L-lewd…
Impression
This is a light novel adaptation of a ‘school battle harem’ where the main character walks in on a girl changing, and is forced to duel her as a result. That girl happens to be the princess of a small nation, and the main character can use sword techniques unique to him. It is set in a ‘chivalry school’ where people train to become Magic Knights, and there is a tournament for all the similar schools to compete in.
…So, it’s basically Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, except lewder and with way less money. I’m sure it might not be that similar to Asterisk from the point of view of those who’ve read the light novels, but it’s certainly got lots of ecchi – Stella looks like the ‘sheltered princess’ type of character, who has picked up on some strange misconceptions whilst living as royalty and yet wears some lewd stuff. I’m pretty sure Ikki was perfectly in the right, too – it was his room to begin with, and him taking his shirt off in return was… okay, he was mostly in the right. Stella climbing on top of him and undressing him in his sleep was way worse than anything he did to her though, objectively speaking. Hooray for double standards!
As I haven’t read the novels, I’m sorry to say that this looks average to me at best – I’m sure this post would be completely different if I actually had. But after this first episode, I know hardly anything about the setting, the fantasy aspect or who the major players are – all we know is that the character can summon their souls as weapons, and the first episode of Absolute Duo managed to convey so much more than that (and that wasn’t even a great show). Silver Link are sometimes really good, but at other times they put the ‘budget’ into ‘budget studio’, and this is one of those times. I managed to accurately predict the outcome of that Ikki vs Stella match though – as soon as Stella said ‘the loser must obey the winner for the rest of their life’, I called it!
I will keep watching this for a couple more episodes, but I don’t think I can bring myself to blog this each week. If there’s anything that turned me off, it’s these yellow death hardsubs. Is it Hulu? Oh god, I hope they never get the rights for anything ever again. Forget comparing this to Asterisk, there’s no way I’m blogging this long-term purely on the strength (or lack thereof) of these subs from hell.
Hard yellow subs are as bad as white ones on a light background. I hate those too.
I can imagine, yeah. Yellow subs in anime remind me of those days when a 4:3 aspect ratio was the norm.
Watching you guys struggle with various shitty English subs makes me glad that I can read Mandarin 😀 There are so much more options with Mandarin subs.
Boy am I late to everything >< So I'll save most of my comments for the second episodes sigh But what I absolutely MUST say is that Stella going "I completely lost it, Ikki" reminded me SO MUCH of how Yui sometimes says "Hikki"! ohhhhhmmmmyyyyggaaaahh! <3
Also, the manga is totes cute! I literally just scanned over what the anime covered and the extra details, as well as lines and moments between Ikki and Stella are certainly appreciable! ^_^
If you have anything left to say about Rakudai, say it here because there won’t be a second episode post for this 😀
And Stella has nothing in best girl levels compared to Yui! She’s not even as good as her counterpart Julis (and she still wouldn’t be even if Rakudai and Asterisk had identical production values). Hikki is, of course, also superior to Ikki. I may be deciding based on the single episode of Rakudai that currently exists, but come on – it’s up against Oregairu.
Ah, unfortunate, but who knows what the future holds in store. I wasn’t attempting to put anyone on any levels, but simply adoring how much that one line reminded me of Yui because she’s so sweet like that in general.
I know, that was just me being… me 😀
I think even if Rakudai does get better, Owari and Gochiusa both air on the same day, so it’s also a time constraint issue as well as a quality issue. But yes, we’ll see!
I should say that I rather enjoyed this first episode. I haven’t watched the first episode to any of the other series that present themselves as “generic highschool with supernatural stuff” shows this season, at least not yet, but this one gave me a better first impression than I normally get from such series. Personally I think you may be judging this a bit harshly.
I think so, too. I’m aware there’s a bit of bias creeping in, and it’s because a) I watched this after Asterisk, and b) unlike both Asterisk and AntiMagic I haven’t touched the light novels for this. As I said, if I had I’d probably be reacting entirely differently. I can’t judge whether this was a ‘good adaptation’, whereas I can with the others and so I’m predisposed towards them. And I’m speaking in relative terms, really – because I do think there are too many similarities between this and Asterisk (except how much money they have) to not mention the other when talking about one of them. I’m sure you’ll agree with at least that, if or when you try it out. Maybe you’ll end up in the opposite camp, since you tried Rakudai first!
Or you’ll end up in the AntiMagic one, which is the only correct answer. I just flicked through the first episode raw that came out earlier today, and honestly it’s everything I ever wanted from a first episode adaptation of it.