This series brought me back to the forums after the GA movies ground my hopes and dreams into dust.
Yet here it is, 2016, and this TV series looks like it debuted in 1999. The CGI is just so inadequate here in expressing emotion, giving everyone an eternal botox look. The cel shading is the only visible improvement, and even that is widely uneven as some scenes have the characters looking like they are made out of porcelain or gummy creatures. This sort of proto-3D animation dates so horribly compared to traditional animation, I'm surprised it's still being used. The movies at least had the gimmick of watching these in 3-D using glasses, which partially excused it. I doubt the TV series is offering that luxury.
The music, one of those things that even the lowest budget indie projects can excel at, is a major misfire here. When I'm not tempted to look away from the screen, I am otherwise tempted to hit the mute button. The music is often inappropriate regarding what is happening off-screen and when it it could be, it's easily forgettable. This episode in particular had some poor mixing where the music overwhelmed the dialogue in some instances.
I also haven't noticed any real notable direction over these two episodes. Sometimes they just have rough cut or tech demo quality. At best, they do little more than mimic the manga panels.
The saving graces here are that some of the voice-acting is pretty good--oft the silver lining of any bargain basement program--and the script is more or less faithful to the manga. That and we are at least getting uncharted territory
There is a bit of improvements, but I still can't bear this 3D... during the whole episode, my main thought was: "Why haven't they done the whole thing in 2D ?".
Anyway, it was watchable.
Believe me, I thought I'd be over this by now. But the stubborn insistence to use substandard 3-D models in 90% of these episodes just continues to nag considering economy hand-drawn animation could have accomplished this better. Has there been an artist/animator strike in Japan that I'm not aware of?