It's not a Yuu Watase series until someone gets thrown into an alternate dimension.   This was one of the shows I was looking forward to the most this season, and while I enjoyed this episode, it didn't blow me away like I expected it would. Part of that is due to the pacing of the episode and how things were presented. I haven't read the manga, but I knew before going in that this was a dimension-hopping anime following two guys with the same name. I've heard that the manga spends some extra time setting up the fantasy world before it goes into this premise (correct me if I'm wrong), but that's definitely not the case for this episode. We go very quickly from "Arata, stop complaining and dress as a girl" to "the Princess is dead and the scapegoat has run away, now our evil reign can begin." Also, the characters are drawn kind of comically at the beginning, and this plus the fantasy setting made me feel like I'd suddenly gone back to the early 2000s. Not that it's a bad thing; fans who remember that time period for anime will probably get what I'm talking about.   This race to get the plot started provides a lot of pros and cons; on the plus side, we're getting what we've signed up for right away, but there are random unexplained things that I hope the show will clarify later. Like, if they hadn't found a princess in decades, what makes them so sure that they'll find one in a few days? And while they're faking princesses, why did it have to be Arata and not the girl who follows him around? If everyone sees alternate universe Arata as the fantasy universe Arata, how does that explain his clothes and the school bag he's still carrying around? There are already potential plotholes here, and it's only the first episode. Despite how it may sound, I still really enjoyed this episode. I wouldn't even care about the questions I listed above if it wasn't for the fact that I already buy into this fantasy world. I want to know how this ruling system works, who the Shinshou are and why they would want to overthrow it, and what's up with the magical swords. I'm also really interested in Arata's character (the student one), because it's obvious that he's got a lot of baggage and has been bullied a lot. I want to know more about how he got to the point he's at now, where he can't trust anyone, as well as why his bully has a magic sword in the ED. There's a lot going on in Arata the Legend, and I'm excited to see how it plays out. Images from Crunchyroll.com. This post is also available at OASG.
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