First Date: Shion no Ou
- Title: Shion no Ou (Shion’s King)
- Studio: Deen
- Genre: Mystery/Tournament
Ratings (out of 5):
- Story: ♥♥♥♥
- Animation: ♥♥½
- Characters: ♥♥♥
- OP/ED Themes: ♥♥♥♥
- Overall: ♥♥♥½ (Shougi is Serious Business.)
Thoughts:
When she was a very small child, Shion watched her parents’ murder while she sat at a shougi table. The shock caused her to go mute, although she lives a reasonably contented life with her foster family. She still plays shougi– a Japanese game somewhat similar to chess –and is working her way up the tournament ladder, about to become junior pro level despite her young age.
At the tournament, she meets a competitor, Ayumi Saitou, and a junior pro senpai, Saori Nikaidou, each of whom seem to be hiding some interesting secrets. Shion herself is so very wide-eyed and innocent, and I mean “wide-eyed” literally.
Based on the first ep, the series has two weaknesses. The first is style-wise: while the art style may not be your cup of tea to begin with, I also think it didn’t transfer to anime especially wel, largely in the aforementioned eyes– sometimes they look incredibly over-sized (as in, even more so than is usual for anime).
The second weakness is that it’s hard to make a game like shougi interesting to those who don’t play it, and so far the series offers absolutely no exposition on how the game is played, unlike many other such competition anime and manga (Hikaru no Go, Yakitate!! Japan, etc). As a result, the matches themselves are sort of dull, though we only see one in the first episode. You anticipate who is going to win, but if you don’t know shougi you won’t understand who is winning or why, or why X move is interesting, or anything along those lines.
That said, the murder mystery and the background of the side characters should be interested enough to propel me into episode 2, anyway. But don’t expect much by way of light-hearted comedy; this is absolutely a mystery drama.
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