“It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”
– The Red Queen Hypothesis
Eva’s First Impression:
Where do I even begin? There was so much to take in! This show took off to like a rocket and didn’t waste any time of dropping everything we need to know to get this story rolling!
Right off the bat we are introduced to the supernatural powers known as “Evol”, starting with the boy from her past/CEO Victor who appears to have the ability to stop time, an agent who can fly and among Kiro’s fans they there are rumors he has the power to draw them in, and finally the Warp Boy, who was the one being chased by shady folks looking to stop him from speaking with the Heroine about his story. These people are referred to as Evolvers, a term refers to super-evolved Humans who have powerful genetics and supernatural abilities. It is also said there are only a handful of people with EVOL and there are rumors say many have been sacrificed for research as scholars pursue the potential of human evolution.
But the Heroine hasn’t been dragged into this whole mess just yet. The premiere revolved around the her main issue at hand which is losing sponsorships for her company Miracle Entertainment. After her father died 2 years ago, the Heroine has taken over the company and been trying to keep it afloat. Unfortunately she has been trying too hard to recreate what he had produced instead of coming up with her own. As result the viewership has tanked and all of their sponsors have pulled out, (the last one pulling out today). It doesn’t matter that she has a miraculous opportunity to feature Kiro, a famous singer who would like to be on the program because his agency is the one with the final say. So unless she has strong ratings record to back her up, it’s just not going to happen. It is an understatement to say she is in quite a pickle at the moment.
As you probably noticed, I haven’t referred to her name. That’s because we don’t know if she actually will actually have one yet. By the look of things, we are probably going to hear characters refer to her as “President” instead. If so, this wouldn’t be my first rodeo when it comes to otome game’s adaptions with nameless heroines, but if it is for you, don’t let this be a deal breaker! It’s really not that big of a deal as some make it out to be. First of all, if she’s going to be called “president”, at the very least she has something, some adaptions opt to exclude the heroine’s name altogether, but that doesn’t automatically make it a bad show! So relax. If it bothers you that much, you just need to use a bit of imagination.
And really, let’s be real here, what’s even more important than a name is the fact our dear President Heroine refuses to be a doormat and will rise to the occasion! It was absolutely brilliant to see her actually lash out and challenge the CEO in the way she did. Not only did she impress him, but she just shows how much fire she has within her. It was also good to see even more side of her, the charming softness she had when she was with Kiro, and the way she painstakingly assumed Professor Lucien was going to be an old man. All of these are welcomed traits, so I really hope she continues to be this way over the course of the series. It makes me SO HAPPY to see she has so much energy and personality to her character. This was my biggest problem with Stand my Heroes: Piece of Truth, which was the last otome adaption I had watched (which ended up being a good mystery, but I was so frustrated with her passive character and muted personality, so I don’t regret dropping the coverage). Of course that doesn’t mean she is without flaws. By trying to recreate what her father had done when he was at the helm of Miracle Finder, her failure to do so costed them the ratings and the company is at the brink of closure because of how much their ratings have fallen. Today she was given a clue of what she can do to turn it around, and that is finding a way to apply her own color to Miracle Finder. So as long as she continues to try and recreate and do what her father had done, no matter how many the cases, or the stars she features in it, it will likely end as a failure.
It is also worth mentioning how important it is for her to have a headstrong personality. Without it, she will be crushed by the amount of pressure she has on her at the moment. Not only is she trying to keep Miracle Entertainment afloat, but she has also been investigating the unsolved cases her father had been working on up until his death. It really goes without say, but there is no doubt there is a correlation of his sudden death and what he had been trying to uncover. The fact police has closed the case and have been blocking all information and preventing him from conducting interviews with the victims is already suspicious enough. Ironically, it appears the Heroine has unknowingly set herself onto the path of the same thing when she decided to investigate the rumors about the mysterious warping incidents for the sake of her program. After-all, not only did someone already push her into traffic, but she also did met the boy behind the Warping Incidents as he was hoping to share his story with her, but unfortunately they were interrupted since he was being pursued by some shady folks. We’ll have to see if she will get the chance to meet up with him again next week or in the coming episodes because she was forced to deal with the issue of Loveland Financial Group withdrawing their support of the program.
As for the eligible bachelors men we were introduced to today, I think they are fine, but none of really stood out to me. But they weren’t really supposed to since they were not the main focus of the episode. Of the four it was Kiro and Professor Lucian who the Heroine spent the most time with. Based on that, I can at least say I think Kiro is cute, his personality isn’t usually the type I gravitate to but I did find him charming. As for the Professor, uh… he didn’t really leave an impression on me. The only thing that I noticed was that he shares the same voice actor (Hirakawa Daisuke) as Saint-Germain’s character in Code:Realize. (Which is surprising considering I can rarely tell voice actors apart). The other two as mentioned, they didn’t have enough lines so I don’t think it’s fair to judge them just yet, especially since the Agent dude didn’t even interact with the Heroine today (but I think he has wind powers which helped the Warp Boy escape). But while I will refrain from commenting on Victor/boy from her past this week, I will say I did find it funny how everyone in the company seems to be terrified of him and the Heroine didn’t even bat an eye when she challenged him on the spot. It will be interesting to see whether he remembers her or not— frankly speaking I am kind of sick of the whole ‘the boy who saved her from the past’ trope. We’ll see if his character will win me over.
In all, I think we’re off to a promising start, at least story-wise. Although there was a ton of information, it didn’t overwhelm me. In fact the pace of the episode was fantastic. As mentioned earlier, they didn’t miss a beat. They covered a lot of grounds that gives us more room for to explore all of what was introduced to us next week. It also very encouraging to have a strong Heroine, and I love that we’re seeing more of them who are all grown up. It really offers more themes to play with. But I have to confess, there were a number of scenes where I found myself laughing when I probably shouldn’t have been. But I guess it might have to do with it being so cheesy and predictable to me that I couldn’t help but laugh about it– in a good way mind you! Anyhow I am looking forward to seeing how this will unfold. Hopefully this will turn out to be one of the better adaptions considering I have heard this is supposed to be a great game.
Possibility of Blogging: Moderate – It looks promising with a lively Heroine, but I’m going to give it up to 3 episodes to be sure!
