Overview:
I think the screen cap in the image above kind of nails the overview here. This is based on a Light Novel and set in a magic school, and while neither of those two things is inherently bad, this first episode at least has embraced every cliché imaginable. However, the story involves Glenn Radars being appointed a temporary teacher at the school even though he doesn’t really want to (there’s a flash back to explain the process by which he was coerced) and he’s doing a bang up job much to the annoyance of his overly studious students.
Review:
Lazy may describe the protagonist but it is also the perfect descriptor for everything that came this episode. As I said above, being based on a Light Novel isn’t bad, nor is a magic school setting a problem, however being flat, dull and uninspired is fairly unforgivable in an anime.
This episode goes through the laziest motions possible of setting up its characters and while there might be more to Glenn than meets the eye, to be honest I hate him so much already it wouldn’t matter what his backstory is. The natural comparison (though it may not be fair) is Ikta Solork from Alderamin on the Sky given his lazy desire not to work and womanizing manner, but Ikta was entertaining and at least had some very good ideas to offset his less desirable traits. Glenn might be a hidden genius (though getting completely flattened by a student after setting the terms of the duel kind of indicates he’s bad at forward thinking) but nothing in this episode makes me see him as anything other than a completely useless individual and not even an entertaining one.
Throw in the fetish fantasy school uniform (what the hell is that supposed to be and who would actually put students in it), the changing room scene, the one note students in the class, and the absolute absence of any hook or threat that might develop a plot, and you just have to wonder what the point of any of this is.
Anyway, this gets five minutes of episode 2 to convince me that the first episode was just an info-dump to get the story rolling and if it hasn’t done anything by then it is hitting the dropped list.
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Thanks,
Karandi James.
Thanks for the heads up.
This actually reminds me a little of my own initial reaction to Baccano. I watched the first episode and felt like it wasn’t even trying to make sense, or entertain. There were so many allusions to past events that seemed much more interesting than this “aftermath” mess.
Fortunately in that case I did keep watching, partly out of curiosity to see how they would try to salvage “this”, and partly because I always feel guilty leaving a story unfinished.
In any case, your review is very entertaining, if that’s any consolation, and unless episode 2 really turns it around you’ve saved others some trouble. 🙂
Baccano does have a strange first episode. I remember it took me two or three goes to watch it. Once I got into it though, I loved it. I somehow don’t think that this is going to get that good even if it does improve.
Glad the review was entertaining at least.
Agreed. Though I’m not so sure about the “at least”. I feel like informative and entertaining are the two pillars of a good review. So your review may very well be better than the anime you’re reviewing :-).
I’m a pretty big fan of the novels and it definitely gets better and Glenn has more to him than initially appears.
However it takes a while for the series to get the ball rolling and find its own identity, so patience may be needed with this one.
Good post! Look forward to seeing if you carry on with this one.
Not sure this one is going to stick but there were enough hints of something that I will try a second ep, though it is going to have to be a major improvement on ep 1 for this to stick.
The guy who designed those school uniforms needs to be removed from the anime industry immediately.
Agreed. I am all about freedom of expression but that just serves no purpose.