After whatever Episode 0 was, one would hope that the first actual episode would be at least marginally better than the prequel. So, let’s find out if they did better. How Evil Is Episode 2 of Dies Irae?

Dies Irae
Studio: A.C.G.T
Genre: Action, Fantasy

This episode takes place in modern day… I was hoping to see more WWII. Oh well. for whatever reason, the first scene is a fight between Ren the main character and Shirou Yusa, who looks a lot like a younger version of the big bad, and this fight is happening on the rooftop of the school. Why? There’s absolutely no context for this thing at all. The fight itself is okay but without a reason for it to happen it’s just like the fight from episode 0.

And don’t get me started with the museum scene. Ren should be home resting and yet his so-called “friend” admits to skipping school just to take him to a museum, full of things that she knows he’s deathly afraid of – blades. And that’s all we really know about that. We only get a single cut to a kid holding a bloody knife. I think the kid was Ren or Shirou, but I’m not certain. But I don’t see it being Ren unless he pulled the knife from a body or something. If it’s his rival he could’ve just killed someone… and you now have the formula for Bob-no-longer-cares.

If that’s not enough for you, Ren later has a dream of getting his head cut off while the crowd sings about offering the guillotine blood. There’s scary then there’s this… thing. This is turning out almost as bad as episode 0. And speaking of episode 0…

Oh, they’re back… Great. Can I just point out none of the villains are all that great? Episode 0 was supposed to introduce them and all it really did was show us that the friendly fire option was turned on. We never got a real motive behind anything. Well, at least one that makes sense. The only thing we really learn about them is that they are willing to kill everything for the big bad. That includes but is not limited to men, women, babies, and animals. So, Evil For Evil’s Sake anyone? Then again, they are Nazis…

While this episode was a tad better than episode 0, it shares a lot of the same problems. The first being it’s still a jumbled mess. The only parts that aren’t jumbled are the small school segments and even those aren’t all that great. Also, Ren didn’t really do anything in this episode. He had a vision, fainted, and got his head cut off in another vision. Even the bad guys didn’t do anything. It was all just more setup for the next episode.

If you are looking for an anime with a solid story and good action scenes, this isn’t the one. That being said this one still has a chance. With this being the first actual episode they have 11 more to try to make it better (Chris Note: Yeah, no. They have, like… two). Yeah… I won’t be watching much more if it doesn’t improve soon. Overall, I say this episode is about as evil a Henchman. There just isn’t enough right with the show to justify me giving it a higher rank just yet.

Well, that’s all I have for you today. If you want more reviews, check out any of the other ones we’ve been doing, this season! Thanks for letting me waste your time, people.

Keep It Classy,
Evil Bob