Gunslinger Stratos The Animation

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

Let’s face it: There are a LOT of bad anime out there. Despite that fact, 99% of anime created over the course human history have at least some sort of redeeming quality. It doesn’t matter how incoherent the plot is, how god-awful the characters are, how piss poor the animation is, or how maddeningly awful the sound effects are; there is almost always SOMETHING that you can take away from a show. Maybe the art style is pleasant. Maybe that comedic relief character was actually funny occasionally. Or maybe the show just provided some mindless fun at times. However, once in a blue ... moon, you may stumble across a special show that falls into that remaining 1%. A show that quite literally could not be worse than it already is. A show that lacks so much as a single redeeming quality. A show that is so awful, it feels like an accomplishment. Ladies and Gentleman; we have been gifted this season with one of those remarkable anomalies that defy all human comprehension. I present to you: Gunslinger Stratos. One of the worst anime of all time.

Synopsis: I have absolutely no idea. There are two parallel universes with completely arbitrary differences, the inhabitants fight each other for no reason whatsoever, and people turn into sand sometimes. I just don’t know.

So in case that synopsis didn’t clue you in, the biggest and most glaring problem that Gunslinger Stratos has is the fact that it makes NO sense. Usually anime that don’t make sense have a passable script that was poorly executed or an awful script that was executed averagely. Not good ole’ Gunslinger Stratos though! Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING about this show’s writing and directing is an absolute disgrace. The plot, setting, and characters are all an absolute muddle of incompetence that leave you awestruck out of sheer incomprehensibility. It’s actually hard to believe that people who clearly don’t have the foggiest sense of even the most basic elements of storytelling were getting paid to animate this trash. Clearly there was some sort of conceptual story in place, but they could not have gone about conveying it to the viewers in a worse fashion. This show will info-dump and info-dump and info-dump and info-dump, yet you never actually learn anything. Each and every plot device introduced raises questions that demand answers, are extremely confusing and need far more fleshing out, and/or connect to nothing at all in the rest of the story. From beginning to end, it is entirely unclear to the viewer what is going on. I won’t go on so this doesn’t start to sound too much like a rant, but for all of these reasons, Gunslinger Stratos’ plot is among the worst of the worst. You would have to put forth a conscious effort to make something worse than this show’s story.

Continuing on with this anime’s theme of incompetence, the cast of characters are as boring as they come. Even some of the worst anime ever made have at least one character that qualifies as two dimensional, but Gunslinger Stratos can’t even muster as much as that. You could replace any given character of this show with a cardboard cutout and I probably wouldn’t notice the difference. Seriously, I can’t even go over what archetypes the cast members fill because they aren’t even archetypes! They are NOTHING! I’m struggling to find so much as an ounce of personality in a single character to talk about here, and that should tell you all you need to know about the personas of Gunslinger Stratos.

That brings us to the presentation aspects of the show, which, while not quite as bad as the writing, are still not nearly up to scratch. Gunslinger Stratos will have one, maybe two well-composed scenes per episodes, and about five or six mind-bogglingly stupid shots that have no direction to them whatsoever. From beginning to end, the animation is incredibly inconsistent; the animation has so few frames that it looks like a flipbook at certain times, and those times far overshadow the very little good that this show has to offer. Overall, very poor animation. The music is equally as forgettable as the rest of the show. At least it fits the tone of the anime more often than not, but I counted one and only one song throughout the entirety of the show that I would consider to be good, and it only played during a single scene. It was hard to pay attention to the nuances of sound design when the rest of the show is so mind-numbingly awful, I suppose. Factoring in the below-average voice acting, I can say that the sound design is just plain bad.

There are only three possible explanations for the existence of a show like this: Incompetence, greed, or a combination of the two. I do not believe for a single, solitary second that anybody cared about the quality of this show. Not the animators, not the directors, not the writers. Strike that; I CANNOT believe that anybody cared about the quality of this show. There are simply too many glaring, immersion-breaking problems to be able to say that Gunslinger Stratos was put through even the slightest form of quality assurance. This anime is an advertisement. A 12 episode advertisement that even the most easily entertained of anime fans will be unable to follow. This is one of the worst anime of all time.

TL;DR : Really enjoyable show, but too much story into only 13 episodes. Characters not completely original with not a lot of character development. Fun fights and interesting story overall: involves time travelling and lots of guns.

I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum. The story is set in 2115, with our protagonist, a high school student, falling back into the past and witnessing a battle between some soldiers and their dopplegangers: he even meets himself from an alternate universe. Curiosity eventually makes him join in the battle to save the world and the story unfolds.

Story: 9/10

The story is really unique, but it might ... feel like a bit too much to fit into only 13 episodes. This is why some people think it all makes zero sense, but in fact it's really delicate and everything fits in perfectly. It picks up nicely from the beginning, it's really exciting, it doesn't lose steam throughout the series and has a nice solid ending, which I found quite enjoyable. All in all, it's great and flows really well, if not slightly rushed as to compensate for a large story but only 13 episodes.

Art: 8/10

I absolutely love the art and animation. It's smooth, pretty, shiny, colorful at times but also gloomy if the need arises. The combat looks great and explosive, especially the melee party. The only thing I found repetitive were the standard shooting scenes found in almost every episode, they might look a bit too generic. That, and the fact that the girl characters' lips look weird in my opinion. It's still a beautiful anime with a pretty dang neat opening.

Sound: 7/10

The opening theme is really good in my view, with the theme of the song fitting the entire show very well. The background music is enjoyable and it fits the occassions well, but it's not all that memorable. There's a great deal of variety and it's generally above average quality.

Characters: 7/10

While it's true that you can't fit much character development in only 13 episodes, Gunslinger Stratos still seems to fall a little bit short. Apart from the main character and the main female character, as well as their doubles, we don't get too see alot about the cast. This is a shame, as some were quite interesting, but some were pretty blank and stereotypical. The protagonist starts off maybe a bit boring and average, but over time he grows some balls.

