Shigofumi episode 1: BAD END

I didn’t even notice this scene until I skimmed for screencaps.

So, Shigofumi was seeming like an okay rehash of Shinigami no Ballad but after that ending, no, it’s something different. Can’t fault me for thinking that, though, since both Fumika and Momo have white hair.

The first episode was fairly well-done. There’s not much to say about the plot at the moment (we’ll get to that in a bit), but I rather liked the characters. In contrast with the Shinigami no Ballad comparison, Shigofumi has considerably more light humor to leaven the mood, at least in the first episode (and then it takes said leavened mood and stabs it with a knife–literally). Kino Fumika had a delightfully personalityless personality, and her talking staff Hermes Kanaka* has the sassy personality that magical staves needed to fill the void left by Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha’s Donna Burke-voiced Raising Heart.

On the plot, I’m going to make a huge leap of logic here, and make the 99% baseless assumption on the overall plot structure of the series in general based on two things: one, how the episode ended, and two, the title of the ending theme, Chain. It’s just a passing impression I got, and, again, this is mostly speculation, but somehow I think what’s going to happen is that each episode will tie into the last via the mechanism of the Shigofumi–i.e., end of episode, someone dies, the Shigofumi gets sent to a new person, and we end up with a chain (get it now?) of connected stories that end up far from where they began.

Or I could be completely wrong and they’re shooting for a more standard story arc format. But now that I’ve thought of this concept, I desperately need to see it at some point.

*FOOTNOTE: I bought the Kino no Tabi novel the other day, so I’ll finally be able to experience it! Then this joke won’t look like I’m being a poser!