Gatchaman Crowds 1
So, looks like this may be my only anime of the summer season as nothing else has caught my eye. As for the first episode, I liked it. Mostly liked it anyway.
So, on the positive side, it's super pretty. Great use of colors, great transformation effects, fun looking battles. This show is super great to look at. The fight choreography could be better, but that will hopefully come when we move past cannon fodder enemies. The characters are fun so far as well, so that's really good. By far the best part of the show, though, is the music. So good. It just ties everything together in a great way. The battle themes are especially fantastic. The music alone might have been enough to make me keep watching.
On the negative side, story wasn't handled all that well here. Lots of exposition delivered in a strange way. All that stuff made parts of the episode drag way longer than they should. Suit design is a mixed bag. Most of them look neat enough, but I don't know. They just aren't clicking for me. Main heroine could get super annoying as well. She's just too energetic. She doesn't feel fit for a main role, but I'm hoping we see her develop nicely over the course of the series.
Overall, my biggest complaint is nothing here felt like "Gatchaman" to me. I'm all for dramatic remaginings of classic franchises. I don't mind making major changes to the formula, but I feel like they need to keep some of the original spirit of the show alive in order to justify using the franchise name instead of being an original IP. There's nothing here that screams "Gatchaman" to me, and I just feel like it doesn't work for both the original IP and this show itself. The name and terminology just feels like it's been slapped on a completely different Team Hero show.
Overall, I enjoyed it. Going forward, I know to not expect this to be anything like the old Gatchaman, and I'm OK with that. I'm totally fine judging it on its own merits. They're off to a decent start, so I'm really excited to see how this progresses throughout the season.
