Bigger Hand for Bigger Punches!
Summary: In Bubuki Buranki, Azuma Kazuki is the 'Son of the Witch', his mother having been named as the one responsible for a massive incident that occurred 10 years ago, when he was sent down to the surface from the floating island he had been living on till then. It’s been ten years since Azuma Kazuki has been in Japan where he originally fell, and upon his arrival he is taken prisoner by a group of armed men. Azuma is saved by his childhood friend, Kogane Asabuki, thanks to a living weapon she wields on her right hand, known as a Bubuki. Learning about these weapons, Azuma becomes a Bubuki wielder himself and sets out on a journey.
First Impression: I have no idea what is going on, in this show. It doesn't feel like the show was trying to leave me like that either. It just feels like everything is being really poorly explained. Where's his sister? What the heck happened to the floating island? What was going on for those 10 years? He was in Japan? Now he's back? Why?
My Opinion: I don't know what to think of this one. It took a few seconds for it to sink in that the show was using 3D animations, so I think that isn't too glaringly annoying, at least as much as it has been for previous anime using it. The story is just all over the map. I understand In Medias Res is a great way to get the action going real fast, but...could we maybe assume for just, like, 5 seconds that the community that consumes anime might have the attention span required for you to just calmly build a world in the first episode? Like you already were for the first half of this show? Do we absolutely have to have it devolve into spontaneous poorly explained flashy fighting? I was rather enjoying this shows opening half. We were pleasantly building backstory and motivations, and character personalities. Or so I thought. The second half of the show seems to draw on precisely none of it.
Having said all that, I've concluded my bitching about industry practices. The world and story, while a bit poorly presented, are at least the correct level of interesting. Despite my opening fears that this was going to go towards the Mech Anime route, it didn't, and instead things are down on the human size level, which is much better. Everything becomes far too impractical and silly when you Giant Robot size it. As it is, the technology? Magic? Both? on display here, are already on my watchlist of things likely to be poorly thought out and explained.
Don't get me wrong, they don't have to be well explained and thought out for the show to be good. I just would like to believe we can expect to get a show that is good, without part of it just being dismissed and sacrificed. I feel like it always drags a show down when they do that.
I'd like to hold onto my thoughts until the second episode, in hopes that maybe it will take a breath and explain itself better then.
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