Friday, October 11, 2013

Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo

The Problem Children Seem to Have Come From Another World:  D+

I really want to say that if it weren't for the one problem with this series that it would be a C, but the more I think about it the more it's not true.

So Mondaiji is about three teenagers ('problem children') with truly ridiculous BS superpowers who get transported to a magical world where power is determined by victory in games and where you can wager anything from favors to lives to your very superpowers to the ownership of fantastic creatures to lifetimes of servitude.  They are met by a bunny-eared girl who explains the nature of the world and tries to get them to help her and her community, who have fallen on hard times.  Due to varying reasons, the problem children accept, and embark on a relatively disjointed journey to conquer the world.

That, on its own, is at least competent.  Not genius, but you could make something out of that that wasn't just sighingly bad.  And Mondaiji isn't offensively, facepalmingly, turn-it-off-ew bad, it's just completely lacking in particularly impressive qualities.

Of the three problem children, two are girls (the two on the left), and their powers are fairly clear: one has a supreme geas ability (it's implied though not demonstrated that with practice she'd be able to issue commands that the laws of physics would have to obey) and one can both talk to animals and receive the skills of animals she's befriended as gifts.  In practical terms she's a kung fu ninja with supersenses who can fly.  They both have personalities, flaws, are friendly if childish and troublesome and are set back at various times in the story.  Then there's the male problem child.  His superpower is classified 'Unknown' and appears to just be super-everything (but mostly speed and strength).  He is a jerk, he's a delinquent, he orders people around based entirely on the fact that they need him and he's just that good, and people, while they aren't totally happy with it, suck it up.  Even all that could be forgiven if he suffered a setback at some point, had to grow as a person, or needed help.  But unfortunately he's extraordinarily educated about even obscure topics and so he seems to know the answer to every major mystery (despite being a delinquent).  So he basically waltzes through the entire story undefeated and barely challenged.  Certainly never threatened.

Now, if the story were otherwise good and just had that, I could probably have given it a C, but the story is otherwise meh.  There's the occasional mythological reference, which is cool, but it all gets spelled out by Super Protagonist when he solves it needing only an occasional bright idea which someone else spouts out by accident, so it's not like my personal experience with mythology made me feel involved.

So what is good?  Um, the art's pretty good all around.  I liked the opening sequence.  And there's a great moment of meta-discussion of fan service and why panty shots are inelegant.  Seriously, that was the best moment in the series, when one of the characters explains how showing off underwear ruins the mystery, it's far better to make the viewer use their imagination.

So, if that's what you want to see, by all means watch Mondaiji-tachi.  Personally, I'd steer clear, though.

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