Well, it isn't exactly a "rewatch" because I  didn't exactly watch it the first time. I've been all the way through the series once, but I was "watching" with the sound turned off, and doing a lot of skipping. I was there looking for top rotation candidates, and not so much interested in the show itself.

But this time I really am watching. I just finished ep 7.

And while I won't say it's great I can say that it isn't really too awful. I'm enjoying it, and it isn't quite as dreadful as mecha shows so often are.

It's really quite middle-tier in pretty much every regard, except that the CGI is quite well done.

Of course, one thing that otaku will always argue about is which of the girls in a harem show really should win. For me there isn't any contest: it's Charlotte.

Cecilia is arrogant and obnoxious. So is Rin. Houki is too screwed up and angsty. Laura is a psychopath. Charlotte is kind, gentle, trying hard, and quite frankly is the best looking of the bunch. (Even in drag.) And though her backstory is among the more sad, she isn't sunk in self-pity.

But I think they're rather overdoing the "everyone has a sad past" business. We haven't seen one for Cecilia yet, though I have no doubt it's coming. But Houki's life was upended by her sister becoming so important. Ichika and his sister were "thrown out by their parents" for some unknown reason. Laura's past is a nightmare. Charlotte has only spent an hour with her father in her lifetime. Rin's got her own problems.

In terms of storytelling, the harem is too big. Based on all the harem shows I've seen, I think the ideal harem size is 3. If it's only 2, then there's a winner and a loser. With three, the story telling possibilities are much richer. But when it's larger, you get bogged down in introduction stories -- and with 5 in this series, that's what's happening. Plus with that many characters some will inevitably get neglected. (In this series, it's Cecilia.)

I vaguely remember that things got a lot better when Tabane showed up. For one thing, she's the only one who can get under Chifuyu's skin, and Chifuyu is badly in need of being taken down a couple of notches.

For another thing, Tabane delivered a personal IS to Houki, which lowered her angst level a bunch.

I have a vague memory that the ending didn't really resolve much. It'll be interesting to see what the OVA holds for us. It's due out in about a week.

UPDATE: Another thing I'm finding annoying is all the "Your Kung Fu is no match for my Aardvark-Style" etc. In this case, there's a lot of "Ha! You think you can defeat my 3rd Generation IS with your puny 2nd Generation IS?" Laura probably does more of that than anyone, but Cecilia does a fair amount of it, too.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 11:31 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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