Oh my god. This episode was completely different from what I expected, and yet it continued this series’ streak of awesome episodes like it was nothing! Heck, there was very little comedy in this episode, and it really tried to tell a serious story, and it worked like an absolute charm here! Why the heck did this brilliant of a manga take this long to get animated?!
The thing that immediately sticks out: the graphics in this episode are absolutely amazing. The visual effects are incredibly imaginative and there are a ton of different ideas that looked absolutely gorgeous and that had had no intention at all to look conventional. I mean, holy crap: this is how you make a show with a tight budget! It’s also the contrast with the graphics of the previous three episodes that makes the graphics of this episode stand out.
Also, the story: from out of nowhere, it stars four random high school students with no hint whatsoever from the lead characters. That takes balls there, especially this early on in the series. What’s also great is that the creators pretty much created four distinctive and interesting male characters here: they feel unlike many of the other high school students that we’ve been seeing in anime and they’re completely away from any cliches. The dialogue and characterization is excellent and down to earth.
The episode basically revolves around those four guys as they witness an alien killing a young girl. The story of this alien was also really excellent and tragic: the case of an alien who eats the females in order to reproduce. It made for a really tense climax. All in all it was a brilliant episode…
And the irony is that that moronic prince came up with it! Oh, lord that anti-climax at the end just sealed the deal here. Usually whenever a character comes up with a story it’s pretty lame, but to create such a good scenario here… the creators really showed that this guy is a genius by not portraying him as a terrible storyteller.
I absolutely love David Production at this point. I mean, they continue to go right against the current trends, and they continue to animate stories that make you wonder why the heck nobody else had taken them before, and give them really worthwhile renditions. Ironically, they also don’t seem to care about the “pretty first episode”-syndrome in which creators put a lot of their efforts on the graphics of the first episode as a means to draw people in: first there was Bantorra with the ugly CG boat of episode 1, and now too: the first episode of Level E wasn’t really anything special in terms of graphics, but this episode looked utterly gorgeous.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
I am so getting the feeling that when this series ends, it’s gonna get a 95/100 out of you. I just know it!
The ending is what both interests and scares me the most. As far as I can gather (Wikipedia!) the manga was cancelled fairly quickly, with no proper ending….
Just keep yourself glued to the screen, the story – if it follows the manga – is going to continue to blow your mind, I promise. ♥
LOL! I got trolled by the prince again! Still the story was tragic and dark. It didn’t really matter if it was fiction or not in the Level E universe.
Great episode though i’m wondering, why give David Productions the sole credit for the visuals? Wasn’t Pierrot behind this to? O.o
Soejima Yasufumi is the director for this episode, and the animation chief is Ebihara Masao. Both of them worked with Gonzo before. Though the art style of this episode is very Pierrot-ized, or shall I say very Yuyuhakusho-ized?
@Gottis: Holy crap, now I’m excited.
OMG!! Back to back trolling. I would like to not believe anything after this episode. They provided a fantastic month.
I’m impressed that they were able to tell a short compelling story in such little amount of time. With an added troll ending to boot. The people behind this show has guts and balls. Kudos to them.
I just wish that Togashi’s up and working again…
lol the story got me teary-eyed until I realized I just got trolled
@darkerthanblackswordman: Actually, manga got a proper ending.
oh man, that was some episode. felt like i was watching something created by junji ito.
Meh meh, I think it was good, the graphics looked fine, but I found it merely annyoing that I personally couldnt come in contact with the cast in this episode, before I could build up a feeling towards them, they dissappeared.
I’m not sure what to think of this episode…
On the one hand I liked it, the story was well told and felt “complete”.. on the other hand I really missed the prince’s antics and the whole character interaction that made the first three episodes so funny.
And I’m not that much of a fan of episodic stories. But it seems like this will bw what we’ll get in the next episodes: Different alien stories told by our prince.
Although with this show we can never know for sure so I’ll just wait what the next episodes will bring. ^^
What a great troll he is! Saw it coming though, it was way too serious not to be a stunt like that 😛
10/10 episode.
Disappointed me a little, wanted to LOL like in the previous episodes but couldn’t.
The whole story reminded me of Kemonozume.
Great! Gintama had a son 🙂
Good episode, I like that the series has a serious side as well. Really interesting going to this one-off instead of advancing the main plot, but I think it works because it broadens our view of this alien-infested earth.
“Why the heck did this brilliant of a manga take this long to get animated?!”
It sounds like you’re under the impression that ‘if a manga is good, it will probably get animated’. This isn’t true at all as there is just no where near the capability for anime creation in comparison to manga and animation studios generally go for what they think will be popular rather than what will be most interesting.
You always say you wish there were more anime centred around adults and yet almost all adult-focused manga never get animated (and there is a lot).
You say you’ve tried to read a couple of manga before and couldn’t get anywhere but save those comments until after you’ve tried something like 20th Century Boys.
@Kanao: I totally agree with you.
The anime industry is still pretty sad compared to the wonders I can find in reading manga. There are few reasons:
1) 90% of the time, the manga (mostly original work) are better, even when an anime adaptation exists. Reason? The original authors > your average anime director
2) There are TOO MANY good adult-oriented manga that will never get animated simply because it will not make money. Trust me, they are some of the most intriguing/exciting works I have read (excluding a few novel series).
One cannot appreciate Japanese manga/anime industry 100% without fully immersing oneself into manga. It’s like reading novels instead of watch TV series. Both are good, but the difference in experience is huge.
Ah come on, this again, manga and anime are not comparable… This orange is better than that apple (maybe they are from the same farm).
This is why I think there should be more original anime, these manga vs anime topics are getting tiring.
@bakasaru No dude gintama had a father! LeveL E is waaaaay older than gintama it was made in like 1996 lol
@bakasaru No dude gintama had a father! LeveL E is waaaaay older than gintama it was made in like 1996 lol
this episode had a different feel from it compared to the past episodes,but it still worked.seriously i haven’t seen a show this good for ages.
man the prince has to stop pulling these stupid tricks. i was so into this episode, i thought it was rather sad and disgusting as i was eating lunch at the time.
i hate it when people keep doing the manga vs anime thing. i like anime and sometimes i read manga, end of story. there is nothing wrong about a person wishing to have adult-centred manga turned into anime, it’s a wish ok? some comments here are so funny and entertaining to read.
Would like to point out to keep an eye out for the spells and notice the pattern of naming XD. Oh BTW Battle Poccari = Poccari sweat 😛