OP Sequence

OP: 「マモリツナグ」 (Mamori Tsunagu) by Rin Akatsuki

「水銀、陸怜と出会う!」 (Suigin, Riku Rei to deau!)
“Suigen Meets Riku Rei!”

Confession time, I was secretly looking forward to Gin no Guardian. As the Spring Preview helpfully indicated, this one was basically the season’s “trapped in another world” show, and I definitely have a thing for these types of shows. Yeah the source might be a manhua—and manhua have received some pretty lackluster adaptations so far—but I pride myself on adaptation open mindedness. Well, so long as Bloodivores remain firmly ensconced in the dark corner of “never think about that”.

What primarily deflated my hype here is Gin no Guardian’s weekly duration. Thirteen minutes (including OP and ED mind you) is not a lot of time for world building, let alone character introductions, and this episode stumbled because of it. We have the ever pretty, stupidly rich, and incredibly smart Riku Rei (Saito Yuka) who is everyone’s big sister, and apparently has a connection to our designated MC Riku Suigen (Fukuyama Jun). How are they connected? Good question, that’s for next week. As for the ever normal Suigen, apparently he cannot swim, likes games, and for some reason was battling a horde of undead outside a ziggurat mausoleum. No idea why of course, but when “protect the world” and “return to the pink-haired stunner” are dropped in the same sentence you know it must be super serious business. At least Wanchoi is amusing in the sense he (she?) breaks from the usual sidekick conventionality.

To Gin no Guardian’s credit, however, this character/premise confusion will likely end once some explanations are forthcoming next week. I may have tempered expectations now having seen this episode, but there’s still enough interesting tangents present to at least support sticking around for a couple more episodes. Given the animation especially is a pretty big step up compared to previous Haoliners shows, I actually have little to really complain about all things considered. With a game world and “save the princess” trope buried somewhere in this story, it’s hard not remaining curious seeing how the whole thing unfolds. Yeah, Gin no Guardian could certainly fall apart at the seams, but hey, it might not. After all, we’ve got cat girls!

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「The Game」 by RiyO

Preview

15 Comments

  1. I read the manhua (mangapark) and i got to be honest that i almost didn’t recognize this premiere @_@

    The pilot is so different than the manhua that i thought it was a completely different story lol

    Hopefully they do justice with this adaptation.

    yfred
    1. I read a lot about that but didn’t know if it was true, thanks for confirming!
      And yeah all we can do is hope it turns out good. I admit I’m not that optimistic, but then I was expecting standard length episodes lol.

  2. Not a bad first ep. It looks like it will continue to alternate between the “past” and “present” of the story until it reaches the middle point, a kind of modified Mediasres. But so far so good. I hope this bodes well for the rest of the series this season

    Juan
  3. I’ve read the manhwa and the synopsis for the anime is very misleading. This isn’t isekai or SAO. It’s more like Assassin’s Creed without the genetic memory bullshit. It had some good ideas but it shoots itself in the head a few times.

    bakato
    1. Oh agreed it’s definitely not the same as SAO (or others), but the gaming aspect and Suigen being trapped is better explained for some by dropping that name IMO. Do hope it doesn’t run off the rails though, I want to like this lol.

    1. I think Haoliners took a good long, hard look in the mirror after Spirit Pact/Bloodivores and decided something needed to change. Improving the animation certainly is one way to grow their sales figures.

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