Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi and Bokutachi no Remake are really the only bubble series left in this barren anime season.  But they’re definitely headed in opposite directions.  I’ll be very surprised if Remake lasts another week, but Idaten is firming up a place on the schedule.  Simply put this show is fun, and a lot of it.  When you put together a bunch of animators and actors who’ve been doing this a very long time and know how to cut loose, that’s a great start.  But (and this is perhaps the surprising part) they’re working here with a story that has a lot of retro appeal as well.  So far, the combo is working damn well.

The overall tone of the story continues to be pretty much unmitigated chaos, but a few elements are starting to clarify a bit.  Rin is neither a hero of villain, more a force of nature.  She professes to be perfectly happy wiping out the entire nation of Zoble to clear out the demons – which I would have thought violated some kind of Idaten code or something but I guess not.  You’d initially think from Ysley’s resistance that he’s horrified at the idea of slaughtering millions of humans, but no – he’s just worried such an indiscriminate act might miss some of their targets.  Their express purpose may be to defend humanity, but these creatures are pretty cold and heartless so far.

Ysley is the prime mover of the story so far.  He’s the one who’s always got a plan, always sees the others – even Rin – as chess pieces.  His counter to Rin is to beg a week of forbearance so he can track down Prontea (whose location he knows precisely) to enlist his aid in gathering intelligence on demons.  Prontea has been assigned to monitor “the entire world”, but he seems to find a lot of time for fun stuff like racing RC cars and befriending children.  He and Ysley are obviously kindred spirits (geh-heh) and you know good things are going to happen once they (and Paula and Hayato) get together.

It’s always great to hear Ogata Megumi and Ishida Akira together on-screen – obviously, their chemistry is stupendous.  Prontea is clearly badass 1-B after Rin – not as beastly in physical combat but much more cunning.  But he’s absolutely terrified of her, as everyone bar Hayato is (only more so).  Ysley is even manipulating Prontea, though.  He wants Prontea to train Hayato, which kills a couple of birds.  Hayato is clearly capable of getting even beastlier than he is but needs something different from Rin’s one-note abuse sessions to achieve it.  And their fight will no doubt attract the attention of the youkai, who Ysley is keen to smoke out.

Ysley is full of secrets, to be sure.  He’s also got a human scientist – a Zoble defector named Gachikama – and lab stashed on the side.  He’s been spiriting the dead demons there to be studied, and the obvious question is just what Ysley’s endgame is here.  Is he simply doing this as a back channel to further the basic anti-demon war without Rin’s interference, or does he have another motive – and other allies to help him achieve it?  Meanwhile the demons have sent Piscala to deal with the three next-gen Idaten, along with the “child soldier” Corey and this dude (whose name I’ve forgotten, if we ever knew it).

It seems pretty obvious that Corey has no shot against Hayato and Paula – what’s interesting is that Prontea gives the weakest prey to the children to kill for training purposes, like a mother tigress might to her cubs.  Prontea takes the Rambo dude himself and again, foregone conclusion.  The one battle which might prove competitive is Piscala, strongest of this attack group, against theoretically the weakest in Ysley.  These are enemies capable of using subterfuge and not just brute force, as witness the first moments of their battle.

The bottom line is that all of this is quite entertaining.  The visuals are great and old-school, the characters have real distinctiveness, including the demons, and the premise is approachable and nicely exposited.   We have the usual ongoing manga caveats to factor in (this one has only five volumes to boot), and I don’t imagine Idaten is the sort of series likely to prove profitable enough to get a sequel.  Nevertheless I’m really enjoying it so far, and the movement is all in the right direction.