The school days continue with danger, battles and potential romance.
What They Say:
Because of Akatsuki’s antics, the student council has threatened to send Kuzuha back to elementary school unless she spies on him. Meanwhile, Onizuka hatches a plan to get back at Akatsuki.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
First impressions are difficult to shake, both within shows and with the show itself. With the second episode of Aesthetitica of a Rogue Hero, Akatsuki has made a poor impression on some of the students at the school because of the trouble he got into, which has lots of the student council and disciplinary members now watching him. He’s in that awkward position now where if things go too wrong, it’ll go badly for him. Not that it would stop him in the slightest, though he does know how to finagle things. His encounter with Onizuka early on here shows that he won’t back down and has found a way to make a new reputation for himself because of it.
With the story here as it progresses, for what I guess you could call a story as I’m still very uncertain as to what the point of everything is, we see how Akatsuki has managed to win over Kuzuha to his side in a way. So much so that as things go on, he’s encouraging her to write reports about him for the student council since they’ve pushed her to spy on him and he wants her to make him look as bad as she likes. Which is a conflict for her since she’s come to respect him on some level and there’s potential for some burning interesting below the surface as well with the way he treats her. It’s not that she’s been disrespected by others, but Akatsuki shoots so straight with her that it takes her by surprise and potentially kindles something.
While the first half plays with character material fairly well, even if nobody is all that appealing overall, the second half brings in some good action to thing. Onizuka’s being snubbed before now has him with a plan to get some revenge in a school battle against Akatsuki, though it won’t go well in his favor. With Akatsuki having picked up some skills over the years, he’s able to make short work of him in a fun and playful way. Of course, the match turns in a whole other direction there which makes it a team effort to take down the beast that’s now on the scene. The why of it all just feels pointless, and there’s a lot of lead-up dialogue to it, but when it hits the action and magic use, it works well visually and left me pretty pleased on that front.
In Summary:
With three episodes under its belt now, I’m still not sure what the point of the series is. With the initial premise of bringing Miu back to protect her since she is the daughter of someone of importance from that world, the show certainly has potential. Bu to me, it’s faltered heavily on providing a framework for everything to work in. The exploration of this world, Babel and all that it means, and having seemingly no oversight that lets the students do whatever they want just makes it feel like a poorly defined mess. The positives for me continue to be the character designs (copious amounts of green hair!) and the magic battle moments since it has a good flair about it, but beyond that it’s just leaving me uncertain as to why we’re going through what we’re going through.
Grade: C
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
