Captain Earth

People attempt to take this show too seriously. It's just another mecha show with some goofy characters mixed in and some twists and turns along the way. I enjoyed the series, the characters were well written, unlike many shows they weren't afraid to throw in a little fan service, and it kept a good pace. A lot of people will be quick to condem it because of the fan service, but I say if you don't like it than there's literally a million similar shows out there you can watch devoid of the ecchiness. Shows like this one and Infinite Stratos are becoming ... a rarity but they'll always have a fan base.

I don't care what my average episode rating was (not that I was rating episodes waaaaaaaay back when I started watching this show…three years ago). Captain Earth is just meh.

The pacing is screwy. Almost every episode has at least one head-scratcher. There's wasted potential all over the place. But instead of using its potential, the show screwed around with teen angst and spent a ton of time showing mechs "expanding" in an overly complicated space-based linear assembly line…because what we need in mecha anime is definitely mechs that don't make sense.

Feels like I can't write a review without tripping over plot holes every five words. ... I said it in a single-episode comment, but I'll say it again in general: the environment in this show is far too accommodating to the protagonists. Everything always works out just so and they succeed at fixing whatever the problem of the week is. There's always a new prototype Impacter that's not done being tested yet but is available for Teppei or whoever to launch at a moment's notice and use to save the day. I guess you might like (parts of) this show if you're a fan of deus ex machina writing, since there are an awful lot of cases where the perfect gadget (or Akari's hacking skills) just so happen to address the problem at hand.

And again, pacing… ugh. This show spends so much time on nonsense, slice-of-life filler that barely even advances the plot. There are tons of long, dialogue-heavy expository scenes that, well… if you know about screenwriting, you know about "show, don't tell". This show tells. A lot.

So yeah. Meh.

On the plus side, MAL says it took me precisely 1111 days to watch this show, so that's cool I guess.

Let me start this review by saying that it's been a while since I wrote a review for MyAnimeList. I haven't binge-watched anime so I decided to watch Captain Earth by simple curiosity. It was a Sunday night and I had nothing to do, so Captain Earth seemed like a good way to alleviate my boredom with. To be honest, I started watching it with no expectations at all, but perhaps I should have expected something positive considering the talent involved here. Also, despite the title, this show has nothing to do with Captain Planet. Anyway, let's see what this anime has in store for ... us.

Story: The series follows a group of teenage friends that defend Earth from a race of aliens called the Planetary Gears. Making things complicated for our heroes is a secret organization that is sabotaging the heroes' efforts to save the world. This basic premise could make for an interesting story; unfortunately, Captain Earth is unable to fulfill its narrative potential and this is because of the multiple plotlines advancing at the same time. Aside from fighting the Planetary Gears, our heroes come into conflict with Salty Dog, an organization that wants to evacuate humanity from Earth because they believe the planet is beyond saving, and Puck, an AI that is manipulating the conflict between humans and aliens for its own benefit. The show even dedicates screen time to the Planetary Gears in order to frame the story from their point of view. With all these factions running around, you'd think the show would be filled to the brim with interesting concepts and storylines that would get proper screen time and development, but you'd be sadly mistaken.

First off, the Planetary Gears are incompetent fools that get defeated almost every week. Their plan is to awaken more of their own kind, scattered across Japan and get them into space, where they can use their robots to drain the life force of humanity. While the heroes fail in stopping the villains from replenishing their numbers, they do succeed in beating them in combat and destroying their robots over and over and over again. The only reason the villains live to fight another day is because their minds are stored in special objects that cannot be destroyed by normal weapons. The show tells us that the villains can never be allowed to use their machines on Earth's surface, lest they will absorb the life out of humanity, but instead of giving the show some semblance of urgency or dramatic tension, it just makes the conflict boring because we know the heroes are never allowed to lose. The heroes are left with empty victories that have no meaning because, again, the villains are incompetent fools.

Second, the battle with Salty Dog is ridiculous because Salty Dog is governed by lunatics who believe humanity doesn't stand a chance against the Planetary Gears. Apparently, they willingly ignore the reports about the teenagers that save the world on a weekly basis. Salty Dog proceeds to antagonize the heroes in an effort to evacuate mankind to outer space and leave Earth to die at the hands of the Planetary Gears and they are more than willing to help the Planetary Gears turn the Earth into a wasteland. Even Daichi is frustrated by Salty Dog's lack of foresight and desire to be smartest people on the room.

Third, the AI Puck is very predictable. From the moment it's introduced, the show raises red flags that Puck will be an antagonist, either by making its behavior creepy and weird or by introducing technology that will help it fight the heroes. By the time Puck finally gets to fight the heroes, it feels weird and forced because the heroes have no idea of who Puck is and they are only fighting him because the show needs a physical antagonist because, again, the Planetary Gears have utterly failed as villains.

