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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:4834#628] | ||||||
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(Two episodes watched): Two-thirds of the way through the season, I finally watched episode one of this show because it had gotten pretty high ratings at ANN. It was OK but I was by no means thrilled. With his refusal to take responsibility for anything Tokiyuki didn't endear himself to me, and it was impossible to believe that the stunts he performed were really plausible. Priest Suwa predicts that Tokiyuki "will become a hero, to shake the very foundations of heaven". Is he really able to forsee the future, or is it all a trick he is playing? Suwa's assistant (and daughter) Shizoku says Tokiyuki's laziness and cowardliness are just "aspects of the monster within you", whatever that means. It didn't seem to me that Tokiyuki was strongly presented as either idle and lazy or as good and heroic at heart. Kitauji's army is brutal and merciless, but the violence didn't really enrage me, perhaps because nobody they killed was a character that we have gotten to know and like. Anyway, Suwa and Shizoku have been asked to spirit Tokiyuki away. I suppose I will watch at least one more episode to get a better idea of the premise of this show, but episode two will need to be pretty awesome in order to convince me to watch to the end. This show takes a scattershot approach, with a wild mix of extreme action and extreme comedy--not necessarily extremely funny, just extremely outlandish, like the way Suwa sometimes glows. He isn't really doing that, is he? You don't know just what to take seriously. It sometimes breaks down the fourth wall, so to speak, by mentioning technology that clearly did not yet exist in 1333. Anyway, in episode two we meet two of the teenage fighters that are allied to Suwa. Also, Tokiyuki learns that his uncle betrayed his cousin and close friend, who was executed as a result. Along with Suwa he plots to take revenge, but this guy is tougher than they had expected--another example of the extreme tone of this show. I was left still feeling ambivalent about this show; I'm glad that this guy ultimately got what he deserved, but the liberties that this show takes with things like the laws of physics leave me confused and unable to say what is possible and what isn't. Last updated Friday, September 13 2024. Created Thursday, September 05 2024. | ||||||||
