At least they’re imbeciles.
I’m out for a while. I know I still have the punch girl show’s second episode, and a whole slew of actual new things today, but I’ve got vacation stuff to enjoy.
Impressions:
This took a few tries to get through, and I’m not sure I would’ve made it without the promos promising a completely different show. While the awful AI tongue bathing is gone, it wasn’t replaced by much of anything, and once again, the “How much of this episode was needed” game rears its ugly head. We could’ve just started with him being snatched up by a pack of ridiculously evil slavers. There was nothing gained by dragging him to the village to momentarily go native only to drag him right back out… just to drag him right back there again. In the background, it attemps to spew out nonsensical lore about forbidden technology and whatnot, but the protagonist is blithely unaware of everything. We can just assume that the native people, because they’re in native garb, of course, being kidnapped by sadistic slavers who cackle with mad glee while announcing how much they evilly love to do evil are sympathetic figures. All these 16 minutes have accomplished is continuing to highlight what an empty shell the protagonist is.
But I persevered, because the promos promised high octane cyborg fighting action, and from glancing at it previously, I was aware that at least some of it was coming. And it did, in easily the best animated sequence this season so far. Unfortunately, it was also very short, and I can’t say that the ultra-violence felt appropriate. The evil dude was too far over the top and for the animation budget being there, the composition of the shots especially was terrible. Particularly the initial one of them all running around to encircle her and open fire. Great circular firing squad, guys. But we’ve established how eeeevil they are, so any amount of violent vengeance is okay, as is reveling in the gory brutality of it. And, of course, we end things on the declaration of magical girlfriending the hell out of it. Expected, but still not welcome, and could’ve been introduced less… stupidly.
