Koukaku no Regios

Story: Chromed Shelled Regios is basically an anime version of the movie Stormship Troopers. That is, if Stormship Troopers was done as a bad visual novel complete with giant bug(?) things. The story is predictable with no plot that feels worth continuing to watch the show for. They rely heavily on flashes of an unclear past (or future?) action scene as well as sudden "plot twists" to hold your interest. It didn't work.

Art and Sound: Both the art and sound are reminiscent of a visual novel to the point where all the characters pose, still screen style, as they talk. Meanwhile, ... annoying and obviously synthesized music sets the mood. I'm sure they meant for the sound to mesh with the anime, but instead it was 22 minutes of fail that only managed to bring down an already mediocre show. The art itself was like a cross between a high budget yaoi (see Gakuen Heaven) and any low to mid budget fighter anime (see History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi). Not a pleasant combination, but very shiny.

Character: Same thing as with the story. All the characters had been done, and been done better, in something else that was more worth while. They had the archetypes down though, even right up to the related back story characters. By the end of the first episode you already know the "plot twists" for two of the main characters back stories, including the main main character. And here I always thought that a mysterious main character was supposed to be a selling point.

Enjoyment: Yeah... In case you haven't guessed by now, I really wasn't enjoying this show. I forced myself through it in the hope that it would improve, but it didn't. Frankly, I was bored all the way through. Nothing in that anime made my wasted time worth it.

Overall: All in all it was a bad show. It was bad enough that I felt I had to write a review to warn others. The story and characters were overly predictable archetypes, the art was mediocre at best, and the dreadful sound dragged the level of the anime (and my enjoyment) even lower. My advise is to not watch it.

It was inevitable for me to get a little excited to start this series. The hostile post-apocalyptic scenario, the presentation of the premise, its aesthetics and the mystery surrounding it generated expectations just during the first 10 minutes of episode one, expectations that wouldn't be (by far) reached by Chrome Shelled Regios during the rest of the show, as the development of the real plot was quickly replaced for non-contributory, mostly-boring side stories with a coarse harem inbetween.

The turn-off caused by that was comparable to that of our simpleton Layfon who is more accompanied by an insipid crew of females than by revelations about the ... world he lives in and serious battles, thanks to him being disproportionately powerful because of the simple fact he's the main character. So you better don't only forget about watching plot progress, but also about watching the protagonists (or anyone else) growing nor making something destacable with the advancement of the chapters. At least the artwork is proper.

The bases of the series are very contundent and the first episodes are really compelling, but the immature and meaningless way in which the rest of the story is dealt makes you think 'meh, this is just one more anime', and even among the average there're better things to watch. 4/10.

CRS is a bit strange. It starts as post-apocalyptic military anime,then it becomes a high school one,then a harem,then again military.Throw in some romance,battles,plotholes that remeble ligth devouring singularities and you have an idea of how things work.

The story really is all over the place. It is filled with various sub plots that never come to a conclusion and many,many attempts to explain how things work in its universe that never come to fruition. Seiriously, whats the deal with moving cities?How everything became what like that?Why there is a mini-anime within the anime?I guess we'll never know.

The characters are lost in the plot desert.The only ... intersting one is Layfon,the main character who presents a development and the most interesting scenes in the anime(the figthing scenes).The others are from mediocre to annoying,especially the fiiler characters,whose only job is to adore Layfon.

The animation is truly confusing.The battle scenes are very well made,while the majority of other are dull and poor.The scenery though is quite beautiful,which shows that the studio could draw,but it was too bored to do so.The best part is the mini-anime,which shows the story of an Alucard-look alike and Shaya,the ainigmatic girl with the best weapon in town.The animation is exceptional and i would rather watch this than CRS.

Overall,CRS shows potentails that never meet,is poorly made,with unclear story that you are not sure where it si going(if going at all).Try it only if you are wiiling to do some digging to find out more,or simply you want a super power shonen if you have everything else.

Although this could have been a great anime, i dont think it is.
The Art is realy poor, maybe if it was produced in the 80's i could accept this.

