Story: thin and a pretext to show the little girls with heavy armament (4/10)
In a near and peaceful future, teenage girl Ao accidentally receives a Frame Arms Girl (Gourai). This is the prelude to a simple slice of life mecha mix with a bunch of tiny cute AS (=artificial self). In other words, we get to accompany a small group of cute android girls in heavy armor on their adventure forays. We learn how Gourai and her friends / enemies, other cute little humanoid robots with the intellect of a 10-year-old and the ability to learn, assisted by their master Ao manage the small and big adventures of everyday life. The low rating for the story and plot is not due to the fact that it feels like a déjà-vu, but because it is an unspectacular copy and less entertaining than "Busou Shinki and the Arnval Mk.2". Again a peaceful future, the adventures of the girls have changed a bit and the gender of the protagonist has changed from male to female, a few more gimmicks like smartphone, email, spam folder and a virtual "thunder" dome (= battle stage) for the girls' fighting sessions.
I was wondering why the gender of the toys wasn't changed as well. Just make a series, more for the female audience? Nope, and therefore an unspectacular copy.
Characters: new models and weapons, but the same personalities (4/10)
Characteristics of the Frame Arms Grils are the same as in Busou Shinki. There is a slight modification to the figures, e.g. twin models have been added, so that at least a small variation is visible. The girls are pretty, and even the one with the eye patch is kind of "cool" - god Lord, give me a choice for another adjective than "cute" ... xD
Gennai, Ao:
The high school girl is the master of the small clique and not involuntarily when she realizes that the field study with the Frame Arms Girls is paid. She is a typical teenage girl with parents who work abroad. She basically knows nothing about the Frame Arms Girls, weapons, and Factory Advance that has send the models. This way, her character is nicely different from her best friend Bukiko. However, with the receipt of the package, her typical teenage life will be turned upside down. And the devil said:
"Look, but don`t open it! Open it, but don't touch!! Touch, but don't push any buttons!!!" Well, transparent what happens next, isn't it ;)
Gourai:
She is the first Frame Arms Girl to arrive at Ao and she represents the Loyalty, a nice mix of soldier, servant and tank. Faithful, kindheartedly somewhat naive and armed with a variety of weapons such as knive, bazooka and pistol, as well as the small plus of caterpillar treads, on which the approximately 12 inch tall Belle with blonde hair and sparkling turquoise eyes, rides through her battles as if on rollerblades.
Stylet:
She is the next cutie who loudly enters the stage. Her long blue hair turns violet at the end, and in addition to her energetic demeanor, she is equally equiped with weapons, like e.g. a smart gun, missiles, large gatling gun, a sword and twin tails, as well as a back booster and the ability to fly. She is quick-tempered and always ready to rumble. Her tsundere personality, magically attracts the sadistic side of the Materia twins and makes Stylet the subject of most of the teasing by the black/white-devils.
Baselard:
The white-haired girl followed immediately, a little quieter than Stylet. But she is a sly one and is armed with 4 pistol-apoints and shooting shields and also has the ability to fly. She is smart and knows how to use it, but on the other hand she is childish and easy to take by surprise if you know how to do it. All in all, the tiniest of the Frame Arms Girls is quite a troublemaker and loves shiny things.
Kotobuki, Bukiko:
She is Ao's closest friend and a little genius, together they are a fun duo, both in conversations and in joint activities. For example, when it comes to re-catching a Frame Arms Girl romping around and stealing glittery things. She's a geek when it comes to model kits, and she's excited when she realizes that Ao has some Frame Arms Girls. She tells Ao a lot about model kits and even builds a weapon for Gourai. She's funny and a real buddy type.
Materia-twins:
Next, the Materia twins Kuro and Shiro take the stage. You can best describe them with the words: wolves in sheep's clothing. Whether you like them or not is a matter of taste, as are their weapons. Kuro uses the Grind Circle, a round sword with shark-toothed blades all around. A weapon that is as practical as it is dangerous. For long-range combat, the G-circle can be thrown like a boomerang and for close combat, the Circle can be divided into two half-bow swords. Shiro wields the Beastmaster sword, which can be used like a blade whip. All in all, the two are serious opponents, and the way they behave and fight leaves no doubt that they are a little bit sadistic.
