OP Sequence

OP: 「OVERLAPPERS」 by Qverktett

「『異変』アルファ・エピソード」 ((Ihen) Arufa Episoodo)
“(Unusual Phenomenon) Alpha Episode”

Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you were an innocent high school kid who suddenly and inexplicably gained supernatural powers? Well if you haven’t don’t worry — Studio Trigger did all the work for you!

General Synopsis for people too lazy to check out the Preview

Set in a typical Japanese High School, this show focuses on the lives of five friends who are all members of the literature club. Typically spending their days joking around in their clubroom, everything changed when the only guy in the group, Andou Jurai, was busy screwing around and unleashing his inner chuunibyou. Channeling his inner Dark Flame Dragon, a bright light suddenly came from his hand and bestowed powers to everyone around him.

Overall Impressions

Honestly, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this show. I leapt straight on it after realizing that Trigger would be behind things but for a first episode it started off awfully slow. The initial premise was enough to keep me from closing the video but I was really surprised to find myself not really getting into it until the halfway point. That said, I think the point where everything started to click for me was probably when Tomoyo and Chifuyu finally unleashed their ridiculously OP powers during their “magical” physical.

However, the glue that manages to hold this show together is definitely Ju-kun who’s voiced by the always emphatic Okamoto Nobuhiko. His random bursts of chuunibyou make scenes that would be fairly boring pretty exciting and even though he’s basically stuck on being comedic relief when the air gets a little heavy he manages to put out just enough cool to lift him out of being stuck in the derpy/dense category. But what got me so attached to him (and the show to a lesser extent) is the way he loves that useless power of his. While I whole heartily expect that useless dark flame to do something epic down the road, how can you not root for him for keeping such a positive attitude after everyone around him got such cool abilities!?

Which brings me to the an additional point that kept me watching — the cast that supports Ju-kun. Although no one comes close in rivaling how passionate Ju-kun is about the whole ordeal, things wouldn’t be the same without people on the side questioning his decisions and priorities. Each girl in the group brings their own unique personality that helps mellow him out and possible love interest / tsundere / closest chuuni Tomoyo is probably my favorite.

At the end of the day, I’m surprised how hit or miss this show could be for some viewers. If the premise was enough to get you watching then I think you’re in for a fun ride. While things might be a bit slower than what I expected, it’s far from being too slow. The characters and their personalities seem to have more than enough oopmh to create dynamic situations and it probably doesn’t hurt that there’s some serious seiyuu firepower behind them. Sure I’d love to see more of the supernatural elements but it makes sense that you wouldn’t whip them out in a world that doesn’t normally have these things. Overall it’s a pretty solider offering from Trigger. While it’s no Kill La Kill (at least not yet), it has its own charm that shines brightly through the characters. I’m definitely giving it the 3-episode treatment and judging from how crazy the preview looked it seems that this show still has a lot its holding back.

P.S. That Dark Flame that Ju-kun wields is like the embodiment of the thousands of hours I spent playing with friends way back when #nostalgia. Also, the BGM for this show is pretty spot on.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「You Gotta Love Me!」 by かと*ふく (Kato*Fuku)

Preview

44 Comments

  1. Take the male lead out and the show would’ve been far more enjoyable. No, i’m serious. His loud and ridiculous attitudes despite having the lamest power of all totally got on my nerves

    Amiluhur
    1. It’s meant to be funny because even though he’s the only one who actually cares about having powers, he has an utterly useless skill as opposed to all those completely op skills the girls have. You can just see it eating him up from the inside when they kept calling it useless.

      And yes, like Divini said, the fact that he treasures his power, despite his disdain over it being useless, makes it look like he’s just happy he has powers at all.

      Kuntzy
  2. I like it so far and how OP some of their powers are.

    Chifuyu and her power of creation is probably my favorite one, although it’s scary at the same time cus if she ever had a mental breakdown I fear she would literally destroy reality. (I wonder if she can give people new powers? or additional ones)

    And then you have Hatoko who is literally the “Avatar” the master of all four elements. Now she just has to start blood bending Mwahahahaha!!!

    ProfChaos
  3. Seems like a take off of Seitokai no Ichizon and related series, just with a chuuni male MC instead of a wannabe/oblivious harem lead. Either way it’s going to need the 3 episode rule to see how well the humour holds up now that the introductions are out of the way.

    So far IMO Kokkuri-san is leading the pack this season in terms of comedy with Inou Battle coming up second.

