First Impressions – DRAMAtical Murder

Reoice, yaoi fangirls! Or flip your tables

As a player of the VN, I was really looking forward to this anime because of it. I remember people bombarding me about Love Stage! info and me not being amused at all due to the premise but this showed up and I was like YESSSS. Well, the elation was short lived because the first episode was just okay. Yep, that is all I have to say about it.

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 Here it is, the long-awaited anime based on Nitro+CHIRAL’s visual novel DRAMAtical Murder. Kyokai, as a fellow player of the visual novel, is joining me for this anime’s first impression. I feel sorry for Kyokai though, since she ends up having to watch this… “amazing”… Anime…

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The Good // From the overall run of the episode, it was basically the auto-play of the common route of the visual novel, which I’ve played with 70% progress to-date. I still have some bad routes to go through but yeah, some day. If you are curious about the source material, you can always read anaaga’s foray into it in two parts. I’m still not sure how faithful NAZ will be in its adaptation because well, I don’t see the yaoi tag but we shall see as it progresses. I really had to wrack my brains to find the good because the first episode was pretty average. If I was an elitist aniblogger, I would be spouting things like, this was horrible, what is this BS, askajshakjsdha, etc. As I am not one, let me just say that the players of VN will bear with this episode just because of Aoba or their favourite characters, while new watchers will ponder to themselves, what are they actually watching after a weak beginning? But then again, let;s remember this is the first episode after all. I guess, the actual game replay was not a good idea for anime form but at least you know that the setting is a future island, where the original occupants are forced to live in its backwaters because of privatization of the island by Toue Empire and formation of a resort like city called Platinum Jail.

Definitely a better game than SAO

Our MC seems average but hiding a mysterious past, well every MC has a story to tell after all. But the highlight for me as the good has to be the Rhyme game that Aoba’s pulled into, even when it didn’t make much sense for new watchers. When forced on a user, it’s like a mind takeover where the host can tamper with the actual system so even when a game is designed for entertainment and friendly matches between two individuals via Usui (as we saw in the episode early). This was the reason that Noiz, the dude in the rabbit mask tampered with the setting to cause actual damage in-game for his shits and giggles. He’s not an evil character but he has some issues of his own. Anyways, at least this part was very well done and can give SAO a run for it’s money. Yes, I definitely prefer this than the in-game gun battle that will ensue this season.

The Bad // Now that Kyokai has given all the good part of this episode, now let me talk about the horrible horrible things in this anime. First of all, the animation is just so damn horrible I can’t even gooddd *sob* The audience does not have to wait until the opening ends, they can see it right away how bad the animation is just by the opening already. It’s just a bunch of still images, and they’re exactly the same like the one in the game too. And then Aoba just… runs in this goddamn dark alley that’s totally pitch black, then a bunch of images of other characters appear at the his side. Seriously?

Because nothing can waste more money than a black background

Then we enter into the episode, which, surprisingly, had a waayyyy decent animation than Togainu no Chi’s first episode. Thank goodness they didn’t spend that money on the opening! That’s what I thought, until I realized that there is barely any animation in the episode. They even changed Aoba’s meeting with Mink (the pink ojisan) so that they won’t have to animate his motorcycle running him over in a way. The ones that are animated are the main characters, and the sometimes mooks when they are important (such as that moment when they got caught by Akushima). And for the backgrounds… What can I say? They look like nice colored sketches to me! Definitely… Nice… *sob* I wasn’t amused at that part, but at least the main characters got animated properly! And the Rhyme scene was awesome, so hey!

I have no words

And it’s not like I’m complaining about the main characters, but I wish… I wish they, particularly Aoba, have a more realistic anatomy. Many people mentioned it, and I’m going to point it out also. Aoba’s body consists of his legs only. When he walks, the only thing we see is his so-skinny legs. It makes sense, since his black shirt is covered with his weird oversized jacket, but… I wish his legs and his body is more proportional. Now Aoba only looks like walking legs from far away. Forget the legs, his butt is as flat as a board. I am sad. But the worst of all…

Probably the gayest scene of this episode

NO HOMO. What the hell, NAZ.

Good Things From this Anime:

Broken Pomeranian dog who can’t put his tongue back inside his mouth

Click for more Show ▼

Despite of my complaints, I thought this episode is decent (I’m trying to distract myself from all this anger due to the animation here). So far, the anime is faithful to the visual novel adaptation. Yes, everything is all jumbled up and nothing makes sense here, but that’s the whole point of first episode, really. To make the audience curious and follow the anime, though in this case, pissing the audience more. This is probably due to the pacing that’s kind of awkward, but that’s what happens when a studio try to squish everything in one episode while taking out the important parts that make the plot makes more sense. SHOULD’VE PUT THE HOMO, NAZ. Anyhow, plot-wise, I think the episode is off with a good start, and it seems that they’ll be covering the true route which is totally fine for me. Now if NAZ would spend less their money on Re:Hamatora and more on this anime, I would be a happy fangirl. But there are more than 10 episodes to go, so I shouldn’t lose hope.

Overall, this wasn’t so bad. We got to see an animated Aoba and some of the cast, along with some more angles on Ren (In-game, it was mostly his avatar and few scenes). Isn’t he adorable?! I swear if I ever get a dog, I will get a black Pomeranian. This is too early to pass a judgement on the anime because the plot direction is still uncertain but hopefully it will involve enough action and drama to keep us mildly engaged. As Noiz and Clear are my most favourite characters with Kojaku being on third, I’m really looking forward to their proper appearances rather than just glimpses or mind games. Though, the next episode title “Crack” just made me chuckle and choke. NO HOMO, NAZ! Didn’t you say?

Preview: Someone is not amused, but I have no idea since all I saw was Japanese characters.

Saving money for next episode by showing next episode’s title only

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.