First Impression: Toji no Miko

Synopsis

This is the story of “Toji”, sword-wielding shrine maidens who serve as a unit in the police force and exorcise mysterious, hostile creatures known only as "aradama.” They attend school in order to improve their skills and abilities and when spring comes around, representatives from all schools are chosen to take part in a tournament.
 
The Good

The episode gave a solid introduction in terms of schematics in battle and the competition. The action scenes were quite good when it focused on the key characters and the one soundtrack that came out when the students were dueling one another was a nice touch for it. Special effects such as when the fighter got her gear and when the students go into battle mode make for interesting points to explore in later episodes. Overall, however, the art did hold strong in terms of background, effects, and the design of the monster and its animation.

The general concept for the series is another point of interest that may keep the viewer interested. There’s a good build-up of mystery and some solid potential to be found with the work. Other than this, the theme song for the series was pretty good

The Bad

For one thing, the pacing can be a little strange, but that can be ignored because it’s the flow of the episode which makes itself off as the worst point of the episode. It felt as of one moment were diving into one of the character’s moments and the mystery that she brings and then the next it’s a scene that feels like it could be something from a slice of life or some other heartfelt work if not for the context of it.

It seems as if the episode is trying to do multiple things at once and not only does it have the episode coming off as very chaotic but it makes a mess of the potential plot flow. Outside of the issue in pacing and story direction, the characters feel like token figures for the series and are at best, predictable figures.

Conclusion

For the most part, the concept and certain aspects of the art and animation gave a solid introduction to the series. However, the pacing, the flow and just overall flow of the episode were just all over the place. The characters are pretty much the token set of types for this kind of work. Still, there is a hint of mystery that works rather well and it didn’t leave a completely terrible impression at least and besides, there is still a chance for improvement.

Rating: 6.5/10