This anime is the distillation of what is wrong with the entire genre. I could not believe how Ep2 played out, or how Sasha transmogrified from one caricature into the next without any effort. I am not sure how anyone is taking this seriously -- the only way you can enjoy it is if you are laughing at how big of a parody this is on the entire genre. It is so lacking in awareness it is utterly stunning the amount of cliches that are crammed into a single episode.
Nothing is wrong with a cliche, so long as it serves a story faithfully and honestly. But the story here doesn't even make any sense. Why is the protagonist even going to school in the first place? Because he can? He is so ultimately powerful he could literally do anything he wants. It makes absolutely no logical sense.
I am impressed this series has functional art and voice acting. It impresses me how much effort was spent to make this. And it's not like the story, if written correctly, couldn't be good.
This particular episode continues the long tradition of having no stakes. Somehow, in spite of how insane our protagonist is acting, it's like the other characters have the long term memory of a gold fish! They don't even react to his immense power! The teacher makes a big deal about him grabbing that demon lords face, and then - nothing! None of the other students approach him. Everyone treats him like an outcast *just for the edginess of the plot* even though he's so powerful everyone would love to suck up to him! This story has its cake and eats it too, blatantly, without regard for anything! What about those assholes he stomped in episode 1? No one seems to remember them...
It's amazing. I enjoyed watching it this far just to say I watched something so poorly put together. But I can put it down without any regrets simply because....there's nothing here, even at the most guilty pleasure level, both Sasha and Misha rolled over for this guy within 10 minutes of meeting him. There is literally no tension in the story. No stakes. No coherent plot. The story is tired and recycled Mahouka garbage!
But if you like it, keep on, keep on; just don't allow yourself to think it's *good*; it's espousing nothing how it should be.
The "walking into the wall" bit was legendary, however. Or, how can we forget the equally legendary wisdom of, "It's a door, ladies, you push it open with your hands." |