Fall 2009 Impressions: Seitokai no Ichizon 01
By Moogy | October 3, 2009
I’m gonna be upfront with this: I couldn’t understand a lot of the dialogue in this show. There’s an incredible amount of it (I estimate 500-600 lines in episode 1) and nearly all of it is jokes and/or references to other stuff. I should probably wait for subs to really review this, but I’ll go ahead and post my impressions from the overall production and what I did manage to pick up.
Overall, I was extremely impressed. I’ve been interested in the show for a while now, since Inugami Kira did the original designs and art, but I figured it was gonna be shit because DEEN was doing it and the entire cast was newbies. Imagine my surprise when I found that it was a very well-paced comedy with excellent directing and acting!
There are some damn funny moments in this, and the show never really misses a beat. The characters all have a great chemistry with each other, and the jokes flow with a certain ease that’s often lacking in these sorts of shows, you know? It also helps that the protagonist is actually a cool guy for once. When’s the last time we had one of those in a comedy show? Seto?
Production-wise… well, as I said, the voice acting is very impressive. Definitely the high point for me. Otherwise, well… it’s DEEN. It’s nowhere near as shitty as Umineko, but it’s still DEEN. At least the broadcast quality is decent this time. They also seem to be putting some effort into the animation – while the art was pretty awful in places, the animation stayed fairly consistent. The anime character designs are fairly different from Inugami-san’s originals, but they’re quite competent in their own way.
It does pretty well on the moe front, too, thanks in no small part to the great designs. I think I’ve already fallen in love with Mafuyu… I mean she’s insanely cute and writes kouryaku come on. I am looking forward to more cosplay as well! Man this show has it all.
All in all, it was pretty refreshing to see a reference/absurdism-driven comedy (well, that may be oversimplifying it a bit, but whatever) with some actual thought put into the writing. I love this sort of humor, and it’s been far too long since I’ve seen it done well. I’m really looking forward to subs of this, just so I can pick up the shit I missed due to nihongo being totemo muzukashii aniki.
I think this has more potential than anything else this season. Let’s just hope DEEN doesn’t end up squandering it.
Topics: Anime | 5 Comments »
October 3rd, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Possibly the surprise of the season, especially considering DEEN. I found it absolutely hilarious even though I could only understand a small amount of the dialog.
I’m not really expecting DEEN to keep it up, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
October 4th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Thank goodness someone else has the wit to enjoy this humor. The universal chorus of disdain is pretty depressing. I’m not sure whether to hate myself or despise everyone else. I loved the episode. Not same and boring at all, but fresh and weird. Remember that the director did Ichigo Mashimaro, so perhaps we can be confident about the future. I will honestly jump ship if it all goes south, but so far so good.
October 4th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
I’m definitely satisfied. Whether or not it will retain I’m not sure. Since it was dialogue heavy it was nice to follow. Despite its weaknesses, I enjoyed it plenty. And of course, I enjoy Inugami’s design, although that has nothing to do with the anime.
October 4th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
5 characters have zettai ryouiki. Thanks DEEN for nailing that button so hard.
October 5th, 2009 at 1:33 am
I don’t really subscribe to automatic DEEN hate because I liked Higurashi but yeah the first episode was fucking amazing. If this keeps up this show will be anime of the season by a margin.
Unless of course Queens Blade 2 you know.