Stating my desire for yet more shounen escapades, today I took in the first three episodes of Kiba.
Mediocre is the word that immediately comes to mind; neither bad nor outstanding, Kiba is a by the books fantasy adventure story packing just enough intrigue to maintain my interest from episode to episode. Disappointingly (especially considering the genre Kiba slots into) the monster-on-monster and light sabre-on-light sabre action is uninspired and lacking visual punch. The characters (including the cliche brooding lead, Zed) are mostly echoes of the established shounen stereotypes; important personalities include the humourless protagonist, gutsy female (potential love interest) and overly effeminate (probably gay) best friend.
You see I have this big list of complaints about Kiba, but I guess I have a weak spot for this kind of adventure story because despite all of these problems, I’m planning to continue watching- at least for another few episodes. The universe is well set up; a kind of edgy political\civilian rebellion appears to be brewing and Zed’s shrouded past is just that, shrouded and mysterious. The soundtrack is another big plus- the horrible music in Bleach pretty much killed whatever interest I had in that show, but Kiba sounds a lot more sophisticated and dramatic than it looks.
I guess you can call me a curious viewer for now, I see some promise in Kiba but it’s going to have to pull out some serious drama soon if I’m going to hang around for much longer. I was about this impressed with the first couple episodes of Full Metal Alchemist though, so there’s still some room here for Kiba improve.