First Impressions – Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de
Get yo chuuni on!
InoBato plays it by the books for this first episode. The premise is established, characters are introduced, the bad guy is teased, and that’s a wrap. No crazy twists, cliffhangers, or deliciously tan girls repeatedly yelling the letter “g.”
Well, it’s like we’ve been saying. It’s like Chuunibyou, if the powers were real! Only it drags the delusion along with it. So how does that fare?
Jumping In
Play-by-play courtesy of chuuni expert Jurai.
Sumairii// The gist of the show as aptly described by my LOLi loving friend above, is Chuunibyou, except substituting romance for actual superpowers. So far, I have to say things are handled pretty well. I absolutely love how we were introduced to the Literature Club members’ powers; jumping straight into the thick of things with them testing their abilities on each other in a controlled environment. It really helps establish that the powers are still something novel to these otherwise ordinary high schoolers, and they’re constantly working to understand them better. Plus, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the whole sports commentary setup as Hatoko and Chifuyu duked it out in their little imaginary space. That really added to the absurdity of the whole situation. Anyway, back to the topic of the cast’s superpowers, I will let Skylion take it away on that.
Superpowers
THIS HAND OF MINE BURNS WITH AN AWESOME POWER!!!
skylion// Yep, we get an arm clutching babble spouting full chuuni baka, Andou Jurai, right off the bat. With no one but the quite demure, and a touch airheaded Hatako, willing to give it a second glance. His behavior is infectious…but only in the way that involves the need for some broad spectrum antibiotics. Fortunately, as stated, no one is buying into his program. Maybe if he were a cute girl? When all is said and done, he has the most useless of powers, Dark and Dark, and the most useless of mentalities. My secret LOLi instincts tell me he’s going to be the driving force behind some of the upcoming adventures.
Who is more OP?
But we do have a sort of balance for the useless chuuni in the form of our two powerhouses. Even though she is marked as the airhead, Hatako has a handle on her abilities, Over Element It’s not great feat to figure out fire plus earth equals magma, but it has to take an incredible sense of focus to control that; not to mention her other elemental abilities. And then there is Chifuyu…a LOLi that can create virtually anything. Please give me a moment to collect myself…..Thank you! World Create is a rather insane sort of power to put in the hands of an elementary student, but she looks like she has taken to it with some smarts. She has a good mind for tactics.
The unwilling chuuni.
And so now we round out our group with both Tomoyo and Sayumi. As it happens, Tomoyo falls short of being a red-headed TARDIS by not being about to go back in time. Well that, and the fact that she isn’t a blue police box…and she can’t travel through space. OK! Fine, she isn’t a TARDIS…I can dream, right?! But if there is anyone I would trust out of this group with that sort of chronal manipulation, Closed Clock, it would be her. No..wait, she loses her cool sometimes. Oh, goodness, that could be problematic. Now in Sayumi, she has little reason to give Juu-kun any flack over a useless ability, as Origin Point, falls just short of Create Mashed Potatoes, But she more than makes up for it by being a martial arts badass, and the most level headed of the bunch. And then there is Grateful Robber…which seems like the best power for a Student Council President. It’s too bad Mirei has to “call to be attacked”…better think that one trough some more.
Bad Guys?
Don’t mess with Sayumi!
Sumairii// So yeah, the gag is set up that the one truly chuunibyou member of the Literature Club ends up with the most useless power of the bunch. I am really interested where the show will take things considering how formidable the girls are though. Think about it; all of their abilities are pretty OP as far as superpowers go. From absolute creation to time manipulation, I have a hard time believing that the gang (except for Jurai) will be defeated any time soon. And, as the unfortunate StuCo president demonstrated, any opponent that can’t be dealt with using their superpowers will simply be met with physical force. That said, I wasn’t quite expecting the club to face any “enemies” to begin with. I figured the show would have them just idly playing around with their abilities, maybe causing a little mischief along the way, but never needing to actually use them against others in a combat situation. But here we see that there is clearly some sort of mastermind sending pawns against them.
The proud student council president.
I’ve mentioned before that InoBato could very easily go wrong if it starts to take itself too seriously. There is a fine line between satirizing superpower action anime and becoming one itself. So I am a bit concerned about this development. Thus far things have remained rather lighthearted though, with Mirei being almost as much of a pushover as Jurai. So there’s hope for the show yet to remain a humorous peek into what life might be like if we just randomly had superpowers. No deeper message or other strings attached like revolutions or fighting against evildoers. Just everyday life.
