What better way to break things up than some time at a hot spring.
What They Say:
What should have been a relaxing trip to the hot springs and complicated by Kon’s glowing inability to control his self and that Erec is staying at the same Inn.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Ixion Saga having spent time with Marian now about her history and gender issues and then giving the princess a little time to herself as well with the way she gets during a particular time of the month, the show now goes to the next obvious stop. A hot spring. It took seven episodes so I’m pretty impressed that it took some time before they got it, considering there are some series that hit them up in their first episode. As the group continues to travel and see the sights on the way towards their destination, they’ve got a little down time in a fairly good town with some amusing booth games and a beautiful hot spring inn where they can all go for a soak. Gender separated of course, which allows Kon to be stupidly playful once more.
Like most hot spring episodes though, it’s just a lot of silliness in and around the inn itself. A lot of which is fostered by Kon’s adolescent attitude where he doesn’t think things through all that much. HHalf the time he just wants to hvae fun while the other half of the time he’s just doing things without realizing how it impacts others. To make matter worse while at the inn, he discovers that Erec has arrived there as well. With the history the two of them have at this point, that will make for a less than enjoyable stay should they come across each other. While Kon wants to do something about it, Sainglain is nowhere to be found as he’s run off to the more adult section of town to enjoy the pleasures of women.
The show runs through a whole lot of pointlessness with this as the main driving force, mainly allowing Kon to go out and spend some time with Sainglain that leads to him trying to man up a bit. Kon’s just not a good lead character for me since he’s so one dimensional, uninteresting and often just plain stupid. As it progresses here, there are fun points to be had with what’s going on, but much of it comes from the other characters. Erec’s time in the hot spring at first is hugely comical with the way he prays in a sense and savors the water. When the two finally do come into contact with each other again, it’s more male bravado from Erec that just lets everything spiral out of control for a bit. Predictably.
In Summary:
While I can understand why people do find this show to be fun and amusing, it’s pretty much the kind of show that drives me nuts on some level. With goofy to uninteresting characters that can’t handle being lead roles to storylines that just don’t click because they’re paper thin and without merit – and often pushed to the background for most of the season – Ixion Saga DT really does feel like the low grade game adaptation that it is. It’s trying to do some of the lighter character material but the end result is straddling the line of insulting to the viewer instead. At least with this viewer.
Grade: C-
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.
