Comet Lucifer
Short Synopsis: Our main and a girl fall into a chasm and recover a girl born from a gem.
Well now, it seems like 8 bit are channelling the spirit of old style Bones animation. Which isn’t a bad thing. This episode felt a lot like Xamed or Eureka Seven in tone. It’s not doing anything new but there’s signs of real effort and the episode was pretty engaging throughout. One thing I loved was the design of what looks to be the main Mecha which is reptilian in nature. It just looks great, I loved seeing it fight at the end of the episode. Though there is a pretty big plot with two main characters falling into a giant chasm and yet end up perfectly fine. The setting looks good and characters are decent so far though the main is a little bland. That ending does give me a bad feeling that things may get worse later but from what I have seen so far I am interested to see how this goes.
Potential: 70%
Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou
Short Synopsis: A agent and a magical girl try to prevent the theft of scientific research.
I think it’s becoming a pet peeve of mine when an anime makes no effort to include the audience in the story. Shoveling exposition isn’t the best way to start an anime but at the very least ensure that the audience knows the setting, timeframe and what’s at stake. In other words do not jump between two different time frames without informing the viewer that they are two different times, do not toss out random terms that mean absolutely nothing to those uninformed and do not jump into an action scene without making sure the viewer knows why it’s happening. I am not asking to be spoon fed, but some clarification would be nice. It’s difficult what to make if this show, I am not sure if it’s trying to parody magical girls and old school Mecha anime or if it’s playing it straight. The backgrounds use a minimalist comic book style which takes some getting used to. The animation is pretty good but again my main problem here is that it’s confusing presentation. One minute a waitress is talking to a man in a cafe in daylight, the next minute she’s chasing him down at night in a train for some reason. We can’t even be certain if this place is earth. But most importantly of all, am I supposed to take this seriously or is it tongue in cheek? We have a magical girl and transforming robots fighting between the folds of reality levels of absurd but the episodes end tried to push for a more serious tone. This is going to need another episode to get a better evaluation but so far it’s passable.
Potential: 40%
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
Short Synopsis: A ragtag group of boy soldiers try to fend off an attack with inferior equipment.
Take it from me when I say I am not much of a Gundam fan, there is just something about it that never quite caught my attention. So for this Gundam to catch my attention it’s doing something right. From the Gundam series I have seen the first episode often goes the same formulac way. But Gundam Orphans starts off very different. Sure there’s a Gundam reveal but the setup is very unlike any other Gundam. So far I am loving the cast being oppressed underdogs against a superior force as well as the naive princess attempting to understand the state of Mars by integrating with the boy soldiers. My eyes may glaze over when they start talking space politics but this setting has huge potential. A Mars like a third world country, protests calling for it to be an independent state, a ragtag group of abused teen soldiers in possession of a great weapon while guarding a princess possibly subject to a political assassination attempt? Sign me up. I must say as well that it’s so nice to see genuine animated mecha instead of CGI robot. Nobody can animate bipedal robots quite like Sunrise. Though two things are off. One is that the designs of some characters are more cartoony than others making them look odd when placed beside one another. The second is that there quite a lot of male fanservice going on with the cast showing off six packs and seem to require being topless to operate a Mecha. Truthfully that isn’t all that bothersome but I would prefer if it remains minor and doesn’t get too intrusive. If Okada can keep this up then this may be a Gundam series I could hold highly and certainly one I can say is leagues above Reconguista. One last thing, that soundtrack is glorious.
Potential: 85%
A ragtag group of boy soldiers try to fend off an attack with inferior equipment
So it’s an A/Z rip off.
Considering the quality of Aldnoah zero by the end of it’s run, I would say it’s already trumped it by the first episode. Besides if you can do the story better, then why not?
Though of course Aldnoah and this don’t hold all that much in common at all.
Though of course Aldnoah and this don’t hold all that much in common at all.
How so, its got the stale blank Ace as the MC, the underdog army fighting a more advanced military power, and mars is part of the conflict(again).
While you’re reaching for arguments, there’s also a princess involved who’s a target for assassination, and there are mecha. But then let’s not start to compare Aldnoah to earlier Gundams and other anime, or we might start to realize that it’s also as much of a ripoff of other things 🙂
Do go on. I want to know what else it ripped off.
@El Goopo
“we might start to realize that it’s also as much of a ripoff of other things”
Like other Gundam series that have come before?
Blank MC is not something new to the Gundam series. Heero and Setusna would like to have a word with you.
Underdog army going up against a more powerful advanced army? Since when did A/Z hold a monopoly on this trope.
As for Mars well unlike A/Z Mars is the underdog so i’m getting more of a Zone of the Enders vibe.
Frankly it’ll be a treat to see Aldnoah done competently.
I don’t see how Comet Lucifer has more potential than Concrete Revolutio. After 10 minutes of getting my hopes up, it fell apart into mediocrity. Sure, the production values were nice, but I’ve seen this anime a dozen times already by all the indicators they’ve given us so far. By contrast Concrete Revelutio, as choppy as it is, was fairly fresh as a concept and had characters rather than character archetypes. But to each their own, I guess.
It is true that comet Lucifer is starting off rather generic but its presented well and it can still show something more fresh now that the setup is established.
Concrete revolution, through it has more originality, is just messy. It needs to start conveying what’s going on instead of barreling forward and expecting the viewer to follow. But my main reason for my lack of faith is the writer, whom penned the worst anime of last season. Considering the quality of the first episode it does not look like he’s gotten out of his slump yet.
I just don’t feel the writer argument. Lucifer has three credited scripters, and they’re all quite experienced, even if one of them is in some kind of slump. It also doesn’t feel like Yuuichi Nomura is putting his heart into this one, let alone bringing his A game. I guess we’ll see.
I guess you’re just not in the mood for a choppy narrative as opposed to a straightforward one? I can totally understand that after suffering through Durarara’s past 2 cours.
Oops, I meant Concrete has three credited scripters. Damn mornings…
Well we shall see but I got a bad feeling about this one.
It could be my mood. I have checked out twelve first episodes and I got a good more to go. So if a show can’t take the time to fill me in on the situation then I don’t see the reason to spend any more time on its next episodes.
I certainly feel the same way. It’s tough to distance myself from first impressions, but I do try. I would have missed quite a few of my favorites of the past few seasons if I didn’t, after all. All I know is that Lucifer could have used more “narrative creativity”, while Concrete could have used a bit less.
all the things you said you liked about this gundam series so far, have you tried watching ‘Mobile Suit Gundam’?
I haven’t. The Gundam I have experienced are Wing, Zeta, 08th MS team, war in my pocket and the beginning of Seed and 00.
The current Gundam is amazing. It’s even better than 08th.