07-Ghost – 12

I really don’t get it. I’m really starting to agree with the criticisms against this show: for the past twelve episodes, Ayanami an his henchmen hardly did anything other than turning people into ghouls and having Frau kill them. Teito turns out to be the key to either saving the world or destroying it, and because of that he’s exceptionally talented when handling magic. Been there, done that.

An yet every single time I’m ready to dismiss this show, I watch another episode and it violently drags me back into its fanbase. 07-Ghost sucks and rocks at the same time. This episode again wasn’t that special on the plot development: we see a new woman who also turns people into ghouls, Ayanami in his turn also starts killing more people with ghouls. Teito develops his power even more, like he did in the past episodes and his new roommate obviously turns out to be his the guy from the previous episode and they spend the episode bickering.

So why the heck did I like this episode so much if it was so formulaic? I’m still not sure myself, but I do have to say that the art in this episode really looked awesome at the times when the bad guys did their stuff. While the animation of this series has never really stood out, the art really has been consistently solid, with a number of greatly drawn money shots. I looked up who the animation director of this series, and I finally understand why the art in this series looks so good: the animation is done by the same guy who did directed the animation of Amatsuki. That too was a powerhouse of great shots and camera-angles. While his work here on 07-Ghost is admittedly much less impressive than what we saw on Amatsuki, you can definitely see the similarities. It’s also interesting how this guy’s works didn’t really stand out before he dealt with Amatsuki, but it’s very interesting to see that from that point on, his works became significantly better (also note that he was the one who animated parts of the Blade of the Immortal OP).

In any case, I’m also surprised that I’m still laughing at the characters’ quirks in this series. Usually at this point of a comedy, when the characters haven’t been developed properly the series in question just stops being funny, and yet I’m still enjoying this series immensely.
Rating: * (Good)
Very nice visuals and a yet again a really enjoyable building-up episode.