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Arata Kangatari's opening episode is
disappointingly not that interesting.
It pains to see a
series I look forward to fail (or not entirely) to impress me with its opening
episode. Arata Kangatari's art isn't as
good as I expected (or as I have wished), Hinohara Arata isn't a character I
care about despite his background and the cliffhanger isn't that strong (okay fine, it wasn't really much
of a cliffhanger at all). But despite those complains, this first episode of Arata Kangatari definitely made me pose some
questions which would at least keep me watching (aside from the fact that Okamono Nobuhiko's
voicing Hinohara Arata).
Arata Kangatari opens with the quick look on
Hinohara Arata's (Okamoto Nobuhiko) background. He's a highschool student who's
athletic yet bullied. On the other side of the story, there's Arata (Matsuoka
Yoshitsugu) who's supposed to pretend as a girl and play the role of the
next 'Hime-ou'. Unfortunately shit happens so when the ceremony for Arata and
Kikuri-hime (Yamamura
Hibiku), the current Hime-ou, started, the 12 Shinsho began their
revolution. Kannagi (Ono
Yuuki), one of the 12 Shinsho attacked Kikuri-hime which put a stopped to
the ceremony and blamed it all to the cross-dressing Arata. With Arata accused
for the death of Kikuri-hime, he ran towards Kando Forest in panic. In another
world, after Hinohara (let's call the HS Arata Hinohara
as to avoid confusion) witness his so-called friend say that they were never
friends to begin with, he wished himself to disappear. Taking the effect of the
Kando Forest, Arata and Hinohara's lives exchanged places, thus Hinohara's
adventure begins. But what happens to Arata?
It's a letdown to
see how Hinohara's character isn't as sympathizing as he should be. He
developed trust problems because of his so-called friend which probably serves
as the strength for him to have the guts to face Kannagi. It's no surprise that
Hinohara had the ability to use Hime Clan's Hayagami since he's the main
character after all but it was quite surprising that even though he's not
originally from their world, he was able to do so. I guess it all comes down to
the world's acceptance of Hinohara taking the place of Arata.
This first episode
may not really be as exciting as the other series that premiered, as I have
mentioned, yet Arata Kangatari
successfully posed in some interesting events to look forward to in the series.
The one thing that came to my mind is what's going to happen to Arata and how
he'll face Hinohara's world; add to that the suspicious bully Kadowaki Masato (Kimura Ryouhei).
As for Hinohara, this new problem he has in his hands is surely a big one and
now that he has successfully materialized a Hayagami, Kannagi will definitely
not just let him off the hook.
All in all, Arata Kangatari started off pretty decent. It
still has room for improvements and I'll definitely be looking forward to that.
I can definitely take on the low quality art but if the story continues to be
uninteresting I might stall this and finish it when I feel like it.
