By now, I have a general idea of where this story is going. Our characters finally face the main villains of the story and starting next episode, I reckon that we’ll get some real story progression because frankly, the past few episodes did almost nothing to get me to care much for the characters, no matter how charming they may have been.
The problem with the show thus far, is that it uses character tropes borrowed from various Westerns to the detriment of interest on the viewer’s part. This is where the slow pacing is actually hurting character development, an ironic condition owing to the fact that we’ve come to expect slow-paced anime (like Space Brothers) to have too much emphasis on its characters, which usually bores everyone. Even with the slow pacing, Kenichi Sato decides to place fast-action in every episode, and while those scenes are very fun to watch, there is such thing as too much of a good thing. By placing action in a story that is barely progressing, you force the viewers to miss the subtle character expositions you want them to pick up. Sato is clearly much more concerned with the action over exposition, and I’m concerned where this anime will end up . Take more time to focus on Favaro and Leone’s pasts longer than the forced-in exposition we got in this episode, because the “twist” we get in this episode was way too rushed.
I also worry that Amira might permanently devolve into a vessel for moe, because her character literally did nothing this episode besides acting “cute” and fighting. I much preferred the Amira we got in the first episode, because although that one was very generic and without nuance, she at least had intrigue built into her personality. She’s a badass demon. If you’re going to show a human side to her true form, make the audience become invested in her character with some character development rather than an abrupt shift in personality. Other than that, the only character I find interesting so far is the necromancer, because she’s pleasantly gruesome. If there are to be any highlights in this episode, they are the scenes that involve her. The voice actor does a fantastic job portraying her personality, and I look forward to seeing more of her character.
Ultimately, this episode was not a bad episode so much as it was a red flag.
Eh, i can’t say that I agree this. You don’t need to denote an entire episode to character development, and if anything especially bad idea in a 12 episode series. In integrating over a set of episodes works a lot better for both narrative and pacing. That’s how many of best stories have There no need infodump everything about a character for nearly the entire episode.
None of these weeks up till have been pointless either, we aren’t dealing with beach episodes here.
Episode 1: Introduced the back story, setting, Favrao and Kaisar.
Episode 2: introduced Amira, Jeanne, the God and Demon factions, and established the primary plot of the anime, getting to Hellheim.
Episode 3: Introduced another major character with Rita and her tale, expanded on Amira’s situation and revealed Kaiser’s past and started developing his character. The zombie was short and no more than a set piece to the meat of the episode and provide context for the situation.
I also don’t see anything wrong the exposition in this week either. Amon was great and natural way of allowing both us and Amira to learn more about Favaro and begin his development. Especially because Amon and Favaro old acquaintances who hadn’t seen each other in years so reminiscing about bygone days as one would do with friends and family is only natural. The twist regarding Amon was fine and total made within context of what he did to Favaro’s father and Favaro’s own situation. It was about as dramatic as needed to be without being becoming overplayed like most amines do it.
Amon wasn’t meant to be important in grand scheme of things. He didn’t need more than one episode because his character only matters to Favaro himself not the storyline. He was just a pawn of another power who had already gotten what he wanted (and attempted to take more) 3 years ago and is not the main villain. The mastermind of whole thing is still out there too.
Personally I love the characters myself, not are their only refreshing but I like how instead of info dumping everything about them in one episode and doing nothing else for rest of the season, we learn about cast bit by bit and their connections to on going conflicts. it’s style of writing many not be for everyone, but it works for me. I don’t find to have any less than any other non-sequel show this season.
This show doesnt need any drama. It is so fun and dynamic that drama would make no good at all.
The characters really are the weak links in this series, but ep4 finally gave the obnoxious male leads a bit of depth; Amira is indeed the weakest link now. My big problem with the episode was how quickly they rifled through that material. Big revelations, all closed right away. It would have been nice to let us know some of that stuff in advance, so this episode had a bit more weight. Instead we have some generic “gods vs demons” plotline sitting in the background, distracting us from an already tenuous main plot. Oh well, at least it’s fun sometimes and looks nice, amirite?