Well, that was a helluva lot of fun. It read like a great list on how to make a Typical Anime:
-High school setting? Check
-Superpowers? Check
-Hidden 'alter role'? Check
-Badass guy as well as calm-but-nice guy leads? Check
-Tomboy girl + 'weaker' girl with psychic powers? Check
-Annoying bespectacled reporter girl? Check
-Batshit zombie fighting? Check
-Crazy gravity-defying action? Check
-Glowing tatoo things? Check
-Random chanting stuff and weird old monks from nowhere? Check
-Evil bishie with whacko makeup and hairstyle? Check
-Loligoth sidekick? Check
This sounds like the perfect anime I'd brainlessly watch on Saturday mornings or something! But well, I think it largely worked because the show paced itself well enough and focused more on the action - which, as everyone has said, was nicely animated. It was higher than I expected, mostly around the 2nd half: the explosions in particular were quite well-done!
I liked the general drawing style, anyway, the lines felt very skilled and confident, and overall it left a good impression on me.
Spoiler for examples w/screencaps:
For example, this shot:
It was short and hard to see but there's something about the way they ddin't bother putting unnecessary shadows, and the way the scene was drawn, that felt nice.
Same with this.
Take a look at the shape of the smoke clouds, they're usually (IMO) a sign of someone who's got skill.
Not a smoke shot but I liked the effects here somewhat.
There was not just effective use of blurring throughout the show, but also of speed lines/distortion for added effect. I think it's the jauntiness of the liens that also add to the nice feeling of action.
They're also not afraid to do a bit of distortion. This is what hotblooded action should be animated like! (BTW, was I the only one thinking "...Samurai CHamploo?" when seeing this old guy fight?)
This shot was effective at showing the scale of objects. GJ.
Of course, it wasn't on the lvel of Matsumoto or Takashi Hashimoto etc., but my respect for Jun Nakai has increased. A really good job. The character designs may seem ridiculous but they're well-executed (and the boss guy with the long hair was impressively bishie). I just remembered something when looking at the key animators; another apparently notable name is Toru Yoshida 吉田徹, nowadays he's got a bit of a bad rep because the studio he works for, Anime R, sometimes does rather lousy jobs on outsuorced episodes (Speed Grapher and NHK ni Youkoso come to mind). However - Anime R apparently can do a good job if they want, and Yoshida was apparently actually a rather good animator during Anime R jobs for mech shows in the 70s/80s. There's clips of it on Youtube, I think. Perhaps that side of him is what showed her?
And even the storyboarding was good... thank
Shinji Ishihira's work, I remember him a bit from Ouran... The pacing and decision to use camera effects and stuff probably would've been him, as well as the synchronisation with the music (I'm guessing), but what about the nice layout? Was it his storyboarding or the animators/Nakai's? I wonder. It was generally very good - focused the scenes well, connected well with each other, and effectively showed the scale of objects. (I need to mention somewhere I liked
this scene's composition.)
The music within the show was so-so - except, of course, for the excellent opener and the not-bad closer... It was used to excellent effect! You really could feel "something good's coming up" the way they used it. And well, it delivered the goods...
Of course the biggest problem with this is that obviously I'm enjoying this much, much more for the style than for anythign else. It's almost another guilty pleasure. Actually, I think it is...
And if this doesn't keep up this level - or near this level - of production quality, I probably wouldn't bother watching it (although Tatsuma is kinda cute and I did actually like the seitokaichou, surprisingly! I liked how her maturity seemed to vaguely impress Kyouichi.).
I think it would be stupid to expect it to maintain this level of quality, but we'll see...
One last thing: the school fails for having a changing room with
windows and without curtains. LOL.