[DreamSword]

Episode 1: The Prologue Night

Just when I think Inoue had bottomed out on the crazy with Changerion, this show appears in my life.

Man, where to even start with what goes on with this one?

Well, the best way I can think of to sum it all up as quickly as possible is that, if were ever curious as to what it'd like if Inoue wrote an Ultraman show, Tekkouki Mikazuki is here to answer your inquiry.

The long version is that our story follows 10 year old Kazeo. Your average introverted nerd who's an outcast to everyone around him, to the point that literally everyone bullies him and his only source of happiness is this girl in his class that he has a crush on.

Unfortunately for Kazeo, his world arguably gets even worse when he starts experiencing strange nightmares about his sculptures coming to life and haunting him, as well as the sudden appearance of creatures known as Idea Monsters, or IDOMs for short. Which are actually monsters born from the subconscious thoughts of humans.

...And the very first one is a giant watermelon, born from Kazeo's' memories of his disappeared dad.

Yeah, this show goes pretty nuts pretty fast. Featuring things like the giant watermelon turning into a Godzilla-esque Kaiju with scythe tits, a reborn explorer eating a ball of sand, and the sort of set design that wouldn't be out of place in an entry of Macross. All played extremely straight to the point of hilarity, and I think it's all intentional too, especially given the character drama inherent with Kazeo and the awakening of his giant robot.

Despite the description most likely making the episode sound like a total mess, the atmosphere was such that, while I was blown back by all the crazy happening, I also couldn't help but be enthralled and really curious as to where everything was headed. It's the same sensation that I got while watching Kamen Rider Blade, and believe me that's a compliment. The atmosphere for the most part is actually rather well put together all throughout the episode, and I dug it!

In terms of story content, it's of course all setup for the world and the characters who inhabit it of course, but thankfully, with this being a mini-series, the pacing, I think, was pretty much the best handled it could be. Sure, certain details might fly past you if you're not intently focused on what's going on, but I was never lost on the general idea of all that was happening. It's a delicate balance that I've seen longer shows manage to mess up, let alone short runners like this one. And yes, you can definitely see as much Amemiya in this as you can Inoue. It's a weirdly fitting combo, surprisingly.

So, yeah. I'm definitely looking forward to where all of this goes. But, that'll have to wait until this coming Saturday.