First Impressions – Kill me Baby, High School DxD

[UTW-Mazui]_Kill_Me_Baby_-_01_[h264-720p][99001B5A].mkv_snapshot_11.40_[2012.01.06_16.20.19] [SubDESU-Katana-subs] High School DxD 01(1280x720 x264 AAC)[9867BC7B].mkv_snapshot_00.46_[2012.01.06_23.11.10] [SubDESU-Katana-subs] High School DxD 01(1280x720 x264 AAC)[9867BC7B].mkv_snapshot_05.06_[2012.01.06_23.15.30]

Kill me Baby – 01

[UTW-Mazui]_Kill_Me_Baby_-_01_[h264-720p][99001B5A].mkv_snapshot_00.14_[2012.01.06_16.08.53] [UTW-Mazui]_Kill_Me_Baby_-_01_[h264-720p][99001B5A].mkv_snapshot_00.35_[2012.01.06_16.09.14] [UTW-Mazui]_Kill_Me_Baby_-_01_[h264-720p][99001B5A].mkv_snapshot_01.59_[2012.01.06_16.10.37]
[UTW-Mazui]_Kill_Me_Baby_-_01_[h264-720p][99001B5A].mkv_snapshot_04.17_[2012.01.06_16.12.55] [UTW-Mazui]_Kill_Me_Baby_-_01_[h264-720p][99001B5A].mkv_snapshot_15.36_[2012.01.06_16.24.15] [UTW-Mazui]_Kill_Me_Baby_-_01_[h264-720p][99001B5A].mkv_snapshot_20.35_[2012.01.06_23.52.54]

Well, that was pretty dumb.  After a historically, epically awful OP, Kill me Baby is pretty much 22 minutes of one lame schoolgirl assassin joke after another.  In some ways it reminds me of Seitokai Yakuindomo with ninja jokes substituted for sex jokes.  It’s not as funny as that show, but a few of the gags worked, and there’s so little effort to be even remotely serious that the cumulative effect is mildly amusing.  Regular girl Yasuna (Akasaki Chinatsu) seems to be notable only for being very very stupid, and for being the friend of assassin Sonya (Tamura Mutsumi) – an assassin who’s scared of pretty much everything.  Sonya’s assassin colleague, ninja girl Agiri (Takabe Ai) makes an appearance, and is probably the funniest thing in the episode with one bogus “jutsu” after another.  I very much doubt I’ll blog this, but I enjoyed it barely enough to give it another episode or two.  Be warned, the animation is extremely low-rent even by JC Staff standards.

High School DxD – 01

[SubDESU-Katana-subs] High School DxD 01(1280x720 x264 AAC)[9867BC7B].mkv_snapshot_02.26_[2012.01.06_23.12.50] [SubDESU-Katana-subs] High School DxD 01(1280x720 x264 AAC)[9867BC7B].mkv_snapshot_04.48_[2012.01.06_23.15.12] [SubDESU-Katana-subs] High School DxD 01(1280x720 x264 AAC)[9867BC7B].mkv_snapshot_06.25_[2012.01.06_23.17.00]
[SubDESU-Katana-subs] High School DxD 01(1280x720 x264 AAC)[9867BC7B].mkv_snapshot_08.05_[2012.01.06_23.23.20] [SubDESU-Katana-subs] High School DxD 01(1280x720 x264 AAC)[9867BC7B].mkv_snapshot_11.05_[2012.01.06_23.26.20] [SubDESU-Katana-subs] High School DxD 01(1280x720 x264 AAC)[9867BC7B].mkv_snapshot_22.04_[2012.01.06_23.38.55]

I haven’t seen this many nipples since Seikon no Qwaser

Hard to know what to make of that, bar a slight superficial resemblance to Kore wa Zombie.  Obviously the ecchi component in going to be front and center in this LN adaptation, the story of 2nd-year high school idiot Issei Hyoudou (Kaji Yuki), who’s killed on his first date (just after his first glimpse of live breasts).  The killer is Yuuma, a girl who may or not be a fallen angel but is certainly a member of a secret society on campus (formerly an all-girls school, if you were worried we were short on clichés).  She says she’s killinh Issei because he’s a “threat”, but he’s resurrected by the red-headed campus hottie Rias Gremory (Hikasa Yoko) who introduces herself as a devil and certainly appears to have a master-slave relationship in mind as the price for her services.  On balance the premiere was hit and miss – the fanservice was certainly plentiful, but most of the humor felt pretty flat to me and there wasn’t much that stood out about Issei.  As sick as I am of Kaji-san, at least he’s changing up the deliver a little here.  Given that this was an obvious setup episode and that we have some real talent in the team adapting a very popular LN series, I’ll give this a couple of episodes to draw me in, for sure.

