Rage of Bahamut: Genesis (watch it)

[goody2shoes]

If you've seen the PV's for this and wondering if it could possibly live up to those? So far it does. If you haven't, just watch the first episode before reading on. Impressions below, but it's best that you form your own without my hype getting in the way.

I had mixed feelings coming in since this is based on an iPhone card game. The first episode outdid my expectations by a mile, and atm I might be more excited for this than UBW. I'll try to be brief so? Action packed, entertaining characters with unique designs (as you can tell), high adventure/fantasy that reminds me of Tolkien, spaghetti westerns and even Pirates of the Carribean 1 at points.

Animation: Consistently good-great, without a lot of stills. I prefer this approach to ufotable's UBW, since things are always moving. Meanwhile UBW has promo-worthy animation interspersed with stills and talking.
Music: Excellent. Really goes with the world this is set in, and about as far from modern anime as possible.

Actually, the whole thing felt more like a western action-adventure flick than an anime. It's bafflingly un-anime in almost every aspect. I love that

Overall, it's not perfect and who knows where it will go from here, but damn does this have potential.

[LumRanmaYasha]

The first episode certainly piqued my interest. This show seems like a good old fashioned action-adventure with a cool world and mythology, and it certainly left a great impression right off the bat with it's over the top action sequences (gotta love giant dragons and swordfights on a large rolling wheel), and it just kept on going from there. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yep, I'll definitely be sticking with it. Best premiere of the season, by far (at least in terms of pure fun factor). This and F/SN should be pretty excellent.

[goody2shoes]

I can only hope the stone cards and fanservice won't get too obnoxious in the future. Those would be my two real gripes, even if it's to be expected. (To be fair, we got some manservice as well so, at least there's equality there? )

That's the tradeoff the director had to make when he took on a high budget card game adaptation, I guess. The game features lots of sexy women cards, who IIRC strip down the higher their powerlevel gets. I'm happy the team got as much freedom as it did, 'cause the game and its character designs look fairly generic (if beautifully drawn).

The fact that it seems to be 1 cour could also be a blessing or a curse. I hope they have a good story to drive things forward, even if it comes second to characters and adventure.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Maybe it's because I've seen far too many anime to the point of being desensitized to it, but the fan service in this episode didn't really bother me at all. In the countless anime that I've seen and manga that I've read, I've seen MUCH, MUCH worse, to the point where the obnoxious over-sexualization of females gets in the way of good character development and any sense of plot. Comparatively, this anime seems pretty tame in that regard, at least so far.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This, Fate/Stay Night, and Parasyte are my top 3 of the season. I didn't really care for Amagi Brilliant Park, and was kind of disappointed with it (considering that I'm a huge FMP fan). Still, it was better than many other premieres this season. World Trigger was laughably bad. I feel sorry for its fans that it got stuck with a cheap-ass company like Toei.

[goody2shoes]

How about her new outfit, guys?

Edit: As for impressions, episode 2 was about as great as the first one. At times it feels like I'm watching a Disney movie, the characters are just so vibrant and emotive. I was afraid Favaro would carry the show, but the afro-less MC's are growing on me.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'll get this out of the way first: The opening theme sucks. It's even worse than Parasyte, IMO (though not quite as bad as World Trigger). It just doesn't fit the tone of the series at all, and the animation seems to be TOO flashy and all over the place.

That said, the episode itself was excellent. It really gives me faith that the rest of the series can hold up its quality. I get the same sort of feeling that I got for the first Pirates movie, as well as any good adventure story at that. Yes, it's not incredibly original, but on the contrary, it's something that knows what its influences are and manages to execute the type of story that it's trying to tell very, very well. I'd say that this has managed to just slightly overtake F/SN as my favorite show of the season, so far.

[goody2shoes]

Well said.

I'll get this out of the way first: The opening theme sucks. It's even worse than Parasyte, IMO (though not quite as bad as World Trigger). It just doesn't fit the tone of the series at all, and the animation seems to be TOO flashy and all over the place.

Yeah, forgot to mention that. The part of the song that was shown in a PV was the only good part, and even then it's pretty out of place with the rest of the soundtrack. The ED was alright though, with some pretty animation.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I liked this episode. It smartly took a break from trying to be all big and epic like the first 2, and instead told us a more subdued story and gave us some good insight into the backstories of both Amira and Kaisar. We also got a new character to tag along, but the only thing that I don't get is how she's able to follow Kaisar around like normal. Didn't she turn into a zombie at the end? Even if. Kaisar didn't kill her, how is she back to normal? What did I miss, there?

At any rate, it was probably explained and I might just need to watch that part of the episode again. It's also a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things. This is still easily my personal favorite anime of the season, so far.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm still really loving this show. I like the characters, creatures, magic, world building, and just the general tone of the series. It's just so much fun, yet has the right amount of drama and intrigue to its plot to keep thinks interesting. It's just been such a long time since I've seen a legitimately entertaining adventure anime. Something like Magi had adventure elements, but was honestly more interesting when it dealt with politics and social class issues, whereas stuff like JoJo had a fun tone, but was primarily more about fighting than anything else. As far as flat-out adventure series go, I haven't seen anything quite this good in manga/anime since early Dragon Ball, and that itself still had a very different tone to it than this series does.

Naturally, it's currently maintaining its position as my favorite anime of the season, and if it at least keeps up this quality for the rest of its run, it could be my favorite anime of the year.

[goody2shoes]

Agreed. This episode was pretty spectacular, while delving even further into the characters' history. I love how well things are set up in advance, such as Favaro and Kaisar's relation to eachother. It's great to see in such an action/adventure focused show, and it really sets Bahamut apart from the long-running "shonen" formula common in anime and manga.

Oh, and

Spoiler

I did not see that twist coming.

[close]

[LumRanmaYasha]

Bahamut is getting a second season.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

While I personally feel that the first season dropped in quality during the second half, I'm still really looking forward to seeing more world-building and adventures from this show.

Just, please cut down on the melodrama, guys. This show is at its best when it's a POTC style adventure story.

[LumRanmaYasha]

In additon to the second season, an anime spinoff has been announced for the Winter 2016 season. It will be called Rage of Bahamut: Manaria Friends. It's a magical school show, and the protagonists will be two young women who are students at said magical school.

From the description and trailer, it looks like it'll have very little if anything to do with the first season other than it's based on aspects of the same game and set in the same world. Okay. At least it's just a spin-off of the series, and not the actual second season, but I don't think anyone was asking for a magical school show set in the Bahamut universe, especially one so barely related to the main show proper.