It's a trash show. Everyone who watched it says so. I popped the first DVD in my drive tonight and started scanning through it, because I was pretty certain I didn't want to watch the show.

But after about 4 episodes I am intrigued. I am going to go back and watch it. We'll see how long I last.

UPDATE: So now I've genuinely watched four episodes. And yeah, it's really dumb.

By far the biggest complaint is that the CG stinks. Particularly the designs of the dragons, and the rendering of them, and the animation of them, are all so crummy as to break immersion whenever they're on screen.

And since they're the heart of the show, that doesn't leave a whole lot.

Hearing Gio's voice was a shock. That seiyuu is a really good one. But he was the voice of one of the most wonderful and kind men I've ever seen in anime, and he was also the voice of just about the worst, most despicable, most terrifying villain I've ever seen, in another show. Which is to say respectively that he was Oyamada-sensei in Someday's Dreamers and Friagne in Shakugan no Shana.

So his voice tells me the character will be an important one, but will he be a good guy or a bad guy? At first there was no way to know. At the end of the 4th episode I'm still not really sure.

There's a lot of X-files type intrigue going on in this, and that can collapse in on itself if it isn't handled well. I have no faith that Gonzo did a good job, so I'm expecting it all to get even more stupid before it's all over.

I'm not sure I'm going to last that long, myself. I want to watch ep 5, for sure, because presumably Jin and Toa will meet again. And whether I keep going after that will depend a lot on what results from that.

The big disappointment? There's one hell of a lot less fan service than I expected. Major surprise, considering the reputation the show has and the fact that it's from Gonzo.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 09:50 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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