Shion no Ou ep 02 – trying to make a boring concept interesting…

But it’s a failure so far in my view.

I honestly don’t see why anyone would be obsessed with chess. It’s a geek’s intellectual exercise that doesn’t interest most people in the world. When I was in Japan, I didn’t see rabid fans talking about chess with loud voices nor did I see much news about it. No legions of fans following chess religiously and no fiery discussion about it. It certainly makes an interesting and fresh concept, but the execution so far falls into your typical “battle against opponent while dealing with issues” pattern.

I’m thinking this has to be one of the easiest jobs that Kawasumi Ayako got – because she virtually didn’t have voice act at all. I mean, if she had to make noises then she have acted, but in most scenes her character Shion made no noises whatsoever. Not a peep.

I know Japanese takes competition seriously, but chess?

“If you win I’ll kill you.” Yeah right. I can’t believe there are chess crazed fans out there who would kill. Yeah the plot is simple – that guy killed Shion’s parents and tells her not to talk at all, so she doesn’t have to be distracted by language, right? So she can focus on developing her skills, right?

Absurd. Completely absurd.

I hated chess and I was never a chess club nerd anyway. There are nerds (I was), and there are Kings of Nerds. Belonging to the chess club makes a person a king of nerds (I suppose being the club president of the chess club would make one the “emperor” of nerds). I’ll watch more until I get really sick and tired of it but I doubt I’ll be writing more reviews. Mike may like it better and if he does, he can write a review for it.

65% (I take 15 points off for Ayako-chan’s non acting and 2 points off for my dislike of chess) recommended for your daily anime diet. I wonder if the Japanese Shogi Association commissioned someone to draw the mange and then make the anime for this?