Alternate titles: N / A
Air date: ???
Genres / themes: action,
Review based on the first 1 episode(s)
Ogura Sio is the reincarnation of legendary historical figure Oda Nobunaga. This apparently gives her badass powers when she takes the ball of another E-Gene holder, Jack the Ripper, to rain hell down on the Evolutionary Invasion Objects (giant icky space bugs) that threaten the life of Asao Kaoru, a classmate who extended a hand in friendship to the socially graceless Sio on their class trip to Taiwan.
[Screenshots later]
Story: Giant creepy attacking bug-things, secret organizations, special powers, defending a friend-none of these things are new and none of them were executed particularly skillfully or gracefully. It seems likely the show will follow the typical paths from here, but it could go on to be its own thing. C.
Characters: There are no particularly original characters here, although Sio is both believable and fairly likable. She's got some quirks, but she's able to pull herself together in a crisis and she was willing to risk her own life to save another person. Jack the Ripper came off as your typical slightly-crazy dude and both of the other E-Gene holders (Gandhi and Newton) appear semi-interesting, if not original. B-, for likable and believable if unoriginal characters.
Animation: On all aspects-backgrounds, movement, character designs, etc-the art was underwhelming. Character designs were simple and relatively distinctive, but cartoonish and goofy-looking without style. Movement lacked fluidity and more than once Sio struck some sort of pose and looked disproportionately off-putting. The colours and gradients were more appealing, and combined with the use of odd angles were effectively wacky and in-tune with the show. There were a few parts where the use of colours and character poses made for some badass scenes, though. C+.
Music: Nobunagun has a pretty rad soundtrack. The background music was offten reminiscent of old 8-, 16- and 32-bit soundtracks. It was creative, fun and used effectively. The song played at the end (which I'm assuming is the opening theme, by the energy level) was distinctive and appropriate but not broadly appealing. A-.
Surprisingly watchable so far. Of the four E-gene holders we know of, half are female and neither of them are white (although we have yet to see how stereotypes play into the rest of Jack's team). They've also yet to be objectified. Sio also used her power in protecting a female friend, not because of a guy. Tentative POSITIVE TWO.
BOTTOM LINE?
It always makes me sad when the shows that are more watchable (if only barely) than others are also the ones with sub-par animation and unoriginal stories. Sort of recommended. The show's not great, but it's not particularly off-putting as of yet, either.
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