The story for Absolute Duo goes like: A boy named Tōru Kokonoe decides he wants to become stronger and enrolls in a special school where people manifest their souls as weapons called Blaze. Tor is capable of producing his own Blaze, but for some reason it manifests as a shield instead of a weapon. Somehow he ends up sharing a room with a loli-like girl named Julie. Romantic hijinks do not ensue.
It wasn’t that bad, really, as far as the story went. I avoided reading a summary in advance in order to avoid poisoning my mind, so it came as a big surprise to me when the principal announced the surprise entrance exam. That’s new, I thought. Unfortunately combat was a short and silly affair, with people just whirling and running around with sharp weapons without a hint of choreography in sight. Absolute Duo is clearly not a show you watch for the combat.
What do you watch it for, then? The characters, I suppose. I liked just about everyone, even Thor. He’s a little more lively than your average “forced to share a room with a girl” anime protagonist tends to be, and it was really kind of him to give up his chance to room with his buddy just to keep Julie company. And Julie herself is rather sweet, though her innocent girl shtick is a little overdone. It was nice that she didn’t want to burden Thor with babysitting her, and I’m rooting for her to eventually make some friends and fit in with the rest of the class.
Why am I dropping the show, then? First off, because of scenes like these:
The whole show is just one big excuse for fanservice. I wouldn’t have minded continuing otherwise, but this show and all the scenes in it are just designed to titillate viewers with jiggling boobs and half-naked girls, so it’s impossible for me to take it seriously. When Paul wrote “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things” in Philippians 4:8, I’m pretty sure he didn’t have this kind of lowbrow show in mind.
The second reason I’m dropping it is that I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the best of what Absolute Duo has to offer, so I want to leave on a high note. In my opinion nothing is going to top the slow development of friendship and caring between Thor and Julie in the first two episodes and the way they came to care for each other to the point of swearing to become a team. From here on out I predict lots of angst and painful pasts and poorly-animated combat (and fanservice, don’t forget the fanservice) so I’m going to get out while the going is good.
Another item crossed off my “To watch later” list.
. It’s been a while since I dropped it, but I remember it’s about a boy named Shirosaki Ichigo who accidentally (and we find out later, not so accidentally) gains the power of a Shinigami (soul reaper) and has to fight enemies named Hollows so he can save dead souls from being eaten by them.
very early in its run, then dropped it and switched to the manga when I’d watched all the episodes currently out. For a while it went well. I liked the simple story, the Hollows were suitably threatening without being too scary, I liked the personalities of Rukia, Ichigo and especially Kon. The battles were a little hard to follow but the art style was clean and nothing dragged on too long.