After my marathon re-viewing of the 7 episodes so far, I think perhaps this is the most entertaining series this season. Yes, even more so than Eden of the East at this point.
What I am even more amazed at is the fact that I care about and immensely enjoy the characters, even though they are largely just stock characters duly delineated into evil/good. Usually, cliche characters drag down a show, but for some reason, the cliche characters in this series have an extra oomph, making them fun.
Maybe it's the odd humor? I think making them eat all the weird foods and eyeballs is a nice touch.
Actually, I'm very pleasantly surprised at how good this show is -- it certainly has exceeded all my expectations.
In addition, I think the animation is first rate. The characters don't blink that much, but at the same time, the animation is candy for the eyes (not as much as Macross Frontier was, but at least the characters have better haircuts in this one). I love the glean and shine they apply to every frame, and hopefully the production values remain at this level throughout the 26 eps. This extra effort is visible in the way the sun shines down on the bright church grounds (thereby establishing the setting succinctly), as well as on the lips, eyes, and cheeks of characters. I also love the color palette, as well as the over-the-top scoring. Overall, everything is just pretty and pleasant to look at. Moreover, the world and story lines created have drawn me in.
I also noticed after my rewatch that there's a lot of mythology and details to the show that I missed the first time around. I have questions and comments on some of these, so I'll just wrap it all in spoiler tags just to be safe.
Spoiler for Random Musings and Questions on First 7 Eps.:
1. So I didn't catch this the first time around, but it seems the ax that comes out of Frau's wrist belongs to someone else -- someone who is still alive, as the Kor said. I wonder where and how he got that ax, and am excited at the possibility of another master-evil bad guy other than Aya-tan & Co. roaming around (unless that ax belonged to Aya or someone related to him?). And speaking of Frau and Aya -- I'm loving the set up of epicness-to-come between the two. I can't wait until these two take it down, and Frau kicking Aya's butt. I don't know how much more awesome Frau can be at this point -- he's basically stealing the show. Anyway, having these two rival each other is a stroke of genius.
2. Castor's dolls are kinda creepy. That is all.
3. Labrador's powers: Can he do anything else with the flowers besides make them into edible gifts and ambiguous fortune telling devices?
4. How awesome does evil Mikage look?! For sure, he's under control of Aya. I noticed that Aya can communicate telepathically with the Kors he sends, and he was doing this with Mikage as well. What would really flesh out this series is how they choose to handle Aya. I tend to think that a series that can elevate itself by defining why the bad guy is bad. By disclosing the reasons and path for someone's evilness, a show can truly become epic.
5. The theme song sounds familiar, and I am wondering why. I know it sounds similar to another show, but I'm drawing a blank.
6. How can pink-haired eye-patch cutie sleep in the presence of Aya without Aya caring? It made me laugh, how he was sleeping in the arms of his retainer during the meeting wherein he volunteered for the assignment. And I'm still at a loss for why he killed those goons with his Zaiphon. Are they setting something up for future episodes?