The series started out decently enough, a bit overly reliant on referential humour and running gags, but it still worked decently enough. Then came episode 4 and oh boy after this the show was never the same again. The main problem that permeates this, (and Kotoura-san I add) is that Ohta and team can not do Drama. At all. Their attempts at drama comes across as pace-breaking and ineffectual. I could not care less as Reina described her sad backstory to us in the most boring and predictable way imaginable that added nothing to the fun and humour that came before. It was at that point where I pretty much gave up all hope on the series. After that, there was maybe one or two good episodes. One about killing a dragon and the other about Mile fearing she'd be kicked out, but honestly the damage has been done and 4 good episodes out of a bag of 12 is a fail in my book. I don't understand it. I never read the original source material and never plan to, but I do know FUNA got the team to do this anime because he liked how Sabagebu deviated from its source material and provided its own unique take on the manga while being enjoyable. To that I say "Huh?". At no point in this misery did it even feel like a fraction of the joy that was Sabagebu.
I don't hate drama in my comedy anime, I mean, I just watched Urahara recently and that blended surprisingly good drama with a surreal slice of life comedy pretty well. Or for a more recent example, Null Peta, where Null's plight does become genuinely emotional (or at least not frustrating) near the end and that was done pretty well. Hell Akari's time travel episode from Yuru Yuri S2 did more for me than this shitshow ever did.
Just don't bother with this. It just shows that good directors and their teams can sometimes churn out a turd.
3/10