Jinrai:
A new episode and a new challenger - Jinrai. The new opponent or companion appears even louder than Stylet. She has a fun way of looking at everything from a medieval samurai's perspective, but that makes her quite likeable, even if it's a strong cliché. However, Jinrai is the ninja among the Frame Arms Girls and an expert in sneaking up on people, and close combat. She is an absolute geek when it comes to traditional Japanese stuff, which sometimes leads to the fact that her mindset doesn't quite fit into modern Japan. It's very simple and clichéd comedy but you have to laugh anyway.
Architect:
Actually, the Frame Arms Girl named architect was originally planned without a body. A virtual girl who first appears on the Battle Stage in the fight between Gourai and Jinrai in Episode 5. It was a fateful encounter and, as Ao said, the last empty "apartment" is like a red flag. Not surprisingly, Ao gets another package with Architect. Unlike the other girls, Architect has no emotions. However, she has the ability to search for information online, a walking dictionary, so to speak. She is able to multiply herself, or to transform into another frame arms girl.
Hresvelgr:
Finally, Hresvelgr takes the stage in episode 7. She's a tomboy, unfortunately also a bit of a tyrant and a mean. She loves to fight, but is a bad loser. So it's good for her that she has access to all data sent to the Factory Advance database, so she knows practically all the strengths and weaknesses of the other girls. She can fly and is also the deadliest girl when it comes to a fight.
Visuals: decent, but not outstanding for an 2017 anime (6/10)
The art is neat, nothing special, but not bad either. The mix of D2 and CG is fine here, because mainly the Frame Arms Girls are created with CG, while the people are drawn in a classic way. Even if CG isn't my cup of tea, it is not so out of place in the field of robots or humanoid androids. What I noticed very positively is that chibi and super-deforming elements are rarely used, mostly as a style element for the visualization of ED, and also a little bit in episode 7, where I think it fits quite well.
The animation is also at a decent level, but it's not outstanding for a 2017 anime either. The arming of the girls and the presentation of the weapons are good. The use in the fight scenes is successful, even if the total number of fights is somewhat low. All in all, the animation is decorative, but overall I was more fascinated by the weapons, the fights and the related animation in Busou Shinki.
Sounds: Business as usual, but pretty well implemented (7/10)
The sound devison appears as the best part of the show. The music does not try desperately to be more than pleasant background music. The OP & ED sound like typical idol songs, but that's fine for the show.
The OP "Tiny Tiny" is sung by Murakawa, Rie. A voice actress and singer from the Saitama Prefecture. The OP is an cheerful J-Pop song that, even if typical, is nice to listen to and you automatically turn up the volume.
The ED „Fullscratch Love“ is preformed by the Frame Arms Girl`s seiyū. Whether someone likes it or not depends on personal taste. If you don't like all the voices of the dubbing actors, you won't really like the song either. The music is not badly chosen for the genre and fits both the musical composition and the lyrics. However, the singing is a matter of taste.
I didn't notice anything special about the sound effects, neither negative nor positive.
On the other hand, I was more positively surprised by the voice actresses than I expected. Many of them haven't worked as seiyū for long, so they're inexperienced but very talented. Hikasa Youko, on the other hand, is more experienced, and that is striking. Her performance as Gennai Ao's voice was great. Well balanced and easy to understand even in faster dialogues, clear and with a very suitable feminine, youthful note in her voice. I really liked it and it was fun listening to her. Yamamura Hibiku, who gives Architecto her voice, is similarly good and also an experienced seiyū. She has expressed the rather cool, emotionless language, which conveys exactly the character as mechanical and programmatic, very well. I also liked the voices and portrayal of Kabamaya Minami as Jinrai and Kaho Narumi as Gourai. On the one hand, Jinrai as a geek, who is always besides herself with joy, when it comes to medieval Japan. Beautifully presented and very amusing to hear. In addition, Kaho Narumi expresses very well that Gourai as Android really tries to understand human emotions and not just imitate them. In my opinion the voice acting improve the overall picture of the sounds, so that my rating for this topic: a good 7/10 instead of a weak 6/10.
The anime wasn't a complete disappointment, but I'm not really happy either. For action fans, the fights are not spectacular enough and there are too few. The Slice of Life element runs alongside almost unnoticed, so SoL fans won't really enjoy it. I precieved the series to be a little less entertaining compared to Busou Shinki. However, those who like the genre, surely want to catch a glimpse of Frame Arms Girls. I would not recommend it to anyone else.
As always, thanks for reading.
