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I have to say… I’m a little disappointed. VAs are nailing it, and the plot and characters are coming through well.
But the quality of the art in the manga isn’t coming through at all (though Shushus chest was just as nice to look at, and her fang!). The environment in Mato is drawn with so much more detail in the manga, and I feel like I can remember seeing more fluid movement in the first chapter than these three episodes.
And the art-style doesn’t shift as heavily towards cutesy, as it does in the manga at times. I miss that.
The manga also makes it clear from the get-go that unihorns master, Yuukis maybe-sister, is eating multiple peaches, something which humans can’t do without adverse results. She juggles three of them in the manga while the anime only shows her taking tiny bites out of a single one. Weird change.
In the manga, Kyouka brutally hits herself for losing control and endangering her squad, but in the anime it happens off-screen and we just see her hat land on the ground. I feel like a lot of the more intense characterization is being toned down.
There’s more, images that speak for themselves, but in the interest of not being a giant comment to scroll, I put them in a spoiler drop-down. Early moments from the manga that I feel just haven’t had nearly the level of oomph in this adaptation, that they should. Kyouka’s design especially has me annoyed, feeling like she looks twice as good in the manga, at least.
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I have a bit of a confession to make. I read through your posts in this thread and checked out the manga art you posted and then was curious to see what other source readers thought as well, so I went to a naughty place…reddit. Seems as though your opinion is pretty widely shared :) Looking through the manga panels, I completely understand the sentiment. I can’t say this is the type of manga series I would really pick up these days, but the art is good. Just from what you have linked, the playfulness with Yuuki’s expressions and the composition/smugness of Kyouka look way better than what I have seen in the anime.
The animation personally hasn’t been too much of a sticking point for me, but I fully admit that I have watched more than my fair share of trashy isekai, so my standards might not be the best barometer. The CG is noticeable, especially in the shuuki and transformed Yuuki, but it works really well in some instances, like you mentioned with the vehicles. One of the things I have noticed while watching is how sparse Mato is. It reminded me a bit of an old Star Trek set with just a couple random boulders strewn about an otherwise mostly featureless landscape. So, it is interesting to see how dramatic the depiction of Mato can be in the manga.
It is always frustrating when the limitations of the production are put on full display like this. However, the characters have been great and the best part for me. I certainly can’t claim to have a great grasp of the story yet, but I really feel like I know some of these characters at this point and the show has me invested in them.
Yeah, this adaptation could have used a doubled, maybe tripled, budget.
I was really excited for this adaptation, because while the manga certainly falls into line with the genre and other trashy harems, its level of execution is right up there with One Punch Man and Vinland Saga.
And I kept back to panels from just the first volume. I keep saying it, but the action in the manga is sublime. They are brilliantly illustrated, brutal, multi-page sequences.
I don’t typically stick with harems, either, unless there is something special about them. Mato Seihei no Slave is literally the only anime or manga of its ilk, that I’m still reading.
Amazing panels from later chapters, without context
This episode gave us some quality Kyouka/Yuuki time together where we learned a bit about Kyouka’s backstory and they even shared parfaits together. As soon as Kyouka named that one shuuki from her past though, I knew it was going to show up this episode. And, sure enough, there it was a couple minutes later.
One thing I was not expecting to happen this early in the show was for Yuuki to come face to face with his (probably) sister. Something that we don’t have a lot of insight into are the peaches. We see Yuuki’s sister casually munching on a peach here, and they have said that the peaches are what gives women their abilities. I am expecting that there is something deeper going on the peaches and it is connected to this group of humans turned shuuki we see in this episode.
Overall, I am still enjoying this show and the ecchi is a bit more tolerable and doesn’t get in the way of the story for me compared to Gushing which I had to drop. Two highlights of this episode for me were Nei helping out in the kitchen (I hope they never lewd Nei) and Maaya Uchida…I mean Tenka Izumo showing up at the end.
Nei does not get lewded. She is the most precious senpai and will only give and receive lots of headpats and praise.
It’s always interesting to see newcomer theorize about where the plot is going. Yuukis maybe-sister puts it best, “you know nothing about Mato”.
And my girl Tenka… hnngh… The ecchi was always very good in the manga, but it sometimes goes several chapters without anyone’s clothes coming off. What truly kept me reading is that there is a plot that gets going, and the action sequences are god-tier. That aspect has been a bit of a let-down in the first two episodes, but this episode seems like an improvement.
Several still shots of 3D-Yuuki-slave looked to be at least touched up by hand, and the sequences featuring vehicles were decent. Kyouka swinging her sword also has delicious impact. Unihorn looks great, and the shuuki-humans designs work well animated.
