One day Izumiko decides to cut her fringe as her first step toward self change. Despite her best efforts at fitting in at school, she's the center of bullying at her school - and to make matters worse, she has a particular spiritual power that her haircut seems to have amplified. When she inadvertently causes a powercut at her school, her family call in some 'reinforcements' to help her deal with her powers - but the boy called in for the job doesn't seem to like him much... Having gone into this totally blind and unspoilt, I was expecting something about a girl chasing various endangered special (the 'Red Data Book' being the official list of endangered species). Uh, no, it seems to be a little more complex than that, with Izumiko herself being the endangered 'species', as it were. Which makes the people around her particularly protective of her. Add in the special abilities that being the Himegami bring her - seen in the episode with her effect on technology - and it's clear she's someone special. Even if no-one outside her immediate family circle is aware of that. Plenty there to be getting on with, and to be honest I was kind of hoping for an infodump to explain exactly what her situation is - she's clearly due to get one herself, as there's more going on than what she's aware of herself. But the episode switches to the introduction of Miyuki, a generally unlikeable little bully who's been earmarked as her servant, much to his disgust. And that side of things I could probably have done without. THE GOOD: PAWorks are on animation duty, so this naturally looks amazing - I could watch their works all day. There's plenty of potential with Izumiko's 'condition' that I'm expecting will be worked into the story soon. THE BAD: Lots of nastiness about, between Izumiko being regularly bullied, and Miyuki having the shite beaten out of him by his father. Not so keen on that sort of scene. Distinct - but probably deliberate - lack of information on what Izumiko's condition is all about that I hope they address soon. This is Kadokawa's 65th anniversary series, so you'd hope they've got something special lined up for it. At the moment, it's got amazing visuals and a large dose of curiosity in its favour - hopefully that gets built on quickly. Red Data Girl is streamed by FUNimation (North America only).
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