Reviews

Nov 2, 2021
Mixed Feelings
Preliminary (5/13 eps)
I've watched up to episode 5 of this show, and have to say I'm disappointed in it. It feels like the Sunrise wanted to make "Gundam Lite" (mainly Iron Blood Orphans) and falls pretty short in most aspects. If you've seen Code Geass or Gundam IBO this anime isn't gonna show you anything new or even execute it better. It comes off very uninspired and flat.

Story: After about 3 episodes you can guess the story fairly accurately since most mecha shows follow the same story beats. Unfortunately this show has yet to show something that sets it apart from the rest. The story also has weird timing. It rushes through "big story moments" that would otherwise have more gravity to the plot, if given more time to grow. It makes the show feel like its just going down a "mecha plot checklist" as fast as it can.

Art: Its ok, I'm not particularly interested in the mech design and they're not distinctive like other shows. I would have liked a story-based design (like Geass' Knightmare Frames wheel design for ground combat). The settings are typical forest so far. I do like that they stuck to 2D animation.

Sound: Good Opening and Ending theme. The battle music is forgettable and the sound effects are pretty much the same as Iron Blood Orphans with less metal crunch.

Characters: Flat, boring, generic characters. Worse part of the series. Almost as bad as a basic harem anime where you can guess the character's life story based on their hair color. Main pilot is way too innocent/naïve, especially considering he lived on his own. The 2nd pilot is like a Sasuke clone with a worse backstory. Haven't seen the girl pilot yet, hopefully she brings something new. The AI computers that help the pilots are just Deus Ex Machina, which would be fine if the human characters also brought something to the table, but they dont. There's also a enemy officer (probably future rival who will get a mask at some point) who feels like he really wants to be a Graham Aker (Gundom 00) or McGillis Fareed (IBO) clone. The worse part is all the other bad guys are just comically evil. Theres no objective for them, just evil to be evil.

Conclusion so far: This show feels like it saw the success of other shows like Gundam Iron Blood Orphans, Gundam 00, Code Geass, Neon Genesis Evangelion then took out the mature aspects like actual killing, and tried to copy them. Which results in a very predictable, bland mecha anime with not very high stakes. In a bubble this could have been interesting, but coming from Sunrise, I'm just disappointed. I would recommend watching those four other mecha anime (and probably a few others) before even touching this. Haven't dropped it yet, but will update if I watch more.

Edit: dropped at ep.7, didnt really get better even with the other pilot.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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