First Impression: Lord of Vermillion: The Crimson King

Here begins a Stream of Consciousness Review of Episode One: Our Lives are the Debt We Pay Our Enemies

I wasn’t aware we owed our enemies a debt, but okay…

Pretentious Title does not speak well for my ability to follow the dialogue in whatever this turns out to be.
who is this awesome lady? x2 x3 x4
- MULTIPLE AWESOME LADIES? HELL YES!
- here’s one! she looks angry and also that shirt isn’t gonna protect jack shit but there all dressed like that so whatever!
the problem with starting an episode in the middle of a fight is I don’t know who I’m supposed to be rooting for and also I don’t care
mildly generic art style
animation kinda nice
good music
it looked like that dude just caught that arrow with his eyelids
right? also owie
the overly dramatic dialogue makes me think we watching the end of something. I sense a time jump approaching
there it is
that was a really weird reaction to accidentally cutting himself
- I smell Issues
nice variety in the genero-faces, now I have time to actually look at them
boy reads Macbeth on the train. is he an English major?
Me thinks the writer has a thing for Shakespeare
Lady: recites Tempest Chihiro: I must be dreaming
- I don’t understand the leap in logic there, but ok
Goddamn this is pretentious
I know boku is a pronoun for young boys, but I don’t know enough about Japanese culture to understand the implications of a college-aged man in college using it. Is he just being polite?
English Major! called it!
If everyone was unconscious for a week shouldn’t they be dead from dehydration at the very least?
how long has he been standing there like that? that’s kinda…
BIRDS!
- pretty!
aww… birds are gone
he’s been in a coma for 5 months (? i think that’s what they said) he should not be able to walk without assistance, right?
oh good, they explain… sort of…
Asshole Journalist Alert
how is it this douche’s job to stalk and harass a child? (I’m assuming, since he’s been doing it for 13 years apparently, and Chihiro can’t be more that early 20s)
the red mist has been there the whole time, I refuse to believe he’s just noticing it now
this dude seems like an asshole
ow

So this seems like it could be interesting, once they get the ball rolling, but there’s way too much going on, the dialogue is mildly pretentious (at least to me), and the art looks way too similar to ever other anime of this type to really stand out, though the subtle changes between facial structure does help. Not really for me, but if you’re looking for a magic/demon/whatever type anime to spend some time on this summer, you probably wouldn’t go wrong with this one. Especially because there are apparently several badass ladies involved! And we got to seem them in the first episode even! (Though granted, it was only for a few moments, and I’ve already forgotten their names). 4.2/5