That could be a passable first episode but it's so poorly written! Why did the Melinda confess right away that she's committing a crime and leave without a real attempt to hurt or kill the protagonists?
Is Melinda linked to a bigger group of bad guys or is she just the first antagonist in the line of upcoming enemies a la Dragon Ball?
The Tumblr humour is really prevalent in the dialogue, so much sarcasm, care-free and pompous attitude amongst them. I don't like any of the characters shown so far and it doesn't help that their personality differs by alignment.
Judging by the promotional art, it'll look more like a cartoon than an anime. Heck, it is a cartoon (presumably if the animation graphics are the same as the promo art) because the characters don't look like they're produced in Japan in any way. It looks like it's going to be a witch Steven Universe. Just because you have big eyes with white circles in them doesn't make it an anime style.
And of course, it's not Tumblr media without obligatory lesbians.
I would like to give it a fair chance so that:
A) I eat my words and think it's actually good in some way.
B) I can criticise it after actually seeing it, giving criticism based on the actual show and not just concept art.
C) It gets released and once again, shows companies that surface-level diversity is bad.
Are the producers still working on this? Did they get their proposal accepted and immediately announced it? Most likely by the looks of things.
The funny thing is, it's actually really easy to fix it just by shifting focus to the griffin. Here:
-Open with Rose and Sage(?) scouting for work at some gathering area for adventurers/guardians, have some banter establishing them as friends
-Discover a listing regarding the escaped griffin, including the reward if caught
-Rose and Sage set out to catch this griffin, but start to disagree on how to go about it
-This disagreement causes them to fail their first attempt, they fight and decide to go their separate ways
-Show Rose has the strength/skill to physically catch the griffin but none of the knowledge about the animal, so she fails on her own
-On the flipside show Sage has knowledge of the creature, but no athletic prowess to actually carry out the capture, so she too fails
-Both realize they're wrong and make up
-Their combined effort now allows them to catch the griffin and collect the reward.
Boom, done. Now you've established that Rose and Sage are friends despite being opposites, that they work better as a team than they do on their own, and sprinkled in a little bit about this setting and what their occupation entails, and that Rose and Sage will likely be frequently strapped for cash and ensure the need for more adventures.
I honestly don't get why Raye even went with this, other than this being thrown together at literally the eleventh hour and SJWs/Tumblrites have this weird aversion to conflict, even the resolvable kind.