Phew, finally got around seeing ep00 and 01.
No surprises and indeed some winks to well-known series, as Kyusaku stated ... but all in all an enjoyable ride for me: CGI or stuntwork doesn't matter for me, as long as it's done in a convincing way. It seems like a no-brainer series but I like kicking back and watching it.
Does anybody know where the egg came from that contains the daimaoo? My guess is it's connected to the stuff they unearthed in the village half a year ago in some way ...
Oh and I liked the fact they fought at Daibutsu ... brought me back some memories (uhm, except I wasn't fighting a big cockroach when i was there)
One side note: why, pray tell, do they ALWAYS have to air these series at an ungodly early or late time, when no sane person is awake? This time I didn't forget to tape ep02 but otherwise I'm often on Winny to get episodes for the simple reason I'm either not home or asleep when they air and I forget to tape it. ... crap!