The art style was interesting at at first, a kind of weird way of doing textures that brought a lot of attention to itself, but then it just got annoying because it brought too much attention to itself. It ended up distracting me from the story, which was nearly completely non-existent to begin with, and, by the end of the episode, it was sickening to look at.
The music was so unmemorable that I don't even remember if there was any music.
The characters were just as unmemorable. The main character was a predictable winy brat who would probably grow to be a stronger character by the end of the series--whoopdee fucking doo!--, and his side kick buddy was just as predictable as the helpful friend, slightly stronger willed, but probably the weaker character by the end. The Count was an obvious villain from the minute I saw him, --what with all the blue skin, demonic looking face, and pale way of talking about everything? Wow you're really subtle about this, Gakutsuou; very SUBTLE! aren't you? aren't you!!!!?--, he looked like a stock card character, and though he tried to be suave and cool, he ended up dull and monotone, grey and lifeless, stupid.
The subject matter was interesting, but the execution was so boring that it made me want to break the computer screen. At one point, the main character was with the count watching a public execution of three people, two of whom innocent and the third an obvious murderer. The count gave him the opportunity to let one of the three death-row-goers live by selecting one of three cards he laid on the table, each with the initials of one of said goers, an interesting situation, for in choosing a card he would be able to save a life, but there was a 1/3 chance that the person he saved would kill more people.
However, the way this scene, just like every other scene in the episode, was paced, scripted, and executed made it seem like a nonchalant decision. The count went into some predictable rant about how he was giving the main character the opportunity to be like a god --OH GOD! THE GOD SPEECH!--, and the sidekick buddy protested against choosing a card at all because it was like playing with peoples lives--wow, sidekick guy, you're smart; you're smart!--, and the main character tried to look like he was between a rock and a hard place, but came off like he was stuck between a character from (insert japanese dramatic anime) and a character from (insert japanese dramatic anime). Oh yes, the scene tried as hard as it could to build up tension, but it just ended up looking like it was very weakly xeroxing the good scenes from every good dramatic anime in existence, and fusing them together into some sort of storybook made of shit. There was absolutely no tension, so when the kid, the main character, decided to choose one of the cards and it ended up saving the murderer, there was no sense of loss or regret like there should have been. Nothing felt real.
I'm most likely not going to watch anymore of this show, and I know that in judging this anime before I finish it, I'll get a barrage of haters--heh heh heh, ghost haters-- telling me that I'm wrong and that it will get better if I keep watching, but I judge it this way because of my belief that if an anime wants to be truly good, it has to be good from the start; it has to get one hooked somehow. Otherwise, it ends up being a chore to watch.
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