In a word? "Disappointing". Before watching it, I went back and rewatched eps 9-11 of the first series. (Ep 12 doesn't exist. Just wanted to let you know. There is no ep 12.)

And then I watched the first ep of the new series, and... well... it was disappointing.

I guess the problem is that the first series ended at a point where there really wasn't any more story to tell. They say that a story should describe the most important event that happens in the lifetime of the protagonist, and for Ayumu the first series did. And the way it ended wrapped that up beautifully. So we've heard his story, and it really should have ended there.

But they decided to do a sequel, and? Rather than find a new story to tell, they've decided to tell the first one again. That's my presumption.

Sarasvati is now part of the harem, and she's taken with Ayumu. We didn't need that. There's a normal girl in Ayumu's class at school who has a crush on him. So we're at six haremettes now and counting. There's also a mysterious girl, who looks like a kid, wears ridiculously fancy clothing, drinks like a fish, and is probably a masou shoujo, and like as not is also going to be part of the harem.

Meanwhile, looks like Ayumu's secret is out. He's shriveled in the sunlight twice in front of his class. And at the end of this episode he becomes a masou shoujo and fights a megalo, at his school, with lots of people watching, and isn't able to do magic afterwards to erase their memories.

That probably isn't permanent. I bet that they call Ariel, and she takes care of it.

It all feels very derivative. It's possible to do a good sequel. Magic Users Club did it, and part of why it worked is that the second series was about something entirely different than the first one. In essence in the first series Sae came into her full power and in the second one she came to understand what it really was. And part of why that worked is that the second series didn't try to tell the first story again. No alien invasion the second time. So there were two life changing moments in Sae's life. The first series told the story of the first one, and the second series was the other.

In this case (Zombi), however, I am not so sure. Kyouko and the King of the Night both show up in the OP, and that's a very, very bad sign.

I'm not ready to give up on it yet, but I'm not enthusiastic about what I've seen.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 09:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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