Ken En Ken: Aoki Kagayaki

[Magewolf]

Originally Posted by wuhugm

I see no indication of The Empress being a puppet

- The world unification was the dream of the previous emperor and the advisors are faithfully abide by that
- There is a part where The Empress was losing her will and the advisor merely encourage her to do her Tenmei (destiny), certainly nothing like being manipulated
- The Empress gets to decide about almost everything, clearly seen by how Zhao the slave kept getting promoted and now being The Left Senior Engineer

Puppet? Nothing like that at all

Not a puppet but she is the product of a very particular upbringing. The fact that she could even have any empathy for a slave was a sign that she might be salvageable. Unfortunately the slave turned out to be a worse asshole then most of the nobles shown so far.

If he had just gone with the peace of the empire being better in the long run then a mass of different states having wars all the time and he was planing on replacing slaves and servants with robots after he reached a high enough office it would have left him likable. Instead he said "I've got mine, screw everyone else."

[serenade_beta]

Yeah, there is no way the parts of the empire could hold itself together if the empire fell.

But anyways, you can't blame Zhao for wanting power. Look at his past and his experience as a slave. And now he has the favorings of the strongest person in the world and can live a happy and free life. And he has the power to protect the sisters too.
And if someone went "Well, how about you give up everything to fight against this great power!" Even two sexy childhood friends can't change a guy's mind then.

As for the younger sister, she has always proven herself to be emotion-first. Just hope it doesn't end up badly this time... Imagine if the guy you liked suddenly brought home another girl...

And for the older sister, she's probably the most "reasonable" at the moment. Everyone else is self-first at the moment.

[wuhugm]

^Yin's nakama are so boring

Make Ning her new arm already Zhao

There's an imouto in the court too
All imoutos are better

Btw, Yin went supersaiyan

[wuhugm]

Finally!

But Empire's story is infinitely better than the "Deux Ex Machina Rebellion"'s story
Hear this, The Black Fire Armor has 7 elements and only people with same element can use it and coincidentally the 7 people in Rebellion are all magicians and have different element
How convenient

[serenade_beta]

Ahhhhhh, I'm excited and dreadful at the same time on what is coming up.
On the other hand, watching the ryona is fairly exciting.

BTW,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_water_torture

Oh, and (NSFW?)

Images

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[wuhugm]

Please somebody save Ning

[blitz1/2]

yep, I agree with the Empress, it's all Yin's fault. xD

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for ep11:

I gotta say, that toy pet thing actually being a defense device is a pretty good touch. As long as it doesn't involve girls, the guy actually does a good job.
But man, getting shish kabob in the face and then getting literally shredded to pieces. That assassin had it really tough...

BTW, the older sister didn't really even do anything and two other girls want her dead.

[wuhugm]

Ning best girl

Empire Side >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Rebel Side
Rebel Side so boring
Just 7 cheat bastards doing boring stuffs

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for final thoughts:

9/10

Anime these days just can't do a serious story seriously, so it is great when one comes along like this. I mean, what, a guy not spending screen time turning red when he encounters females in the bath? How... how could that be?!

So while there are loose ends, the anime finished the story of the younger sister and Onii-sama. So in regards to their story, it actually closed the story well. And while they didn't die like most people thought, they did receive some permanent injuries.

Of course, in a bigger picture, a lot is still going on. Empress-chan is all "I do not need love if love is so painful" mode and the older sister has also embraced her destiny and separated from the other two. But there is no way they could close out the bigger scenario in 1-cour, so they made a good decision by focusing on one story.

Also, I have to say that I am impressed by how the sister went to the dark side. I was expecting more or less something cheaper, but she was driven to insanity by torture? Why, that is so normal, yet it is so unexpected for some reason.

Finally, the OP and ED are both good. Now isn't that rare?
Of course, they spent the money to get veteran voice actors, and it paid off in the acting, especially the two sisters.

However, as much as I would like to, I cannot give it 10/10 due to the general low visual quality. I do see the occasionally really good animated moments though, that they put all of their effort into, and hey, DEEN is DEEN, I guess.
But yeah, I will deduct a point there.

It's been... how many years since Garei Zero? Same guy that worked on that worked on this one. His girl-girl drama still is good.

PS: Loyal, fairly strong, useful... Despite her minor role in the story, Rikou-chan definitely left a good impression on me. I'm glad she survived the fight.

[wuhugm]

Man, the Rebel Saiyans are assholes

Zhao helped them break the core shield, and they didn't even help him

Anyway, added to non-main heroine win thread