It turned out to be a pretty interesting and exciting masterpiece about human behaviours studies and complicated human relationships.
Non-spoilerino summary: In an alternate version of the 1980s, the Cold War rages on even amidst an invasion of alien creatures. Set in communist East Germany, Schwarzesmarken tells the heroic tales of the country’s strongest mecha unit, The 666th TSF Squadron Schwarzesmarken (Black Marks), as it fights against the dreadful and looks-like-shit aliens, BETAs, and shows the West the superiority of communist doctrine and technology.
Story 10/10:
No perfect story exists without plotwists. People likes Urobuchi’s works/masterpieces/craps for this particular reason. While it appears on the surface to be just generic mecha+harem anime, Schwarzesmarken stands out from the crowd thanks to its setting.
It’s as much about the hell of living within a totalitarian communist state as it is breathing under immense war-stress as they are on to fight deadly aliens with giant robots. The people live in the fear of secret police, STASI, that a wrong word can send them to prison and get tortured as traitors. Thanks to this, you’re never sure which characters are trustworthy and which are informants, and this is the source of all the dramas later on.
Above that, Schwarzesmarken simulates the wartime psychology of military combatants during the Cold War Era with East German precision. Characters in this show are more prone to act out of control and without normal common sense, which is this show’s true beauty. The way the story is told is revolutionary as well. Focus of the show is always shifting from one to another thus a large amount of information is able to be conveyed to the viewers. Schwarzesmarken manages to take the viewers by surprise everytime as it displays hidden symbolisms in every singular frames.
On the other hand it shows a slight hint on the structural weakness of a non-democracy ruling institution. The secret police is fighting with the military and the politicians in front of a survival crisis—the invasion of BETAs. It just show communism won’t last and freedom to people is the ultimate solution to rule.
Characters 10/10:
The MC, Theodor Eberbach, is not the generic MC you can see in every show or justice-wannabe Shirou. He’s a normal dude like you and me who wants to go away from troubles. Though for sake of the plot he must save the world and get all the booties. He’s the most normal beings yet the most boring person in the show.
*Spoiler*
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Except he bangs his sister.
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*Spoiler*
The loli on the front cover, Katia, is nothing but a plot device. A defector from the West, believes that everyone can get along if they just sit down and talk, just your generic naïve character and moe trope. Annoying as hell as she starts speaking thanks to her VA, she literally does nothing and react to nothing. The female version of Raku from Nichijou, she is oblivious not to feelings but betrayal that will cost her life. She just exists because the story needs her to.
Irisdina is the Shirou and the punching bag of the show. Full of justice and regrets of killing her own brother when he was accused of treason to continue her living, she decided to fight the ugly BETAs. As the leader of the 666th TSF Schwarzesmarken, she owns great booty and convinced the MC to save the world. Should be the OTP with the MC.
And here comes the miracle that saves and carries the show, Lise. As Theodor’s step-sister, she joined the show before the climax. Because she is the climax of the show. Later revealed as a spy from the STASI, she ,as all other anime little sister, adores his onii-chan to a obsessive degree. She later shows her true colour and sell out the captain, Irisdina due to her jealousy. The rollercoaster she brings doesn’t stop here as she is the main force to stop her precious onii-chan to rescue his love. Lise also carries a heavy role as the leader of the divided fraction within STASI. Basically she is just a cute sister that wants to dominate the country and live with her precious onii-chan happily ever after. For that she paid a heavy price including selling out her friends and her body to STASI.
*Spoiler*
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-----Of course she offers her body to her precious onii-chan. Every 2D imouto’s ultimate tactical weapon it is.----
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*Spoiler*
Lise shows a conflicted and complicated personality that perfectly symbolise the twitched soul under communism supremacy. She performs numerous treacherous acts just to be with her precious onii-chan. She even sacrificed her purity so that she can secure a better future, just to be with her onii-chan.
Then she displays a truly brutal and violent behaviour that suits her yandere-imouto character seasmlessly. At the end she is just a tragedic little sister whose one-and-only wish is her onii-chan’s affection and love.
Art 6/10:
Looks miles better than that crap from Studio DEEN so it means Schwarzesmarken is a OK looking anime. Nothing to write home about it. Although the BETAs looks like utter craps, there is a scene where aliens that looks like balllsacks with eyelashes. Truly indecent yet not scary. RIP the mecha design, it’s just tin boxes moving around in this show.
Music 7/10:
Schwarzesmarken got Fripside to do a pretty decent opening song. It sounds like Black Bullet’s OP. The ending fits the show pretty well too. The sounds effects in the show that emphasizes on “Mai Fatherland” and “Go and Die you Capitalist Pigs” enhances the show’s viewing experience.
Overall 8/10:
Plotwist and marvellous storytelling with an emphasize on wartime PTSD that happens along with a forbidden incest love, what can you ask for more?
Schwarzesmarken may not be the most “hard-mecha” such as Gundam or “silly-romance mecha” such as Macross, but it is a mindbending show that involves viewers to rethink the possibility of communism and most of it, the weight of a little sister’s love.
