In this episode, Saya goes to school, fawns over her father, and kills a flying statue in the middle of a puddle.
Everything about this show screams Clamp. Yukiko runs a cafe next door, Doumeki, Maru and Moro are in Saya’s class, everyone has skinny wobbly legs, and the main character is a goody-two-shoes with a daddy complex. I kind of wish Clamp would try something new, especially in regards to the characters.
I haven’t watched anything else from the Blood franchise, so that may be part of the reason, but I had no idea why Saya was fighting that crustacean statue. I’m sure we’ll find out eventually. Still, this battle scene was the best part of the episode. The animation was excellent, and the statue thing actually used its claws in interesting ways. It felt like a battle against a lobster instead of a battle against a human in a lobster suit. The battle might not have made the most sense: Saya’s head definitely should have come off, and at first her sword just bounced off the statue’s shell, but later it cut right through it. But all in all an entertaining fight.
My biggest problem with this show (aside from my aversion to Clamp) is Saya. She helps old ladies, picks up trash in the street, is clumsy, and in love with her dad (and probably with Doumeki too). The most popular guy in the school is hitting on her. She’s just… boring. Ok, she goes and kills monsters with a katana in the middle of the night, but her day life is going to need some more spice if it’s going to keep my interest.
Now for some blog news: I’m going to be out of the country for the next week and a half. Unfortunately, this coincides with the start of the new season, and I won’t have a good enough internet connection (or the time) to download and watch any new shows. So there won’t be any of these first impressions posts while I’m gone. I’m planning to do an aggregate first impressions post of everything when I get back. I’ve also queued up a few reviews and other posts to publish while I’m away, so the site won’t be completely empty during this time.
The first episode seemed fairly promising. It moved along at a decent clip and had a good mix of baseball, management and interactions between the characters. I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest fan of baseball— I find it to be the most boring sport ever created— but it’s portrayal wasn’t that bad. A fairly accurate portrayal, but they skipped through the 99% of the game which is just people standing around, and showed how the game is won or lost through one person’s stupid split-second mistake. Just not my thing.
As far as the characters though, the main girl seems a tad bland, but she’ll probably develop as the show continues. I’m generally not a fan of tragic girls in hospitals, but her backstory was well thought out at least. I like the guy who joined the baseball team to make business connections. It’s a much better reason for joining the team than actually liking baseball. I won’t blog this since I’ll just complain about baseball the whole time, but I do plan to keep watching.
Woot, more Crystal Dragon Jesus! I have to say: the priest is awesome. Not quite at the level of Father Anderson, but still,he brings back some good memories. He needs to add some more “Amens” to his prayers though.
I had fairly low expectations for this show, but was pleasantly surprised. It seemed like something that would be a standard shounen fighting show, but the characters are actually pretty interesting. I especially like the main character, his brother and the priest: they have a unique and eccentric family dynamic.
This has a lot of potential if it keeps its focus on the characters and not on endless battling and power leveling. I have high hopes that it will though, since this seems more along the line of Fullmetal Alchemist than your standard fighting show. I’m guessing that next we will further develop the demons and meet new exorcists other than the priest. This show will need villains that are actually interesting, since fighting against demons and the devil is generally rather morally unambiguous. I wonder if this Satan will be more along the lines of Milton’s Lucifer, although I don’t have my hopes up.
Deadman Wonderland begins with a bang, as Ganta’s entire class is murdered by a man in a red cloak and he is framed for the crime. He is sentenced to death and sent to Deadman Wonderland, a privately owned prison where prisoners compete in deadly games for the amusement of the crowds. He meets a mysterious girl, Shiro, who knows him somehow. His fellow prisoners and people associated with the man in the red cloak are all trying to kill him.
This was a good start for the show— there is a good sense of fear and anger at the people who did this to the main character. I think there are two ways this show could go though: it could either examine the conspiracy surrounding how he came to the prison, or it could become an action show focusing on the “games”. I imagine it will try to do both, but with more of a focus on the games, which would be a shame. The first episode was more focused on developing the mystery though, so you never know.
I am looking forward to seeing the interactions between Ganta, Shiro, their fellow prisoners and the guards. There is a lot of potential here especially since Ganta has been introduced with such a huge misunderstanding. The show has a promising setting; let’s see if they can put it to good use.