Goulart Knights OVA – ~Evoked The Beginning Black~
Not quite the fantasy epic we were expecting…
Hime: The art for this one is what suckered most of us in I think. It’s gorgeous. And even as the OVA starts out I got good vibes from the OP. I like the song, the art is pretty fun and lively (pretty boys in the rain, thank you!) But as soon as the real episode starts prepare to be dissapointed.
So our extras from Starry✰Sky pretty boys have rescued a little loli from a massacred village. She doesn’t say much.
I’m reminded of Saiyuki by this shot~
Oh, and there’s talk of Holy Grains, please don’t turn into Fate/Stay Night! Please, I’m begging you!
Don’t have a cow, man
The white haired one and the one with the Gundam inspired haircut joke about in front of the POOR TRAUMATIZED LOLI. That’s pretty harsh guys, her whole village was just butchered. The red-head doesn’t help by hitting on her straight away, dude, she’s like 10…and I guess now they’re all in the same room we’re supposed to be lapping up the “charm and hilarity” of the group. Not feeling it…
But anyway, Shota and Loli bond through…frolicking around the school, sitting on rooftops and oh wait she fancies Hokuto. Nice try, Shota! Nevermind, you get to sleep with the dog.
“We have chairs………….and………………stairs……..“
Surely this is the start of a long and prosperous friendship!
….Or not.
*sob* *sob*
Guess she’s not a Gundam fan in the end though as she goes mental and starts killing the soldiers. So our sexy boys de-collar and decide they have no choice but to take her out. 4 pretty boys against a 10 year old girl? Yeah, sounds fair. And I’m not even kidding.
Was playing stripper music in my head at this point
And I have to admit…I liked their transformation scenes (if you can call them that). Dude pulls a scythe from his back. That’s friggin’ awesome, but I digress. Hokuto also has Wolverine claws, WTF?
And while they’re doing that…
It’s a cute-off, truly this is gripping television~
A giant….bull/chimera thing shows up and starts owning our pretty boys. Noooo! But they all look so formidable!
Ooooo, wet boys….
Lovely~
Sorry, I got distracted there. But can you blame me? I have no friggin’ idea what’s going on. Whitey is now protecting the Loli girl. So, what? She’s not evil? I guess the chimera is what slaughtered her village but it wasn’t around to kill the other soldiers, so is she in league with it or not? Apparently not, as it kills her dog.
This makes Whitey go nuts and release his holy grail. This scene reminds me so much of X with the whole pulling a sword out your body thing.
You go kick CLAMPS ass for me Whitey!
Hellooooo yaoi fodder
He’s sure enjoying that a lot….
So the red-head kicks the chimera’s ass, Whitey wakes up, Loli cries over her dead pug and it’s Rosa Mystica floats up into the sky. Is it over yet? That brief yaoi interlude is wearing off and I’ve still got the last episode of Wandering Son to watch.
Nevermind, lets looks at some pretty boys!
MOAR PRETTEH
Awesome eyes~
ಠ_ಠ….STOP BEING SO CUTE.
Oh Morikawa your deep sexy voice does NOT suit that character
-insert compensation joke here-
And as she’s driving away she gets decapitated by a road sign…
Oh so hetero~ =P
END THOUGHTS
So that was Goulart Knights! Was it worth the wait? Hell no! Well, okay, maybe it wasn’t terrible…but it wasn’t exactly good either. The first half is so generic and boring. Everyone was very poorly introduced, if they were introduced at all, I still don’t know half of their names, and this world they throw at us holds no interested cause again it’s never properly explained. Oh sure, they throw some terms at us but they don’t really give you any reason to be invested. I’d like to say this is another one of these shows that doesn’t know what it wants to be, a comedy or a fantasy adventure, but I think this is just a case of n00b directing/writing and animation. The OVA misses every mark it tries to hit. The comedy doesn’t gel with the story of this girl and her slaughtered village at all, and both plot points are weak as it is and don’t amount to much on the whole.
Production quality was nice at points, but completely bland and reminded me more of anime from early 2000 than the stuff airing right now. I’ve ranted about how inept anime is at capturing the fantasy genre before, but it bears repeating. WHAT EXACTLY IS SO HARD ABOUT IT? Good Lord, you have basically no restrictions, why are these shows all the god-damn same?!
The OP and ED are pretty good though, I should probably find something nice to say about it, lol. They fit well I think, and I do like the animation in the OP. I have mixed feelings about the ED. I usually get pissy when they use manga art in the ending sequence, it feels lazy to me though I can see why they do it. In this case I enjoyed seeing the pretty artwork but at the same time…I hated seeing the pretty artwork. With the animation so mediocre it was like it was taunting me with how good it could have been! Haha. All in all, Goulart Knights is just a half-assed action comedy that has neither the action nor the comedy. However, it’s only a few OVAs so I’ll stick with it and hope it improves. Take it away Hoshi~
Hoshi: (Ohhh, “Evoked the Beginning Black”! Such a fancy title, hurr). I am very in the middle so far with this show, specifically leaning more towards the “dislike” side. There is just SOMETHING about this that makes me not want to take it seriously. At first it felt like the animation was what’s bugging me; I mean it’s not the best out there, but it just irritates me for some reason, especially because the actual art for it is ten times as prettier, which is why I favor the ED’s animation over the OP’s. Then I actually get through the episode, and I couldn’t help but find the beginning just sooooo boring. There wasn’t even that slight vibe that said “Oh, I know this is going to get good later on”; it was just so plain, and really cliché. I predicted what would happen even before the first half finished, and I honestly don’t think it’s because I have that much skill after watching anime for almost six years.
What makes me actually want to hold onto Goulart for maybe a few more episodes is the characters, which I’m finding to be a key factor on why I’m staying onto so many Spring shows lately. I actually like the characters; their personalities, and what not. I think that’s possible the only thing that will make this show at least a little worthwhile. There wasn’t much action in this first episode, so I can’t say, “Well, stay for the action!”. Their little transformation to their Holy Grail weapons kind of reminded me about of Sailor Moon, for some reason, heh. Also, am I the only one that thinks they acted too nonchalant around a girl whose parents got killed not to long ago? I mean seriously, give the poor thing a rest!
All in all, Goulart Knights does seem to have some potential, so I’ll be sticking by for a while to see what develops, because of course I’m not staying for the guys! Of course not…!
OP
ED
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: 400-499 with 406 comments
I agree omg I thought it was going to be awesome from the OP, but it ended up disappointing me.
And lol at the yaoi fodder. I totally thought that too.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
I suppose the surprise fanservice was a nice treat, it was like their apology for the OVA, haha.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
This was NOT what I was expecting o_o I don’t know if I want to watch this now…
+5 points for adding the Saiyuki reference.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
Saiyuki is the bizz~