The most annoying about this anime has to be the background music.
The music playing in the background is loud and realy doesn't fit the sence, most of the time it is totaly off beat.

The story is good, and thats probably the reason it has more that 1 season.
If you can past the poor anime and the loud off beat loud music this anime will be worth your time.

Where to start? Hmm. Let's go from good to bad.

Action is fairly decent. It's got a mix of sword fighting and energy attacks against humans in controlled competition and monsters in a desperate bid for survival. Fighting revolves around skill and use of "kei" which is their energy/mana. The protagonist is quite OP compared to most of the characters because he can copy anyone's techniques. He also is a very accomplished fighter who traveled to a relatively peaceful city, further widening the ability gap. Overall, fairly enjoyable.

Art and Sound are nothing special. The music is alright. It won't be on any playlists but could have ... been a lot worse. The show went for a rising action plug theme to be reused whenever needed. Jesus. I thought the animation was older than that. It's only from 2009 and doesn't remotely hold up to recent works. It's not very appealing and the characters feel boring to look at. This probably says more about budget woes than Zexcs's talent.

Story has a decent premise. Why things are like they are is never explained. This includes city origins, kei, monsters, along with strange characters and events scattered through the show. The plot is simple and revolves around saving the city from danger. Don't look for a grand reveal or destined purpose because they don't exist.

Characters are crap. Layfon is one of the more disappointing MC's I've ever seen. As a viewer, I don't care what happens to him. His past is not interesting and his actions are uninspiring. Supporting characters are equally terrible. Each has exactly one character trait and nothing else. These are the stubborn leader, the lazy upperclassman, and the withdrawn prodigy. Another complaint is that the MC gains a quasi-harem. The girls don't compete or actively vie for his heart, but somehow manage to annoy me.

tl;dr
I recommend this to action enthusiasts who like to watch OP characters. Anime newcomers might find it enjoyable and critical reviewers should stay away.

p.s. There is a book series. If anything it is more disappointing.

Chrome Shelled Regios
TV, 24 episodes, dubbed
Completed April 2023
Not recommended


>>>>>Well, Chrome Shelled Regios is certainly memorable, that’s for sure. Being memorable isn’t always a good thing, however, as this anime will certainly teach you.
>>>>>Is it sci-fi? Is it fantasy? Is it... Magic or future tech or what? In fact, what is even happening?

Such are the questions that every viewer of this anime will be asking before the end. Oh boy; this is gonna be a long one.
...

VISUALS [ 6 / 10 ]

>>>>>Regios certainly has a look, that’s for sure. Other than some excellently done character expressions and visual gags, however, there isn’t much separating this anime from everything else of the same era. The main strength of this production was clearly the background artists’ ability to portray really good, grounded atmosphere in certain shots and occasionally, even full episodes. There are plenty of genuinely beautiful locales on display in this anime.
>>>>>The issues arise as soon as screenplay or direction come into play, and wholly crap are there a lot of them. This production supposedly had three directors, which is hard to believe given the extreme lack of good direction seen anywhere in this anime. Most episodes are decidedly watchable, at least, albeit with extremely sporadic, borderline manic pacing and an almost comical lack of transitions between scenes or any kind of proper continuity.
>>>>>Fights range from tolerably average to disappointingly stiff and lackluster. Occasionally something might be animated for more than a couple frames, but don’t expect too much. Actual direction for these fights is almost universally mediocre, which is the real let down here, given this is a shounen anime. At the very least most characters are kept on-model and most individual scenes are at least watchable, which is better than can be said of many other dime-a-dozen light novel adaptations.

SOUND [ 8 / 10 ]

>>>>>Someone on this production was super passionate about Chrome Shelled Regios, which the viewer can immediately identify by this anime’s banger soundtrack. A bunch of superfans even got together and formed a band just for this anime adaptation, cosplay and all.
>>>>>Techno, EDM and softer electronica tracks are all heavily featured in this show, with the hyper-energetic action tracks being the most memorable. That’s not to say the OST is perfect by any means; there are a couple odd-sounding tracks meant to build suspense that have odd composition and just sound kinda weird.
>>>>>The already competent OST is backed by a surprisingly good dub that fits the show perfectly. I don’t recall hardly any of the classic bad english side character voice overs sometimes heard in older anime. There were a couple hiccups in the script here and there, mainly during the genre-standard arguments over ideologies that occurred in the middle of fight scenes. Overall the sound is solidly done.

