“Chaika destroy 100 breads. Shocking truth!” ~ Chaika, never.
While I must say that the first two episodes didn’t exactly blow me away (They were still pretty good!), I have to concede that the show has really hit home with me now. The pacing in the 3rd episode was phenomonal and the world building was genuinely interesting. I never thought I would have liked the show so much judging from its onset – if I have any complaints, it’s that Tooru and his sister, er, their design anyway appears to be a bit uninspired. That doesn’t mean they haven’t grown on me exceptionally, though – I commend BONES for not giving Tooru’s sister an extremely forceful personality or shoving it down our throats every second they get, it’s made me like her considerably more.
Yes, the pacing was completely outstanding here. The intrigue on “the ruler”, the “dragoon” she has, her mansion, the ensuing mystery – all handled perfectly and I have not a single complaint. I was completely enthralled the whole time and the character building didn’t kill the pace nearly as much as it does in lesser shows.
Dominica, or rather, the dragoon masquerading as Dominica was completely awesome. I found myself smiling at what a good sport she was – even so cocky as to tell Tooru her weakness! It’s just awesome – there aren’t enough villains that respect their opponents like this in fiction, and especially anime. While I kinda had hoped she would have kept her form as “Dominica”, that’s ok – as long as they have a giant, dragon-esque dragoon in their company I’m sure they’ll give Gillete a run for his money later.
These episodes were really a treat and now I can count this show as one of my absolute favorites this season. What lies in store for us next, I wonder? I never thought I’d be looking forward to what is essentially “Fetch Quest: The anime” but consider my curiosity piqued. Let’s get those, uh, ‘body parts’ or something. Yuck.
