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「グラヴィシーズ」 (Gurabuishiisu)
“Gravisheath”
With its first cour wrapping up, let’s jump into some final impressions with a little bit of talk about the Urzaiz sisters. Because let’s be honest here — who wouldn’t want more of them?
Note: While technically done, this series is a split 2-cour meaning more episodes will be coming in a later season.
The Urzaiz Sisters Conclusion
Since their introduction, I’ve been curious what kind of path the story would take with Priscilla and Irene. They were introduced quite late into the season, but made a huge impression with how little time they were given. However, it doesn’t do much for us the viewers without some background behind why they’re driven to do what they do. Something the story didn’t forget about and managed to shoehorn in right before the big fight.
In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed the Urzaiz arc. Sure, it might have been a bit spare when it comes to specific details, but we got two great characters that’ll hopefully be making more appearances since they’ve technically been struck off the “bad guy” list. Anyways, on to the somewhat final impressions!
Somewhat Final Impressions
I think this is the first time I’ve covered a split-cour show. And seeing how we’re only at the halfway point, I think it’s only fair we talk about what we’ve seen so far and what we’re hoping for in the future. Starting with the show as a whole, I think it’s pretty easy to say it’s been pretty good for the most part. It had a strong start that captured our attention and even though it stumbled a bit along the way, it managed to make up for the heavy explanations and forced interactions with a strong second half. But I suppose it makes sense that we’d get bombarded with all the nitty gritty details up front in a two-cour show.
On the other hand, we had some fun and engaging episodes whenever the focus shifted toward one of the many other characters that surround Ayato. From the lustful Claudia to the deadpan Saya, there were more than enough personalities to find a favorite. In my opinion, Kirin’s arc was probably my favorite since not only was I really curious what kind of person she was, but because Saya finally got some proper screen time. Never did I expect the previous number one at the academy to be a well-endowed little girl who basically let her sword skills speak for her! And even more surprising was how well Saya managed to sneak in and let some of her own skills shine. Something that may have surprised me even more than those two though may be just how cool Lester became after we found out he wasn’t really a bad guy. As a side character who we saw a grand total of maybe six times, I love how he always made me smile a bit whenever he showed up.
All in all, I think Asterisk has made a fine showing and can only go up from here. With its gargantuan size playing in its favor, I can’t help but think the second-cour will be jam packed with action since most of the little things have been taken are of. With a ton of characters and nearly infinite possibilities, I’ll be happily waiting for the next season to start.
Anyways,a thanks for keeping up with the posts and coming back every week! Hope to catch you guys around the bend next season!
Here’s waiting for the next season. Will Ayato harem increase?
Without a doubt. This is a harem anime.
I’m happy with current 4 Ayato has.
Durara and owarimonogatari came to their end. And this anime put some icing in it. It was an enjoyable winter, but I keep getting this unpleasant feeling when watching the last episode.
I love how every second-fiddle for the adversaries was like “Oh, we just need to contain him for five minutes and we’re good.” Right, like it’ll ever be that easy. Nice change to see the people that are actually in charge not getting cocky and realizing Ayato will probably improve even more before the next clash. Not to mention Julis isn’t exactly helpless.
Only complaint is what I always complain about with harem shows: favorite girl needs more time. But at least here it makes sense, with him being Julis’ partner and the focus on the tournament. Love to see more Claudia-glomping, but she’ll probably be in the back with sporadic appearances until the Festa is over. I’m glad they aren’t skimming Kirin and Saya’s matches too, though.
Though some might disagree, I think Ayato is a good lead. He isn’t really OP anymore, and I like that his nice-guy trait is used well to keep each girl in play. His own goal is kinda a long-term thing, and it’s nice to see him realize that and pay attention to his immediate surroundings instead of just barreling after any clues bout his sister and only helping others when he’s bored or needs something.
Looking forward to next season and more harem-hijinks.
The anime’s adapted Vol 1-3 of the light novels.
Given how faithful the anime’s pacing has been to the books, it’s likely Season 2 will cover Vols 4-6 of the light novels.
Show Spoiler ▼
Music-wise, I hope Rasmus Faber comes up with a composition that matches or surpasses “Waiting For the Rain”. It would be a shame for them to suddenly use generic-sounding J-pop songs for the OP and ED suddenly. (Case in point: Seraph of the End changed from Season 1’s unique sounding OP/ED to a normal J-pop OP/ED fro Season 2.)
Basing off the characters they introduced/showed in the epilogue I think it’s safe to say they will probably cover until right before the start of the Gryps.
Show Spoiler ▼
https://randomc.net/image/Gakusen%20Toshi%20Asterisk/Gakusen%20Toshi%20Asterisk%20-%2012%20-%2039.jpg
Note how both the masked man fighting Haruka in Ep 1 and Steering Committee Chairman Madiath Mesa both have the same distinctive beard cut.
Either Mesa has an evil twin, or he’s responsible for making Haruka disappear.
Asterisk’s author has admitted the Ep 1 fight with Haruka was anime-original, to give viewers the gist of the story’s duel concept. Also, the city of Asterisk was not designed to look like Tokyo, but to have a consolidated, near-future look.
when he appeared to give the open speak to this Tournament, and was looking to our MC. i guess that he was the masked Fighter against his Sister. So there is no surprise here, the only one mystery is. Where did she go? Is she sucked in into her own Weapon, like the Evangelion Mechas solution?