SETTING AND PLOT [ 3 / 10 ]

>>>>>Welcome back to Generic Not-Really-Magical-City, Japan; specifically, Generic Somewhat-Magical-Academy, yaaaaay. I just cannot contain my bloody excitement. Somehow, the madman that wrote this setting managed to make it a Mad Max apocalypse as well, just because? That’s one way to do post-apocalyptic world building, but I can’t say I approve.
>>>>>A lot of the issues come from the adaptation itself, which clearly lacks a strong sense of direction from the studio. There are a few areas featured in the anime that could not physically fit inside the Regios cities that supposedly contain them under a big dome forcefield... thing. With Regios in the title, the viewer expects a reasonable amount of emphasis placed on said giant moving cities. Unfortunately, the various Regios, especially the titular Zuellni are consistently off-model, to the point where it’s impossible to tell what on-model is even supposed to be.
>>>>>The plot is too complex for the viewer to turn their brain off, so that’s no defense here; as if it ever was. This results in many, many minor plotholes opening up as the story progresses, of the open-ended variety. The viewer, whether they wanted to or not, will be forced to ask several obvious questions, such as ‘Why guns?’ ‘Why cernium mines?’ ‘Why is humanity even still alive with these ridiculous giant death laser bugs running around everywhere?’ ‘Why are there these random, short film noir scenes randomly thrown into every episode?’ And so on.
>>>>>Those questions are never answered, and the few that are tend to just open up even more plotholes. The viewer, if they’re paying attention and not completely numb from the millions of subplots being thrown around, will quickly realize they’ve already put more thought into the worldbuilding than the actual author probably did; and certainly far more than the production team did.
>>>>>The plot itself fares no better; far worse, in fact. The plot and its numerous surrounding subplots are a mess, in the most overcomplicated way imaginable. Regios is the anime I coined the term ‘deepest darkest web of light novel conspiracies’ from, if that gives any indication. Basically, there are too many subplots all happening at once and all competing for screen time and the viewers’ attention. Presumably the dense web of plotlines was written to be deep and engaging; in reality it’s like the messiest of Piccaso paintings. Even after doing my best to pay close attention, I still could not explain any of these ridiculously convoluted subplots.
>>>>>The main plot, if it even qualifies, is the typical Shounen anime style only worse. Story arcs just happen; they could be almost completely rearranged and the viewer probably wouldn’t notice. Much like the direction, there is very little tying the narrative as a whole together. The whole thing is loose, conceptual, and in desperate need of a concerned friend to talk the author out of doing quite so many drugs before writing his stories. Like most anime adaptations, the issues with the narrative should have been ironed out by the production team. Sometimes faithful adaptations aren’t the best idea; especially when excessively complex, directionless narratives are involved.

CHARACTERS [ 6 / 10 ]

>>>>>Regios has a huge cast, most of which never get proper introductions, much less any actual screen time. The early episodes of the anime are particularly guilty of barraging the viewer with unimportant, nameless side characters; to the point where they’re ‘non-introductions’ more than anything. The author certainly is not talentless, but most certainly wrote a cast far too ambitiously complex for his own good. In both the light novels and the anime itself, having such a huge cast serves no purpose but to confuse and often outright lose the viewer.