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10 comments

  1. I

    The first I think I thought of when I saw HSDxD was kore wa zombie except with ecchi now twin turbo charged.
    I see this, as GE pointed out, as the 2nd coming of Seikon (which was stupid).
    First IS now this, I thought light novel used to be interesting stories which didnt need mainstream perversion. This is H manga legible stuff.
    Was there any point to the undressing scene. No. But fans need to be serviced, especially those who cant go to 18+ stores yet.

    Japan WTF.

    Sincerely the Universe

    P.S. Chuck Norris wants a word

  2. K

    As I said in another post Kill Me Baby was simply awful. I dropped it after giving that 1st episode a try. I'm hoping HSDxD gets better. Amagami and Natsume were good at least so hopefully more decent series will start this coming week.

    I still can't believe JC Staff put out something as bad as KMB and no one at the studio noticed or said "this isn't good, we have to fix this". It looks like a anime made by middle or high school kids for a school project.

  3. U

    "Kill me Baby" couldn't have a more appropriate name. It's incredible how it felt that they were already milking a series that barely started. Would be better if it was a 5 minute OVA bundled with one of the mangas volumes. Dropped…and i didn't even watch past the tenth minute of the first episode.

    — — —

    High School DxD, on the other hand, was awesome! At first, i couldn't put in to words why i liked it so much. It seemed so typical, and yet, there was something there that made it so appealing.

    After watching it for the second time, i realised that the body language in this series is excellent. The character's expressions, the way their bodies reacted according to the scene…it was amazing.

    I then watched a third time, without subs or sound, and i could tell exactly what the characters were "feeling".

    Other than that, the anime delivers on one of the most important aspects of an ecchi series: the teasing. Whenever Rias appeared, the producers made sure to imediately make her stare into your soul. After that, she ignores the main character and gracefully goes away. By the end of the episode, i was already looking forward to a more intimate scene featuring her and the main character. And it was at that very moment that she delivered those lines: "I am Rias Gremory. I am a Devil […] And i am your master", and then stared into my soul once again.

    It was like she was saying: "I am Rias Gremory. I am the best girl in this harem [..] And you are going to watch this entire anime just because of me".

  4. b

    Ha, I told you HSDxD might not be to your liking.
    But surprisingly the direction feels much better than in the novels. Difference in media I guess.

    Anyways, I think Hikasa Yoko and Itou Shizuka should have switched their roles as Rias and Akeno.
    And what, no Yoshino Hiroyuki as one of the stupid male sidekicks? :3
    Not a bad start. Let's see how this goes. Seeing 10 volumes in BT still leaves me in disbelief that this is a popular LN.

    It's like I'm watching a much more perverted version of Shu >_>
    Also, lots of nipples. Really hard to watch this at home.

  5. I don't dislike it, Betletkuro – I just need more time to decide!

  6. Z

    Well, having read the the HSDxD novels as far as they are translated so are they quite fun to read. Much of this episode was extrapolated from the novel, but it followed from telling that day chronologically rather then starting at his death and then remembering the past day.

    I am looking forward to the rest of this adaptation as it seems OK to me so far. There is quite a lot of story and action to fill up the episodes to come, but there wont be any lack of service either as Rias doesn't have any nudity taboo to speak of.

  7. d

    The high school show reminds me of the 7 lives dark bunny. or whatever it was called

  8. A

    @deafvader
    A dark rabbit has seven lives is the name of that show I believe.

    But anyhow, does anyone think Sonya looks like Nagi from Hayate no Gotoku or Suzu from Seitokai Yakuindomo?

  9. I do see the Suzu resemblance. Not the only resemblance I see to SYD.

  10. S

    Kill Me Baby is hilarious, you people have no sense of humor. Also has the best ED of any anime ever.

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