The story in a nutshell involves kids, and adults stuck in a post-apocalyptic setting with two sides, the vampires and the humans. So what happened? Honestly, nothing much. The story itself progresses at the speed of a snail for the majority of the series and drags out too much, in which I personally hope the second cour will be faster paced and utilise suspense more intelligently for the benefit of the show.
The first episode was without a doubt, somewhat suspenseful and does a semi-good job. However, the opening song does a great job to counter this semi-well done job and reveal that Mika is indeed alive by showing his grown up self which would have been much better if it were to be revealed unexpectedly later on in order to create some sense of suspense.
Nevertheless, in this "post-apocalyptic" setting, the second episode starts off with the orthodox and conventional, overused school setting which already makes it hard to take the "post-apocalyptic world" seriously, and minimising any genuine sense of danger and threat that left off with the premiere episode. Fortunately, it then derives off this school setting but the ambiance still does not skyrocket in terms of suspence, tension or intensity as the main cast is composed by a group of children, not adults, but children.
The male central protagonist is Yuichiro Hyakuya and his friends from the Moon Demon Company, a group of freedom fighters formed to extinguish vampires in the harsh and dejected reality. Here on, it sets up two sides, the humans fighting against the vampires in this war-like battlefield. Although the main cast is a bunch of children, surprisingly they can pull off wicked stunts with their cursed gear, weapons specialised to exterminate the vampires, and are portrayed centuries stronger than the other adult looking soldiers from the army.
If I had to pick the best character, it would be Shinoa Hiiragi, also, she is one of the reasons I was able to enjoy the show to some degree. Her comical expressions and satirical manner of speech is what makes her as a character stand out more than the rest. Her design also stands out more than the others with her purple hair and ribbon attached. I applaud Hayami Saori for her splendid voice acting in portraying Shinoa's cheerful voice and sarcastic approaches and mannerisms, which pulled the show to a better level.
Sound-wise, it was definitely one of its stronger aspects, but also may be considered pretty incompetent by some because from a Hiroyuki Sawano standpoint, it was "just more of the same". The ost could have also been utilised better throughout the series and was not extremely memorable besides the orchestral version of the ending song. Both the opening song and ending song are pretty compelling though and definitely stand out.
The art is a hit and miss, some can say it is a manifestation of the show's lack in budget, and some can say it is for artistic and creative purposes, but I think, it's both. The animation was nothing ground-breaking or topnotch and was particularly below average for a shounen action series which is definitely disappointing.
The action is in particular, extremely weak and incompetent in terms of an action anime and there are many better shows that execute action and its choreography in a much better fashion with more fluid animation and well-directed choreography. Hopefully, as the climax is in the second cour of this series, one can only hope for improvements in these areas. Even if the second cour depicts improvements for the animation or action sequences, the show as a whole still will not have consistent good quality, but rather, fluctuations in its inconsistent quality.
Luckily, this is only the first cour, and certainly, if this was how the show ended, it would have a much lower score, but since it is merely the first part, that's somewhat forgivable and may perhaps be redeemed later on with improvements.
I can't say I did not enjoy the show, because I definitely did to an extent. But was it amazing? No, not even close. And was it horrible? No, not to that tier yet - but from here onward, I expect better from the second cour. The premise in itself has been done countless of times before and does not bring anything new or groundbreaking, but it does allow room for improvement, in both its presentation and execution in which the second cour will be pivotal to in order to judge the series as an entirety.
Undoubtedly, the second cour should expand on the story more, reveal more of the implied secrets, and hopefully develop the characters in a profound manner because right now, this show has not entirely finished and has ended in an open fashion for the second cour and until then, nothing in this first cour of Owari no Seraph will be complete.
