Fantasista Doll Episode 1
What They Say:
Uzume Uno is an ordinary junior high school student nothing special to mention about school grades or in the field of sports. However, one day, her destiny is significantly changed. She happens to find mysterious cards from which dolls therein with special abilities come out to real life. Uzume becomes the “Card Master” and executes contract with these characteristic dolls. Soon or later, she somehow finds herself in a position to fight not just for her own town, but to save the whole world….
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
An original work by Hoods Entertainment that has as its creative producer Goro Taniguchi, who was behind Code Geass, Planetes and My-Hime, Fantasista Doll is a new show that definitely is going for something that feels familiar but with a sense about it that it may stretch beyond the normal confines of the genre. And it’s being well supported in Japan in terms of cross promotion as there are a trio of manga series that have kicked off in the last couple of months to provide different aspects of the world and characters to deal with. But most of the appeal in seeing what can be done here is just what Taniguchi himself has contributed to it in his creative producer role as he certainly has come up with some fun things over the years.
The series revolves around the primary character of Uzume Uno, a young girl who has under her control five Fantasista Dolls. Well, control is a loose word to be used when it comes to the Dolls. We learn a few things about middle school student Uzume well from the get go, from the way she’s completely into card games and is considered an elite player and that she’s generally one of those good girls who does well but isn’t noteworthy otherwise. Because she won in a large tournament recently, she’s being scouted for a card club at school, but she’s modest enough to downplay it overall, but partially because it doesn’t seem like it’s something that she wants to get into doing. Of course, she’s in much demand for such a club so it’s hard to imagine that she won’t be pursued. And she’s definitely got that feeling in general as the show gets underway as we see someone close to her on the train that snuck a phone into her bag and other moments where she pretty much seems like she’s being stalked.
When she gets herself into trouble, it’s at this point that she gets her introduction to the Fantasista Dolls as one of them essentially offers her services to her through the card that she was unaware she had and the two end up bonding through a particular process. With the arrival of Sasara in her life, we get some of the basics of how the Dolls work while on the run from the girl who wants the card herself. It’s definitely in the usual kind of vein with see for such summoning shows, and you can even see some Cardcaptor Sakura type references to it, but it’s all updated well for the technology side of things that makes for a good bit of fun – and I suspect good marketing as well for phone apps, games and assorted things.
Amusingly, while Uzume is kind of fine with bringing Sasara into her life for a little bit while she tries to figures things out, once home she’s instructed on how the phone/cards work and that there are several more in there that she should try out. Which brings into her life Katia, Shimeji, Akari and Madeline. And along with her and Sasara, all head in for the small bath that exist there, which is a tight but bosomful fit. What’s more amusing is that as the Dolls get more of a clue as to what Uzume is like, they kind of realize that she’s not a great master since she just wants to use them for her chores and making her life easier. Which isn’t a surprise since the Dols don’t really do a good job of explaining what they need her for and it was a kind of awkward introduction from the start. But now they’re all stuck with each other and just have to make the best of the situation since there will be others out there trying to get the cards from her.
In Summary:
With the opening episode of the series, we get all the basic ingredients. Middle school girl, school and home life setting, friends who may be more than they seem, the arrival of multiple cute girls, a bath scene and an action scene. It’s all pulled together fairly decently and there’s some nice animation and obviously nice character designs – I love that the Doll characters are basically naked with a clean slate approach to them with all the white – but there’s no strong hook. Nothing that says it’s something you must come back for. It’s all done with some good polish and care and it’s certainly not amateur hour here, but it’s not compelling either beyond the attraction of a gaggle of cute girls that fight and bathe. So it’s destined to be a hit.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.