Personal enjoyment: 9/10

I must admit, I enjoyed this show quite a lot more than I expected to, especially about seeing so many negative reviews. Most of them are by people who don't even understand the plot, though. The characters are fresh, the fight scenes many and greatly animated, which is all backed by a really interesting story and decent music. It was really fun!

Overall: 8/10

Even if the show was great and I enjoyed it alot, delving a little bit deeper into the characters apart from Tohru and Kyoka is what's missing, as well as some more memorable music or scenes. What would do the show more good than anything else, though, are more episodes: if the same story was spread over 24 episodes, things could have been explained better and there wouldn't be a feel of a constant rush.

I recommend the show to any SCI-FI and/or time-travel lovers, but to everyone else as well, since it was quite an enjoyable watch for me.

Watching Gunslinger Stratos is like waiting for a bucket with holes to be filled with water. No matter how long you wait, it is impossible to fill it. And, as we wait for it to be filled, you question yourself, why am I still doing this? That's Gunslinger Stratos in a nutshell. Why do I still go on watching this?

Most of us have high or above average expectations hearing this Square Enix game to be adapted. Judging from the previous cover picture and the trailer, this looks badass and promising. What I can say is that this anime is just good at making your ... expectations high, and inside, it is just an ugly up gift box, waiting to be opened and surprise you how messed up it really is!

The concept is not bad. The story is not bad either. But the execution and manner of use is. It has a lot of potential which has gone to waste because of poor storytelling and messy plot elements, which I think, can be a bit useful if done better and with effort. The concept of time travel and its logic can't convince me that a decent staff made this, because it is just absolutely nonsense. Everything is jumbled, explanations are just being thrown to us one after the other, which makes the story really confusing messed up.

The art is below average tier or even pitiful at times, only good in a few scenes, but most of the time it lacks effort and really poor designs. The character designs are bad and ugly, backgrounds are poor, and their facial expressions are disgusting. Only thing decent about the art is the outfits and a few action scenes to show. The use of colors is lazy work, it makes the characters look bland and lifeless. Animation is decent and a little bad, but the action scenes are worthy of being called good.

For the sound, the soundtracks are mediocre and forgettable, I don't even feel or hear any music that can touch my heart. The opening is catchy and nice, it looks great, but the song just falls flat, so it is average. The best part of the anime is the ending song, "Mirai" by GARNiDELiA, is a great piece, but it does not fit and does not have any relation to the anime. Voice actors are bad and awful and the sound effects are average.

Simply, the characters are garbage. We've got the most lifeless main character of Spring 2015 and the cheesy pink heroine, which both have useless motivations and are one of the most boring characters in history. With the alternate world characters they just fight each other for their satisfaction and rivalry, which is nonsense. Characters are getting killed before you know them, characters are getting killed for no reason, and most of all, characters are just very boring forgettable I didn't even remember their names since the first and second episode.

My enjoyment has only satisfy me during the action scenes, which are really fast that I couldn't even say that the animation during those scenes are pretty lazy. There's nothing you can get around enjoyment because this can make you sleep, it is really boring they just talk here and there and you can't even understand what is going on. What heals me every episode is the ending song that makes me forget how awful the anime was.

Overall this series is straightly bad, it is not worth watching, and is a jumbled mess. The only thing you can get maybe in this is cancer or good action scenes. It is a waste though, for an awesome game to be compared to this shit, and I have high expectations in this adaptation. Do not watch this. Maybe just try listening to the ED. :3

Story - 5 (Interesting premise backfired, potential gone to waste.)
Art - 5 (Mediocre, nothing really worth mentioning and decent animation.)
Sound - 6 (Bad and below average. Nice OP and lovely ED)
Character - 2 (Paper characters that have no true motivations with zero development)
Enjoyment - 4 (Boring, only a few moments to be mentioned)
Overall - 4 (Very low adaptation and production values. Not worth watching)

The TLDR of my review is simply this The anime is a 22 episode anime that was condensed into 12 episodes.

The EP 1 to around 6-8 are very rushed, the storyline jumps all over the place, and since this is from a video game there tons of supporting characters (and each has a "twin" in the other universe so yea). That being said having just finished watching this last month (tail end of the anime) was Amazing and i really loved it. This might have happened because most anime have half the season for arcs but this anime really couldn't pull off that it ... had alot going on and not enough time to do it.

What normally happens in most anime that i watch is its a clone from the manga and in this case it wasn't.

Story was a 2 for the first half and a 10 for the second half.

Art was meh normal, not hard on my eyes was ok with it.

Sound well its call Gunslinger Stratos and boy do i love the sound all the weapons make in this anime.

Characters IMO there are really 5 who i would call the main area people (2 being from the other universe), And i love their Character development and how they reflect seeing themselves different but the same.

Enjoyment THIS ANIME WAS FUN, enough said i really liked it wasnt too gimmick like most animes with the over shy or perverted stuff and had some times where it got real and you felt it (this is most a show about fighting so people die)

Overall It was a good show could have been done Alot better but it was still good.

Forewarning, I didn't play the game, and I'm basing this on an anime watchers perspective.

Story: 7
The storh itself was a pretty interesting idea, some monstrosity that future humanity creates decides to come and screw with the past, and basically screw with 2 alternative universes that were supposedly going to destroy each other in a war that would happen in 10 years time. The story however, was left crammed into 12 episodes, as well as having a few WTF moments in its anime logic, thus giving it only a 7.

Art: 8
The art was pretty decent, it had a few bad moments, but it also had some ... really good moments in which I saw as better then some of the other anime that aired this season.

Sound: 7
The sound was, like the art, decent, however there weren't any particular moments that I could really deem good besides maybe the intro music. It mainly felt like they didn't slack off, but they definitely didn't try to ace it either.

