First Impression – Houkago no Pleiades

Are you ready for a magical ride?!

 I can agree with Skylion on the whole original webcast and the ONA series that came out afterwards, but I have seen this episode a few times with Subaru meeting the other girls and gaining her powers! I didn’t write much for this review so I made a video instead.

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I have to say I was a fan of the original webcast, and was always hoping they would deliver more. Now that the time in here, let’s see what these Magical Girls have to say…

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Magical LOLi Power!

I love these magical girl outfits!

One of the things I want to address straight off is, how on Earth can a girl as pretty as Subaru seem to have few if any friends. The fact that the other club and activity posters covered her own meteor show and star gazing announcement was just a bit too far. It reinforced something that didn’t seem like it needed to be there. But, for all of this show, that really is my only complaint. Every character has to have an arc after all….So this is what happens when you let a car manufacturer bankroll an anime. As far as crass marketing goes, this one isn’t very much in your face about that. Since we are dealing with early middle school children, it’s doubtful any of them are going to pull any deep drifts with any of the companies latest and greatest models. No, that’s mostly kept to their magic girl wands/approximate broom-sticks Drive Shafts. All of them rev up like street racers, and even feature a stylized car grill at the top. One other neat thing to keep in mind is the naming convention. Subaru is a common enough name in Japanese, but it’s also the name of the star cluster known in the West as the Pleiades; a feature you will notice in that grill…So for those still asking why Subaru, as a company, would do such a thing? Dunno. But if it’s this fun, they can continue…

OOOOHHHH AHHHHH! MAGIC!

I’m a bit of an old-school fantasist, so when you show me a “magic door” that a special character can unlock, I am hooked. Subaru’s journey begins with that lovely narrative device.It’s going into the door that makes the adventure happen, meeting the next character. Also, along the way, she just has to strike upon equally time-tested tradition of tripping into the rest of the story, not quite making the entrance she would have chosen. But every step on the journey is important. I like this collection of characters. They are perhaps in a bit of a rush to brush over with broad stroke characterizations, but since it’s the first episode, they have time to develop. It’s not like this formula hasn’t been tried before. But even though it looks like a typical Mahou Shoujo, there’s enough to set it apart from the rest. Sometimes I hate the “no time to explain” rush away from exposition, but this episode pulled it off with some gusto. Full marks for the transformation sequence; it avoided some of the “creepy” factor quite well. It’s wears it’s traditions not only well, but on it’s own. I used to hate those hats, but now they’ve grown on me.

Extra Pleiades

Ehhhhhhhhhhhh!

Strike that pose Subaru!

Yuri powers activate <3

Now I’m curious~

End thoughts

While there wasn’t a whole lot of new things in this first episode for me I enjoyed the bit of side story between Aoi and Subaru, but I am more curious to see what Gainax has planned for this series! Personally I think this is going for lighthearted fun instead of being gloom and doom or else it will get the Madoka comparison that I hate every time a new magical girl series pops up or returning ones like Nanaoha? Yeah there is no way that will be anything dark or depressing! So what did you think of this episode? Are you going to stick around and see what happens?

You know, these days you just can’t fully take a Magical Girl show at first blush. It’s had it’s share of surprises in the past. Given how popular a few risks have become, it stands to reason that this one might attempt that. So, will this be a darker than dark journey thru a twisted fairy tale like both Madoka and Yuki Yuuna? Time will tell. But the general atmosphere of the show, the way the present they antagonist as merely working against them, instead of busily being an active bad guy….Well. Who knows. I feel the show is bright, colorful and fun enough to warrant a watch. I also love the concept, those broomsticks are cool….

Preview

Friend or foe? 

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.