shikabane hime aka 1
Categories: anime, episodic review
Tagged: shikabane hime
20 Comments »
GAINAX and Feel team up to bring yet another cute girl hunts monster of the week with an overwhelmed everyman anime with a theme centered around death. That hasn’t been done before, has it?
(Soul Eater… Busou Renkin… Shakugan no Shana… D.Gray Man… Ga-Rei… Otome wa Boku… Kaze no Stigma… Bleach… nah.)
A scene setter episode– didn’t blow me away but didn’t disappoint me either. The plot, the setup, everything seems pretty straightforward. The only real unknowns right now are (a) why does Makina fight the other shikabane and (b) what role is Ouri going to play? If this series aired two years ago, I probably would have also asked (c) how will GAINAX screw up the ending.
(See, anime studios can shed their previous stereotypes– introducing “Lyle” didn’t help your cause, Sunrise!)
Letters from the Dead
We get two Makina shower scenes. If this becomes a running item much like Yuno’s bath scenes in Hidamari Sketch, I think it can potentially push Shikabane Hime up a notch.
(Too bad the Scar-tan meme nickname is already taken…)
Maybe I’ll add another question (d) how did Makina originally die and (d2) where’d she get all those scars?
Multiple choice!
(a) I like where this is going…
(b) A priest assault a defenseless girl? Unpossible!
(c) She still has more clothes on than Yoko… BOOOOO!
Gotta admit I was happy when Makina broke out her uzis… that’s one difference Shikabane Hime has over the other series that I mentioned earlier… she doesn’t use a sharp weapon. I like it whenever a story realizes the best weapon possible and utilizes it.
Consider: in Harry Potter, arrows of the centaur were effective against evil wizards. Why the hell is Harry bothering with magic and wands when hijacking a MLRS is all he really needs to do and missile spam to his heart’s content.
Consider: in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The One claims that he cannot be killed by any mortal man, and Buffy has a heck of a time trying to kill him. Until she acquired a bazooka from the nearby Sunnydale military outfit and blew him up with it.
Where’s Mahoro when you need her?
An episode about a harem killer, and no time was spent on showing off said harem? *sigh*
(I wonder how many of my readers noticed that there’s no one under 21 in this harem and went, “Thanks, but no thanks.”)
But the “Onii-chan!” attack is usually so successful.
Why does she remind me of a cross between Haru (Xamd), Haruka (Love Hina), and Misao (Clannad) all rolled up into one? That’s some first impression, eh?
I give that slap a 7 out of 10. Seems more painful but not as dramatic as the slap Ranka laid on Sheryl.
The Anti-Spiral drawing style… it’s going to be very difficult for GAINAX to top Gurren Lagann, so why remind us of Gurren Lagann? Are all the evil shikabane going to be drawn like the Anti-Spirals? Or will the next one resemble Ramiel?
20 Responses to “shikabane hime aka 1”
Leave a Reply
I wonder why Keisei had to rip open Makiana’s clothes the first time to revive her…
and your 6th screencap doesnt really make sense..
>>(I wonder how many of my readers noticed that there’s no one under 21 in this harem and went, “Thanks, but no thanks.â€)
With your readers, I wouldn’t be surprised if changing the 21 to 14 didn’t affect the answer much…
Probably just me, but does anyone else think Makina’s face looks abit like Asuka?
Also, according to ANN, Makina needs to kill 108 corpses in order to go to heaven, which explains the why she fights bit.
The first episode didn’t convince me … the fighting was kinda boring, the story very typical … I prefer Index or Yozakura for cute girls fighting ^^;
“But the “Onii-chan!†attack is usually so successful.”
damn… one of my weakness…
oh yes, don’t you want to blog linebarrels and make fun of it? But be careful, it can make you really aggressiv …
Reminded me a bit of Bakuman. The two main characters want to draw a manga and discuss what to put in. One of them suggest taking whats popular and mentions one element ALL current superpopular mangas have in common: Swords.
I too was pleasantly suprised with the guns.
I would not bet against a resurgent Studio Gainax. Style, pacing, instant personal connection, all of these innumerable, intangible quantities that mark Gainax productions anything but average are present. Even such a contrived plot that’s been done before can seem fresh and exciting to this old otaku geezer. I would not miss it for anything else.
I thought the episode was highly disappointing for one reason.
The juxtaposition of the comedy with the action scenes was horrifically jarring.
I was much more happy with the first episode of Ga-Rei for my supernatural anime this season. Although the CG was a bit too Blassreiter-ish at some points.
I think this series has quite a bit of potential. I found the first few chapters of the manga scanalated a few months ago and it just seems pretty fun. Since it is GAINAX I think I’ll keep watching and see what happens. You never know, I wasn’t horribly impressed with what was it, the fourth or fifth episode of Gurren Lagann either. This series has some interesting characters.
I’ve read the first chapter of the manga, and I liked this anime adaptation more. I think the manga chapter dragged its feet around too much, was too typical “omg zombies” and the art wasn’t anything remarkable. Anime seems to skip the zombie story and introduces Shikabanehime to us in a different manner.
Not that it really matters, but I noticed they didn’t really explain (in manga or anime) why they need the hime to kill shikabane – as far as I can tell she uses normal uzis to do the job, and no special power.
Not too impressed yet, very generic sort of premise. Sort of wish this wasn’t a manga adaptation which would have given GAINAX a little more freedom in terms of plot and character development.
And I wonder what exactly that cat is to Ouri. Strange telepathic cat.
http://derailedbydarry.com/ima.....01/005.jpg
Bedroom eyes?
This has all the earmarks of your normal okay GAINAX first episode, which means that from here it can either writhe in its mediocrity (as with Konomini) or build off of first impressions and become something awesome (Gurren, Eva, Yuushi). I’ll be watching this with interest.
I’m enjoying your commentary and looking forward to more in the coming weeks, since your coverage is always fun to read
aside from the Shinji-bashing darn you.And let me be the first(?) to say that Makina has scrumptious eyebrows.
Well if you have these sword wielding heroes using shotguns and assault rifles (as defined by say Counterstrike and not Congress) then these shows would be pretty boring wouldn’t they?
On a side note, in a world where the norms are running around with everything from revolvers to nukes, why are wizards in Potter land worried about a relatively slow moving green death beam?
seems to look like something with potential, although Gainax will need to up their work level in order for that to happen. 1st ep was just too plain and unattractive despite serving out potential awesome-ness for the future.
“Otome wa Boku”
Wait what?
I think I am the only one here who thinks that a sword might be a better weapon choice than 2 uzis. Try just taking 2 semi-auto ruger p94’s or something, these things have light weight and recoil and see how well one can hit from lets say 10 feet while standing still, its very difficult. Now pretend the weight of the gun has almost quadrupled, the recoil has increased, its full auto, and firing them while moving about. If you have that degree of muscular strength, endurance, and control, you are much better off with a melee weapon. Or if one wants range, get a bloody rifle.
>>(I wonder how many of my readers noticed that there’s no one under 21 in this harem and went, “Thanks, but no thanks.â€)
…Add 1 to that tally.
>>But the “Onii-chan!†attack is usually so successful.
It always is. without fail. Of course it’s not as disturbing as the “Otou-san” attack you get playing Princess Maker… *shudder* why does it work….
Consider first, before insulting the weapons choice that this is fiction, and she is undead. She could very well have superstrength or something. We don’t know.