WORLD BREAK #1 + SAMURAI WARRIORS #1 -- Special Review

We're sampling all the new pilots this Winter. Check out our thoughts on...

• JOJO'S - BATTLE IN EGYPT ** ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM ** DEATH PARADE


• MARIA THE VIRGIN WITCH ** YATTERMAN NIGHT ** THE ROLLING GIRLS


• THE TESTAMENT OF SISTER NEW DEVIL ** THE IDOLM@STER ** KANTAI COLLECTION


• ABSOLUTE DUO ** YURI KUMA ARASHI ** UNLIMITED FAFNIR


• CUTE HIGH EARTH DEFENSE CLUB LOVE

This hasn’t been that remarkable a season - - at least for the pilots I’ve caught - - and these two might’ve been the quickest to just drip off my brain once I closed the streaming window. At worst, they were a chore to get through. At best? They… just… weren’t memorable. It’s hard to think of where to even begin when writing them up, so I’ll just comment from an especially removed distance, this time.

== TEASER ==

SAMURAI WARRIORS felt exactly like dropping into a cut scene from DYNASTY WARRIORS 7, or something. A little research reveals that this show is, in fact, based on a game series of that ilk. Fans of the games even commneted on how it doesn’t really make much of any effort to be this accessible to novices. So (it’s not my fault that) I felt like I was in the sort of middle act where no character is ever actually introduced on screen. They just start showing up. And then the episode's over.

Once again, I don’t really fault the show for this. It’s meant for fans of the games. Nothing wrong with that. I just wish sometimes that anime studios might explicitly label which specifi audience a given show is intended for (in the same way they do for age ranges and sexes). You know, this is for Everybody. This is for Long Time Fans. This is for People Who Played the Game.

Watch this pilot and decide for yourself.

WORLD BREAK is absolute Stereotypical Anime - - nigh indistinguishable from any previous show about preppy kids taking charge at a School for Wizardy.

Actually, now that we’ve gotten however many years away from HARRY POTTER, and have slogged through the countless anime shows inspired by it, you've got to wonder if the notion of a School for Wizardy has become so familiar that it should just be taken for granted, by now. You know, like how you don't have to explain robots from a post-Apocalyptic future or space rebels fighting a galactic empire anymore - - the concepts are just that common as Pop Cultural currency.

The real problem with WORLD BREAK, though, is that it just doesn't offer anything beyond that. It's as if the entire show were one big trope.

Watch this pilot and decide for yourself.

from Anime Vice Site Mashup http://ift.tt/1uQP84O