A quiet girl is really good at handling swords.

This is a spinoff of Danmachi, and it was a clear step up in most areas. Anything with less Bell and Hestia has to be an improvement.

I do read and enjoy the manga this is based on. But sadly I didn’t enjoy the adaptation nearly as much. Mainly I suspect it’s an issue of pacing. In the manga, when they’re talking about feelings and shit, you’ll just have one panel which you read through in a few seconds. In the anime, that same panel can take an entire minute. It’s boring. The action scenes have a lot less motion to them too. Which is amazing considering that in this version… things are actually able to move. The fanservice is way better in the manga too. It feels like a half-assed effort all around.

Let me add that the elf mage girl annoyed me to no end in this adaptation. In the manga she’s not that bad because hey… lesbians… and her emoing out will only take a panel or two each chapter. But here it seemed like half of each lengthy episode was spent watching her work through her extremely mundane issues. Again, I’m pretty sure a good part of these shows could be solved by speeding it up drastically.

• Storytelling – C – Poor pacing and choice of what to show.
• Voice – C – Doesn’t have much of a special feel.
• Characters – C – I like most of them, but the pacing makes it hard.
• Attention Grab – D – Had trouble paying attention.
• Production – D – Looks pretty bad.
• Overall – C-

Recommendations – Danmachi, Sword Art Online