Overall this was a strong yet unremarkable premiere. No special effort in particular was made to grab our attention, as is usually common in first episodes. Just like the everyday life it seeks to portray, the show comes across as only slightly out of the ordinary. And it seems to be working well enough, because I am certainly interested in what kind of trouble the Literature Club will get into next. InoBato won’t win Trigger any self-righteous awards from the otaku crowd, but at least it’s got my following.
There are lots of fans out there wondering what this is doing in the Trigger catalog. They’ve been pushing out original work for quite some time, and this being an LN adaptation, it leaves us guessing as to intent. Well, making money might be a good reason; studios need to do that, or they find themselves being “not studios”. Sharing resources with a print publisher is still a rather lucrative game in the industry if you play your cards right. With a somewhat formula approach to school life and a twist on superpowers without all the usual “ally/champion of justice” rigamarole hanging over them from the word go, it has it’s attraction. All the character have a great deal of snap in their interactions and the balance of personalities and powers can make for some great plays. I had good fun watching this one, and I hope you did too…
Ruh roh! Looks like we got a bad guy here!
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: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
My disappointment grew as the first episode went along. The show felt like it wasn’t really getting anywhere. I know they did stuff, and introduced powers, but much like Denki-gai’s opener, this one felt cramped, especially in the contrast between Chifuyu’s created battle space and the dinky little club room. I would have liked for the show to get out of that room a little bit.
I could have also done without so much of Andou’s blustering. It’s like they felt they had to justify giving so much screentime to the one useless guy in the group.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I would like to thing that two cour worth of OreImo built up my tolerance to bluster and yelling that that sort of thing….compared to that Andou is weak tea.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
…Seriously? The ability to heal or repair anything and you’re brushing it off like this? This is a world-changing power. Used incorrectly it could result in the extinction of all life on the planet, in the long term. It may not be as immediately flashy as the others’ (unless she has to repair something big, or heal someone who’s on the verge of death), but that doesn’t make it any less potentially cataclysmic.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I agree with you on Sayumi’s power. It has the potential to be the most powerful one with some thought and imagination behind it. I really want to see her get hold of a dinosaur bone and return it to its original condition! Or discover that that’s beyond her power.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Just for some clarification, in the LN/manga it is explicitly said that Sayumi ability is restoring things to its original state.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…which is all the anime had to say for it as well..
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…but for an example of possible world changing power…you only need to look to a Level One…Uiharu and her Thermal Hand…arresting entropy! Imagine if she was Level Five!
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
My outlook on this show’s first episode turned out negative for the most part. The run was incoherent, jumping from one thing to the next, giving me trouble to make sense of what’s going on in spite of it all happening in front of my face. As though it’s being edited in real time.
As for the lead Andou, he was utterly obnoxious. His behavior was so forced that his antics came off as humorless and frustrating to watch. There are others he could learn from. For moderate chuunibyou that doesn’t repel, there’s Yuuta Togashi. For tsukkomi outbursts done right, D-Frag’s Kenji Kazama is who you should consult. I can identify with the other clubs complaining about the noise. It’s like trying to rid of the annoying guy who won’t shut up.
I’m sad to hear Trigger is taking this up. A shame to know that especially with the awesome job they did with Kill la Kill. To give a little leeway, the show is getting the three episode test. What would win my favor? Doing something about Andou’s aggravating personality.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I fully agree with you about Andou. His antics were almost enough to get me to drop this show before they even got their powers. He deserves having the only useless power. Although I fear before the end of the show it’ll turn out to be the most powerful. I dearly hope not–I want him stuck at useless.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I was actually hoping that he’d have some unknown power that was useful. As it is, it feels really undeserved harem, because you have an annoying useless guy who can’t do anything. He needs to at least do something to make liking him worthwhile.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
If you think Andou’s annoying now with a useless power, just imagine how insufferable he’ll be with a great power. His chuuni would know no bounds and neither would his ego and screaming out something really, really stupid whenever he uses his power. And he’d use it every chance he’d get and use it even when there’s no reason to use it.
He needs a major personality change to make liking him worthwhile and feeding into his chuuni personality isn’t going to do it.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
For some reason Nobuhiko Okamoto performance as Andou just doesn’t quite have the chuuni feel to it unlike FukuJun performance as Yuuta. Should’ve stick to Miyano from the Drama CDs IMO. (Then again, he did voiced Accelerator)
Although if they are going for the angle of Andou being a all talk no substance guy I guess it works?
