January 06, 2012
Before watching the first episode, I downloaded the first four chapters of the manga. They weren't translated, so all I could really do was to look at the pictures. And my first reaction was that it was going to be worse than Maken-ki, and that's bad indeed.
The problem was that the male protagonist is a first class jerk. That was apparent just from the images.
Anyway, so now I'm watching the first episode with subtitles. It's halfway through it and Our Hero just got killed. He's been run through with a spear, and he's laying on the ground bleeding profusely. As he dies, he thinks, "If she had to kill me, she could at least let me squeeze her tits first." That pretty much summarizes him. Even in just this first exposure, he reminds me of the guy that Lum used to zorch all the time. That guy needed zorching, and this guy needed killing. Problem is, this guy is coming back.
By the end of the show, I'm not so sure any longer. There's no way this show is going to be good. But it may not be quite the disaster that Maken-ki turned out to be. At least this one seems ready to tell some kind of story.
This was broadcast on AT-X, and there's only one censorship light-ray. Plenty of bare breasts, all through the show. For instance:
That's Rias Gremory, the demon who revived Our Hero, and who pretty much owns his soul now. They don't say that explicitly, but he belongs to her, and presumably we're going to find out later what that means.
My general rule about harem shows is that they are worth watching to the extent that guy in the middle gets a grip. That goes triple for this show. If he stops being a jerk, this show could turn out OK. If he keeps being a jerk and it's used as an excuse for various girl demons to beat the crap out of him, it's going to be a total loss.
I'll give it at least one more episode, but the odds favor this turning out to be real junk.
One down, one to go. Here's hoping that Mouretsu Pirates is at least a little better.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at
10:18 PM
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Posted by: Mauser at January 07, 2012 11:21 AM (cZPoz)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 07, 2012 12:15 PM (+rSRq)
Frankly, I'm always open for something that isn't mired in the Japanese School System.
Posted by: Mauser at January 07, 2012 10:32 PM (cZPoz)
Posted by: Mauser at January 07, 2012 10:35 PM (cZPoz)
The manga is translated on Mangafox and Batoto, where his line while bleeding is "If I'm going to die, I'd rather die in the arms of that beautiful girl." Even in the anime, though, what makes him a jerk, first class or otherwise? He's just wishing that his cute girlfriend had let him get to second base before he dies. (It was their first date, but they'd been hanging around together for a couple of days, and she said she had fun.) Let he who is without the first sin... He doesn't even take advantage of Rias when she sleeps naked next to him.
You can say his fantasies about having a harem make him a pervert, but he isn't obnoxious about it and tries to stop his friends from being so. The only one he's rude to is Yuuto (the blond boy devil) and he later decides he's actually nice. Rias and the vice-president Akeno (black hair) consider Issei (Our Hero) to be an idiot younger brother and think his perversion is cute, so they won't clobber him. Rias doesn't even mind being naked in front of him. The blonde loli calls him odious, but doesn't hit him.
On getting a grip, he becomes pretty enthusiastic about being a devil when the possibility of advancement and getting his own servants is raised. Rias praises him for his hard work. His main problem is lack of power to teleport and fulfill contracts. In chapters 3 and 4, he definitely can't be called a jerk.
Rias is a pretty nice boss. Issei is definitely better off than the protagonists of Shana or Familiar of Zero.
There's actually a three way battle. The fallen angels fight the devils, and unfallen angels and mortal exorcists fight both.
The nun's name is Asia Argento, a shout out to the actress.
Posted by: muon at January 09, 2012 10:24 AM (JXm2R)
As for his dying thoughts, well, that's pretty close to what I might sarcastically think... well, right after, "G-------t you b*tch, that HURT!" So that scene's a plus for me, not a minus.
This isn't fine art, but the guy's not a loser, jerkass, or cad. They can't all be heroes in the first five minutes of the show, you know.
Posted by: ubu at January 09, 2012 11:29 AM (i7ZAU)
Enclose all spoilers in spoiler tags:
[spoiler]your spoiler here[/spoiler]
Spoilers which are not properly tagged will be ruthlessly deleted on sight.
Also, I hate unsolicited suggestions and advice. (Even when you think you're being funny.)
At Chizumatic, we take pride in being incomplete, incorrect, inconsistent, and unfair. We do all of them deliberately.
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