>>>>>There’s a major recurring problem in Regios; specifically with the way the narrative handles character development. Most characters at least develop, thankfully. Unfortunately it’s in a rather stiff and lopsided manner. Essentially only certain characters are given the spotlight while the rest of the cast goes completely static and becomes unchanging. The selected characters then experience all their development, all at once, and then get put on the back burner when the time comes for another character to develop instead. After Regios pulls this a few times it becomes obvious this is the only way any characters are written and the only way the author, studio, or both knew how to handle character development.
>>>>>The anime portrays it’s main cast well, on occasion anyway, which is probably the entire script’s only redeeming quality. Character interactions not centered around the protagonist are often surprisingly interesting. Miscellaneous gags, jokes and other forms of lighthearted anime nonsense are extremely hit or miss, so it is highly doubtful that every scene will be enjoyable, regardless of the viewer’s preferences. Regardless, an effort was made to flesh out the main cast and give them some actual personalities.
>>>>>Broadly speaking, characters are written fairly well, although not always with much depth. Nina, who takes on both leadership and action girl roles, was decent but ultimately felt like a wasted opportunity due to her very limited character development. Sharneid had the aforementioned lopsided character development, and so ends up in more or less the same situation as Nina; he was entertaining, decently interesting, but lacked proper development for most of the show. Speaking of the show; Felli steals it; the entire thing. I’m kidding of course, but she was incredibly amusing, endearing and easily earned best girl status by the end. She also had the strongest chemistry with Layfon and was the only girl that really felt like a proper girlfriend for him; you’ll understand what I mean if you actually watch their scenes together. Ah yes, and Harley; he got completely shafted in this adaptation. He’s supposed to be the heartfelt, gentle member of the squad but ultimately got like three scenes in the whole damn show; a shame, truly.
>>>>>It would take far too long to dig into the supporting cast, so just be aware that most side characters are either cliche, completely lack development, or both. Supporting characters are a major weakness of both the original novels and the anime adaptation.

>>>>>Layfon Alseif; if you are a named character and have a womb: congratulations, it now belongs to him. Please do not resist. In all seriousness, this is another anime that does the weird insta-harem thing. Main guy Layfon somehow has a harem going by the end of the first episode, for no real reason at all. Later on in the plot this actually causes issues with his character, since it makes no sense for him to be stringing all these women along; that's probably the worst thing about the characterization, surprisingly.
>>>>>Layfon’s character is full of little inconsistencies. In much the same way as many other generic shounen leads, Layfon constantly betrays his own morals and even motivations in order to serve as a self-insert for the viewer in addition to fulfilling his role, somewhat awkwardly, as the main character. He’s regularly dragged around by one or more of the female cast members, serving as both masculine protector and meek, easily manipulated boyfriend. Obviously this quickly wears on the viewer; especially if said viewer is bothered by weak willed protagonists. The problem with all of this is Layfon himself; he legitimately is a surprisingly deep and well-written character when he’s not being used as a surrogate for the audience. Layfon is too much of a distinct individual to work well as a self-insert, which puts him in an incredibly awkward, often questionable position in the narrative. Sadly Regios can’t help but constantly employ generic light novel tropes. The writing would be far better if the dumb anime bullshit was simply left behind; it’s clear that the author could have written his novels without using tropes as a crutch.

>>>>>None of this does any favors for the anime but at least the cast is likable for the most part, aside from the confusing, unexplained side characters that are mostly used as walking plot devices. Best to quit while you’re ahead when it comes to the characters in Regios; and by that I mean immediately tune out any weird unexplained nonsense or else risk giving yourself an aneurysm. Go read the source material if you’re crazy enough to try and decipher any of the aforementioned deepest darkest web.

PACING AND PRODUCTION [ 2 / 10 ]