    Pancakes
  4. I was under the impression that the show would be about “what happens if you gain superpowers and absolutely nothing changes in your daily life” but it seems that the show immediately decided to go after the “people with superpowers spawn their enemies too” route. Though the premise and the guy’s chuunibyo makes me wonder what would have happened if Rikka had actually gained real superpowers from her eye. Now that I would have paid to see. As for this show I think I’ll go with a few more episode to see how the story goes. Though I admit the “lukewarm flame” really got me.

    gawrshness
  5. I sense a wackiness level similar to Rokujou here, since in a sense both pilot episodss didn’t quite grab my attention like a few did this season. It does look to be a fun ride though if the viewer is prepared to leave part of bis brains behind, considering how seriously overpowered their powers look.

    TBH, I’ll probably need a coupld more episodes to warm up to the characters, but Ju-kun does seem like a ton of fun, as well as Tomoyo. As always, first impressions matter, but they don’t tell the whole story, so I’m expecting some secret power from Ju-kun eventually.

    On the whole, a fun pilot episode. Did enough to introduce the main characters and kept some random hilarity up. Give it a couple morr episodes, people. You just might be surprised. 😉

    Owaranai
  6. “Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you were an innocent high school kid who suddenly and inexplicably gained supernatural powers? ”

    This is the byline for 80% of animes.

    Miaminights
  7. This was pretty fun, nice light comedy and pretty good art too. It’d be nice if there were a few more male characters just to round things out some more, but I really don’t have any other complaints. So far it’s firmly in “pretty good” territory, but hasn’t shown itself to be exceptional.

    Hochmeister
    1. *facepalms*

      That was such an epic fail…

      Intended response to Pancakes. Maybe it’s time to go to sleep.

      Well, since I’m here, I might as well add my impressions instead of making another new post.

      One thing I liked is that they dealt with the introductions quickly and pretty much managed to show us to the quirks of the characters before the opening even started. Speaking of before the opening, I almost thought that anime was starting to troll me with the aspect ratios of the first five minutes and Grisaia. I like my 16:9 perfectly fine and I’m not ready for the next era yet.

      In the end, I’d say it was pretty fun. It didn’t throw anything particularly amazing at you, but I can honestly say there wasn’t anything I had a problem with.

      Well, that’s not true. I do have one problem.

      https://randomc.net/image/Inou%20Battle%20wa%20Nichijou-kei%20no%20Naka%20de/Inou%20Battle%20wa%20Nichijou-kei%20no%20Naka%20de%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2018.jpg

      https://randomc.net/image/Inou%20Battle%20wa%20Nichijou-kei%20no%20Naka%20de/Inou%20Battle%20wa%20Nichijou-kei%20no%20Naka%20de%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2011.jpg

      https://randomc.net/image/Inou%20Battle%20wa%20Nichijou-kei%20no%20Naka%20de/Inou%20Battle%20wa%20Nichijou-kei%20no%20Naka%20de%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2010.jpg

      Which one’s best girl?

      *senses someone staring at me*

      Kay, maybe scratch that last one… -_-;

      Kuntzy
    1. Yeah it was very funny to see his club-mates go all out with their seriously OP abilities. Then he breaks out this useless flame that he talks to every morning/night. Pretty funny.

      Rick Anime
  8. High school, Check
    loli in sight, Check
    Teenagers are the mian cast, Check

    Yeah to be honest I’d probably pass on this show fast because I’ve seen too many anime featuring that unless it has a unique twist

    Well this one has a great hook plus it is made by TRIGGER

    Picking this one up. Because TRIGGER makes great stuff 🙂

    I actually liked the characters. Especially the only guy in the bunch. Ju-kun or whatever his name was

    Rick Anime
  9. I’ll also be following this to see how it goes. The girls are all cute, and so far my favorites have got to be the Student Council President Mirei and Hatoko. I really thought it was Mamiko Noto voicing Hatoko too.

    Zhinvu
  10. The characters are great. I love how the plot puts more focus on the characters and their funny interactions than the powers themselves. Sad to see this won’t be covered, but then again, there are a LOT of good shows this season.

    bolton
  11. Can’t help but love this MC. The guy just loves his useless power so much. I suppose you could say his true power is that of the harem lead. But really with all those girls around him getting such insane abilities, it does say something about his personality that he could keep such an optimistic personality going. Honestly I’d probably be much less cheerful and maybe somewhat resentful. The guy who wants those powers the most gets something useless. I actually hope his power gets to do something epic before the show is over.

    Really it’s not a bad setup. The personalities are solid and the abilities are pretty over the top. It’d be a fun debate on which power you’d like to have the most.

    I’ll certainly keep watching just for some of the laughs we should have along the way.

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