Story: 7
The story is about a Highschooler named Ryo Takatsuki who ends gaining the attention of the new student, Hayato Shingu, who after getting into some fights all from a misunderstanding all set up by an mysterious organization that calls themselves the Egregori, as well as awakening a lethal power from their arms. The boys along with Ryo's childhood best friend, Katsumi Akagi form an alliance. Not too long after they meet another recent transfer student named Takeshi Tomoe, who's legs also can turn into a mechanical weapon. The story is then about them trying to unravel what's going on while being confronted by members of the organization. Some of these plot twist being quite shocking but some that may be seen as silly by today's standards. Sadly however after reading the manga after finishing the series, I discovered that certain plot elements and characters, along with the true final arc of the series never made it in to the anime. Not helped by the fact the manga was still finishing up back in 2002 while the anime was still airing, which also led to some liberties taken such as certain villains meeting their downfall sooner than intended and a certain area's location change.
Visuals: 5
Even though this came out in 2001, the 1st season looks rather vintage for its time. Let alone some inconsistent off modeling moments so tongue in cheek, it makes you wonder if it was done on purpose for the lolz. Though Season 1's visuals got the whole dark sci-fi atmosphere down despite it's datedness. The same cannot be said for it's Season 2, which switched to Digital Animation, resulting in not only having a much different and brighter aesthetic, but also manages to be much more inconsistent in it's quality due to Digital Animation being pretty new at the time back then. Definitely the weakest aspect of the show.
Sound: 6
The Opening Themes got this Nirvana style rock to them and are admittedly catchy and the Ending Themes are nice, especially Ending 2 and 3 (Garnet Crow FTW!). The Insert music is serviceable, though some tracks like a certain melodramatic violin piece tends to get overplay at points that it comes off as comical. I however did like that one Organ Music Piece Katsumi played later on and a certain Musicbox tune much later into the show.
Characters: 7
Ryo is like a mix between Akira Fudo from Devilman and Bruce Banner from the Incredible Hulk with the E Rank Luck (And Seiyuu) of Lancer from Fate/Stay Night, he's a chill and friendly guy who happens to get himself involved in the whole plot and basically has to get used to defending himself and his newfound comrades while having to learn and eventually come to accept his newfound powers from his right arm.
Hayato is the foul mouth shouty angry guy who swears a lot and doesn't take people's crap that easily. He is motivated in wanting to avenge his parents and village's death at the hands of someone named Keith. Despite his hostilities towards Ryo early on they do over the course of the series become best buds and Hayato proves to be a total bro who lives up to the title of White Knight. Easily one of my favorites in this series. Not to mention he provides a lot of amusing lines of dialogue, specifically in the English dub.
Katsumi is Ryo's childhood friend and clearly his love interest. She doesn't have any powers of her own. She's kinda like Fiora from Xenoblade Chronicles, minus the badass traits to balance out the Damsel in Distress tendencies. Her Relationship with Ryo gets more complicated as the show goes on.
Takeshi is the wimpy and timid Everyman, who over the course of the show has to grow himself a spine and become just as much of a capable fighter as Ryo and Hayato. Unfortunately, some of the more interesting stuff he goes through much later on in the story in the manga didn't get adapted over to the anime, giving him less screen time and presence that he had there.
Other noteworthy characters that get introduced along the way and join their cause include:
Kei Kuruma: a Female ARMS user with Eye Powers and Trust Issues.
Al Bowen: A Bratty Child Genius initially sent to kill the ARMS users along with his Twin Brother Jeff.
Koichi Kabuto: A Police Detective who gets involved investigating.
And
Yugo Gilbert: A Blonde "Angelic" Psychic who eventually finds herself drawn and attracted to Ryo.
Sure the cast do sound stock on paper, but they do manage to be pretty entertaining and do avoid being complete stereotypes, though because the final arc was never adapted, they never got to reach proper conclusion to their character arcs, save for one character.
As for the Villains. Alot of them fall under being laughably over the top and rather cartoony, though some of them do managed to be entertaining like Cliff and Keith, and especially the main members of the Egregori that are eventually introduced later on, each with their own backstory and motives despite all of them being fated to try to fulfill a certain goal.
Voice Acting:
The Japanese Version contains some well known seiyuus such as Nobutoshi Canna, Shinichiro Miki, Yuji Ueda, Minami Takayama, Megumi Ogata, and Shuichi Ikeda. Many of whom having done work on Persona and/or Danganronpa, making their roles here a lot more amusing in hindsight if anyone's familiar with their work. Though they're performances, while competent (save for a few minor characters), isn't exactly their most outstanding work. It's not that they are bad per say, but more of being stuck with working with dialogue that can get admittedly laughably cliche and over the top at certain times (Volf, Karl, and Kou being the worst offenders to the point they are the most bland and forgettable performances). Also one minor antagonist, Kyklops sounds like a screechy cat. Still personally enjoyed most of the cast for what they were despite the overall scripting being mediocre at best, particularly Nobutoshi Canna as Ryo, who I'll admit his performance as Ryo is rather underrated (In fact, Canna considers Ryo to be his most underrated role in his career according to his interview at Fanime 2019). Didn't stop them from reprising their roles years later for the Pachinko game back in 2013.
As for the English Dub produced by the Ocean Group, it's manages to be pure fun self aware tongue in cheek cheese that relishes in on the sheer surreality of it all, especially moreso in The 2nd Chapter. The Dub features some known Canadian VAs such as Kirby Morrow, Venus Terzo (Both she and Morrow were also Jean Grey and Cyclops in X-Men Evolution), Brian Drummond (who gets some of the funniest lines as Hayato), Brad Swaile, Nicole Oliver, Jillian Michaels, Willow Johnson, and more. Even including some VAs from Ed Edd n Eddy in Villain Roles giving gloriously hammy performances. It also contains pretty hilarious dialogue, especially in the context of the situation they are in such as "Ryo's always been nuttier than a squirrel turd" to "These guys have gone crazy! Like Frat Boys on a Panty Raid!". It may not be their most professional effort when compared to their other dubs they made in the past, but it's an amusing campy project reminiscent to that of the English dub for Ghost Stories that is highly worth checking out if your into that kind of thing, especially considering they knew that this show ain't gonna sell jack back then.
Overall:
While the show may not be seen as the most original, groundbreaking, or having the most stellar animation, especially by today's high standards. It manages to have a more grounded than the usual shonen formula but unusually strangely presented storyline from the blatant Alice in Wonderland references to some surprising plot twists and the hilariously strange designs of the ARMS. But is a overall pretty flawed adaptation of it's manga source material. However given that the Manga artist's previous work, Spriggan, is getting an anime adaptation on Netflix by David Productions, there is a probability that a Anime Reboot of this franchise might become a thing in the near future.
