[Wavedash]

Spoiler for First episode thoughts:

My unpopular opinion here is that this show isn't very good. Narratively, the keystone in the episode is when Mugi shouts at the beginning. Without her noisemaking, the others in the drama club wouldn't have taken notice and wouldn't seek to recruit her.

Kimoto, who did a fine job as the effervescent Cure Egret, doesn't create a vital connection between that voice and the virtual mute that replaces Mugi for all other parts of the episode. This dichotomy, I feel, makes it hard to believe they could see something in Mugi and puts focus on the actor. Perhaps a better seiyuu could have made it seem like those were two sides of the same person, but that's not the case here.

Let me give an example if I'm not making this easily understood. If Homer Simpson's voice actor were to suddenly take on an entirely different voice in a scene, the viewer wouldn't buy it. It would sound like simple overacting on the part of the actor, because there has to be some quality left in the performance that recalls the Homer the audience knows from past viewings. In the same way, Kimoto didn't create that relationship between the "ATTA!" and the "...aa sumi...gomenasai"

By itself, that wouldn't be damming to a show, but the equally subdued palette and storytelling leave little to hook a viewer in this first episode. To the show's credit, it does set up possible development that could be interesting but just isn't yet.