Krozam

I'm so glad this is the kind of anime that's much better as a whole than the first episode indicates. The storytelling in the first ep is jumpy as hell and seriously incoherent. Fortunately, the second episode is just jumpy and even the jumpiness is reduced to normal by the fifth ep.

The reason why I'm glad about that is because the concept is right up my alley: a confident magician girl travels a fantasy world, accompanied by two cool guys and experiencing various adventures. It's kind of clichéd, but as long as it doesn't develop into a serious love triangle, I like that sort of settings.

I also like the characters. The cold guy is neither a bastard nor particularly emo, the funny guy isn't just funny but also cool, the girl isn't annoying (at least to me) or weak, she's pretty cool at times... and all three of them are totally overwhelming against most enemies. XD Sure, that means there isn't much excitement in battles, but combined with style that suits my tastes, it makes for good entertainment. I like characters who kick ass with style, never getting nervous. Especially when they have mysterious, tragic pasts. And when they're voiced by good seiyuu.

Even in the first episode, where I didn't know the characters yet and the storytelling was incoherent, there was one thing supporting this anime: hilarious dialogue. I wouldn't go as far as to say that the dialogue is brilliant, but it's clearly above average throughout the anime. It's the one thing in this anime that never fails, and out of all the elements, it gets the highest score from me.

The plot... well, there's not much of a plot, really. The whole thing is rather episodic, and you can't put much complexity into an arc of one or two eps. (BTW, the best arcs are the two dual-episode arcs.) But I don't mind, it's entertaining enough to watch the characters solve various problems in one or two episodes, while deepening their bonds and slowly exploring each others' dark pasts. Not forever, of course, but it's not difficult to later introduce longer arcs into settings like this. In fact, I have a feeling that there was a longer arc coming right as the anime ended.

Some of the episodes present rather interesting themes, often arising from tragedy. The arcs all have some tragic elements, but despite that the overall tone is light enough to not drive away someone who dislikes tragedy like me. There's a contemplative tone to the tragedy, as if the purpose was to make you think, rather than feel. I'd say this is slightly deeper and more thought-provoking than the average anime.

The BG musics are nothing memorable, but the OP and ED are quite good in my opinion. Overall, atmosphere isn't one of the strong points in this anime, but it's not like there isn't any. The three main characters all have well-chosen seiyuu, and they do their work with professional quality, though this is hardly the role of their life for any of them. Decent voice acting all around.

It's too bad this anime was obviously a low-investment project: the animation quality is quite bad and the whole thing is only 10 episodes long. It's too damn short! I think there's serious potential in the concept and characters, and there are 12 volumes of manga. The ending isn't bad, it's decently fulfilling while leaving a door open for more seasons, but... I was left wanting more, and I fear I'm not going to get more any time soon.

Overall, not bad. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, but I'm hesitant to give a high score because of some glaring flaws and the fact that I can attribute much of that enjoyment to the settings and characters being "right up my alley".