Character: 6
The characters were probably the worst part of this anime however. Many of the characters and the alternative universe personalities were barely explained, with easily over 15 side characters that were barely ever shown. Even with 24 episodes, I'm not sure the animators would have been able to pull off a decent score for the characters as the show seemed to only focus on the main protaganist, and maybe at a few different times, some of the other characters that were even bothered with.

Enjoyment: 7
Even though this was an average anime in score wise, I personally enjoyed the fighting and mystery that came with the anime because, as I said before, I never played the game so it was all new to me. I would recommend this to someone looking for a action/romance/mystery anime and who arent to picky.

Overall: 7

Well, all well and ends well, so how do I put this up?

Ok, so now another sci-fi, action packed with the side of romance anime has just ended, and according to a lot of MAL users who made a review of this anime , almost most gave it a 6, so let go over each of this anime's category.

Story

Ok, the story maybe the run of the mill invaders from another dimension who would like to destroy the world, but then again this is one usual invaders from another dimension where the antagonist are the doppelgangers of the protagonist that they're fighting....if you can call it ... that way. Also, the story presents a plot where their is another antagonist and the climax was that the two opposing alternate selves have to team up to defeat it. Also, on the romance side it was good that their was no harem who would compete for the MC's affection rather it was a childhood friend whom the MC had a good relationship at the start of the anime

My verdict: a good 7


Art

It was still the run of the mill situation where the character are a little too overdress for the occasion, ok so I could have forgiven the school uniform ....just a little , but the attire where the characters from the management realm looking like that they're going to a party was just too over the top, and what's with Kyouma's attire anyways, he looks like an Elvis impersonator. Only the character from the Frontier S realm were dress for the occasion, that will prevent me from giving this category a 2, plus the fact that the anime didn't rely on the fanservice to sell, so.

My verdict: a poor 3


Sound

My verdict: a mediocre 5, since I have no comment on the op, ed and the VA's who did the characters voices.

Character

I not gonna focus on any specific character since one can't defined one without involving it's doppelganger ( if I can call it that), but instead I could say that the character's fighting their alternate selves was really something else to say the least . The reality was that the real character wasn't the character themselves but the girl who showed up to Tooru , and how she was responsible for the chaos that has happen between the two worlds, also it was the relationship between Tooru and Kyouka that has more impact in this anime's overall.


My verdict: A Very Good 8.


Enjoyment

It was always enjoyable when you see the two selves from different dimension duking out with each other, because it in a different form, I just don't see any reason why this anime can't be that good.

My verdict: a good 7.

Overall

The setting maybe the usual, it may have presented a good character portrayals, the romance between Tooru and Kyouka maybe good since there was no harem to competed for Kyouka's feelings for Tooru, but the fact that the ending didn't have that much of an impact where it even violates Einstein theory of relativity, since the good Tooru have decide to destroy the cube things would have reverted to normal, instead we see a lame ending where are still a few of the Time keepers still causing troubles, if the cube has been destroyed then they should have been destroyed with it, also those who have died should be alive, well I can't blame studio A-1 Pictures for it's lame action on the anime, just go watch and judge it



So, my verdict: a fair 6.

This is my first review of an anime series.

Now that's out of the way....

I started this anime under no assumption what-so-ever about the story, art, sound, etc, and entered the series wondering what may develop over time. (Approaching anime any other way is completely and utterly idiotic, I don't care what you say. If you have your assumptions, obviously they will probably be broken is some way)

Anyways. (If you don't care for pre-rage banter then skip forward to after the break---)

Contrary to the other simpleminded reviews of this anime I've read so far, I've given this anime a 7. Others have given it anywhere ... from a 1 to a 5. First off, from what I gather, this comes from individuals having assumptions about the anime beforehand, as well as other things. The other aspects that interfere with this anime receiving decent reviews, stems mainly from those that take literally 5 minutes to try and understand a concept that their small brains can't process fast enough. "Oh boohoo I watched 3 episodes and I don't understand plot" "this anime sux becuz it has a slow start, dropped after 1 episode."

These are real comments that I have read, and unfortunately had the pleasure of raging at. I think that's enough of my logical thought process that most imbecilic reviewers won't understand, so let us get to the real stuff!

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Gunslinger Stratos (The Animation)

Story--(6)
The story of Gunslinger Stratos may be hard to comprehend if you don't know how to crack open a peanut. No really, all you have to do is actually pay attention and you'll understand the story. Sure there are moments where the anime gets a little too 'deep' for it's own good, but that just adds to the experience. The story as a basic structure holds up, and I mean what more could you ask from an anime that meddles in the affairs of space and time? We have the usual "gatta save the world, oh no, bad guys... maybe not?" and normal story progressions, leading to a somewhat decent ending that didn't disappoint me. The only thing is, that contrary to what most people say about it being slow at times, is that it actually moved quite fast during the more important segments which may have attributed to the lack of character development(oh well). I gave the story a 6 out of 10, because it holds up and is exactly what a 6 signifies, fair.


Art--(8)
The art in Gunslinger Stratos is pretty good. I'm not one to enjoy much 3d animation in my anime, but it didn't bother me as much throughout the series. The 2d art was well done, and didn't ever seem to distract from my enjoyment of the show, so kudos! Characters were well distinct from each other and their designs weren't too shabby either, considering there were multiples of each character. 8 out of 10, enjoyable to the eye if you don't mind 3d animation (Maybe 6 out of 10 for those that really dislike 3d, but meh, who cares)


Sound--(7)
The sound was good in this anime. The OP and ED were enjoyable, and the music during the anime wasn't too bad either. Voice acting was decent, and I felt that the characters portrayals through their voices worked out in the end. I gave sound a 7 because nothing really stuck out to me, but it wasn't horrible, in-fact it was good (maybe that's why I picked 7... hmm) It all adds to the atmosphere in the end, just enhancing the anime ever so slightly.