>>>>>Where does one begin when breaking down one of the strangest, most poorly handled anime adaptations imaginable? After twenty-four episodes of sporadic, unhinged, messy direction, the viewer starts to forget what competence really looks like in stark contrast to the broken down nightmare of an anime this really is.
>>>>>From the beginning, poor transitions tear up what little continuity may have existed. Regios is one of those anime where the viewer can never tell how much time has passed, or even where locations are in relation to each other. The subtle confusion that slowly builds up over time is largely drowned out by the absolutely ridiculous flashback scenes that plague nearly every episode, hammering the viewer with almost entirely useless information that only worsens the confusing viewing experience. Even when flashbacks make sense they are placed terribly in the episode, crammed in wherever the directors thought they could get away with it.
>>>>>The issue only compounds when a second variety of even worse flashback begins rearing its ugly head, in the form of the film noir segments thrown in seemingly completely at random, absolutely slaughtering the pacing and then handing out little pieces of main timeline, recent flashback and ancient history flashback, sometimes with absolutely zero regard to continuity, clarity, or any other basic form of scene transition that’s supposed to be figured out in the storyboarding phase of the production; long before a single frame gets animated, in other words.
>>>>>No one can deny that the Chrome Shelled Regios anime has personality; the personality of a drunk old guy spouting out random nonsense in between fits of clarity. I’ve read tax forms that made more sense than most of the decisions the studio made for this adaptation. At one point there was even a bizarre sort-of lampshading gag, where the characters were apparently watching the film noir flashback scene on a weird pre-paid tv and were ‘wanting to see what happens next’ in exactly the same way the viewer does every single time one of those short scenes is randomly thrown into an episode. All the viewer can do is helplessly shrug the whole dumb scene off and try to figure out where in the main storyline the show is afterwards; it’s so bad it’s kind-of embarrassing.
>>>>>Obviously, with so much extra nonsense thrown in there’s no way in hell the anime needed a full twenty-four episodes to get through the modest amount of the main storyline that actually got adapted here. Honestly, that’s one of the worst parts about this production: it has no respect for your time or attention. The whole bloody production just feels so self-indulgent and half-assed, simultaneously. The viewer can be presented with a beautiful, painted background of a quiet street or a train car at night, only to be hit with an extremely scuffed action scene moments later.
>>>>>Sitting down after a few days and watching some properly directed, well-animated anime really made me realize just how messy this production really was. Things just happen in Regios; there’s no explanation, no build-up, no payoff, and absolutely zero thought put into the direction of most scenes. When a hit lands during a fight, it just does; at no point can the viewer tell who is winning or why; only that somebody probably is and if Layfon is involved he’s probably the one doing the winning. It’s exactly the kind of lazy fight choreography that drives action junkies like myself completely ballistic. A weapon gets knocked out of someone’s hand and in the next scene they’ve apparently fought off their opponent and retrieved it; entirely offscreen. I really wish I could sit those three incompetent directors down and show them what good fight scenes actually look like.

>>>>>If not for episodes eight through ten, this production would be entirely appalling. At least the viewer gets treated to one decent story arc of Chrome Shelled Regios. Unsurprisingly, that particular arc is completely different from the rest of the show; it’s almost devoid of all the major direction errors, so the viewer actually gets treated to some good dialogue scenes and interesting locales. The handful of good episodes really put the rest of the production into perspective, and more importantly prove that the studio genuinely could have done a lot better.


OVERALL [ 5 / 10 ]
- Good visuals hide a dark secret: the plot is absolutely terrible.
- Has an encyclopedia's worth of side stories that contribute nothing to the plot.
- The plot is difficult to follow even for attentive viewers.
- Worldbuilding is bare bones.
- Almost nothing is explained in any capacity.
- Incredibly messy, hectic script with zero regard for continuity.
- Terrible direction overall.
- Abysmal, chaotic, almost intolerably bad pacing.
- Unimpressive fights.
- Decent main cast of characters.
- Inconsistent characterization.
- Excellent english dub.
- Banger OST.
- Far too many side characters.
- One of the weirdest anime ever to exist; for better or worse.

For recommendations, look to Crest of the Stars for sci-fi with excellent world building and characters, Fate/Zero if you’re interested in fantasy anime with a crazy twisting narrative, and Heroic Age for a solidly written sci-fi with a complex and fascinating world and plot.
Pretty much any anime with complex, intricate writing will entertain fans of Regios. It can be difficult to differentiate between sci-fi anime, however, so I will tag all the sci-fi I’ve seen on my list and wish you good luck from there, as always.

Where to even begin with this one.. Chrome Shelled Regios is a series I came in with certain expectations considering its genre and length. I was expecting a series about people who live in domed city states, training at a military academy while also seeing live combat. And you could say you get that.. if you’re fine with it being relayed with the finesse of a drunken hobo.

