Summed up in two words: VA Bait
I'm not a hardcore anime fan. I mean I like it, but I only end like liking about 15% of new releases. To put it bluntly, I have very particular tastes and Leviathan is not one of those 15%. The genre is sword and sorcery. We follow the escapades of Leviathan, a water mage looking for her brother who has mysteriously gone missing. She meets a fairy who recruits her to be the planet's last line of defense against monsters and her partners are two other girls, a fire mage with a lot of lip and a tomboyish girl whose head seems to attract strange flying objects.
From left to right: Jormundgand (Brittney Karbowski), Leviathan (Caitlynn French) and Bahamut (Hilary Haag)
Now the first episode sets up the plot and introduces the characters. Problem is, that's about all it does. Other than introducing us to the characters, there is literally nothing else going on here. It's like a fluff episode. Leviathan meets the fairy who seems to have the appetite of a giant and they go into town to find her something to eat, in the process, becoming the catalyst event for meeting everyone else. Yes, it was that boring. I actually considered switching off midway. The first episode does a great job of boring the sh*t out of you.
One of the things I always wonder about and if any of you have the answer - please leave a comment below and tell me - how do the Dubbing Companies choose their anime? I mean, whose idea was it to select such a boring anime and dub it in English over all the other untouched anime out there? I'm sure you guys have encountered such a title where you couldn't help but wonder why anyone would want to spend time on this crap. Oh! I want to hear those titles from you guys too okay?
"The table just shattered into a thousand pieces." Just like your manhood.
So yeah, Leviathan is one of those titles for me. But I hear you asking? 'Why bother watching it at all?' Well this title is what I like to call VA Bait. It's like Click Bait only here you cast well-known and loved VAs to voice these characters in hopes that people will like it. I love Brittney Karbowski, Monica Rial and Hilary Haag and would gladly watch almost anything they do. I'm a big admirer of theirs and when I see a title with their names attached, I have to check it out. Well, the most important word in this paragraph is 'almost'.
That's what pisses me off about this title. Great VAs voicing boring characters in a boring story, boring the hell out of it's audience in an attempt to sell this boring title. That is a real freaking shame if you ask me. I can only imagine the cringe these lovely ladies must've felt having to spend a lot longer than 20 minutes voicing these characters.
There are a couple of great ideas though. Naming your three characters
after legendary dragons is one of them. Another is sword and sorcery
which is a great genre if used correctly. It isn't here. And that is
about as far as my praise for this episode goes. Yip. There's not much
else going for it.
Rating the first episode: 2.5/10. It's bland, boring and should've tried a lot harder.
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