First Impression: Taisshou Chichai-san

Synopsis

A young man by the name of Hiiragi Kyouichirou was heading to Tokyo in order to study in university, but due to stray thought and possibly his family sword, he ends up getting involved in a plot for the Imperial Army

The Good

For such a short episode, the fact that it was able to cram in as much detail as it did while also slipping in some pinches of comedy is worthy of a thumbs up. The art, like many modern anime has done great detail work to the background and things like the train. As for the introduction to the plot, it was quite a fun piece seeing the shrunken characters and the way that they were designed paves way for some enjoyable and cute scenes.

As a short episode the good mainly outweighs the bad with the way it was able to compartmentalize the plot, insert some good comedy while also slipping in a well developed opening. Overall it was simple, but fun for a first episode.

The Bad

For a new anime that is tackling an interesting plot along with the rare shounen ai genre, it does have its fair share of cliches, such as the monologuing main character and the “be careful what you wish for trope”.  They could have easily twisted things around but with the time limit that they chose to have, they did not. What’s more, as fun as the episode for the most part, when looking at the bigger picture, the premise execution could have been done better in terms of character introduction.

If you think about it, the good and the bad seem to balance each other out, but it does not change the fact that the introduction points could have been done better and the protagonist could have been explored more as well.

Conclusion

It was impressive how much it packed into a single 3-minute plus episode but the execution could have been done better though the art is simple but cute. The cliches are clear but the fact that this series is tackling an interesting idea and rarely touched genre in anime makes up for it for the most part. Honestly if this were a blind reaction, it can be said that if not for the ending, things could be rather subtle.

Rating: 6.5/10