Campione! Discussion Thread

[superdry]

カンピオーネ！

A harem love comedy plus magic battles. Kusanagi Godo is a 16-year-old high school boy, who once killed the god "Verethragna" and acquired the title of "Campione (god killer)" when he was 15. Erica Brandelli is a 16-year-old Italian girl, who is a "Great Knight" of the magic society "Bronze Black Cross" and had fought together with Godo to defeat Verethragna. Godo doesn't like fighting but his title of "Campione" makes him get involved in battles against other Campiones and uncontrollable gods.

Airs Friday, July 6th at 23:30JST on AT-X

Animation Studio: Diomedia

ANN Entry
Official Site
Crunchyroll

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[superdry]

Pre-air...decided to check it out since it's one of the summer shows that interested me - mainly, the blonde female caught my eye.

Modern world mixed with magic and rampaging gods. I like the explanation given regarding natural diasters. And, they are using names of real gods from mythology - so that'll be a pretty cool thing to look into.

Goudou Kusanagi (they are using western name order in the show) is our MC and is quickly drawn into the mess. He seems like a good guy and not a milquetoast male lead as he puts himself in danger and uses the power of the tablet he possesses. The episode explains how he receives his god killing power.

Erica Blandelli is our blonde female lead we meet who's some knight of sorts. I like her dress (at least she changes into clothing that makes sense for fighting) and her facial expressions are really cute. She seems little tsun towards Goudou, too. But, she's fights well and is pretty strong. I can see the two make a good duo in battle.

Overall, the episode was enjoyable - there was some action (I hope it get's better later on) and the comedy was good (Erica and the maid getting drunk was a cute scene). I wonder if the show will fall into harem cliches, though (the bedroom scene wasn't terrible though, could have been worse).

[FUNiOP]

There wasn't much originality to be had here, but I found it to be entertaining, so I'll stick with it. It may be built from old tropes, but none of it seems as distractingly cliche as it could have been so far. I wouldn't doubt it going downhill at any point, but it's not a bad start.

[Buckeye]

- So Godou made the trek to Italy to return a stone tablet to some old lady.
- Right away, an ojou-sama shows up demanding the stone table.
- And here comes a renegade god about to cause destruction.
- Time for knight-mode Erica to stop this god.
- While running away, Godou runs into the Victor.
- Looks like some white horse chased away the god apparently.
- Bad idea taking the train, and even worse idea to ride in a car driven by Arianna. At least he escapes.
- What's this? A talking black cat? And that attractive lady is the old witch Lucrezia Zora?
- Isn't Erica underaged? And what's up with them locked together in a room?
- Another God attacks, this time bringing in the rain.
- And challenging him is that Victor, Verethragna. Looks like he is there just to prove that he is the strongest.
- For his first time, Godou sure did well negotiating with the God.
- Time for a battle between Melqart and Verethragna, and his golden sword.
- For the win, stealing the golden sword with the tablet.
- And a kiss for the new victor.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable first episode. It's hardly original, but it made for a nice episode to watch to start off things.

[superdry]

Originally Posted by Buckeye

- Isn't Erica underaged? And what's up with them locked together in a room?

We are in Italy, so I'm not entirely surprised Erica is getting drunk off wine.

And, regarding being locked in room - it was all Lucretia's plan to get them together.

[Ingraman]

A few cute moments, but otherwise quite generic. I'll give it another episode or two to see if it's more than just another magic, fighting anime...

[HitokiriShadow]

Another generic action fantasy show starring Youko Hikasa. Frankly, its a mess. The episode barely even made sense. I think they tried to cram the entire first light novel into one episode. It's a shame, because that ending was actually pretty nice despite that and it felt like it would have been really damn good if the show had about three episodes to build everything up properly. And its still fucking gold compared to Hagure Yuusha.

At least Erica has something resembling a personality and might actually amount to something in the show other than just showing us her tits five times an episode. And drunk Erica was pretty amusing. Naturally, action-aimed-at-boys rules requires the bland self-insert lead to rescue her at some point, but that's an extremely mild irritation compared to some of the other horrible things I've had to put up with this season.

I'll watch this at least a little bit more just for Erica. I like her quite a bit. Arianna was was fun too (especially when she was drunk), so I'm hoping she gets some decent screentime later on. Hopefully the show will also improve and rise to decency at some point. Maybe after rushing to this part it will slow down and this could easily get better just from half-decent pacing instead of what we got here.

[superdry]

Originally Posted by HitokiriShadow

I think they tried to cram the entire first light novel into one episode.

Supposedly the first novel was crammed into the first episode according to some people over at ANN (you probably read the same thing too). I didn't get the feeling like the episode was super rushed, but it was moving at a fast clip to establish how the MC got his power and the whole gods thing. I was also paying more attention to Erica than anything else in the episode.

[HitokiriShadow]

Originally Posted by superdry

Supposedly the first novel was crammed into the first episode according to some people over at ANN (you probably read the same thing too).

No, I generally try to avoid reading anything about shows ahead of time. Makes reading the preview thread a little tricky when I'm not completely up to date, as tends to happen when ~4 shows come out at about the same time. I saw someone say something along the lines of "Welp, time to go watch it to see how badly they bastardized the novels" but I didn't see what he was responding to or anything about the pacing mentioned. I haven't read the thread at all, but I should probably check it out, along with the threads for a few other shows. I won't follow any of them regularly, but I am curious how certain shows were received.

Anyway, that was entirely speculation based on my own viewing and reaction to it.

I didn't get the feeling like the episode was super rushed, but it was moving at a fast clip to establish how the MC got his power and the whole gods thing.

Yes, the reason was clearly because they wanted to end at that point and get "the hook" into the first episode. This is why I always hated the idea that you needed to have "the hook" in your first episode or two. And hell, the episode even flat out said he was going to become a "King of the World" (which pretty heavily implies "god") very early on. That would have been a perfectly good hook. Even two episodes probably would have been sufficient for everything to unfold more naturally and get enough characterization and relationship development in there. As it stands, while end scene managed to be pretty impressive despite the major problems, it ultimately feels like it all happened purely because it was pre-ordained by the plot and the almost total lack of development between Erica and whatshisname just gimps the scene in general.

I was also paying more attention to Erica than anything else in the episode.

As anyone in their right mind should be.

[Buckeye]

Originally Posted by superdry

Supposedly the first novel was crammed into the first episode according to some people over at ANN (you probably read the same thing too). I didn't get the feeling like the episode was super rushed, but it was moving at a fast clip to establish how the MC got his power and the whole gods thing. I was also paying more attention to Erica than anything else in the episode.

I thought that something was up when things got into the nitty-gritty in the first minute of the show. While most shows that I watched take time to establish things before getting serious like that. And it turns out that is what it is.