Ric: Seeing as Minnie stole Mazinger (Being the fiendish blog monster that she is. ;_;) I’m stealing Pandora Hearts to help bring the Knights of the Round Fruitbowl back up into the competition.

And don’t worry, the Gundam finale post is on its way too. (As well as the HSA debut of Yugioh 5Ds!)

Anyway, to begin our trip into fantasy land with a surprise appearance of well, men in cloaks assaulting who I can only assume is the new king of the shotas, our (presumed) protagonist; Oz Bezarius. (Soooomewhere, over the rainbo-oops, wrong story.)

We come from the Yellow Brick Road. Fear us.

Anyway, these guys do something to Oz, something ambigously evil! So evil that we…don’t get to see it this episode.
MOVING SWIFTLY ON!

Next on what I can only assume to be the current plotline is a giant purple and black explosion, followed by some exposition from who I can again, only assume to from DorothyOz.

Anyway, my comments on the OP are just this. It’s ok, it’s not great and it’s certainly not original, but it’s tolerable and I can see myself being willing to listen to it, rather than skipping it and going straight to the episode. But of course, the visuals aren’t the most well decided, seeing as they pretty much give the end pairing away by showing the owner of the ambiguous boobs at the end.

What, I wasn’t supposed to say that yet? Umm…oops?

So we now jump back in time again (I…think?) to the same place they were before the OP (I…think?) and this is pretty nice, lovely countryside, nice relaxing music…lolis and shotas antagonising maids, nothing out of the ordinary, really.

And theeeeen~

Quick! Throw water on her, it's your only hope!

Holy crap, it’s the Wicked Witch of the West and we’re…four minutes in. I think that’s a new record.

This evil maid tries to antagonise some…genderly unidentifiable child (Seriously.) into telling her where Oz and his pet Loli (I say we just call her ‘Toto’ and be done with it.) are hiding. The GDC tries to resist, but sadly, isn’t mighty enough in its debatable trap-ness and eventually gives in, telling the evil one (Oh, come on, she even has a Cat!) where Dorothy and Toto are.

OR DOES IT!

Nah, it doesn’t, they were in the cupboard the whole time.

Anyway, they rush off to a Chapel now, presumably so that Dorothy and Toto can get married.

I-I was right?!

Ok, ok. They aren’t getting married or anything like that, apparently it’s some coming of age thing for Oz.

Looking at the clock, Oz gets a quick flash to the random explosion that we saw earlier on (FORESHADOWING!), calling it the “Tranquil”. This leads to the arrival of Captain Exposition, who tells us that this is the ‘Tranquil Clock’ that has apparently hibernated for one hundred years, something which also includes a quote from a prophet that he apparently has no desire to name. (Am I the only one assuming that this ‘Prophet’ is the owner of the unidentified cleavage at the end?)

Captain Exposition is revealed as Oz’s Uncle, Oscar (Such imaginative names.) who simply tells them not to make so much trouble for Mrs. Kate (Of the West.)

She's the Wicked Witch of the West, for crying out loud!

Anyway, via the talks of Captain Exposition, we learn that Oz is the son of a Duke and that, now that he’s fifteen, he has to go through his coming of age ceremony so that he can earn his title.

Skipping past what can only be described as “even more dull exposition” about the house, we learn that Oz’s father is either dead or inattentive as hell before Oz and company leave to avoid the Wicked Witch again.

But not before Oscar practically screams “I AM THE VILLIAN.”.

As Dorothy, Toto and…the genderly challenged one rush over to ‘the secret base’, Oz (It feels weird not calling him ‘Dorothy’…) tells us that ‘The Abyss’ is more than just a game in the Tales series, no, The Abyss is apparently a prison for bad guys who are most likely going to turn out to not really be bad guys later on.

And of course, noone who has ever been locked inside has ever come out again. (Well yeah, they’re locked in. >.>)

Anyway, we’re treated to a dose of supreme friendship as Dorothy gives the umm…y’know what, let’s call it Gil for now (Yeaaaaah.) what can only be described as a very ugly dress. (Wait, does this mean that Gil is a girl? Or is it one of those series?)

"I need a date for this and you're the only....'female' here that isn't going to land me in The Abyss."

Gil tries to get out of this by abusing the class system (Such a clever…whatever Gil is.) but Dorothy isn’t having any of it so yeah, Gil is now going to Oz’s coming of age ceremony. (As expected.)

Anyway, in a bizarre showing of plot (Well, bizarre considering how slow this episode feels.) Oz hears a sound in the distance and walks off towards it, only for him and Gil to FALL THROUGH THE GROUND.

Underground, they come across a pocket watch resting on a tombstone which Dorothy feels inclined to take for whatever reason.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Plot Device.

Oz  opens the pocket watch (I’ll be serious here, seeing as they’re trying now.), being taken into one hell of an odd room, filled with exceptionally creepy dolls and whatnot.

Of course, this alone would spook any regular person but no, the dolls are all alive, glaring at Oz in a very disturbing manner, saying that “He’s back, she’ll be happy”.

This is of course the cue for the ’she’ that they are referred to to appear, silencing the dolls and saying simply that she’s happy that Oz has ‘returned’.

Oz, of course has no idea what she’s talking about (I thought he looked a lot like Edgar. =/) and is probably just as, if not more confused than everyone seeing this for the first time. Apparently she gets angry when he asks who she actually is, as she sets the room on fire rather than asking, sending poor ol’ Oz rather loopy until of course, the girl tries to strangle him, claiming that she’ll kill him, that she’ll never forgive him.

GoogleOz: For the Yandere in you.

Just as what I can only assume to be Pandora (Well, it’s a logical assumption, really. x: ) is about to kill Oz, Gil snaps him out of his trance and back to Kansas (Yes, we’re back to those jokes again.). Apparently he’s just been staring into space for a while, as far as Gil could tell.

Anyway, they get out of the big hole and meet back up with Toto again as they leave to get ready for the ceremony (Or something along those lines, I stopped paying full attention to these parts ages ago.) and of course, Gil tries to get out of it (It’s the dress, I think.), only for Oz to simply say “You’re going, deal with it.” in a not so subtle way.

As Gil tries to decide what to do, he/she/it gets visited by someone in a cloak and apparently disappears into the scene change.

Later that night, we see more cloaked people looking at Dorothy’s coming of age ceremony from a nearby mountainside, reciting some…prophetic lines about ‘the clock’.

As it turns out, Gil hasn’t disappeared, but has simply well, gone mad. Being overlooked by the woman in the red cloak, Gil is dancing around in a strange manner.

The hooded figure asks ‘Gil’ “How that body feels”, which makes me think that Gil has been possessed by something now and will be a recurring villian in the series henceforth.

Anyway, the episode ends with the appearance of a woman in the fetal position inside what I think is the clock, wondering if she is being called.

And as the ED shows, THIS is who the mystery boobs belong to.

Ric: Oookay, my opinion on this episode is rather mixed. On one hand, the beginning and middle parts of the episode were painfully slow and not really that entertaining, the humour mostly being your general stock shonen fare, but as it got to the end, it picked up a little with the stuff about the watch and the cloaked figures so, overall it wasn’t all bad. But it could’ve been much better than it was.

Either way, I think I’ll at least watch one, maybe two more episodes just to see if I get a few questions answered.

Ric’s Overall Rating for Episode 1: 6/10

Ric’s Anticip-o-meter: 8/10