it gets to show interesting images, animation and it really likes to throw in as much creativity as possible.
Now, random humour alone isn’t necessarily funny: if Fireball would just have been randomness for the sake of randomness it would have gotten boring really quickly, even for its length. However, it has a great comedic timing and a very eccentric sense of humour that is hard not to like. Not to mention that it has two very likable main characters.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 – Short but sweet. Completely random and jumpy but consistently interesting to watch. |
| Characters: | 8/10 – No depth whatsoever, but a likable cast this certainly is. |
| Production-Values: | 9/10 – Absolutely gorgeous CG. A feast for the eyes. |
| Setting: | 8/10 – Has a virtually limitless supply of random things to throw at the viewer, and interestingly uses its own setting. |
Suggestions:
– Kimagure Robot
– Marie & Gali
I was surprised to enjoy Fireball as much as I did.. not because it’s bad, but because it’s the type of fluffy, pointless comedy that I usually abhor.
Thank god it’s about two sarcastic robots instead of the usual tsundere moeblob and her dopey deadpan love interest. Also, that they found some less-annoying sidekicks than the first season.
Charming indeed.