That sudden switch to hand drawn sections was quite the surprise.
https://randomc.net/image/Gakusen%20Toshi%20Asterisk/Gakusen%20Toshi%20Asterisk%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2022.jpg
(Too bad Rakudai Kishi also did the same thing this week.)
The fights so far are rather interesting, with the mix of magic-tec (and not magic) and swordsmanship. Also the shadowy aspect of the floating city of Asterisk is catching on with me. However, seeing the haremnettes moving to “heal” Ayato is kind of unnerving (well, seeing Kirin going off character is already unnerving).
Still, I’ll be staying around when this series rolls in again.
Looked to me like a filter from editing software, like After Effects. If it was hand-drawn, then maybe I use a bit too much Photoshop haha.
Which I found really ugly. A1 tried to do a Silver Link but they failed horribly. A1 should have just sticked to their standard eye candy art during the power-up.
https://randomc.net/image/Gakusen%20Toshi%20Asterisk/Gakusen%20Toshi%20Asterisk%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2023.jpg
Star Wars!!!
and Princess Leia at his side 🙂
Okay, with this Star Wars Hype around the world…
https://randomc.net/image/Gakusen%20Toshi%20Asterisk/Gakusen%20Toshi%20Asterisk%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2025.jpg
Bravo. He wanted to save the “Enemy on the Battlefield”, like Break Blade said, to do that, you need Power. And looks like the Sword allowed him a bit more Power over the Edge to fulfill his “Save the Sister from the Weapon” Job. Yes, next Job to be the Savior, is Claudia it seems. Why else would she tell him her “sad” Story
also seems like they final understand the Secret about his brother “Cavalry”. it is the showing their Love and not hide it
If there’s anything more predictable to close the final it’s to have the antagonist be ramped up of power beyond her control and protagonist pulling similarly bullshit power with no explanations whatsoever. Screw techniques, screw that whatever-style swords, just get your sword as shiny as possible and finish everything in one go. Because that’s how they roll.
Except that Ayato has once used that power at the beginning of episode 7 against the artificial Pleiosaur. He even gave Kirin some explanations back then.
For me this is such a mediocre series, i don’t even know why i watched all 12 episodes, the animation was ok, the characters and their interactions were from your average light novel adaptation (aka meh) and kirito, i mean Ayato, is almost objectively a bad character…
i liked more Rakudai Kishi, the protagonist at least is a true man, and the fights made more sense.
This show falls too much into the unearned Jesus type situation with harem elements. Most of the characters were rather flat.
I preferred Rakudai Kishi.
Agreed that fighting is better on Rakudai.
But characters interaction / story wise, Asterisk totally outshine Rakudai.
Hoping to see more of Claudia and the Urzaiz sisters in the next season.
Being behind several weeks due to work, I decided to wait till the last episode of this season of the show to comment. And at the end of it, with the split season eventually incoming… I find myself interested, but not very.
The worldbuilding in this show is pretty good, which already puts it leaps and bounds ahead of many LNs. You have a system that isn’t really all that great to live in, but has its own opportunities and rewards, and where you can see how it might have seemed a good option in a mostly realistic fashion – more than can be said for, say, Lance N’ Masques and how it’s whole world gave international authority to a bunch of psychos that claim to be knights. You have a cast of colourful characters that each feel like people, with their own motivations, plots, and relations with each other… although some characters feel less real than others (more later). You have antagonists who don’t appear to have the singular goal in life of screwing the main character over. And you have a main female character that regularly has plot relevance and feels like a real partner to the main character.
The problem is that a lot of that doesn’t quite make up for how formulaic some of the plot progression is. The first couple of arcs were perfectly fine – but Kirin’s arc, besides dealing with the character I liked the least of the main cast, given that her personality is basically moeblob waifu, was by the book from beginning to end, despite having a golden opportunity (that even had a plothook already included) for Saya to resolve the issue instead of Ayato. And then you had Irene and Priscilla’s thing, which was literally resolved by a deus ex machina, insofar as Ser=Veresta is a machine. And, frankly, I hope the original LN has a few more introspective monologues for Ayato, because while not a terrible character in the abstract, he is definitely bland for a main character – a fault made all the more obvious by how vibrant the rest of the main cast is. And while I don’t usually care too much about fight scenes, it’s unquestionable that the direction for said fight scenes was generally poor for this show… something I generally forgive because of staff/funding constraints, but in this case it was often obvious they could do better. Specifically, any fight that involved Kirin was noticeably better directed and higher quality than any other fight – a fact which makes how poorly handled the episode 12 fight was somewhat obnoxious.
On the whole, it still managed to be interesting enough that I’ll watch the next season. But at the present time, as much as I like individual characters like Julis, Saya, Claudia, and Dirk, the show in general is more on the level of ‘watch for fun when I have time’ rather than ‘must watch when able’.
I got to see my waifu at the end, so I am content! GO TEAM SYLVIE!!!
we NEED season two!
there is just so many interesting characters we got only glimpse of yet, so many fights to be won…
and so many mysteries within the Asterisk city to be revealed