It’s back to Japan with Erica in tow as she decides on how best to get closer to her Campione.
What They Say:
No episode summary provided.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Campione certainly had its own bit of style in the first episode and went with some big ideas as it pushed us into Italy and gave us a lead male character that seemed like he was taking on a god-like level in some ways. With events turning him into Campione, the killer of kings and the like, it’s an amusing position to be put in since he is still just a young man overall. His defeat of the god in the previous episode was one where it had some great action, designs and a sense of color and style that worked exceptionally well for me. But it was also something that felt like it could fall short or just fall apart entirely depending on how it plays out. A lead like Kusanagi is something that feels more like a throwback a decade or more in that while he has goofy moments, he’ll also have strong moments throughout. After most of the last decade being focused on the meager characters for male leads, I’m enjoying this slowly changing trend.
Because of what Kusanagi has become with everything that happened, Erica is rather interested in him in a big way now, which is conflicting for him since he wants to be a good guy. With them both having gone back to Japan and to his own house where Erica is now living, that just adds a whole other layer of complication, especially with his uptight younger sister Shizuka giving him grief over the way he’s dealing with her. And now with Erica going to school with Kusanagi, much to his surprise, it gets even worse for him since she calls him out plainly as the one she’s pledged to. With what transpired between them and his status as the Campione, it’s not a surprise that she’s completely taken with him and has changed her attitude completely. The only saving grace Kusanagi has is that she won’t be living with him full time, having gotten an apartment of her own.
While the show plays with its fun stuff pretty well whil enot overdoing it, there’s also some time spent on going through the motions of what it means to the Campione and the forces that are out there that will attempt to seduce him to their side. This adds a good little bit of background material in a mild info dump kind of way that at least fills us in on things. Which is useful since those threats will come quickly, such as when Erica and Kusanagi end up in a situation with another god that is taking a look at him. It’s more implied than anything else but it expands the cast without making this new girl god a major focus for an entire episode. It’s tantalizing and teasing more than being blunt, which is quite welcome. The main threat he has to deal with now though is that of Erica, whose intentions to test him do lead to a good bit of fun and action, again highlighting the strong animation and designs here.
In Summary:
With Campione, I once again come away from it appreciating it on a technical level and liking a lot of the character points that come into it. Erica has a fun personality to her that keeps her from feeling like too many other female leads and Kusanagi’s personality is certainly familiar but with some nice edges to it as we see how he handles being this legendary person. He may come across as a standard male lead in a lot of ways, but there’s something extra about him that keeps you from just writing him off. He’s not the wimp character but rather has a closer to reality feel to him in how someone would handle this situation. Erica’s testing of him is factoring well into the show at this stage as there are those above them that want to make sure that events will go in their favor. Both of them get to play well and it also further bonds them in some fun ways. The series is one that I’m still hopeful will have some good payoff as it progresses based on its potential. It’s a solid show but it needs to capitalize more on things before it can really stand out strongly.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
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.
