(12 episodes)
What’s it about ?
Steampunk light novel trash.
Characters
Raishin, our generic grim-faced protagonist, who joins the Machine-Doll Academy for REVENGE! (It’s not quite explained yet revenge against whom, or why.) He hopes that winning the Machine-Doll Fighting Tournament will be the first step towards this ; unfortunately, he scores second-last among the thousands of test-takers, and only the Top 100 can enter the Tournament. Fortunately, his teacher/guidance advisor informs him of a loophole : if you beat one of the 100, you can take his place.
Yaya, his Machine-Doll, is very annoying indeed. She’s ultra-clingy and keeps trying to get into his pants, despite him showing no such interest (I presume she’s mechanical, after all). On the other hand, she’s very powerful, if the opening action setpiece (stopping a runaway train) is any indication.
Shouko, Yaya’s creator, stayed back home : she’s mentionned, but not seen.
Charlotte is the kind of Alpha Bitch you always see in stories like this. Her doll is a dragon voiced by Jouji Nakata, of all things. Our “hero” targets her to take her place… until she’s ambushed by a bunch of other guys who had the same idea first.
Production Values
Well, at least it does look quite good.
Overall Impression
Sigh. I don’t want to use the “light novel trash” label too lightly, but this really deserves it. Contrived setup that gives the protagonist a devoted girl without any effort of his own ? Check. Angsty male lead with Nice Guy tendancies ? Check. Generic technomagic setting that barely hides the standard tournament arc ? Check.
A less jaded viewer might find something of interest here ; after all, it does look quite pretty. But I won’t bother.
