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No. 1109
I'll have to rate it as two separate shows, there's no way around it.
First, we had a brilliant, (somewhat) episodic villain-of-the-week shounen, complete with catch phrases even. I must say I absolutely loved it.
It was all that was good about villain of the week shows but unlike those shows it had enough variety to never stop being entertaining. This was the case mostly due to colorful characters (this might've very well be the show's strongest point). The diversity in both their design and their personalities was great.
The voice acting helped a lot, too, as it was top notch, with some really great choices (most notably Ikeda Masako as the narrator). I wasn't disappointed with any of the seiyuu. Picking some non blockbuster seiyuu for Shichika and Togame was the right thing to do. It was the first time I heard Hosoya Yoshimasa which helped a lot, since it was easier to associate the voice with Shichika. If they would go with Kamiya Hiroshi/Fukuyama Jun/Ono Daisuke it would end in a disaster. Same goes for Togame, Tamura Yukari was great.
The animation was top notch and the art style was absolutely fanastic. The backgrounds were really gorgeous (scenery porn level in my opinion).
The OST was also great, with some memorable tracks. Different ending for each episode was a nice touch.
Overall, it reminded me of why I enjoyed shows like this as a kid and it was a pleasure to watch. Actually, after around 6 episodes I was ready to place in somewhere in my top 10.
But then, suddenly, plot. Oh boy. OP got it right, 'clusterfuck' describes it pretty well in my opinion. To be honest it was boring to the point where I didn't really try to follow it. This is why I might've missed some explanations as I felt at the end of the serieries there were still some loose ends left (for example anything about Emonzaemon). It began with the most boring episode in the entire series - 10. Nothing happened and they spent the entire episode explaining stuff I didn't give a damn about.
However, the biggest disappointment was how anticlimatic the battles turned out to be. Houhou just sort of disappeared, as Shichika fought against Shikizaki Kiki's 'ghost' instead; the battle against Emonzaemon was boring as it ended with '2 fast 4 u 2 see' blow trading (same goes for Houhou vs Emonzaemon by the way) and so on. The battle between Pengin an Emonzaemon was probably the most retarded sequence in the series:
Pengin: 'You can try all you want but bullets will dodge me, it's useless!'
Emonzaemon: 'Well I guess I'll just shoot you.'
What. Also I think it's kinda ironic that he best fight in the series was Shichika's fight with Sabi. I really mean it, go and watch that preview again. This is how a good fighting sequence should look like. No lightningfast movements bullshit. You can actually follow each of Sabi's attacks and how Shichika dodges them - he crouches, jumps etc. Again, this is how the fight with Emonzaemon should've looked like. Oh well.
Overall a great series, I just regret I didn't drop it after ep 9. Cheerio!
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