This is my first review, and while this Anime wouldn't be my first choice of Anime to review, I do find it easier to talk about Anime's that I had problems with rather than Anime's that I loved or even liked. With that said I am trying to keep this review as neutral as possible, because while I did have problems with Infinite Stratos, the show isn't all bad at all. I think Lantis did a very good job with the Anime because they know their target audience, a demographic that people like me are rarely apart of.
Story - 3/10
If you've seen this Anime or read the MAL synopsis (which if you haven't, I don't know why you're reading this...) then you already know what the story is about so I'll forgo explaining it again. It's not hard to see that this particular story is aimed towards men/males. With the amount of female fan service and Action in it, any stereotypical male Anime fan would probably enjoy the story a lot. The story in itself is decent. Call it what you want, but on the surface it's your typical Mecha with the Harem genre thrown in. Okay, let me phrase that differently, because the Harem aspect of the Anime isn't just thrown in willy nilly. It's a main part of the story, which is one of the key contributing factor to why IS: Infinite Stratos is as popular as it is. As a female myself, this series could of been really, really good. Maybe it's the fact that the ladies of the IS: Infinite Stratos verse has this special power that no man in the world has, and that is what attracted me to the Anime... but beyond that, nada. This Anime had the chance to take a good plot point and turn it into something great (without getting rid of the fan service or the Harem genre I might add)... but it just fell flat. In the end that is why the story only got a 3/10 from me, because while it really did have so much potential, it just wasted it.
Art - 5/10
Compared to the rest of the Anime, the art in IS: Infinite Stratos wasn't THAT much of a bother to me, in this category, the pro's far out way the cons. From a female's point of view, the character designs were somewhat realistic. This Anime did play a lot on the size of the breasts of the main girls, and honestly it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. I thought that they kind of toned it down considering I.S is a Harem/Mecha Anime aimed at guys. Apart from character designs, the art is quite good. The backgrounds that were used were quite nice, not amazing considering this anime is set in the future, but nice. The only problem I had with the art; that I know a lot of people have problems with too was the use of CGI. While the Mech scenes had great designs and some amazing backgrounds (see the whole fight in Episode 12), the scenes with CGI gave me huge headache to watch. The CG felt extremely out of place at times and a little bit over used. Maybe if it was consistent throughout the whole show it would have been okay. But it wasn't and I personally felt that the CGI didn't contribute in any way to the fight scenes... but well, that's up for interpretation.
Sound - 6/10
This is where I think IS: Infinite Stratos really strives. The Anime's OP is really nice as a whole and has some really enjoyable moments in it. At the start, the OP didn't hold any interest for me and I skipped it for the first seven or so episodes; but then it really started to grow on me around episode 9/10, and by the time I got around to watching the OVA I was really happy that they kept it in there. As for the OST, there weren't any memorable tracks on it that made me stop and go 'Wow, that's really great!’ It was just kind of there and I didn’t really have a problem with it. Now the reason that the sound category gets the highest rating of a '6' out of ten is because of the bloody ending. I don't really have much to say about it- no that's wrong, I have a lot to say about this ending. The only way I could describe my feelings towards it are 'catchy as fuck' and 'on par with the ending for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya' which is really saying a lot. I don't expect everybody to agree with me, but 'Super Stream' is currently playing on repeat while I write this review, and I don't think it's going to leave my head any time soon.
Character - 2/10
I don't even feel like talking about the characters, because that's how bad they are.
Firstly we have our main character who is called Aichki or either Ikachi (I'm not actually sure). But for the purpose of this review, I am going to refer to his as 'Gary Stu'. Gary Stu, who is the main character of IS: Infinite Stratos is what I like to refer to as a 'Wish Fulfilment character'. More than anything else, I would love to be able to call him by his name... but I can't. Gary is the affection of every girl he comes into contact with (a fan boy's wet dream come true). He is the only existing male pilot of the IS, and oh, it seems he can do anything these woman can do, but ten times better. I will compliment Gary on not being a complete pervert though.
Next we have the girls of this Anime. IS: Infinite Stratos presents us with: a tsundere, a childhood friend and another childhood friend, who guess what? Also happens to be tsundere. These three fight over Gary Stu like it's no one’s business, and of course our Gary is oblivious as ever, because that tends to be the norm in most Harem Anime's. This is where the rest of the characters pick up the slack to get this category up to 2/10. I don't mind Charlotte (Charles) and Laura in the slightest. Charlotte and Laura were the last two characters to be introduced, and I thought Charlotte got the most development (probably not as much as Houki, but she's the first girl introduced and Gary's 'first childhood friend'). I thought it was nice Charlotte didn't start off super and crazily in love with Gary but then progressed to like him as time went on; it was more believable that way. And finally, we have Laura who is my favourite girl of the series. Most of her interactions with Gary were really funny, and made me laugh for the only time in the Anime. I think it was great that she was really clueless about most things and called Gary her 'wife'.
Enjoyment - 3/10
Now before watching I.S, I watched other's people's reviews to this Anime on YouTube. And to say that I wasn't expecting much of anything when I started this Anime would be an understatement. I marathon'd this whole Anime in one day and It wasn't as horrible as I was expecting. Personally, the first half of this anime was cringe worthy at best. Around episode five, I.S had a score of 2/10 on my personal animelist, because the first half was quite bad. But then episode seven came around and it was lunch time and I had a nice cup of Ramen with me, and I don't know if it was the fact it was the first time that I had eaten that day and had food in my stomach, but I was starting to 'enjoy' the show. The second half is so much better than the first half and almost made me forget how horrible it was.
While my review may be on the negative side, I am not saying in any that I don’t recommend this Anime. While I would not recommend it to any of my friends who are also girls, I do have guy friends who have recommended I.S to me. It is definitely enjoyable in some way or another, compared to anime’s like Angel Beats! which took me weeks to watch, when I was able to marathon this show in one day.
And hey, season two of IS: Infinite Stratos is coming out soon, and will I watch it??? No probably not.
