THE STAFF - Animated by Nomad, a minor studio which has never produced something great. Its most famous shows is this one and a rather silly mediocrity, called Chocotto Sister. - Directed by some nobody who has made nothing but trash ecchi shows.- Based on the light novel of another nobody who never adapted anything else. SPECIFICS Watching this show one will eventually wonder what exactly the point is. I mean, you clearly see there is a story in it but the directing is plain ludicrous, jumping from one scene to another, or even from one point in time to an entirely different one, with little regard to smooth transition or proper explanation to the viewer. And then you look at the character designs and you easily figure it out. IT’S FREAKING MOE! The animators chose style over substance and thus most of what you see is cute girls doing cute things. All the rest, to heck with them. Which is a shame since the story had potential to be very good. It is a setting where magic and technology bind together and all sorts of supernatural things can happen through computers and cell phones. It is also about the villains in the story trying to manipulate encoding memories and powers stored in relics and people for power and authority. And it’s also about our heroines fighting them just to protect the traditions of old, while maintaining the balance of the world. Very good so far but you see on screen is a bunch of confusing scenes, placed poorly one next to the other, that usually don’t even follow a line of thought, motif, or even emotions. So what you watch is something like this: Two girls are fighting a villain with superpowers. Now we are back in time when one girl meets the villain. Now the other girl comes from the future to aid her. Now they are fighting again. Now they eat cake and buy clothes. Now they type codes on a computer. Now they are having a bath. Now they are fighting again. It’s all a scrambled pile of unfitting with one another scenes, mostly around cute girls and weird explanations of how magic works in this series. The end result is plain horrible; not only you can’t follow the plot but you also end up being bored with the moe girls since they look generic and act even more generic. Character development is close to zero, and even the hints of evolution or dramatic exposure they try to show are all messed up to be confusing and superficial.Being moe means high production values. Despite the generic looks the girls are indeed cute looking and do cute things, talk with a cute voice and even fight in a cute way. The artwork on clothes and backgrounds is detailed and colorful and the battles look interesting with all those visual effects that combine cell phones, magic staves and … cooking pots. Eventually they are all messed up as well since you have a hard time even understanding what exactly they are doing or why they are even doing it but it still looks nice. Oh, and expect the usual erotic humor as well. There is not much of it but it’s there because they are supposed to be sexy moe girls. FINAL THOUGHTS Down to it, this is a bad show because of the horrible directing. The story is interesting, the visuals and the OST are quite well made, but the plot is scrambled, the characters are generic, and there is always Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha to put this show to shame with its own version of technological magic. Replay value is almost zero, enjoyment is low just because of the interesting concept. Not recommended. And now for some excused scorings.
ART SECTION: 7/10 Analysis: General Artwork 2/2, Character Figures 2/2, Backgrounds 1/2, Animation 1/2, Visual Effects 1/2 SOUND SECTION: 6/10 Analysis: Voice Acting 1/3, Music Themes 3/4, Sound Effects 2/3 STORY SECTION: 2/10 Analysis: Premise 1/2, Pacing 0/2, Complexity 0/2, Plausibility 0/2, Conclusion 1/2 CHARACTER SECTION: 5/10 Analysis: Presence 1/2, Personality 1/2, Backdrop 1/2, Development 1/2, Catharsis 1/2 VALUE SECTION: 1/10 Analysis: Historical Value 0/3, Rewatchability 0/3, Memorability 1/4 ENJOYMENT SECTION: 1/10 Analysis: Art 1/1, Sound 0/2, Story 0/3, Characters 0/4 VERDICT: 3.5/10