After watching the first episode of Level E, I decided against blogging it because nothing much seemed to be happening and it wasn’t all that funny. Boy was I wrong. The entire first episode was simply a setup for the amazing twist the creators were preparing for episodes two and three. This just goes to show not to judge anything by its first episode.

The series is a collection of short stories centered around Baka-Ouji and other aliens living on the Earth. Prince Baka spends most of his time goofing off by playing elaborate pranks on random people, so most of the humor centers around this. The short stories have enough variety that it doesn’t get stale— we have a murder mystery, a power rangers parody, a romantic comedy, and intergalactic politics, all with twists which make the stories not quite what they seem.

My personal favorite part of this show was Kraft, the Prince’s retainer who is most affected by his pranks and is always trying to kill or oppose him, but ends up falling into his schemes anyway. He provides a “sanity” check on the prince, but in doing so has ended up becoming even more insane.

On the negative side, none of the story arcs are really on part with the first one. This is a comment more on how great the first arc was than on the others, which are still hilarious (particularly the final arc). I think the main reason is that after the viewers are aware of the prince’s true nature, it isn’t so easy to be fooled anymore.

• Plot / Script – 9 / 10 – Great buildup and execution of the jokes.
• Characters – 8 / 10 – Strong characters, but doesn’t focus too much on individuals due to the arc nature of the show.
• Production – 8  / 10 – Consistent animation.
• Overall – B+

Recommendations – Gintama, Oh! Edo Rocket, Galaxy Angel