Luck and Logic

According to some indications, this show could have been in a whole lot of trouble. There are gates, gods, monsters, magical girls, and a special team. The main male protagonist is a "covenanter" character, plus some other character which combines with the main protagonist to give him power, and a bunch of girls. There were just so many aspects that could have killed this dead, and it could have been dismissed as a boring rehash of clichés we have already seen a million times before, although holy crap. However, judging by the first episode, it looks like this combination could work quite well. It is helped quite a bit by the main male protagonist, who is quite likable. I did not find him believable at the beginning. He gave me the impression he was a typical coward, although gradually, it becomes clear that he knows what the world is up against, and at the moment, he does not have the power to stop it. He wanted to protect those around him, although his ideals of a true hero let him down. However, now he is getting a second chance, and so it almost feels as if I started to watch something from, say, the second season, while I know next to nothing about the first, which is kind of interesting in itself. The other thing that's pulling it off so far is that the anime's creators manage to use some of the clichés quite nicely, making them seem fresh. The fights are also pretty good to watch, as is most of the rest of the show. However, my current level of enthusiasm so far translates as 7.2/10. I am very much afraid that the anime's creators are not going to be able to keep it up and that at least one of the many dangerous aspects will eventually make this show sink into the waters of mediocrity. 7.2/10 EDIT: Just as I feared, it loses its sense of originality as the episodes go by, it stops being that interesting, and the main storyline with the bad guy Lucifer, who I hardly like at all so far, is very weak and boring. Then there is the typical sequence with the three main female protagonists who each need a proper introduction, so each one has a backstory and shows how she and the main male protagonist will bond. Simply put, they need to bring the team together. I have seen this so many times that I am not surprised. Plus, the narratives featuring the individual girls did not make me emotional, sympathetic, or even interesting. I was bored with the last few episodes, which contributes to my current impression of the show falling somewhere towards the weak average, with the fear that when it comes to the fight with Lucifer, which I am not a fan of, it might go even lower. EDIT 2: The conclusion was not as terrible as I feared, though the Olga and Lucifer pairing did not exactly make me doubly excited, as they brought together probably my least favorite characters. On the other hand, I understood their motivation quite well and had no problem with the logic. The final fight was a bit of a masquerade ball, and Yoshichika and Olga both seemed a bit like visitors to a gay pride parade in their "overly-trans" form, although it could have been worse. The final confrontation was not all bad, and if you put aside all the "my logic is better than your logic" lines and focused on what they were actually after, it was not that stupid. On the other hand, the conclusion did not show anything groundbreaking or original as the beginning did, so my final impression of this show was just average. 5/10. (11.01.2016) (minder) (meer)