Ok. I've seen most reviews of this (if not all) are super positive, so I am most likely setting myself up for some hate. Still, I've relied on the popularity of this anime when I decided to watch it, and so I must warn others like me.
We'll do the watch if list first, then we'll move on to the rant.
Watch this if:
- You thoroughly enjoyed Maken-Ki 2,
- You believe female characters should jiggle their breasts with every spoken word,
- It makes absolute sense to you that children rule the world and grownups are background,
- Blurring and 256 shades of gray make the world look pretty to you,
- consistent plot is only marginally important.
Do not watch this if:
- You are a woman
- You are over 18
- Plot is something you care for
- You watch animated series to enjoy detailed drawing and colors
- not a lolicon
Allright. If you got this far feel free to insult me in the comments below. Now off to the specifics (spoiler-ridden, so if you're still going to watch... actually no, read anyway. It's not like any part of the plot so far could in any way surprise anyone with average or higher IQ):
Animation / Drawing
This is by far the worst thing I've seen as of late. Even the anime with 3D models (which I do not care for) are better. When I got my hands on the first episode I actually scrapped it and got a 1080p version thinking there might be something wrong with mine - I was mistaken.
First thing that pops into mind when watching this is: "did their background artist quit and no replacements were available?". The whole thing is utterly dark. And I don't mean that in a good way. It's like watching a CAM movie straight off the cellphone of your friend who went to the cinema for the pre-screening. If some parts require light or would have otherwise forced the artists to do some actual work, they are being clouded in a gray "fog". Who needs backgrounds and details if we can just blur and gray everything out, no one will notice! Well, I noticed. When the characters speak it's like a sock-puppet show. Simply making their mouth orifice open and close is not enough, really it isn't.
One could say battle scenes are better.... if one is currently heavily medicated.
Weapon designs are poor, and only vary slightly by color , or rather the glow they give off, which also seems like it's been 3D rendered. Character movement reminds me of LEGO motion pictures. Battle scenes themselves (apart from being utterly dark and boring) are completely uneventful and make no sense at all. Sometimes a character will go down after taking a single punch/shot, sometimes they will (for no reason at all) take multiple of the same and be almost fine. Mostly you will see still frames of CGI-based "colors" and that is that.
Sound
Although it's nothing to write home about, it's actually also the strongest point of this series. The opening is, anyway. The VA is not half bad, although due to the above-mentioned animation problems it still feels that way.
Characters
Plain, generic, boring.
You have your usual abundance of girls, most equipped with what I can only describe as lower-back injury waiting to happen. They are your typical harem characters as bland and generic as you can possibly get.
The whole "school" is actually ran by a child. There seems to be literally hundreds of students, but only one class, one teacher (also an adolescent) and no grownups whatsoever (except for the occasional night watchman or janitor in the background, if you can see past the gray-black fog).
As for the males there are two besides the protagonist. One does not speak (most likely to make his character stand out more, as he is also bland like spring water) and one wears glasses - that's about it.
The protagonist is also nothing special, but considering where he is I'd do the same. Why try if you're already set up to fail by your surroundings.
Plot
[sarcasm] Bread and butter of this anime. The reason why everyone watches it and definitely not for the boobs..... [/sarcasm]
A guy is accepted to a school (oh the novelty of it all..) , and immediately has to fight to stay in ... with the only friend he just met. Wait... what would his parents say to something like this, right? Wrong. As mentioned before there are no grownups in this anime, not even in mention. The protagonists backstory consists of 8 seconds of flashbacks to where he sees a guy with a sword kill a bunch of people for being weak. He does not have a family, nor a place of origin, though it is mentioned in passing he knows the "guy in glasses". His name is "Tor" or "Thor" however you decide, and so he also has a super technique that no one else has, and that has no basis in whatever story the anime tries so desperately to hold on to, called "mjolnir" (which was a hammer and his is a bare-fist attack). So after being pitted against eachother in one of the most dull battles in anime history, the protagonist wins (surprises everywhere!) and gets accepted to ... well.. a "school".
As mentioned before , it has one teacher. That teacher also tries to kill the best promising students as soon as she gets the chance. She then fails, gets beaten... and re-hired as a teacher in the same position, to teach the people she just tried to murder. The explanation is "she gets results" .... right. [sarcasm] Makes sense. [/sarcasm] There is absolutely zero explanation to her motives or any other backstory.
The children then "level up" (LITERALLY!) by getting injected with some experimental stuff (also absolutely unexplained part for the few pictures the teacher made on her blackboard) - thank god they got no parents to speak of!
All in all this feels more like a plot for a fighter game then anime.
Overall
Stay away from this trash if you value your time.
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