Character--(4)
This is where the anime falls short in most cases. The character development seemed almost absent at times, which was unfortunate, because there were quite a few times where I really wanted to learn the pasts of some of these characters and feel a better connection, but unfortunately that never happened. The slight development that we do get comes from the main character and a few of the supporting characters due to their involvement in the plot, but otherwise we learn next to nothing about 65% (Maybe 75%) of the cast. This is where I see many of the problems stemming from in this series, but you don't always need character development to make an anime interesting right? (Some would disagree) This anime hinges on its other aspects to help it ride the series out. 4 out of 10.. wanted more characterization but oh well, they threw other things in there.


Enjoyment--(8)
I enjoyed this anime. That isn't bad to say, and others disagree (apparently completely) but it does have its appealing parts such as the action, slight romance, comedy, and plot twists that you may or may not have seen coming. My suggestion is that you just watch it and stop placing your bullshit expectations on other people's art. If you expect something to be perfect, you'll hate it. If you expect something to suck and it doesn't, then you love it. Just expect that you're going to listen to/watch a story, and that if it ends up not being something worth your time, then drop it and say "meh wasn't my cup of tea" and tell us why (or not), but give real reasoning, not 6-year-old excuses because your anime didn't live up to your silly expectations. 8 out of 10, I had fun.


Overall--(7)
7 out of 10 overall, not a bad anime. Watch it knowing it will be rough around the edges, watch it knowing that others think it's worth a 1 rating(and it isn't), and watch it knowing that it was created so that we could enjoy it.

Chillout, and happy watching.

(This has been adapted from blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!)

A well-known philosophical question takes the following form. Imagine a teleporter that copies your body completely: atoms, thoughts, brain neurons, and so on. The teleporter works by replicating you entirely, materializing a new copy where you want to go, and then the first body – the one used to make the copy – is destroyed. Again, the new copy is perfect, and simply believes the teleportation was successful. Now, suppose the original body was never destroyed. Two of you exist simultaneously, so the question becomes: who is the real you? The original or the new? Both have ... the same memories, the same body, the same brain, the same thoughts, the same everything, but which one is really you? Challenging the complex notion of identity, this famous situation is highly debatable because nobody truly knows the answer. Gunslinger Stratos: The Animation is similarly philosophical in nature, but assuming the hypothetical teleporter were real, I would use it to warn the world of the woes it willfully and wantonly wags.


STORY

Gunslinger Stratos is one of those anime that, as it is viewed, the horribleness it exudes is nearly palpable. Nowhere is this more evident than in the narrative it attempts to construct. There is almost nothing within it that is worth remembering. The implications of this sentence should not be understated; almost the entire narrative is not worthwhile.

The lone positive facet of the narrative is how it avoids a typical cliché of gun-centric plots. For many shows (not just anime), the main protagonists are always able to shoot and kill their opponents with relative ease, while the “bad guys” somehow always miss their shots. This happens because the plot cannot have the “good guys” get hurt, otherwise they will not be able to continue with the tale. To circumvent this, Gunslinger Stratos opts for shields. Essentially, each character equips a shield that allows them to take a certain amount of damage before it breaks, at which point they are susceptible to the flying bullets. In this way, the plot does not feel as if it is trying to protect its characters in an artificial manner, since an explanation actually exists. Granted, the shields are simply a replacement for the cliché – they still take thousands of bullets and never die – but it is at least more tolerable than everyone miraculously dodging every projectile.

The rest of Gunslinger Stratos is incapable of dodging, leaving its narrative riddled with holes of every variety. Looking at the plot, it is a nonsensical mess. “Timekeepers” use their omnipotent abilities to have parallel universes fight over “Energy Cubes,” giving each side unparalleled advances in armaments so that, due to human greed and warmongering, they will create the “Dead End,” a catastrophic weapon that eradicates all life. This synopsis sounds sweet, and to be fair it is. But stringing together a bunch of cool concepts like time travel, teleportation, and technology without connecting them in a coherent manner causes nothing less than confusion.

The convolution comes from three areas: unexplained events, unessential plot lines, and unresolved conclusions. First, the show has an inability to relay information that is needed to understand the world. Some examples include: If they are Timekeepers, how did they not predict the people revolting? Why is there only one Timekeeper ever shown doing all of the work? How do Energy Cubes function? Where does the little purple hair girl exist in space-time? How did the chalk-on-the-ground equation allow them to literally time-travel? The anime often chooses to forego answering these questions in favor of gunplay, which does little to support the structure of the narrative. Second, the seemingly pointless plot lines add very little to the show. One such plot line is Remy’s dire situation that affects neither himself nor anyone else afterwards. Another is the head scientists going rogue, only to be immediately killed off and forgotten. Both of these plot lines do have a small impact on the anime overall, however the impact is merely to introduce more asinine ideas like massive Energy Cubes and betrayal that either continue to go unexplained or pop up out of nowhere. Third, it fails to resolve parts of its own plot. The alternate world and what happened to them is left up in the air despite having people and problems of their own. The most ridiculous, though, is that even having gone through the whole season, the anime makes it clear that the horrific future they all fought to avoid is still a possibility. In other words, their total efforts amounted to nothing.

That describes Gunslinger Stratos pretty well: “nothing.” The viewer feels nothing for the death of characters because the show fails to make them relatable. The comedy and drama has nothing weight-wise due to both the distant characters and the poorly constructed narrative. The themes of human arrogance, controlling one’s future, and interpreting identity are enticing on paper but when jumbled together without being explored outside of two extremes – a few lines of dialogue or a large exposition – mean nothing since they are fleshed out haphazardly instead of intricately. Yet the worst offender are the battles. Not that the fights have no purpose or that they are repetitive, which is true for both, but that the guns do not define the anime. It could have been swords, boxing gloves, or magic staves because the guns are not relevant without the context of the battles. In fact, considering the implications and ideas of the anime, one could presume that some better weapon that outranks the effectiveness or potency of guns should have been made. Regardless, like the relatability, drama, and themes, the guns are nothing, do nothing, and mean nothing to the show.

Those shields definitely protect one aspect of the narrative, but they are not strong enough to withstand the bombardment of faults that the rest of the plot experiences.

