So-Ra-No-Wo-To (ソ・ラ・ノ・ヲ・ト) Episode 9 Impressions

SNAPSHOT OF THE EPISODE

"I'm just a regular guy"

Where should I start? This series continues to amaze me but I'm not sure if that's a compliment. It's amusing because I still cannot grasp exactly what type of anime it wants to be. On one side, it's a pleasure to have an anime block such as "Anime no Chikara" that features original anime series, but the other side...validates the popularity of adaptations. It's certainly safer with the latter. While there has been some strong points in this series (episode 6 & 7) so far, I can't help but feel like rest of the time was spent to find some solid ground. I guess what I'm trying to say is So-Ra-No-Wo-To seems like it's the guinea pig of this anime block-- an experimentation. This series isn't quite over yet so let's sit back and see what happens.

As for the episode itself: I'm not sure if their intention was to be comedic but the 'Miracle Claus' part of the story cracked me up. Maybe because I watched this episode at SayMove (JP stream site similar to NicoDouga with commenting feature) and some of their comments were absolutely hilarious! To give you an idea, here are some of the comments for this episode:

Translation from top to bottom:

Non-erotic panties are OK

This anime has become bad lately

Has it become 'ero' anime?

Noel is cute lolol

What exactly was the purpose of "Anime no Chikara"

Is that old-dude shaking? lol

Wow, they are so dead

All this trouble thanks to eggplants? lol

That old-dude was cool. lol

Isn't it 2 cours?

No way, is it really 2 cours? lol

One thing I agree with is that I thought Claus was pretty cool, and I got the rolly polly connection. I also liked how they somewhat developed Kureha, and her scene with Claus towards the end was touching. I don't know if this is just me but the animation quality for some of the scenery seemed higher than usual. Even with all of these compliments, I still can't help like they don't have a full grasp of what crowd it's trying to satisfy. Otaku with pantsu shots? Slice-of-life fans? Military fans? Historical? Moe? Maybe that is their problem: too many elements into one. What do you think?