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
If this is Nobuhiko Okamoto’s first time voicing a chuunibyou character, then it couldn’t be helped. He’d be stepping out of his comfort zone.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I really liked the premise of this show when I read about it–high school (and one elementary) students get superpowers and there’s no monsters or alien invasion or a super bad guy/organization to fight with them. They just go about their ordinary lives, only now they have superpowers. So what do they do?
That sounded like it could be really interesting, especially in the hands of Trigger, and a chance to spoof all the anime out there about superpowered teens. But then Upsidedown Guy makes his appearance. I felt my heart sinking then. But maybe there’s hope yet. Maybe he won’t turn out to be someone they have to battle. Maybe he’s just running a psychological study of some kind and wants to see what they do with their superpowers. Sure, that may entail his setting up a supposed evil group they have to battle to see if they do become “champions of justice and defenders of the weak,” but if it’s all faked and Trigger handles it right, that could be fun and give great opportunities to spoof those kinds of shows.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Given the rest of the episode, I didn’t mind the appearance of upside-down guy, because based on the rest, it was going to be waaaaay too much of Andou. It probably still will be, but hopefully there will be something else.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Based on the three episode rule, I’d continue to watch this if Andou gets less screen time (unlikely) or he changes his tune a bit. I got more irritation than I needed from him in this one episode alone. That’s not a good sign for the rest of the series.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Not sure if spoilers, but just in case:
Show ▼
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Spammy, Spammy, Spammy, why do you hate us so?
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
He’d probably reply “Oh, it’s nothing personal. Just fun”.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Yeah. “I’m not picking on you–I do it to everybody.”
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Ohohoho, for some reason I managed to slip 4 comments through Spammy 😀
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Hey, don’t go and jinx your luck. You may regret it later.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Huh, I feel that the anime lacks some of the charm from the manga. I find that the manga is more funny since its crazier with the references compare to the first episode which has some funny bits here and there but its average/passable overall. Also it seems like Trigger changed the plot of the LN and added an original character in aka Mirei. I only read until the half of the 2nd chapter though so I may be wrong abt some things.
I was expecting the onee-san type Sayumi to sound more…. big sisterly. Instead I got Himeragi/Kuroha but its fine. Also just because Andou doesn’t have powerful ability ppl are getting rather touchy abt it since quite a few comment in the anime forum abt Inou Battle can be sum up as “Will he stay useless?”
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I beg your pardon. Risa Taneda is in this anime? Well, that’s bittersweet.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I personally hope Jurai stays useless. It would just perfect for his character.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I sense a lot of “MEH” in this comment section or is it just me? LOL
Anyway I found InuBattle to be really entertaining and comical! When the main dude did his speech and suddenly gained powers out of the blue it was so freaking funny! Imagine if that happened in Chuunibyou with Rika and Yuuta actually having powers? I guess being a Trigger fanboy kept me from finding it boring, but I will agree I can’t wait to see the club members stretch their legs and leave the clubroom to battle!
Did anyone else catch the Kill la Kill life fiber boxing glove shout out? LOL GOOD JOB Trigger <3
For the plot I have an idea that some god is trolling these kids to see what humans would do if they actually had powers! Like imagine this god is holding a contest to see who would actually win good people or evil people? Id guess probably like Loki or some other god depending on how the creators wanna spin things or is that way off base? LOL I think it would work.
As for MC's power yeah its dumb but I think that is the point as a comical thing knowing the girls have way more power than him? I don't know for me that works and as Sumarii said I also agree that Jurai should stay useless while the girls do all the heavy work.
10/10 need more episodes <3
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Boku Girl the manga has a LOLi LOKi, so don’t go spreading the mischief thin…
And yes, the BOXING GLOVES!
I think Dark and Dark will evolve into something, but Juu-kun will remain a dork….powers level up, but leopards don’t change their spots.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
It’s not you. Trust me, you’re sensing a tremendous amount of “MEH”.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I counter your “meh” with a World Create Rain of Anvils and skylion-centric Shinobu….nice knowing you! =-)
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
I agree, I found this episode highly entertaining. As much as I like FukuJun, Chunibyo S1 annoyed the hell out of me (I don’t even know why I bothered to watch the first episode to the end… actually, I lied, I watched it hoping that Nibutani would get more screen time). Surprisingly, the chuuni was tolerable for me here, and I’m on Fosh’s side in wanting to see more ^^
And yeah, I thought those gloves looked REALLY familiar, that explains why~!
And Andou and his Dark and Dark~~~ haha, I’d probably do the same and say good morning and night to it (゜▽゜;)