Ranked #1528

Kurogane no Linebarrels

"An anime whose overall excitement level can be mathematically modeled by the Gaussian distribution function."

As with many other GONZO production, Kurogane no Linebarrels is loosely based on its manga original. Readers from the manga will find the anime not exactly following the story and in some cases the anime is loaded with fan servicing fillers. Please note that this review will judge Kurogane no Linebarrels solely as seen from the anime perspective.

GONZO started the series with a very rare approach, to bastardize the main protagonist (aka Hayase). Countless people turned away from the show after the first few episodes simply because of how much everyone hated Hayase. I strongly advise viewer to not get irritated by the early episodes and push forward as the show will get infinitely better starting around episode 4. In fact, the Gaussian distribution curve is a very fitting description for this anime. Average beginning, average ending. I had very high hope in this show around the midway point but sadly the intensity did not carry over to the end. As a long time mecha anime fan (with particular interest in super robots), I find the concept to the story (more on that below) fairly “fresh” thus I was hoping for some serious story development. Unfortunately I set my expectations too high.

The basic concept of the story was actually quite interesting. A teenage boy trying to be the "hero of justice" by piloting a mecha (known as Linebarrel) from another dimension. Viewers were informed in the beginning of the story that a universe/dimension exist in parallel to our own. While that dimension obviously differs from ours in virtually everything, we do share some common ground. The background theory of how the alternate dimension may be formed after the Big Bang was briefly discussed along the way. The story then proceeds to talk about the typical terrorist-taking-over-the-world stuff, leading to some heart-breaking betrayal and thus the climax to the story.

"WARNING, weird looking characters alert! This is not a false alarm. I repeat, this is not a false alarm!" Don't know if Hisashi Hirai (the character designer for Heroic Age, Infinite Ryvius, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed/Destiny, and Soukyuu no Fafner) hit his head or what, but I had a higher expectation from him. The faces of the main characters look like they have been put on TV from a sketch book! They look perfectly fine in magazines or any galleries you may come across, they are just horrible in the animation.

Many viewers also complained about the CG battle animations, especially the first few battles in the series. While personally I have nothing against CG animations (I am actually glad to see something different for a change once a while), this also seem to be another fatal blow to Kurogane no Linebarrels. But with all that being said, the actual animation quality and scene to scene transitions are acceptable. So hopefully viewers can eventually get accustomed to the weird looking faces and CG battles and be able to enjoy the anime.

Perhaps one of the obstacles the viewers have to get accustoms to is the OP by ALI PROJECT. Frankly, after learning that ALI PROJECT is responsible for the OP I decided to skip the OP whenever possible. However, the two ending themes by Maaya Sakamoto are worth your time (hell and heaven when compared to the OP).

If you are familiar with seiyu (as most otaku do), you may want some info as to who is the CV for who. Yuichi Nakamura (Tomoya in Clannad, Alto in Macross Frontier) is voicing Moritsugu which I find very different from his past roles. Hayase is voiced by Tetsuya Kakihara (Simon in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann). The lovely Kizaki is voiced by the also lovely Mamiko Noto (Kotomi in Clannad, Hecate in Shakugan no Shana). There are many other award winning BIG names including Jun Fukuyama, Rie Kugimiya, Aya Hirano, and many many more.

The most noticeable character development without a doubt is Hayase's view of the "hero of justice". He matured overtime seeing how real world battles are fought and what he truly needs to protect and fight against (a very big change from the little punk he started out acting as). Unfortunately, after he “upgraded” his view of the justice system midway through the series, we see little to no change in his character thereafter. A lot of viewers have probably forgotten Yajima half way through the show, but his impression on me was extremely important and he played an irreplaceable role throughout the first half of the anime. Many mysteries were answered slowly overtime concerning certain characters’ past and why he/she end up being who they are in the show. Among many other things, Kizaki’s lost memory, and Ishigami’s past with Katou were the most interesting. Character relationship-wise, Kurogane no Linebarrels could have done some more work for the supporting casts. Many characters left hanging at the end with no satisfactory conclusion. Taken as a whole, the character department is definitely one of the weaker areas of the anime.

While I agree there were many changes to the manga, it did not bother me much throughout the course of the show. After all, this show is about parallel dimensions, so why don’t we just treat the events in the anime and in the manga separately (perhaps treat them as they are in two different universes?). Lastly, I have to point out that GONZO must have enjoyed producing Strike Witches a lot. The production crews end up incorporating quite a bit of fan service in a mecha series and that could be disturbing to some viewers. read more

Alright, this anime finished recently, and I have to say I actually was anticipating for the last episode.

In brief I'll just say, I was on the verge of rage-quitting this anime after the first 3 episodes - and if it wasn't because I started late (so that I didn't have to wait in between weeks) I probably would have dropped this anime.

This is why I gave character the lowest scores, because the main character really annoyed me at first.

But despite that, I pulled through and the anime really is good.
I'm not a Mecha-anime fan, other than Full Metal Panic! I normally don't watch Mecha-anime (I haven't seen one episode of Gundam before). So despite that, it really was good and kept me looking forward to each week.

Although it's not GONZO's best work, the story was well done, and the art was brilliant - especially on High Resolution!

Loved the use of the music in key points.

So overall, it's definitely something to watch I reckon :)

Just fight the first 3 episodes! read more