LEERON HAS A TWIN!!!!
See?!? This series qualifies as ‘fricking insane’ already! And there’s an ‘aniki’ character too!
Gurren-Lagann similarities aside, though, this first episode was actually better than I expected. I was rather pessimistic about it since seeing the promo, so it was a very pleasant surprise to be very amused and in suspense in the same episode. I don’t know if anything’s really done that to me since the first episode of, heck, Gurren-Lagann.
The episode gets off to a hectic start, but makes its premise very clear: young women are being caught by a monster-type things and turned to glass. A detective/rescue agency of sorts is given a dangerous assignment, and the two girls of the agency end up attempting it. They end up almost getting killed, as the cargo they are assigned to protect turns out to be a woman with some sort of magic powers (or something; we get no explanation this episode.) The agency members help the woman escape from some other organization, which also got no explanation.
The typicality of this episode was almost a turn-off, but the details were so unpredictable it made it fun. For example, after the suspenseful scenes about the girl turned to glass, we get this strange slice-of-life scene where a hyper girl named Manami adopts an abandoned turtle. Then, after several minutes of near-randomness, we get introduced to the Leeron clone Porilyn, and the real action begins.
The action, by the way, is about as realistic as it gets. Instead of taking out the bad guys with high kicks n’ panty shots, our non-magical heroines quiver in terror as the magical chick struggles against her assailants. The main guy doesn’t have God-like powers, either; he barely succeeds in taking out one of the bad guys’ cars. So far, this show seems to be attempting to stress that its characters are semi-normal (albeit good-looking) people in paranormal situations, and I like that aspect of it. The only problem I have with its premise is that it’s just like Code Geass with the hot-magical-chick-chased-by-government bit.
I’m pretty sure I’ll be sticking around for the second episode, regardless of the fact that I had no intention of watching this in the first place. ^_^;; At this point, Crystal Blaze is a lively but flawed combination of interesting characters and action. Let’s hope that it keeps its act together and doesn’t turn to total crap as some action-laden fantasies tend to do.
CJ’s Rating: 8 out of 10 California rolls
CJ
stardragon
alexkun
Crisu
Janette
rakuen42
Dave
This series is straddling the line between typically average and somehow somewhat worthwhile for me. I don’t think it’ll turn out to be total crap, but I guess I don’t feel as much of a compulsion to continue watching past the 2nd episode.