ANIMATION

Artillery continues to rain down on the art and animation.

Much of the art within Gunslinger Stratos is one of three flavors: the city, the home base, and the open plains. The former is used the most, with appropriate skyscrapers, streets, and side alleys for a battleground designed for jumping, running, and flying. The latter is the home of the non-main-cast world, but it is only visited during a single episode and is therefore not prominent. When the characters are neither fighting nor traveling, they can usually be found in the second on the list at their headquarters, a smorgasbord of metal and hallways. Collectively, it is often boring to see, with little attention given to lighting or detail, leaving it in a destitute state.

More issues exist, such as the choreography of the fight scenes and the CG. Inherently, gun fights are difficult to make interesting since it is two people pointing guns at one another with the occasional evasive maneuver. In Gunslinger Stratos’s case, the final fight is the only one that even attempts to differentiate itself, with the others consisting mostly of the aforementioned common dueling. Assault rifles, robots, and Gatling guns try to change it up from the usual pistol parties, but it still boils down to the same type of action: both sides staring at one another shooting bullets. As for the CG, while it is used sparingly, it is glaringly gross, with rigid body movements and misshapen designs. The boring backgrounds accentuate the grossness further.

Speaking of designs, the character designs are pretty awful. It is technically the future, so they all tend to look flamboyant in appearance. Crazy hair get-ups and colors, strange accessories, and refined clothes certainly make the cast unique, but at the cost of looking overly wacky and therefore out-of-place given the serious tone the anime strives far. The kicker is the second world’s character designs. Since the first set are already trying to be unique and weird, the replicas are even weirder, looking like people out of a carnival rather than a group of people aiming to save their world.

The actual animation is a joke that has a nice set-up but is missing the punchline. During the fights, the animation is about average, with characters running around with guns blazing and explosions booming. When the battles cease, though, they often stand around awkwardly with reduced facial and hair movements. This is obviously to give more resources to the action-heavy segments, but the downgrade is too noticeable to be ignored.

CHARACTERS

Gunslinger Stratos’s crowning achievement is the astonishing amount of execution that its characters do not own.

The vast majority of the cast members are not just missing meaningful development but also complex characterizations. Olga is a sexy minx who seemingly has dry lips, Kyouma is overprotective of his younger sister, Kyouka is loyal to Tooru, and so on. These descriptions are only slight hyperboles, since each of the previously listed does not only have those singular traits, but for the most part that is the extent of their character. They contribute the bare minimum to the plot, with no development or change of their own to speak of. There are many more side characters besides these three, but they are even more inconsequential, resigned to either a quick death without learning about them or being known solely for the job they perform within the organization. This leaves Tooru to pick up the remaining slack.

Tooru, unfortunately, cannot hold his own weight. Tooru is a person whose life has been difficult. His parents died when he was young, the class hierarchy places him low on the totem pole, and his social connections are not extensive. Strangely, he is neither happy nor sad about his predicament. Instead, he seems neutral, simply following the flow of time and accepting wherever it happens to lead him. From this position alone, his character is bland. His goals are unknown, his motivations are nonexistent, and his overall purpose is missing. That is to say, on a personal level, he is stagnant due to how plain he is.

Early on, Tooru does manage to find a reason to fight: to discover the origins of the mysterious ghost girl. As he learns more about the truth, his reasoning near the end morphs into protecting the future, which in a way demonstrates a drastic change in his outlook; rather than going with the flow, he has finally decided to take action to change the life he lives. But the problem is the middle ground that guides him to this point. A lot of the events do not influence his development – instead influencing the action or the plot – and even when they do, what pushes him onwards changes too frequently to be considered logical. First it is the ghost girl, then it is to justify Sidune’s death, then it is to help his friends, then it is for Kyouka, and then so he can see the ghost girl again. Tooru, who had never had anything to fight for, is suddenly pulled into multiple directions at once, which does not provide growth but instead continued stagnation since being forced to take so many paths at once leaves a low amount of room to explore any of them in-depth. In short, Tooru’s broken character is shattered by the anime’s conclusion.

Arguably, an interesting theme for the characters does exist. Given that the characters square off against mirror images of themselves, the notion that someone has to “face himself or herself” before being able to understand his or her person is enticing because of how true it is. Without someone knowing who he or she is makes it hard to seek self-improvement because that person will be unable to tell what such improvement entails. However, true to Gunslinger Stratos’s reputation thus far, there are two problems with this idea in the context of the anime. One, not everybody battles their counterpart. Tooru certainly does numerous times, but once again the vast majority of the characters never truly go toe-to-toe with their other self, meaning many of the cast members do not experience this theme to begin with. Two, the effects of the self-encounter are not provided. The biggest example is Tooru. Not only does the “bad” Tooru not view the “good” Tooru as himself but also how his fights against the “good” Tooru minimally affect him. He never seems to move away from his violent self, and because his last words are muted it would not matter if he did evolve in any capacity since the viewer is unable to prove it true. Thus, the theme does not have a solid foundation and is the last nail in the coffin for these characters.

The cast is crowned, but as the kings and queens of “Appalling Land” they hold no power whatsoever.

SOUND

The opening theme has a strong vocalist, but the main portion of the piece is like the show itself: devoid of feeling. As the piece concludes that feeling starts to emerge, but it is not enough to save what came before it. The ending theme, with its melancholic tone and once more strong vocalist, is the best part of the anime overall. The piano, slowness, and beat work well together, however the sad track does not fit within the confines of the anime because it reaches this low of a point mood-wise in no other instances outside of the aftermath of Sidune’s death. There may be an argument that the hopeful turn it takes halfway through coincides with the anime’s own optimism, but such hope is also not a mood the show had regularly, instead opting for tension, franticness, and drama.

