“We aren’t putting forth any more effort today.”
Impression
Well. As is the case with many of the events in this show, I can’t say I saw things turning out quite like what I thought – in particular, Edogawa deciding to suddenly attack Sasami and the Yagami sisters in an attempt to raise an ancient god, Kuzuryuu. I mean, it’s been building up gradually, but it seemed so…out of the blue. This show’s randomness was hilarious at first, but admittedly its quickly become tedious – maybe it’s just me, but there’s only so much randomness you can take before it becomes too much. Take Edogawa’s penis issue – definitely very…unique, but it seemed arbitrary to try and explain it off. Edogawa’s apparently got a former god named Awashima acting as another personality in her body, and I’m assuming she grows a penis when Awashima’s in control. That’s fine and all, but why was there the need to reveal Awashima’s entire character to us? It’s the last episode, and he never even had any relevance to Kuzuryuu’s summoning. It’s the same with Garuda, another one of Arahabaki’s minions – Edogawa summoned it, and it was forgotten for the rest of the episode.
Similarly, I think they crossed a line with the summoning ritual, where Edogawa re-enacted history, then promptly changed it and let the new events take their course. I don’t think it was necessary for Tama’s scene to be that graphic…she’s only eight years old (at heart), and she’s got a sword through both her palms and her heart torn out by Edogawa, who holds it up triumphantly. All this blood’s falling down on Tama and I’m sitting there, cringing at Tama’s terrified face and wondering whether I’m watching the right show. How did she even survive? Anyway, Edogawa’s a pretty bitter character – she should have given Sasami more of a chance instead of throwing a tantrum and gunning for world domination. She did genuinely have an interest in Sasami after all, so I hoped she’d look at things more rationally.
I’d hoped they would extend the fight between Kagami and Tamamo a bit longer…those two are pretty cool characters as far as this show goes. What was surprising was Kagami’s history with Arahabaki – I guess that was the evil group Kagami used to belong to, before Tsurugi rescued her and took her in as part of her family. Kagami’s Yata Mirror is a deus ex machina if I ever saw one – I think she used it back in the chocolate incident, but really? A magical mirror that reverts all damage does seem far too convenient. And Susanoo (I think it’s Susanoo) turning up at the last minute to defeat Kazuryuu? I’m not even sure what to think any more.
…At least we got a proper, complete solo version of the ED this week. Asumi Kana’s voice always makes things better xD
Final Comments
“We aren’t putting forth any more effort today.” – Studio SHAFT
In all honesty, I found the first few episodes pretty enjoyable – it was wacky, unconventional and unique. Positive traits that you’d look for when planning to watch an anime series. But then at some point, it got too unique. Maybe I’m just not wise and sagely enough to appreciate the true depth of Sasami-san (and if I am, I apologize for my…extreme inexperience) but suddenly I felt like things were just being tossed my way and I couldn’t catch them all. This is one of the cases where the phrase “less is more” really does apply – I’d have loved if they decided to introduce a theme or genre, then stick at it right to the end rather than jumping around with various themes. The one over-arching theme of “putting effort forward” turned out to be pretty ironic, especially in SHAFT’s case – they were pretty lazy with the animation sometimes. Heck, this episode they didn’t even animate things when Tamamo spoke to Sasami – instead it was a near-static flash RPG screen with text messages being read out. I won’t deny that this show is fun though – just don’t expect anything too much and you’ll be fine. Plus, it’s almost worth watching this for the Yagami sisters alone – especially Kagami. Funyaaa~