Let’s start with the first problem you encounter: the pacing. In anime, the first couple of episodes set the tone, pace and introduce the setting in this allotted amount of time. Regios makes no attempt at doing this, ... instead dumping a bunch of exposition about characters you neither know nor care about.

Regios, for its entire allotted runtime, stays in its own little world, sort of like the domed cities. It doesn’t care at all about making the audience understand what’s going on with the sheer boatload of information, and just shoves it in your face whether or not you like it. And that’s the weird thing about this show; I’ve never seen a show this long hit story beats and yet dick around so much to get to actually important stuff.

For example: what is Kei and where does it come from? What are DITEs and why do they look like cheap plastic toys? how did people come to use and find out about these two things? Who created the domed cities? why do they not have any practical defense system like gun batteries, fighter jets, or armored fighting vehicles? these are just a few questions the show never bothers answering.

Let’s touch on the characters, and boy, there sure are a lot of them. The 17th Platoon solve every issue in the show. It’s quite amazing that these guys were supposedly a failing unit, as Zaneh claims, considering that after Layfon joins, they’re all the President cares about. The 17th Platoon throughout the entire show does not actually grow or develop as a squad.. from minute one, they rely on Layfon.

There are some lame scenes that try to claim they’re a team and they work together.. but they no clearly do not. By all rights, the President should have made Layfon the Platoon Leader. Instead, he keeps Nina Antalk as the leader of the Platoon, even though she constantly shows her incompetence.

Seriously, Nina sucks as a leader. She constantly cancels training, gets wrapped up in her own jealousy at Layfon, and spoiled and naïve. It’s this naivety that leads to Dinn getting brain damage and ruining Naruki’s police investigation, which is neither acknowledged nor resolved.

Nina is a mid-level jobber, trying to compete with the Spec Ops expert that is Layfon. There’s really no reason she should still have the position by the end of the series, where she ends up possessed by a rogue electronic spirit in the last episode and left laying on the ground, unconscious. She should have just stayed as a princess.

Then there’s Sharnid, who I didn’t hate at first but then disliked after he claimed his promise with his old squadmates meant little, then tried to backtrack and claim he was still holding it up. Decide already. The mechanic has virtually zero importance, and so Felli is last before Layfon.

Felli is possibly the most competent person in the squad. Her ability is extremely useful. I found her to be quite charming and very amusing to watch her get frustrated and kick people (and things). And so we move onto Layfon, the worst character in the series.

Everyone makes a big deal of Layfon even before suddenly everyone knows he was former special forces, and as a character it makes little sense. There is nothing special about Layfon. His so-called personality boils down to “I speak Keigo and people project expectations on upon me because I’m powerful’. That’s it.

Oh, and a hidden sociopath side where he makes creepy faces and arrogantly looks down on people, like Gorneo or the leader of the mercenary unit. It made his nice guy act look disingenuous and made me hate him immediately, if I didn’t already hate him for his aforementioned lack of a personality. There are a bunch of other characters but like the others, they don’t get any character development or real importance, so they don’t really matter.

In conclusion, Regios was at the very least a good idea with bad execution, and the only things that saved this show from a lower score was the art, sound, and Felli. How this show has such a high score, I don’t quite understand. Is it yet another one of Regios’ unsolved plot threads? probably.

This show is still the reigning champion of the worst sound track category. The very moment fight starts it is followed by most annoying and uninspired 3 seconds of music I have heard in my life. Not only that it starts to repeat and does so through the entire season. On more than one occasion I have dropped watching it only because of music. The rest is not bad, but it's not good either. But the music gives me PTSD.

Usually some time will pass and I'll forget about it only to randomly run into it and like the synopsis. Before the first fight on episode ... two I will remember the music and immediately scramble to turn it off before it starts. It's THAT bad.

Overall package is not unwatchable, but music for me makes it so. Don't get me wrong, this show is no high art of any caliber. Chemistry between characters is forced and feels fake. Premise of "kids in charge of everything" is stupid. And so on... but music, man music sucks so bad. Don't believe me? Go to YouTube and search for "Chrome Shelled Regios - Battle Fever".