World Break: Aria of Curse for a Holy Swordsman

I like fantasy adventure, which is action-packed. However, this anime series is not very good. There is one trope on top of another. The main male protagonist is just another generic jerk who the girls around him do whatever they want, and he does not care. He has ideals and is determined at the right moment. I could probably tolerate a lot of the nonsense and craziness in this show (it is a fantasy adventure, after all), although I would like to shoot the people who wrote the dialogues and chose the music, and hide their bodies. Some of the dialogues are insane, and some of the interactions are awful. When one of the supporting characters said to Moroha's line "But there has to be a catch" something like, "So you are not just strong, but smart too," I thought of Chuck Norris and his Total Gym commercial (and his famous lines "You must be a big tough guy" and "Yeah, the biggest, trust me") and despaired. As far as the soundtrack is concerned, there are many things wrong with that too; I would not bother with the crazy and awful opening; it can be skipped. The music itself, which is meant to support the plot, is often completely inappropriate and disturbing. The worst part for me is when Satsuki does something supposedly funny, accompanied by music that sounds like something from a very old Super Mario Bros game, and my ears hurt. I agree with the argument about the one nice theme from episode three onwards in the romantic scenes with Shizuna and Moroha (and later almost every other emotional scene). However, I still only found one musical theme out of about five good, which is not enough. Oh, and while I am listing things I could not give a damn about, I have to throw in Satsuki herself. I like girls who are ready for action and maybe even hyperactive, although I have a hard time with hysterics, and let's face it, Satsuki is a hysterical show-off. So to not just criticize, I will mention some tolerable and maybe even good things, justifying the one star. The animation is OK for the most part, and while it does have WTF moments like, for example, the Russian assassin "Maneater," I wondered about her right eye, which is on her hair (I mean, the eye covers her hair). I liked the dragon, and I would like to print it and go and beat the illustrators who designed the dragons at Unlimited Fafnir to death with a picture of it. Occasionally there is a good musical bit (cf. above), and as far as the characters are concerned, the likes of Shizuno and the way she knocks out Satsuki is OK too. Moroha himself has moments here and there where I did not find him very funny. I do not mean the ones where he "remembers," or when he beats his opponent with a snap of his fingers, but rather when some girl says something like "honey, come on." and he calmly replies, "why not?" or when he kidnaps a princess through a window. In conclusion, every once in a while, something shines in the pile of garbage, and for myself, I would say it is one weak star, especially for Shizuno. 2/10. (18/01/2015) (less) (more)