This review is one of several that I started a few weeks ago, but never finished. As it happened, I procrastinated so long, that the series got close to ending, so I decided to hold off a little longer, until the rest of the fansubs came out, and I could review the entire series. That’s the reason for the weird title; since the series is named The Third, and I was just getting around to doing an initial write-up, I was going to call it “First of the Third.” But since the run has completed, now I can call it “Last of the Third.” Humor, right?
. . . You know, maybe I should just stick to tit jokes.
Honoka, contemplating sand and poetry, before battle.
Anyway, I found The Third to be a moderately enjoyable show, but it never fully engaged me. In part, this was because of the narrator. Most animé will only narrate the beginning and ending of an episode, but in The Third, the narration is semi-constant. Instead, the narrator was usually telling the viewers what the protagonist, Honoka, felt. That’s just bad form. A show isn’t supposed to tell you how the characters feel, it’s supposed to make you feel as they do. It’s called empathizing with the character… and that’s something the series never managed to do with the protagonist, or with Iks, the bishounen who often accompanies her. I often felt more empathy with the minor characters, such as Paifu (the lesbian teacher/armswoman) or Millie, the child of her mechanic/friend Zanka.
Millie and Honoka, in the Olympic synchronized eating contest?