These same moods can be heard in the rest of the soundtrack, with many pieces using guitars, violins, and techno ensembles to achieve such tones. The music also tends to lean towards the mysterious and foreboding, given the mystery of the ghost girl and the Timekeepers, but it is more background noise than it is interesting music. There is a nice part to one of the pieces – some rising notes from a violin – but a singular part of a track cannot support the rest of it, let alone every other track of the OST.

Voice acting sees similarly sinking support, with below average performances provided across the board. Atsushi Abe as Tooru screams a lot but lacks emotion, Hisako Kanemoto as Kyoka speaks like any other girl, and Masakazu Nishida as Kyouma has a voice that makes him sound too old for his age. But because there are two of each character, their voices are around twice as much as they normally would be, making it twice as horrendous to hear.

ENJOYMENT

I do not like this anime.

I do not like anime that have a forgetful narrative. I do not like anime that have weak characters. I do not like anime with egregious errors in their art, anime with sound that makes me bleed from the ears, or anime with the value of a used-up Amazon gift card. But this one hits all five criteria at once.

So not only do I not like this anime, but I really, really, really, really, really do not like this anime.

Gunslinger Stratos is the definition of trash. The story is ridiculous, the characters are abysmal, the art is lacking, the music is grating, and the entertainment is missing. Nearly the entirety of the anime’s contents are insipid and intolerable. Between having to watch this anime and getting shot in the leg, everyone would bite the bullet.

SUMMARY

Story: Terrible, convoluted plot and a whole lot of nothing are too much for a bunch of shields to block

Animation: Bad, boring art style, ludicrous character designs, and about average actual animation

Characters: Terrible, incredibly weak side cast members, poor excuse for a main lead, and low execution for its theme on “facing one’s self”

Sound: Bad, bad OP, okay ED, bad soundtrack, below average VA work

Enjoyment: Terrible, I would rather get shot in the leg than have to watch it again

Final Score: 1/10

This is my first review so just remember that as you read this

This anime started fairly slow with the main character Tooru living in a futuristic city . Gradually the story becomes more involved with fighting the other world with identical looking characters (few differences and personalities slightly different) . Characters are sometimes introduced but they die too early on to really get to know them or they just don't bother showing you who half of these characters are just that they are either or side imo. This really bothers me but 12 episodes wouldn't allow that i'm sure. The whole time logic and ... THE END stuff is sometimes really hard to follow and the ending never really truly wrapped up the whole story. It was a fairly happy ending but not many definitive explanations (which is a con to me). Overall it was a good show if your into the video game, the theme of parallel worlds and time and saving the world, but as myself, I wouldn't be someone that goes around bragging or recommending this anime it was alright and a good time waster sci fi thriller.

so I have just finished this and decided to write a review
to be honest I am a bit disappointed even though it has potential.

[Story: 6/10]
at first this anime started out decently, a boy living in a futuristic city, living a life with school, and then got sucked into a battlefield between his universe and a parallel universe. But then, after more episode, it became rushed. There were plot holes, the romance started escalated out of nowhere, and most episode were just battles. The ending imo was quite forced. Despite having so many events going on the ending was suddenly sprung towards us, It wasn't enough ... to cover all of the events. It's like from "wow so many things going on, this is really exciting!" to "wait, what? what just happened? why has it already end?".

[Art: 7/10]
nothing particularly on this, except the character designs are a bit weak when you first look at it. battle scenes are so so, doesn't really catch the eye albeit mainly centers on battles.

[Sound: 7/10]
bgm is acceptable, but none really catches the ear. The opening is average and the ending is quite good. Personally I really like the ending because GARNi is my favorite and also because they don't usually do mellow songs.

[Character: 5/10]
imo this is the weakest points on this series. The character developments are really low, there are many characters including the parallel ones which means there are many personalities but almost none of them were really told deeply. The main character is probably one that gets more development but still it isn't enough. For example, Kyouka's brother, Kyouma, which has a quite funny personality from the start can suddenly change after Tohru and Kyouka first went to the battlefield and then sometimes revert just for a while, to me this makes his personality inconstant. There are too many side characters especially from the parallel universe which we don't even know who they are, they are only there as side characters even though they appear quite often.

[Enjoyment: 7/10]
to me it is average. quite enjoyable if you have a spare time, but I wouldn't really recommend this if you really want to focus on the story since as I said before, it is rushed and seems forced.

[Overall: 6/10]
fair enough, I continued watching this because of my own rule
"If I still deem it worthy to watch then I shall seek it till the end"
luckily though this is not one of those series that is really horrible and you just want to drop it like dead and just bash your head wondering why the hell did you ever want to watch this- eh anyways it's not that type of anime. And as I said before this one is better for entertainment if you're bored or have lots of time.

first of first, I just going to tell you how I feel about this anime. this is bad anime and if you doesn't want to have any regret just don't bother to watch it. I hope you'll keep that in your mind.

okay, let's start the review

at a glance you will find this anime is amusing, they start with a good fighting scenario that will catch your heart (at least I love the first episode). but as the anime goes, you'll find a lot of flaw on this anime that certainly will give you an headache (especially if you are fan of a good anime with ... a good story). there are a lot of thing that aren't explained and not explained clearly. they rush the story and the development of the character. it seem's they try to end this anime desperately because they running out of material for this anime. as a result they fail to give an impact at the ending.

for art and character, I think they already do their best for it "Maybe". it just doesn't impress me.

just for advice, never ever recommend this anime to your friend especially if they just like anime. they might getting sick of anime if they watch it.

This is going to be a short review, mainly because my english is not that great.

Gunslinger Stratos is a series with an interesting premise, interesting characters and an awesome ending theme, but the problem with the series is its execution.

Characters that you barely knew and you're supposed to care , dumb main characters, a ninja that died and he is alive again in the last episodes, and the animation quality falls in some episodes, there's some DERP faces here and there.

I was hooked with the series until episode 4 but i was getting dissapointed episode after episode.

And episode 11, OH BOY !!!
Episode 11 is ... gonna be remembered as one the dumbest episodes in the entire anime universe.

