"We couldn't possibly run around and fight! That would require actual animation, you little moron!"

Okay, I'll level with you here: now that I've had a little bit of time to think about it, I realize that I shouldn't have called the First Impressions piece on this show, because I'm tempted to write a five-word summary: "It's boring; don't watch it." However, that would bring my average word count per post way down, meaning I could lose my reputation for verbosity: we can't have that. Actually, I don't think I really have any sort of reputation whatsoever yet, but humor me so I can force myself to keep writing about Shin Kohime Musou.

Now, based on the above screenshot and/or knowledge of the series, you might expect me to lambast the show for just being fanservice with no substance. However, I cannot do that in good conscience, because a parade of fanservice would actually be an improvement over the episode I saw. To its credit, the show has interesting, detailed character designs (I think Kanu looks great), but they don't do anything with them. With the exception of about a minute of combat that was mostly talking, and a minute of training that was also mostly talking, all that these princesses in beautiful costumes do is sit around and gab like a bunch of high school girls at 4th-period lunch- there is a minor subplot featuring a wild boar, but really, it's not even worth talking about.

The main plot, which concerns the brunette Bachou building up the courage to call the younger Rin-Rin by her name, is strange; I do find the subject of Japanese honorifics inherently interesting, but it seems out of place here. It's the kind of thing I could see a show like Kimi Ni Todoke doing really well ("Can I drop the -kun in Kazehaya-kun? No, how could I even THINK of such a thing! Bad Sawako!"), but here it does nothing for me. I think Bachou is supposed to come off as charmingly neurotic, but she comes off as stupid instead. Furthermore, even if they had done a better job making this plot interesting, isn't this supposed to take place in Ancient China? Obviously it's anime and they're going to be speaking Japanese, but do they really want to spend entire episodes focusing on nuances of Japanese culture?

I only watched the first episode in its entirety (I tried to watch the second also but gave up halfway through), so as always, it's possible the show could get better; in fact, I'm sure any episode that features an actual fight scene will be better by several orders of magnitude. However, this is First Impressions, and my first impressions of this show are that I want nothing further to do with it- and this is coming from someone with a pretty high tolerance for shows featuring nothing but pretty ladies and their weapons: I'm still watching Kampfer, for God's sake.

If this show develops into anything more interesting, it's going to be one of those cases where fans say "Oh you have to stick it out until episode 12, that's when it really starts." Therefore, if you have any interest in this show at all, I'd recommend waiting until it finishes airing for the season, then hear what the long-suffering anime fans, with the collective patience of an angel, deem to be the real first episode. If it has actual fighting with actual animation, maybe I'll even come back and watch it.

I personally dislike the expression "this is a waste of my time"; it's self-aggrandizing (how could you possibly assess the value of your own time with any objectivity?), and it's inaccurate; often, when people bitch about how their time is being wasted, their wasting their own time by ascribing no value to a give situation, therefore missing whatever benefit they could conceivably glean from something, if only they would keep an open mind. Suffice to say, it's hardly a phrase that I'm inclined to use lightly.

All that said? Shin Kohime Musou is a waste of everyone's time.