How much did Bessatsu Shonen Magazine pay you to write this positive review?
Not enough, really I mean zero! Zero!
I've only watched Legend of Galactic Heroes, but part of what appealed so much to me from that is how Tanaka tied the personal and the political, both subtly and overtly. I can see hints of that in the pilot, which does end up tickling me because I'm a sucker for political stuff but that kind of plot is heavily reliant on execution, so I know better than to be anything but cautiously optimistic.
Arslan is being serialized in a shounen magazine and regardless of the popularity of both the writer and the mangaka, I get that it will have to be palatable to the chosen audience. The pilot has the standard main character encountering another character who upturns the worldview, but there's slivers of interesting things in there, like his parents, their relationship, and the world setting.
I'd give 10 out of 10 only to Beelzebub's pilot chapter, because it was just ridiculous. Probably also because I don't remember pilots of any other shounen...
The Heroic Legend of Arslan 1
It was pretty cool, I like the setting and the characters so far and I'm convinced it'll be a pretty entertaining series.
(=´∀`)人(´∀=)
