As for this episode specifically, the one slash fight was probably the best part of it. If Ikki won a long, climactic fight against Todo in his condition I would have rated the anime at least one point lower. One of my pet peeves is when an author takes a very specific try hard route in trying to portray a character as badass. They have the character take enough hits to kill 10 normal men, poison him, malnourish him; basically anything to drastically reduce their fighting ability (in theory). They do so much damage to this character (either before the fight or during) that even standing up is a superhuman effort. And then they not only stand up, not only fight; but they beat a very strong opponent who was played up to be a challenge even if they were 100% healthy. The reason this is so fresh in my mind is I recently watched the 2014 FT anime, and there were two blatant examples late in the anime (Erza and Laxus). It's basically a way of throwing all nuance and balance out the window in a try hard attempt to be "epic". It shows disrespect not only to the viewer, but also the previously respected character who loses to a cripple. Now this anime itself had arguable examples of this, like Ikki's fight vs that long range guy. It was under the guise of "I need to take these hits to figure out his magic", but I think they went over the top with how much damage he took (and the fact he was still able to move as well as he did). With all that in mind, I was worried about how they would finish this series. They had created a set up that was hard to escape from. Ikki was put in inhumane conditions for what, 20 days? He was in no condition to fight anyone, much less the strongest character in the school who we had seen destroy everything in her path. I was thinking of acceptable ways this could finish. The two that came to mind were:
- Ikki walks into the stadium and collapses, causing an inquiry into his treatment. Todo gets a very hollow victory (she deserves nothing more for wanting to go all out vs a zombie) and maybe some administrative shit happens and Ikki qualifies for the Seven Stars thing anyway
- Todo decides to forfeit the match because her honor won't allow her to fight a zombie
The one slash fight is still worse than the above two, but it gets a pass mark for acceptability. He uses all remaining energy for one slash and it puts him out of commission for a week. Still a little dodgy he could beat the close range God that way, but it's better than him implausibly winning a long fight in that condition. I can't believe some people in this thread wanted a climactic finish, it just would not make sense.
Anyways as for the series as a whole...solid. It has a nice base. Battle magic school romance thing is far from a unique concept, but I like the fights and the system in this series. I was even curious enough to look up characters on the wiki, such as the "spear guy" who beat Todo. One thing lead to another and now I have a broad knowledge of all the major characters past where the anime leaves off. I don't really care enough about the series to read on, but the main point is the series has a promising base. As for characters, lesee...
Ikki is an interesting case. Personally I would have preferred he have more of an edge to him. I mean he agrees to basically every request someone has for him, no matter how unreasonable. He insists on honor even when everyone around him does the exact opposite, and he won't even sleep with his own girlfriend. A bit too goody too shoes for my taste, but as said I still find him interesting. For a start I find it amusing this series targeted at guys has basically the perfect man. Good looking, strong, absurdly kind and considerate, ect. A lot of the times in anime people complain that a guy isn't good enough for the girl(s) that like him (I usually disagree but that's another story), but here he's almost too good for everyone. He's the level of perfect I would expect from a girl writing a fan fiction where the perfect man falls in love with her. So it's funny to me that a guy like this is the main character of what some would no doubt class as "male fantasy fanservice blah blah". The anime did have that Otome game scene where a character resembled Ikki, he would no look out of place in one of those series as a hero to be romanced. Then there's also the Gary Stu question. He does generally win his fights due to being the MC, but I still lean towards him not being one. He doesn't just blow everyone away, he takes considerable damage in most of his fights (and even outside then), and generally has a somewhat plausible explanation as to why he won each fight. He's not entering my favs list anytime soon, but overall I consider him an above average main character.
Then there's Stella. Being a tsundere immediate puts a limit on how good a character she can be, that's the price you pay when you as an author insist on pandering to a specific fanbase with an outdated archetype. However she is less irritating than most tsunderes, although I'm not sure I can give her credit for this. She's less irritating because Ikki took one for the team and started dating her early on. When a tsundere is in a relationship, by default they become more reasonable. A tsundere complaining that her BF is flirting with other girls is reasonable. A tsundere complaining that some guy she likes but doesn't confess to/barely talks to/regularly abuses is flirting with other girls is absurd. He's single and can do what he wants, it's even worse when tsundere-chan reacts abusively to the guy who is not her BF. That's just one example, but basically every tedious tsundere trait is minimized when they're in a relationship.
I have some other vague thoughts but have already typed up enough, so in summary:
- This anime isn't perfect but was a decent enough watch
- Alice best girl/guy/everything |