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[series:4782#628] | ||||||
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(Nine episodes watched): For a good while, I wasn't sure what to make of this show. It didn't seem terribly funny at first; there's a slightly disturbing scene from Takato's past. He is apathetic about everything and just wants to sleep, but that isn't exactly hilarious. People get killed, which suggested a drama rather than a comedy. Shion is a vaguely sadistic person who looks down on anyone who isn't a sage. Some of the teenagers seem to instantly grasp what's going on when an average person would be totally bewildered, but later there's an explanation for that. But with time it started to get funny, perhaps because we couldn't 'get' the jokes until the basic premise was made clear (maybe if I had just read the translation of the title before watching there would have been the same effect). Shion and her sort will probably regret press-ganging these Japanese teens because Takato has the ability of 'instant death to any target'. Shion's aid, Yuuichi, senses that the dreaded instant death magic may have made an appearance. This was all seeming pretty weak at first but with time I became somewhat intrigued and will probably watch episode two. But it can't be a good sign when jokes not only don't draw a laugh, but the listener wonders if it was a joke at all. But I was surprised at how much I enjoyed episode two. Now that the show had gotten going it was genuinely amusing even if it didn't make me LOL. The humor is OK--a sort of dark humor since the punchline of jokes is often people getting killed by Takato. The premise sort of reminds me of One Punch Man. And, crucially, I genuinely wonder where the plot is going. In episode four a stuck-up classmate who thinks he's something special since he has the power of being a 'Dominator' annoys Takato, which is not a good idea. Takato will not kill anyone unless they virtually ask for it, but if they do he has little reluctance or remorse. Dannoura, a female classmate who really has no magical power (but is an accomplished martial artist) and hangs around with Takato is the straight man character. In episode four a mage named Lain launches an attack designed to draw out Takato and learn just what he is capable of. Basically, can he kill zombies, which are supposedly already dead? It seemed to me that maybe this arc should have been saved for the final or next-to-final one, because what other even more outlandish questions can this show raise? I thought this episode was kind of confusing--like the trick Lain uses to create duplicates of herself, because that would somehow insulate her from getting killed herself. But there was at least two LOL moments within it, like the line about maybe there being drawbacks to being able to casually kill anyone you please. As might be expected, Takato's opponents tend not to last long and new ones are continually coming along. In episode five we learn a little about Takato's childhood (he got his name from a reluctant tutor who was hired to educate him). This was fun. Then he and Dannoura (and the family spirit who protects Dannoura) become entangled in a competition to find a champion who will deal with the 'Dark God' (or something like that) who has been sealed away by the 'swordmaster' but may revive soon. I found this episode to be slightly disturbing, what with the fight-to-the-death style of the competition and also confusing, which made it difficult to fully 'get' the jokes. Where do you go with a premise such as this one? Can there be an unending stream of villains who think they are invincible but actually can be struck dead with nothing more than a thought? Can that remain 'fresh'? Or will we learn how Takato got his deadly ability as a child (was he born with it?). Will he ever wonder why he was endowed with this awesome power? At the beginning of episode six I found that I had largely forgotten where the plot stood, because I had lost track of where things were going and why. The show remains amusing but I have lost track of the main plot. Will the 'Dark God' figure in the final episode, or will it be gone in one or two? So many characters come and go (either killed by Takato or regrouping to challenge him yet again later on) that it's hard to keep track of them. I was glad when this arc wrapped up in episode seven so that we could move on to another, hopefully better one. In episode eight we get another look at Takato's days as a child under the care of Ayaka Takatou. Then he, Dannoura and the spirit arive in the capital city. The general plotline is still confusing, which makes it harder to tell what's funny and what isn't. I get the feeling that this show had/has considerable potential but a good deal of it is going to waste as a result of the muddled storytelling. There are too many characters to keep track of, or to tell who's really important and who isn't. I have little idea where this is all going, and with that being the case I'm not looking forward to a second season. I started watching episode ten, but found I had become so confused by the countless characters that I could not keep track of that I basically had come to view this show as more of an ordeal than a source of entertainment. So I went and watched something else. Last updated Sunday, March 24 2024. Created Sunday, January 21 2024. | ||||||||
