(12 episodes)
What’s it about ?
You know those light novel adaptations about girls falling into a boring protagonist’s lap, with a generic fantasy setting ? Well, this isn’t one of the many ones we’re getting this season ; it’s actually adapted from a manga series. But it sure fooled me.
Characters
Takamiya, our generic high-school-student male lead. You can see this is adapted from a light novel because he’s constantly narrating or monologuing, when he should really just shut up and let the story happen. There’s certainly absolutely nothing of interest in his commentary. To the point that it’s a relief when a building drops onto him.
Kagari, the girl sitting next to him in class. She’s ridiculously popular, with a humongous fanclub stalking her, and bullying Takamiya when he gets a bit too close to her by accident. She also looks permanently zoned out, never letting any emotion show on her blank face. Also, he learns that she’s sticking close to him on purpose, so as to protect him from magical attacks. You see, he’s Important ; he’s to be her “Princess”. (Yes, you read that right. He has no clue what the heck either.) Also, she’s a Fire Witch, and quite a powerful one.
Kuraishi, the catgirl witch behind the attacks. She deals with illusion magic, so unfortunately a building didn’t really drop onto Takamiya. On the other hand, she can also command armies of armoured rabbit dolls, or whatever those hordes are. Kagari makes short work of those, but they do look quite threatening until then.
The attacker wasn’t actually a student in this school, but she transfers in at the end, together with four others who look just as antagonistic.
Production Values
Wow, there’s quite a bit of budget here ; the fights looks very good indeed. The visuals for the hordes of rabbits are a lot of fun (and there’s quite some attention to detail to give each some personality), and there are also nice visual gags for the bullying shots. The soundtrack is very good, too : the score is very atmospheric indeed.
Overall Impression
Hmm. I was planning to give this a pass, because seriously this story is the kind of generic crap we get several times over each season. But the directing is impressive enough to make me take notice ; it’s a great-looking and -sounding package.
Against my better judgement, I’m going to give it a second episode.
