First Impressions: Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

Here's the first First Impression for a decent Fall 2011 series. Kyoukai Senjou has been getting a LOT of pre-emptive hate (for trying to make an anime adaptation of a light novel series that don't...well...don't contain very many light novels) and personally, I expected it to be a clusterfuck too. Did that prediction come true? Here's the review.

Every time I see this OP I'm not sure whether to be impressed or not at the fact that he can seemingly block a giant flying wine glass with his mind

Sunrise is heading this animation, and their style shows heavily. Their style is named "Sunrise Smooth", and the tablet animations are shiny as hell. The action scenes are also nothing to turn your nose up at, but you might not want to take too much of a closer look yet - they're not really very exciting or common other than the few chase scenes that have popped up so far.

I'm glad that at least Japan thinks that erotic VNs will exist thousands of years into humanity's future.

The sound is also decent. Nothing in the BGM really pops out to me (even though that one girl is singing all the flippin' time), but the ED and its wistful tone and obviously uplifting summer sky background is good and the OP's dramatic beginning with the running diminished intervals always makes me shiver in glee. Minori Chihara (of Paradise Lost fame) also sings this and her husky voice makes for a very pleasant main melody.

As for the actual plot, I have no idea what's going on. I have a general grasp of most of the characters and their present role, but as to the context, the relationships, and pretty much everything else, I'm sort of lost. This isn't because they explain it too quickly - rather, they simply don't explain it AT ALL.

Consider a situation in which I'm comfortably sitting in my baller leather swiveling chair watching this anime at 8 PM. If a random important-looking person says to his daughter that "A is like that because of B, which came after C because of D and E, which you can see if you go to F," (NONE OF WHICH HAVE BEEN EXPLAINED BEFOREHAND) my approximate reaction (circle all correct answers) will be:
A) ........
B) ...................
C) ...........................
D) WTF
E) Oh I completely understand this series now

And I'm NOT going to "get it" if all any character does in this series is to keep repeating the words "Judge", "New Testament", and "Path of Remorse" like he/she expects candy to fall out of the air every time he/she says it. Just EXPLAIN what it means, for Christ's sake. It's not that hard.

Look, it's a light novel that's like 1000+ pages per volume. Does anybody think that a 12-episode adaptation can do anything to cover any coherent portion of the plot? I don't think so, and neither does the studio; after all, they had a male narrator speed through the entire pre-history and basic background context during the ending while the girl was singing. In the first episode.

Those don't look like singable lyrics

I don't hate 30, 40+ episode series if they're good (Hayate no Gotoku cuts it a bit close with all the fillers), so what is the point of even trying to have a 12, 15-episode series cover it all? And let's suppose that it did go on indefinitely. Why would you put episode 1 in media res...and then extend that for over 3 episodes without telling the viewer anything they need to know? It's just stupid, see. Don't do that.

I'll stop before I get too angry, but I believe this chat sums it up quite nicely:

---

ExtraCareful: IF ANYONE COULD TELL ME

WHAT ALL THESE NAMES MEAN

IN KYOUKAI SENJOU

I'D APPRECIATE IT

MorningLescue: lolololol

ExtraCareful: BECAUSE RIGHT NOW

I FEEL LIKE I'M WATCHING THE 54TH EPISODE

NOT THE 4TH

---

Enough said. Too much said? Perhaps. Watch it if confuse ray has no effect on you. Else drop this, like I will do very shortly if it doesn't shape up and shape up fast.

Well then, I wish I knew what the path of remorse was too, because I'm not getting it here

-----

On the side, read Iris Zero. It's a pretty good school-life + rom-com + mystery genre that has a baller protagonist and a pretty wacky premise. The graphics are good/cute and the build-up/tension is actually surprisingly intense for what it seems like on the cover. Try it!

This is a pretty good piece of artwork I must say...