I watched it this morning. Expectations are low but I figured what the hell. Thoughts on ep. 1 below.
Opening scene playing the CS3/CS4 track immediately made me think that Falcom tasked poor Sonoda with sound design for this show too but I'd have to check the credits.
Long exposition scene walking in the snow making extra sure that you know what you're watching is a bit much but it's broken up.. well enough, I guess. Disappointed at how non-plussed the veteran mercs are at the newbie dodging snowballs from behind.
Mysterious, new figure is called the "Aurora Phenomenon". Sounds fabulous. I like that even his hair is iridescent.
Action sequence revealing newbie to be protagonist-chan was stilted in a few spots (that spot where the music abruptly cuts out when the jobber mercs run out of ammo without adequate build-up stands out in particular) but is decent enough for what is clearly a budget production.
Hearing more music in the show now and I have no clue where the new tracks are from but I want to guess straight-ripped from the newer games that haven't been released in English yet. The track that plays as Lavian is walking among the city stalls sound too eastern so I'm guessing it's Calvard music.
Exposition dump from the granny stands out even more as ofc the mercs who are almost certainly natives know the basic-est history of North Ambria but I guess the show needs to get the background out there for people not with the program and it could have been done worse.
That shot of Rogan's corp restraining the two goober mercs clashes a bit with them clearly securing the memorial for their leader and leaving protag girl just standing there on top. I guess they knew Rogan was going to pass and speak ominously into her ear before delivering his grand revolution speech.
Credits had a decent number of Trails callbacks, and I'm not just talking about Mishy.
Overall this episode is a little better than I'd expected. The subs got all the locations and names correct, and the show is... mostly on point in this regards (the long engraving on the memorial is perfect English but one of the fliers spells Aidios as "Eidos"). The atmosphere of what little we see of Haliask is about what I'd imagine - A grand, central government building presumably preserved from pre-crisis surrounded by shantytowns. I was a little surprised at the existence of a post-war memorial but then I thought about it for a moment and realized that building it is probably the type of thing a new government in a poor country would try to do to curry up any favor.
Expectations are still low but I'll be back for next week.
