11eyes Half-Season Review

Mas o menos.

Interestingly enough, 11eyes has actually turned out to be both better and worse than I had been expecting, with the better being enough to keep me watching.

First, the better:

• for an eroge adaptation, the plot is actually engaging
• our male lead is neither a total loser nor an instant hero
• no harem!
• slutty nurse character is actually a decent/meaningful character
• female characters who are actually capable of handling themselves!

And the worse:

• male friend character is far and away one of the most obnoxious characters EVER
• Yuka, the female lead, is obnoxious – over half of her dialogue is limited to saying, yelling, shrieking, etc. “Kakeru-kun”
• the panty shots are seriously skeevey – its one thing to catch a glimpse of panties because a girl is kicking someone, its another thing to see a girl’s panties because she is being carried to the nurse’s office after having fainted
• mute girl. enough said.

Some people complained about how long it took for Kakeru to get his powers, but I actually found this to be a relief – the whole trope of the “average guy” suddenly having super awesome powers is really boring. Kakeru actually had to put in a lot of work before he awakened his powers, and I think it benefited his growth as a character to have to be shown and told that he couldn’t just say he was going to protect someone, but that it was something he was going to have to focus on and work at.

At the same time, though, I’m not going to claim this is a brilliant show. As mentioned above, there are a lot of flaws as well. I don’t understand what the point of the annoying male friend character is, after all, since he really adds absolutely nothing to the plot. Yuka is also fairly frustrating; looks like she’s going to function solely as the damsel in distress, but she could at least be a more useful damsel in distress, couldn’t she? Characters like this in other shows tend to at least have something redeeming about them. Its really too bad, because her relationship with Kakeru rings fairly true otherwise.

But, like I said, there is also a good chunk of stuff that really exceeded my expectations (admittedly, low ones – come on, its an eroge adaptation!). I’m curious to see what the reason for the Red Night really is, and how the Black Nights got to be that way.