Overall 5 /10.
It's a mediocre series that had the potential to be something special but fails by terrible scripting decisions and characters with stupid development or no development whatsoever. But I won't deny that I enjoy it a little bit.

At least it works as a SO BAD IT'S GOOD Anime.

one word, garbage. do i need to say anymore? let's all be real here, yes watamote was bad, yes terra formars was horrible, and yes school days was a a disaster, but none of those shows come anywhere close to the ultimate garbage this is. first of let's start with the art. for something released by a-1 pictures this anime has extremely crappy art/animation, it seemed to resemble the art style of the very first gundam anime released way back in the late 70s. and oh yes start of the story. what the heck is this. the main villain is yourself from an alternate dimension ... and you have to kill them before they can kill you? what? ok to be completely honest i never made it passed episode 3 so i can't completely be sure or not if whether the story actually revolves around anything other then that but i didn't find a reason to. this show is the ultimate garbage that even watching a part of episode one is a complete waste of time. so anime watchers, avoid this trash at all cost, unless you like watching half-assed garbage with shitty art with no plot thats 10000 times worse then school days and terra formars combined then go for it. you will not be disappointed.

I'm putting a clear view of the story in my opinion: The anime itself may be revised from another source... but it shouldn't be judged as to where the story may be lead. Although a lot of information has been given into this anime and a lot of other scenes, the anime itself is something worth watching.

The story's timeline can sometimes be confusing, but if there are real viewers who are fans... they must understand how the story goes no matter what because it also contains action. Even if this anime series is picked from an external source by its authors, I don't mind. It's ... "the story and the action put together."

What I like about this story is that the same characters are there... and they're all given lives to begin with. Each of them have their own small stories... but the plot is something very interesting to begin with because it involves more than one dimension. ;) With the timeline of the story... viewers will understand why it's so... and the twists just make me curious as to how each event will turn out when I watched it myself.

The art itself seemed intriguing. The characters have their own apparatus in fighting... and some have their own way of concealing them... which make great props for each of them. The appearances vary for each character as well. It's considered an action packed anime... and the artists have made sure it stays that way. Awesome.

The sounds are very good. But what I found most interesting is the ending theme song of the anime. IT is awesome... and it translates very well to the theme of the anime as well. They did a great job on matching themes. ^_^

The characters... although unique... they are outstanding because they can all be powerful at their own ways... and their own apparatus prove it too.

Thanks to the action and the story packed in the anime... I enjoyed this enormously. This is something to recommend to friends who watch similar anime with the themes almost matching to this one.

After watching 12 episodes of the whole season... there's one thing I've understood: "Their lives are indeed dangerous and fated to be." Watch the anime and see for yourselves!

Gen Urobuchi is losing his touch. The man has been credited with some of the greatest stories ever written and is known for killing off many characters in highly effective ways. However after with incredible success with Madoka Magica and Fate/Zero Urobuchi reached his limit. Gunslinger Stratos is a underwhelming approach at what happens when worlds collide.
Both of these worlds are in the near future some advanced technology. And at some point both of these worlds would be able to enter each other timelines and starting a war which will end up leading to both of their world’s destructions. However, the other world which is ... never focused upon is shown to semi desolate following a world war that destroyed much of Japan and left Tooru’s group having to struggle to find food. So the question rises in a world where the average citizen struggles to even get food how do you have the technology and resources to build a machine as advanced as a time machine. Secondly, everything to do the timekeepers. If both of the worlds that hosted the timekeepers are now gone how do they exist and also if by effecting how the past becomes future how are they not effected.
So the story is hopelessly confusing and devoid of really any acceptable explanation and using the excuse because time travel is not enough. Also this story is only told by one side of an obvious two sided story which brings up even more confusion when the two worlds clash. There was so much information put into just 12 small episodes, though extending to 24 would have not helped either.
Once again this is the main reason Gen Urobuchi is losing his touch. He used to be known to develop remembering characters and dialogue that brought out the deepest emotions of these characters. However, no character feels special at all. They have a single minded attitude with almost no changes and at most one quirk. Also the most obvious downfall of having all these characters is they become nameless, and when we don’t know their names little emotion is attached to them. And with Urobuchi’s famous reputation as the Urobutcher there will be death. And that’s his biggest failing, before when he had a character die you would almost cry as you felt with that characters through their hardships and struggles. But during this show you saw people die and the only thought was “what’s his name again?”
There was nothing special or spectacular. Though the ED was a nice piece by GARNiDELiA
There were times that I felt like this should have come out in the early 2000s with some of the crappy animation that was shown. The backgrounds were all blurry and barely had attempt to make them look 3D. Even in the first half of the season the characters designers were never solid always ugly. Yes it got better during the fight scenes but that is still no excuses for absolute crap.
I watched it, why? Well I wish you could tell me.

To anyone reading this;

Don't bother watching this. Unless you have way too much to spare or you have absolutely nothing else to watch. Then maybe you can think about giving this anime a shot. I haven't finished it so far but from what I have seen so far, this anime does not do a very good job.

First, the plot committed seppuku as soon as episode two started. All this shite about 'Time' and 'Time Energy'. Fine. I can accept that. Every anime needs some sort of fictional shite so that the anime can even get started. But then they introduce 'Degradation'? Like what? And then ... it's because the future will cease to exist and thus degradation occurs? How does that even connect? And then they say the (this is my favourite word because you know an anime is fucked when they say this word) timespace continuum is messed up so that's why the two worlds will connect and destroy with each other? The anime was trying to introduce an idea that was way too grand to begin with, and was trying to get the audience to understand what is currently happening in the space of two episodes? Not possible.

And the characters. Ughhh. The main protagonist is as main protagonisty as you can get. Which is alright. Lots of main characters are like that anyway. But he says "I don't mind being a sheep. I just hope I'm the fluffy one." in episode one. I don't even know what does that mean. And the red-haired guy has a personality that does not suit his looks at all. And the kid falls in love with the girl after one simple thing. And she's like 3/4? years older than him? Can't say I like these guys.

