I… no longer know what to think about this series. It’s listed as adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, and mecha (depending on which site you’re reading), but I think loli and perhaps even slice of life should be included in that description. We’re at episode four, a third of the way through the season, and it doesn’t feel like much has happened. Felia was discovered, they were chased by a pedophilic hacker, and now a storm is coming? I hope this typhoon will lead to some lively action and plot development. Or, perhaps this will be an anime where there are actually only a handful of major plot events and as such my expectations are too high?
I also have to re-assess some of my earlier impressions of a few of the characters after finishing this episode. Kaon is actually not that bad. Moura I found it to be really irritating in episode three and my impression of it only marginally improved in this episode. Roman… still needs a boot up his ass, and Felia still feels like a one-trick pony. …Ok, so not all of the characters have grown. There’s still time though.
I’m admittedly curious about the team that Captain Stewart is assembling. We have a murderous kid and a creepy hacker who’s fixated on a magical child, paired together with a military officer who will apparently do anything to track down said child. Why? Is he working for Master Zoneboyle?
The biggest wtf moment of the episode for me, however, is when our little crew is tasked with helping to fortify Do Mon’s residence against the upcoming typhoon, and Kaon asks Felia to help her with picking vegetables for dinner. Felia agrees and helps, using her powers of course. What ensues is a scene filled with – dancing vegetables?! ┐(‘～`；)┌ Yes, I get it, lolis are supposed to be cute. And this scene was definitely cute. At the same time, however, it felt a little over the top. Flying radishes as fighter jets, seriously?
The other moment that made me headdesk was when Do Mon leaves Felia alone at his home. Like really?? You’re going to leave the magical girl, who is clearly out of her element and still learning about their world, and who is barely able to speak at a kindergarten level, alone with only her guardian stone… creature… thing for protection? Sure enough the baddies come knocking, and because Moura is powerless without Sogo, Felia gets kidnapped. (Plus Moura put that stone around Felia’s neck which apparently absorbs her powers, so that limited her ability to fight back.)
Am I being too critical here? Part of me feels that yes I am because this show is outside of what I usually try to watch. Honestly I am trying to like it, I really am. I want to like the characters, but between the pedophile, the controlling fiancé and the loli girl who talks like a toddler, there are only a couple of characters whom I’m genuinely interested in as a viewer. The graphics are pretty, I love the opening and ending themes, and the cat pigeons are adorable, but the plot is not quite there for me. The overall impression I get from Comet Lucifer is that it doesn’t quite know what it wants to be.
Poor Alexandra III… T__T
I wish that the main characters had more of their backstory revealed, if that were possible in a 12 episode series. Again though, am I asking for too much? I don’t know. I did notice that the person standing next to a young Do Mon in the photograph had their face hidden by light, and I’m wondering who it is and what their connection to Captain Stewart is (if there is one). I’m betting it’s Sogo’s mother.
Anyways, I’m trying to hold out hope for the next episode. Going by the preview it looks like we’re finally going to get some action, so I’m looking forward to reading what Vantage’s thoughts are.
I really don’t think you’re being too harsh at all, because I *do* watch stuff like this and I’m having the same reactions. There is quite simply no plot to speak of, not very many interesting characters, and it just feels really weak as a whole
I dropped this show after the second episode because: 1), I was watching too much stuff this season for my busy school schedule so I let go shows I wasn’t too crazy about, and 2) because I had a bad feeling that this would happen. I’ve been reading the reviews and I think I made the right choice. This show is also something I don’t usually watch (moe and mecha) but I wanted to give it a try. Now I don’t mind cute characters. I mean who doesn’t like a cute character?
But my problem is when they FORCE the cute like they do with these types of shows. They got the little alien girl, she can’t speak normally, she’s new to things, so she runs around excited playing with plates while making annoying sounds. And it’s just not cute. It’s supposed to be cute but it’s not, I hate it so much. When you have to force the cute like that it’s just not cute anymore and instead stupid and annoying. I like naturally-cute characters, you know what I mean? If that makes sense. Just my rant on the current moe culture. THAT’S JUST ME. Anyway, it really looks like this show isn’t for me so I’m glad I dropped it.
I like both lolis and coming-of-age sci-fi mecha stories. But I don’t think the two should ever be mixed, and that’s the problem I have with this. I love loli diabeetus slice-of-life anime, so to me it’s still cute even though it’s forced, but there’s a time and a place, and Comet Lucifer seems to be getting that very wrong so far. This episode had Felia (the alien girl) use her psychic powers to make a field of veggies dance in the air, and that was an entire scene in itself. It was even set to music and everything. It was a beautifully animated scene, but it shouldn’t have been there at all – they don’t have time to waste on something which looks like it came out of Disney, especially when all they have to work with is one-cour. Maybe we might have all interpreted its promo material wrongly or something, but it doesn’t feel like it’s living up to what it said it would be. Priorities are all over the place at the moment, and I just hope that changes next week.
I don’t think you’re being too critical. I dropped Comet Lucifer after ep 3, for pretty much all the reasons Berry listed. I’m not typically a fan of lolis–I’m running into this issue with another anime called Nichijou right now. (Not to be confused with actual small children, like Naru from Barakamon.) And with this show especially, Felia’s “cuteness” feels SO forced. As soon as Moura said in episode 3 that Felia is somehow the ruler and lifeline of the entire universe, despite not even being able to form a coherent sentence, I was done.