Infinite Stratos
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Mecha
Star Driver Takuto
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Heroic Age
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Evangelion 2.0 – You Can NOT Advance
Summary
Shinji Ikari is settling into his life in Tokyo-3 and NERV and looking for ways to bond with his distant father, Gendo. A new hot shot pilot shows up in the form of Asuka Langley, a fiery redhead with a holier-than-thou attitude. Angels attack, shit gets crazy.
Plot 3.5/5
+ Pacing is very cinematic and a vast improvement over the first film. Every event feels meaningful and has plenty of breathing room before the next plot point emerges.
– Suffers from two climaxes that make each one individually feel less important, the second of which incorporates some ambiguous and unexplained imagery that seems to contradict the rules of this world.
Character 4/5
+ All of the main characters develop nicely. The dynamics between the three main pilots is varied and substantial, making each character’s motivation clear, consistent, and valid.
– While Shinji’s relationship with his father is fleshed out nicely, Gendo doesn’t get individual development that is necessary to providing depth to his side of the relationship. He comes off as unnecessarily cold.
Theme 3.5/5
+ Shinji carries the brunt of the thematic weight in this film, furthering thematic ideas of acceptance and duty from the first film. His character leans heavily on gaining the respect and affection of his father in the first two acts, but when Gendo betrays Shinji’s personal philosophies at the end of the second act, Shinji’s focus shifts to his responsibilities to his fellow pilots. The third act is driven solely by his sense of duty.
– More religious gobbledygook muck up the third act and second climax. The supernatural idea of divinity serves to explain the otherwise unexplainable, feeling unearned and lazy in what the audience understands to be the established world. Feels inconsistent and out of place.
Diction 3/5
+ Writing is as competent as the first film. Performances are emotionally weighty all-around.
– Gendo’s dialogue gets a bit mustache-twirly diabolical in places and feels a bit too on-the-nose for his character.
Music 1.5/5
+ The music in the third act is by-and-large appropriately powerful and complementary.
– The brunt of the music is chintzy and corny. The score is heavy on distracting bubbly fluff pieces that serve only to drain the dramatic tension from an otherwise emotionally heavy atmosphere. Easily the worst aspect of the film.
Spectacle 4/5
+ Still gorgeous. Fluid and colorful. Clearly a labor of love by the animation team.
– The CGI elements don’t seem to blend as well with the cel animation this time around. It’s not terribly distracting, just more noticeable.
3.5 moody adolescents out of 5.
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Appleseed
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Gundam Age
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Evangelion 1.0 You are (not) Alone
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Infinite Ryvius
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Super Robot Wars OAV
Alternate Titles: Super Robot Wars: Original Generation – The Animation, 超級機器人大戰O.G.
Original Japanese Release Date: May 2005
Episode Length/Run-time: 3 Episodes
Summary:
A new model of super robot has come out and everyone’s excitement suddenly turns to fear and chaos as these new robots become the enemy and start attacking everyone and everything around their inaugural celebration. Upon thwarting the enemy there was a mysterious lack of casualties. The ATX and SRX teams must discover the reasoning behind the attack and what happened to their friends.
Review:
This anime delivers on its title, it has a lot of super robot wars. Wasting no time, as it shouldn’t being only 3 episodes long they quickly establish the world and characters with a few scenes and simple dialogue and move right into the initial attack. The fight scenes are pretty sweet, despite some of the characters corny lines and jokes to”lighten the mood.”
The mystery about the new robots is just enough to keep you, as the viewer, engaged in them. At the end of the first episode a rather graphic image of a naked woman suspended painfully with clips throughout her body in a strange fluid drops out and you learn of the perhaps sinister ODE system.
One thing I really have to tip my hat to in this OAV is how they give the information about the world and characters. Its on a need to know basis which works well. In three episodes they don’t have time to elaborate on everything or go into every last little thing and they don’t. They also don’t make the common mistake of bombarding you upfront with all the information either, which works well.
The animation is nothing impressive, given the animation look and style I actually thought it was about 5 years older than what it was. Now that’s not all bad, I like the look of the old style, but for 2005 its lacking in a few scenes I think, particularly the action scenes. The music is decent, nothing astounding either but they seemed to have a fair amount of pieces for such a short series and it fits the mood and fight scenes well to create the mood. Plus, the opening is pretty good!
Overall, for three episodes they do a good job of packing a story with some suspense and desperation along with some good action scenes in there. It wont change your life and the originality is nothing astounding, but I would say it’d be a good way for someone who isn’t sure about the mech genre to try things on and see if they like it. The time investment to enjoyment for this series I’d say is pretty high. Overall it is is pleasantly average series.
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Code Geass
Alternate Titles: Code Geass – Hangyaku no Lelouch, Code Geass – Lelouch of the Rebellion
Original Japanese Release Date: 2006
Episode Length/Run-time: 25 Episodes
Summary:
With the aid of gigantic robotic robots known as Knightmare Frames colonialism has taken new meaning and the Empire of Britannia has invaded Japan and placed it under colonial rule. Lelouch a Britannian living in Area 11 (Japan’s new name) vows to free Japan and overthrow the Empire. One day after school he stumbles upon a military secret which happens to be a young girl named C.C. She gives him the power of Geass which can be used on any person only once to make them obey any order. With this weapon Lelouch’s rebellion begins.
Review:
Code Geass, reviewed here in full (both first and second season) is a very well done anime. While plots of overthrowing governments, coup de etats and war is nothing new to anime Code Geass brings lively characters and it’s own interesting spins to the rehashed themes in such a way that it feels fresh and new. One of the fantastic things about this anime is the pacing. It moves at near breakneck speed wasting no time to get to the meat of the show. From there on they don’t dally with stupid antics (okay, they do very rarely) and focus on progressing what they set out.
The mech battles in this show are really well executed and Lelouch’s character as the ringleader is perfect. Possible best friend to Light Yagami Lelouch is calculating, careful, cunning, and slightly cocky in just the right ways. While we’re on the subject of characters they are just the right mix for everyone watching. Enough bishonen to go around, cute girls ranging from well endowed sexy to loli and your stereotypical characters thrown in there to round out the mix nicely. Sometimes the stereotyping is taken a little too far and the acting could be seen as borderline corny. But generally speaking it’s done at the right times and I feel it’s presented in such a way that works for the series overall.
The one thing that really docks this series overall is the fights in the second season. Throughout the whole series there is gray area moral dilemmas argued and a clever cat and mouse both on and off the battlefield between Lelouch and Suzaku. However, in the second season Suzaku, apparently, closes the mental gap rather quickly on Lelouch. All of a sudden he, quite annoyingly, shows up out of the blue at just the right moment to squah Lelouch’s plans and win or thwart the battle. As a viewer it not only screams unrealistic, but it screams annoying.
Despite this, the series is very well executed and has something for everyone. The animation is clean and crisp and the music does not disappoint either. With the characters and engaging plot I’d easily classify this anime as a gateway drug into the world of mecha for any fan or fan-to-be.
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