Another anticipated series for this season and sadly, another one that didn’t quite meet up to my expectations.

It wasn’t bad, though.

First and foremost, I love the ending song. What is it about me and anime songs today? Anyway, the opening song isn’t too shabby and ZOMG, like, there’s English in the lyrics and it’s actually pronounced properly. Now, back to the ending song, I really dig it. It has a poppy R&B sound… two different worlds yet that’s what I get out of it.

On to the actual series… it’s definitely darker and more serious than I thought. I wasn’t expecting another Hikaru no Go since Shion’s shogi playing origin is much darker than Hikaru but I still presumed a lil more light-hearted mood alongside the dark stuff. There was like, zero light-heartedness in this first episode. Saori provided that initially then did a 180 to keep up with the rest of the mood.

Also, Shion is younger than I assumed as. My assumption was purely based on the pictures I saw prior to watching and I totally didn’t peg her to be in elementary school. Hell, she might be as young as 10 years old and I put her at least around 14-15. She’s still a child… is she really doing all this to find her parents killer? She seems too young to really have the drive to play shogi for that reason.

Did I mention how dark this series is?

I think part (if not all) of my minor disappointment is due to what I expected. I suppose I can’t blame the series for that.

If anything, I must keep watching to hear more of Kawasumi Ayako’s kiddie voice.