Another major problem Captain Earth faces it its overuse of exposition. The show throws around concepts and names every episode, like Livlaster, Neoteny, Impacter, Ordinary, etc. It took me about 5 episodes or so to piece the backstory together with the scraps the show left on the floor but it felt very frustrating that the show has no interesting in piecing together its own backstory and just left viewers to do the heavylifting. If the show cannot properly develop its themes and concepts, then people will certainly not care enough to keep watching.

Any mecha battle should have dramatic tension and emotional stakes around it, otherwise it is nothing more than robots just throwing punches and shooting lasers for no reason. Like I said before, the heroes always win. There is no real reason to get emotionally invested in these fights. Just when it looks like the heroes are any kind of real danger, the heroes manage to pull off a win thanks to some contrived deus ex machina or the power of friendship and love. The show explains the heroes' power thanks to the Livlasters, extradimensional energy beings that take the form of magic space guns that can only be wielded by those they deem worthy. In other words, the heroes are Green Lanterns, but instead of superadvanced space rings, they have magic space guns. This is plot armor of the highest order. I was kinda hoping one of the heroes would die, if only to throw the heroes out of their comfort zone and give story some semblance of gravitas and nuance, but that never happens and the heroes are never in any real danger. (3/10)

Characters: Another major failure on the show's part is the lousy character writing. Despite their objectively interesting backstories, the main characters are boring and lack any sort of emotional nuance. Daichi, our hero and the character we are supposed to relate the most, is a bland and generic goody two-shoes who rarely shows any emotion beyond friendship and eagerness to do the righting. His friends are hardly any better. Akari is a smug hacker with an inflated ego. Teppei is just a shy and awkward guy with issues that just barely qualify as social insecurities. Hana, the pretty girl with the big secret, has no personality beyond the childish and innocent girl who is just getting to know the world. The friendship between the protagonists is bland and lacks any real substance. We are clearly supposed to think these four are close friends, but the show never delivers any semblance of comradeship between them. They simply engage in pretty standard, paint by numbers friendship stuff. The romance between Daichi and Hana is one of the blandest and most ridiculous in TV show history. Her magic kiss lets her see into his thoughts and a few scenes later, they are having a romance for the ages. A romance this badly written hasn't been seen since the likes of Twilight. Daichi and Hana have no chemistry with one another and they are only together because the show simply needs a romantic subplot. (3/10)

The secondary characters are left with almost no development whatsoever. The Planetary Gears, other than Amarok and Malkin, do not evolve in any meaningful way. Sure, they get some episodes to shine here and there, but they are soon forgotten in favor of another, newly introduced plotline. The AI Puck follows the all-too predictable pattern of AIs that become evil and attempt to destroy mankind, like Ultron and the Reapers, with no attempt of subversion.(3/10)

Art: Captain Earth, maybe unfortunately, is good in a few ways, enough to make it feel like a missed opportunity. The visual effects are amazing, the colors are bright and lively and the background enjoy a high level of detail and nuance. Clearly, a huge amount of the production budget went into the visual department. The mecha battles are nothing short of visual spectacles, but the enjoyment of those battles is ruined by the aforementioned lack of dramatic tension and emotional stakes. Good visual effects should enhance the anime experience, not make it. I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again. We are basically watching robots fight each other for no reason. Captain Earth at least deserves props for sticking to hand-drawn animation for the robots instead of using CGI. (9/10)

Sound: Another redeeming aspect of this show is the talent of the voice actors, who do their best to portray their characters as actual human beings instead of the bland caricatures the shows says they are. It's good to know that the talent of these voice actors will never be wasted, no matter the trash they are given to work with. The first OP, Believer's High, is definitely the best thing to come out of this show. I'm always excited to hear it, even if the show attached to it doesn't match its quality. The second OP doesn't come close to match the greatness of the first, and that's another testament to Captain Earth's untapped potential. (8/10)

Overall: Somewhere in the multiverse, there is a parallel universe where Captain Earth is a good anime that properly explores its themes and develops its characters in a graceful and nuanced manner. Sadly, we don't live in it. Captain Earth is not a terrible idea, it's just that it wasn't properly executed and it's hard to get fully behind it. This is because of seemingly unintentional narrative choices that detract from what should have been a significantly better experience. I don't need every anime I watch to be a life-changing experience, I just need it to be a good story, and unfortunately, Captain Earth fails to do that. The show's premise and setting are good but unfortunately, the character flaws are just too hard to ignore. Ideas mean nothing if you can't execute them. Just because something sounds like a good idea doesn't mean it is if you can't bring it to life. Captain Earth is a combination of good ideas, but it is nothing more than that. More importantly, this show is a clear case where mediocrity is worse than outright badness. The excellent production values only make Captain Earth's failure even more painful to watch. Hopefully, the people behind Captain Earth will move on from this mediocre misfire and move on to something better. (3/10)