This is one of the better ep1's I've seen in a while. Admittedly... I try to avoid watching episode 1 of series that I expect to be extremely good until the last episode comes out, so I can marathon them
But now that I've broken the ice, I may as well finish it as it comes out.
I don't much care for bishies. And when Baroqueheat appeared out of nowhere with no introduction, well... that was sloppy directing. But the dialogue and character interactions are generally quite good, and really... it reminds me of the action/fantasy/comedy combination of Slayers, which is always a good thing. Not to mention rare. And a self-assured, non-tsundere (at least, so far) female lead is a big plus! The main characters are also sort of cool in the way that Zombie Loan tried for, but failed.
So, I think I'll pretend it is Slayers 3 (I never liked Try much).
P.S. Thanks, w3g!