3 Episode Test: February 2014

The plot of Z/X Iginition is nearly as silly as its title. In Tokyo, and four other places around the world, giant "Black Points" appear. A bunch of monsters called "Zillions of enemy X", or "Z/X" for short, emerge from these black points, attacking and killing humans. Apparently these five points represent five different worlds who are all fighting for something that isn't explained in the first three episodes. Enter standard anime protagonist #1178 (Asuka), who finds one of these monsters in the form of an angel (Fierte). He saves her and decides to fight other monsters with her. Or something like that.

I don't know what the hell is going on with this show. That's because it does something amazing. Despite the first couple minutes being a pure exposition dump, the first episode is confusing mess filled with what appear to be giant plot holes. When I hear that "the planet is engulfed in darkness" and the situation referred to an "unending nightmare", I have certain expectations for the world three years after the Black Points show up. A post-apocalyptic hellscape with humans barely clinging to existence would be appropriate to that description, not an ordinary city where some average high school kid is working at a cafe. Yes, the fact that his city is safe is explained, in episode two. But it's not like there was so much going on in episode one that they couldn't fit that explanation in there. Most of the first episode is some mindless fighting over something that I had no reason to care about. That's either terrible direction or terrible writing.

Oh look, a magic girl on a guy's bed. I wonder if she'll scream and slap him.

Either way, I feel like the writer has no idea they're doing. This is an even worse case than Mahou Sensou in several respects. There is an order to storytelling. First, make me care about the characters. Then, have them do something. Having a mindless action scene with no reason to root for anyone is boring, and someone forgot to tell that to the writer. Also, said pointless action scene should not segue into a multi-episode flashback. It doesn't make me care anymore about what happens in the flashback, and it removes any possible dramatic tension, since I've already seen that the characters survive to a certain point. I'm not saying this ruins the show, because it might not have been able to be saved to begin with. That's because the story it tells is generic schlock. Asuka and Fierte engage in the same antics that we've seen the magic girl and the ordinary guy engage in since the beginning of time. Boob jokes, bath scenes, and cute girls eating dominate the flashback, instead of say, some plot. It's all around awful and I was more than ready for it to be over when the third episode ended.

Z/X Ignition is a waste of my time. It pushes the boundaries of how terrible an action show can possibly be. Sure, it may look halfway-decent, but if doesn't do anything else right. Not even the sound design is safe, because when a talking panther (just go with it) is floating away, his voice needs to get quieter. This sort of attention to detail was never paid to this show, and that's why I fail it.