Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou Ep 1: The Tower [First Impression]

Eva’s First Impression:
…… Uhhhh……
I honestly don’t know how to react. It’s not like I was mind blown, but in fact I was more horrified of the results of defeating the Diablos Tarots. What baffles my mind is that what would appeared to typically be a “purification moment” that we see in other magical girl shows, turns out to be a cruel price of killing the victim being possessed by a Diablos Tarot and basically erases their existence from their world.
It was the Opening Sequence what warned me to be on guard for the rest of the episode. It basically straight out told it’s viewers that, “If you’re here for fluffy cute magical girls, GTFO.” because this was far from fluffy. In fact, it was bloody and twisted at times, which I am actually grateful for because at least it gave me time mentally prepare myself, knowing that it’s going to be dark.
The heroine Akari is training to become a fortune teller using her mother’s tarot cards. We actually didn’t learn that much about her character this episode, except for the fact her mother had died and Akari’s powers had awakened on the anniversary of her death. She also appears to love plants or something because her room is basically a jungle- which is kind of funny because her elemental tarot is fire. You would think that she would be earth but then her hair would have to be green! As for the rest of the gang, the just popped out of nowhere and we don’t know of the two fancy looking ladies’ role are either or who they are.
Honestly speaking, I am really not that fond of the character designs. I mean they aren’t bad- especially whole atmosphere in the show which only of amplifies the eeriness. If one were only looking at the character designs alone without knowing the background of this show, or having read a summary the plot or seen the Opening Sequence would think that it’s a fluffy cute magical girl show targeted for kids. And just based on what we’ve seen, it’d definitely not going to be fluffy at all- instead potentially bloody and dramatic. The animation on the other hand was stunning during the fights thanks to how flulid and vibrant is looked. I absolutely loved it.
Overall, I do think this how has a great potential and will be exciting to watch because it breaks free from the fluffy magical girl trend that we’re so used to seeing (I am glad that more of them are starting to come out now). However I think people need to make sure they aren’t going into this with Mahou Shoujo Madoka expectations. Sure, the fact it’s a dark-twist to the magical girl genre (which is refreshing, no doubt about that), but still- they are not one and the same. The worse that could happen is the show being Mahou Shoujo Madoka Wannabe.
Possibility of Blogging: Moderate (Giving this Three Episodes)
Possibility of Watching: High
While I am definitely looking forward to seeing how this would play out as a dark magical girl show, now that I have watched the first episode, I think it would be better for me to watch three episodes before figuring out whether I will be able to cover this show. This episode freaked me out, and raised a lot of red flags for potential horrors in the future. There were even moments when I muted the volume and covered my eyes more than once because I was afraid of what we were going to see. If I were a bit more comfortable with thrillers and these types of shows, I would definitely be following it episodically, but because I’m not, I think I might better off waiting until it finishes and knowing what I am really getting into before I resume watching it.
On the extra note: Can someone tell me when the heck did this Magical Card trend happen? Lets count how many magic cards based shows we have this season? Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou, Fantasista Doll, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya- ALL THREE OF THEM ARE BASED ON THAT! I DON’T EVEN—–
Stay Tuned for Oki’s First Impression