Whatever complaints I may have about the translation by the fansub group that's picked up Macademi Wasshoi, I certainly can't accuse them of being lazy. They've released ep 4 now, and I'll be watching it later.

The site I'm a member of now has the first two eps up, but they don't seem to be trying very hard to stay current. So I'm grateful again to my benefactor for giving me ep 4.

Takuto is beginning to collect the core of a really powerful fighting unit, you know? Especially if they're accompanied by Eineus (Sakuma's catgirl), his little group is reaching the point of being able to take on just about anything. I wonder if that's going to happen before the series is over?

I don't have any clue at all where they think they're trying to take this, if indeed they have a destination at all. It feels like they do; it feels like they're laying groundwork for something. But don't ask me what. And whatever it is, they're not letting it get in the way of the jokes.

Aroduc points out that the writers don't try to string their jokes out too far. I agree. They seem to understand how funny the things they're doing really are, and once the joke is over, they let it go.

For example, in ep 2 Takuto, Tanarotte, and Eineus are about to go clobber the cat-ear machine. Miyabi (the goddess) doesn't want them to, so she does magic and summons a combat mech. And we get a transformation deck as the mech converts itself into its super form.

After which Tanarotte hits it, once, and knocks it flying -- and we never see it again. There's been a lot of that kind of thing.

The writers seem to have enough good ideas so that they don't feel they have to stretch them. The show feels packed with creative goodness, unlike a lot of series which tell the same story or tell the same joke over and over again. This series isn't falling into a rut.

And that's very refreshing.

UPDATE: Another thing that's interesting is that this series doesn't feel like it's going out of its way to pander. It's a harem comedy, but the emphasis is on the comedy, not on the harem. There's fan service, but only in places where it makes at least some sense. It doesn't feel gratuitous.

UPDATE: Here's a couple of frame grabs from ep 3:

Cute, ain't they?

Eineus isn't impressed. (A moment later she beats the crap out of Sakuma for it.)

I suppose I should feel sorry for Eineus, you know that? But I don't, really. She's stuck with Sakuma; bound to him magically and presumably that won't end unless he voluntarily releases her, or dies.

Yet she seems to manage, and she beats him up occasionally. This is the second time we've seen it happen. I assume that wouldn't be possible for a familiar unless the master liked it -- which isn't at all far-fetched, in Sakuma's case.

And it's not the worst thing that could have happened to her; Sakuma isn't cruel to her, for one thing.

Kawasumi Ayako does the voice wonderfully -- but of course, that's a foregone conclusion. She plays the character completely dead-pan.

UPDATE: OK, just watched episode 4. In comments, Ubu says he thinks it's the best episode yet. I think I liked ep 3 better, but ep 4 was definitely good.

It's true that the series seems to be dabbling with genres. And another running gag is all the ways that Sakuma creates things that look like Eineus, such as the chibis in ep 3 or the giant mecha in ep 4.

More, including spoilers, below the fold.

UPDATE: In the third episode, the fansubbers botched a term. The Japanese was daachi okusan and they translated it as "Netherlands wife". Fortunately, this time they got it right: "Dutch wife".

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When the demon said she was separating all her magic in order to create her mecha, I kept expecting Suzuho to take off her hair ribbon. But, of course, that wouldn't have been as funny as what did happen, so it's OK.

They've been avoiding any situation where we could learn whether Suzuka's magical absorption ability works on gods and demons. This is the third time it could have come up, and didn't. I don't think that's accidental.

Actually, they did hint once that her power does work on gods. In ep 3, there's a scene where Suzuka is all beat up and tired, and Tanarotte teases her about it. Suzuka says, "Shut up! I don't have infinite health like you do." And then she puts the ribbon back on her hair and transforms into Suzuho -- who is then healed by Miyabi. The only reason I can think that Suzuka would do that (she otherwise hates the ribbon) was to get a healing. And it had to be Suzuho who got healed because Miyabi wouldn't have been able to do that to Suzuka. (And no, you can't convince me it's because Suzuka is anti-yuri.)

Isn't that interesting? I think this is a long term plot point. And if it works on gods, then it probably also works on demons.

One thing this episode did answer definitively is whether Falce is stuck in human form. No, she isn't. She has full control over her transformations, and can become full size human, chibi, or just a head. And she can and does convert into the staff when Takuto needs the help. And as a staff she can still communicate with him.

All she did for him this time was to fly, but I wonder what other abilities she has. We know that her magic power is just shy of Miyabi and Synclavier's level, so she's in the big leagues. And where Tanarotte is bound to Takuto as his familiar, it's clear that Falce sees herself as being his magical staff. I'm sure there's no magical compulsion about it, but I'm also sure that she won't work for anyone else. Between the two of them, that's a lot of firepower.

Takuto is a bit too much of a victim in this series for my taste. I prefer my harem leads to have it together a bit more. This ep he finally got to use some magic and really to make it work correctly, when he wiped Futaba's memory. But I'd like to see more of it. He's still a student, but he's an advanced student, and apparently a pretty good one. So let's see him use what he's learned. And I'd like him to stop being a victim quite so much.

When the demon was explaining at the end why she was an otaku, it felt a heck of a lot like series foundation. What she talked about was that life for the demons and gods was deadly dull, and the only thing to keep them entertained was the antics of humans, and human culture. I have a feeling that was another plot point.

This picture, from the ED, confuses me a bit. Falce, Tanarotte, and Suzuho are there. Is the girl in the upper right corner supposed to be Suzuka? Or is she someone else? And if it is Suzuka, is that just artistic license, or does it mean Suzuka and Suzuho will separate at some point? That would certainly be odd.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 02:16 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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