This episode devotes its entirety setting up the characters as well as the journey coming ahead, and it does so very well.
Here’s the thing-this season, we have a ton of shows packed with great style, animation, and direction, but none are as stylistic as Shingeki no Bahamut. I remember a few months ago when I watched the premier of Blade and Soul, and I was genuinely impressed with it- the pacing was solid, the art was decent, and the characters were mildly interesting…. However, starting with episode 2, I lost all interest and moved on, and I never bothered figuring out why. But, after watching this episode, I now know why that was. Unlike Blade and Soul, this show knows not to take itself too seriously. The completely serious Amira turns into a very light-hearted, rather amusing character who really lightens up the entire episode, and Leone/Kaisar’s bouts are, once again, very entertaining to watch.
The highlight of this episode was, without a doubt, Amira, because I did not expect her character to change as abruptly as she did. It’s quite astounding what adding a little flare to a character can do, because although I still don’t give a crap about her background, she manages to give depth to our little maverick in a way that didn’t feel overly cheesy or dull (I won’t spoil). This show has found a way to be charming whilst completely avoiding cheese.
I’m always keeping an eye out for great artists who keep trying out different things, and with Keiichi Sato, Mappa has struck gold. Now, we can only hope that he will keep this passion of his, and keep landing jobs as a director for non-mecha productions like this. His mecha productions may be quite notorious, but he hasn’t really produced anything worthwhile since Tiger and Bunny anyways, so it’s time to move the hell on. He has the potential to really make this series shine.
>completely avoiding cheese
I don’t know about that.. I found the theme song rather cheesy. Also some of Favaro’s antics smell of cheese, not to mention Amira’s repeated question to him. It’s sometimes hard to tell what age the characters are supposed to be, because they go from acting like adolescents to children… in Amira’s case it might make some sense, but it’s a bit too goofy for my tastes with the other leads. There’s levity and then there’s being all over the place tonally.
That said, my only real problem with Bahamut so far is that there’s too much going on, and not enough time to appreciate it. It kind of feels like it’s flitting from scene to scene, like someone’s in the background yelling “we need some dancing here! now a fight! now some goofy antics!”
True, but I reckon the pacing should slow down starting next episode if I know Sato at all. The quick pacing doesn’t bother me all that much, mainly because it reminds me so much of my old swashbuckler films that this anime pays tribute to. Thus, I expect over the top humor in the genre- again, mainly due to my love with films like the Three Musketeers and Master of Ballantrae. When I speak of cheese, I mean when it comes to the character development, not the humor itself- because what would a show like this be without the over-the-top humor? However, I do agree that the tone is rather jumpy. At times it’s humorous, while at other times, it’s completely serious and melodramatic. We’ll see to what extent this happens going forward.
Sweet review. I think the episode was petty fuckin good, here’s hoping they keep this up.
This has so much going for it that it’s just confounding how this production ever came to be. It’s fresh yet plays a tremendous amounts of tropes straight up from the get-go. Thjat;s what I like about a faster pace series: they don’t get stuck in conventions or overplay some specifics that might not always be the best but they mesh together for a bigger, better whole.
I guess you could say that the show has focus: they knew what they were going for and they executed it almost surgically.
I want to believe that Sato hasn’t played all of his cards yet, because so far, he’s packed so many things into just 2 episodes. That’s the bad thing about fast paces shows; they run of out juice pretty quickly unless they have a creative development team. But they’ve definitely started off on the right foot so far.
I get all sorts of nostalgia watching this. Samurai Champloo vibes from watching Curly and Frenchy go at it, Vampire Hunter D vibes from watching the chick’s getup in the first ep, Disney vibes from first ep’s the horse chase (though I can’t remember which Disney film I say that), and so much more. I think this show’s main strength is that it knows it’s an anime, first and foremost. Doesn’t try to be more than what it is.
Contrary to popular opinion (around here at least), I totally dig the breakneck pacing. Utterly sick of so many action anime taking it slow before realizing they’ve used up more than half the frickin season and end cram the finale into a bowl of soggy cereal.
Probably my fave series of the season so far, at least until Mushishi airs.
No, you can see I praised the fast pace as well.
The action in this doesnt really get me high like some other action animes – Favaro’s got personality – but im kinda having trouble with his appearance, i mean he doesnt really ‘Look’ the hero type (honesly at first i thought he was a she). I WAS hyped for this but now i’m not really all that excited about it -_-