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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:4512#628] | ||||||
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(Three episodes watched): The sight of the Geno Studios logo--a short animation of men peeling out on motorcycles--left me with some foreboding. That was because I had gotten the impression that the products of this outfit tended to have potentially interesting, unconventional premises--but then failed to pan out. This show seems to be a sort of Samurai Dirty Dozen: condemned criminals are given a difficult mission and will be spared if they can carry it out. Actually, exactly what was expected of them wasn't all that clear. I forget what the exact terminology was, but I got the impression that they were supposed to pose as dead leaders and thereby hide the fact that the Shinsengumi had effectively been decapitated. But why give such an important task to death row inmates of all people? Even if they somehow manage to fool the public, the Masked Demons group will know what's going on. And what will keep these convicts from heading for the hills whenever nobody is looking? And Ichibanbashi can single-handedly fend off three Samurai (armed with only his sandals), but is easily nabbed by the 'thief patrol'? There are a number of holes in the plot of this show. The cast of fellow convicts is fairly colorful, including an assassin, a very fat glutton(?), a psycho doctor, a less than exemplary monk, and a cross-dressing woman (it was obvious to me from the start that she was female). Maybe this show will turn out like most Geno Studios works have in the past, but I remained modestly curious at the end and decided to watch episode two. In episode two the team gets their first official job, escorting an important person who some would like to be dead. Sure enough, they are attacked but make short work of their assailants. But these attackers were not part of Masked Demons and I didn't see how this advanced the main plot. However, we do learn some more about the backgrounds of several characters. I remained undecided about whether to watch this series as a whole. I decided to give it one last chance. Episode three involved infiltrating a Geisha pleasure house where a suspect is believed to be and nabbing him. But I did not find it to be either very funny or very exciting. I still don't get why it is such a big deal to keep the substitution that has taken place a secret, or so important to defeat the Masked Demons. Last updated Wednesday, December 28 2022. Created Thursday, July 14 2022. | ||||||||
