Fanservice... can't say I hate it, in fact I love it. Fanservice, when done right, is like a harlot standing at the edge of the street. She whispers to you, waves to you with her silken handkerchief. And, when she gets your attention, she puts forth a leg and begins drawing up her skirt. The skin of her glossy, smooth leg begins to reveal and she keeps pulling higher and higher, only to stop at the top of the thighs. Your imagination starts running wild as you imagine everything beneath it. Black, white, purple? Hairy, shaved, smooth?
As your thoughts take over, you begin making your way to her; unable to resist the seductive lure. And as you are about make contact with her you hear an ungainly shout, "FANSERVICE".
You turn your attention to the voice only to see another harlot with a distorted, unattractive smile across her face, running down the street with her skirt held well at the chest, revealing everything.
"FANSERVICE", she yells again. She turns left and right, baring for all to see. People turn and stare, but not out of titillation, but out of its obnoxiousness. The ruse proves ineffective as people begin to turn away and continue on about their business. This woman is Cross Ange.
So there I was, sitting on a nearby bench, watching this all unfold. I too would have left if it were not for the fact that I had little else to do at this point. The woman continued to twist her face into that unsavoury smile whilst baring her underwear for passer-bys to see. But no one pays her much attention, and, after a while, she gives up and slumps home. Curious, I follow her. She arrives at a dingy house and goes inside, I follow. Standing in the doorway, I see her silhouette in the dark room. She's crying as she holds her hand over a book. "PLOT" I think was the book's title. But the tears are short lived as she notices me in the doorway. She turns, and that unpleasant smile begins creeping across her face once more. She lifts her skirt and shrieks, "FANSERVICE". Instinctively, I bolt out of there and run. I lose her after crossing the street and blending myself with another harlot. When she gives up, I return home. But with little to do, I decided to grab a pair of binoculars and watch her from afar.
I watch her for several weeks. And surprisingly, she's not your average lunatic, though I am not implying that she isn't just as deranged. But there was more to her than what was initially shown. There was a warrior side to her as she'd often hunt dragons and bounties. There was a vulnerable side to her, as she would visit a select few graves where she would sit on her knees with tears streaming down her cheeks. And of course there was the obnoxious side of her, where she'd run through the streets yelling and baring for all to see. But alas, my observations come to an end as nothing further develops.
Overall, this woman, Cross Ange, has shown herself to be quite erratic and oblivious as to how to present herself in an appealing manner. Though she appears like this in public, there is a more sensitive and deeper side to her. And whilst I wouldn't say that she's necessarily horrible... she is, after all however... a lunatic.
Review - done short:
Story 7:
I'm surprised I gave this a 7. The problem with the story is that it seems to want to mash together too many concepts. It wants to include dragons because, 'oooooo' dragons. It wants to include mechs because, 'wow' mechs. It wants to include a god-like character because, 'hunger games underdog style tension'. The idea of having a sheltered protagonist go from weak to strong-willed is pretty nice, Ange just gets randomly saved one too many times for me to take her seriously, not to mention the random power buff that she gains which also plagues general shounen.
However, the good part is that there actually was some sort of story overall, despite its flaws.
Art 7:
The character designs are somewhat bland and the girls tend to not be that attractive, the backgrounds are pretty average with the smudge, oil paint sort of style. The mechs however, were decent. The strikes had force behind it, giving it weight and I did like the transformations.
Character 5:
The characters were so run of the mill that I would often wonder if I'm actually watching a poorer version of To Love Ru.
The male character is the typical beta male character who doesn't really accomplish much except this time he lacks a harem.
The female characters, except for the maid, are pretty much either in a love-hate relationship with Ange or they're just jealous of her.
Enjoyment 6:
When the ecchi moments came up, it just felt forced. Instead of something that you'd want to rewind and watch again, it was more like something you'd want to fast forward. The character interactions were so poorly written it was like reading a high schooler's essay when they're trying to hit the 1000 word mark by using a bunch of redundant filling words. The combat, however I did find quite appealing and enjoyed that quite a bit.
Overall 5:
It's nothing to recommend. In fact, I would tell people to skip this anime unless they want an example of how NOT to make one.