And also, apparently the TimeKeepers are here to save humanity by destroying one of the worlds so the other one lives. But the representative of the TimeKeepers are laughing as both worlds are destined to create DeadEnds that will consume their respective worlds. But wait, that's contradictory since they WANT to SAVE a world. But they also WANT to DESTROY both worlds?

And every goddamn episode, there are way too many things that happen and the audience are left with little to no time to digest all that has happened.

So it starts of with ordinary high schoolers being suddenly thrust into a war against parallel versions of themselves from another dimenson. ( Am I the only person wo knows this was kind of a plot point in the short lived TV "Fringe"? )Okay it's got cool characters that are designed well and a brave and mysterious world to explore and explain. It even provides a some what reasonable explanation as why we're having children fight this war. It's got action and a cool sci fi setting and likeable diverse characters. The emotional toll is not hndled off screen or glossed over either. The ... show gets off to a great start and I was hooked; for the first half. The second half I'll explain in the spoilers section. First I want to explain the Three out of Five. Phrases like cliched run of the mill anime come to mind. All the troupes are present main character, childhood friend and love interest, loud obnoxious brother, buxom blonde, psychic, mysterious girl, child prodigy, even a robot girl; and they're all present twice (though some longer than others). So when they learn the truth about the timekeepers it's a ceasefire to unite against a common foe. Sadly by episode 3 I knew that's where the story was going but stayed along for the ride.Then Remy becomes host for the deadend and the second Kyoma says kill Remy we all know they are going to find a way to save him. Then the head scientist (both of them) go insane and start the path to deadends creation. there's no rhyme or reason behind this nor was it foreshadowed as a possibility; it simply happens and you know the heroes are going to get out of it; so why put us and them through it? And the end fight between the two Tohru seems like filler and un-needed coonsidering how they end the series. Another issue I found was this show has a rather large cast considering it's only 12 episodes. who they are, what motivates them, what are their hopes and dreams are questions tht ould have made the series longer and I don't think any of us want that.
So it's worth the watch but it becomes so cliched and predictable you may find yourself wishing you'd watched something else. A bonus is that it has one of the most satisfying ends to a series I've seen in years...

Let's get to the point, this anime is one of the worst I've ever seen. This anime was so bad, I had to drop it while it was still airing. That is how bad it was. I usually try not to drop anime unless they are super boring or so bad that I just cannot watch them. I even made it through Sky Wizards Academy (you can find my review on that on MAL) and Chaos Dragon and those were terrible. Well, let's get into why this anime is horrible.

Story: 1/10
This is one of the worst parts of this anime. I had high hopes for ... how the story would be but it just fell straight on its face and burned. I just remember how bad it was with the plot being very confusing, very stupid, and very predictable. I guess this is how many game adaptations are going right now *cough* *cough* God Eater *cough* *cough*. I never understood what was going on in this anime and the explanations sometimes make no sense. Some things I find are just to keep the plot moving in the few episodes it has. I even questioned if some characters would do these moves as it doesn't even fit with their personality. Mostly for this anime, I was like WTF, WHY WOULD HE DO THAT!!! This anime also tries to make you get emotional with some character deaths but I just blew it off as they never really got that much character development so you just don't care in the end unlike an anime such as Your Lie in April. If I remember correctly, the story is about two alternate dimensions fighting over some glowing cubes so that there dimension will live and there will be no sand people things or something like that trying to kill all of them. That was pretty much all there was to this anime. Now you may ask yourself, THAT'S IT!?!?! Well sir, you are correct, that's all this anime is about. If your into good stories, just skip this anime entirely. I think I've ravaged the story enough at this point, let's move on.

Art: 4/10
Okay, the art in this anime wasn't to bad. They had nice backgrounds and setting design and it didn't look like it was running at 10fps. The thing that really drags it down is the amount of CG that is put in this. I just remember seeing a ton of it in this anime. It didn't even look good. I've seen some studios pull of CG and it looked amazing but this just looked like garbage. All the hand drawn stuff looks fine but the CG is a huge minus.

Sound 6/10
Sound may be one of the only redeeming qualities of the show. I never really listened to the soundtrack or battle music due to me just be boggled at the stupidity of the story but the Opening and Ending songs were not bad. The Op was a nice song but isn't to memorable. The ending was actually good and could sort of be remember given that it is sung by GARNiDELiA.

Characters: 1/10
Given the story, you can probably tell that the characters terrible too. If you made that assumption, good for you because you are 100% correct. To first start off, there are 2 versions of each character who are named the same so it already is confusing. Most of these character just get no development and do things that make no logical sense and are pretty much brain dead. They literally do things that most people or other characters in their situation would never do. One other thing about these people is that they are super boring. A show with boring characters is never a good one. Some characters have a personality but for most of the large cast, it's really non existent.

Enjoyment: 2/10
This anime was pretty bad. The only reason why it deserves a 2 and not a 1 is the Opening and Ending because they were not half bad. If I could do a rewind like Satoru could in Boku dake ga Inai Machi, I would do it so that I never touch this anime ever again.

Overall: 1/10
Overall, I thought this anime was trash that somehow made it out of the dumpster and then showed itself to the world. It's on the level of Sky Wizards Academy on how bad it is. It is one of the worst shows of the Spring 2015 season and was so bad that I dropped it, and I normally don't drop shows. Never ever watch this show. With all your might, stay away from it like you have from any other horrible show out there.

Gunslinger Stratos: The Animation is an anime adaptation of a game's story line. In that matter, it does well. However as an anime, despite its beautiful art, savory soundtrack, and epic action scenes, it is underwhelming. The Story keeps you watching, but you can never fully care for the characters. The themes and underlying morals of the story are great, but have been done countless times before. The story's saving grace, are the occasional plot twists, but even those tend to get somewhat repetitive. In a nutshell, watch this if you wanna feel hyped for a day, and get some catchy tunes stuck in your ... head.