(24 episodes)
What’s it about ?
Mecha.
Characters
Yuu, our protagonist, is a highschool dropout who’s involved in… gangs ? low-grade terrorist groups ? Between the obtuse exposition and the crap subtitles on my version, it’s hard to tell. (It’s mostly offscreen.) Anyway, he’s aimless and wondering what those strange flashbacks about piloting mecha mean.
Ryo, his “best friend”, has noticed this and invited him into INO, the big military organization around (and the only one to have those top-grade mecha). He’s a squad leader there, but a complete maverick who regularly gets disciplined. To say nothing of hanging around with terrorists on his paid leave, or putting his civilian pal into his mecha’s cockpit for a training exercise. I mean, sure, Yuu does have the skills (somehow), but…
Nanna, a random bridge bunny in INO who happens to be a childhood friend of Yuu’s, and on whom he stumbles as Ryo gives him the tour.
A white-haired dude who ticks all the “rival” checkboxes, including the opening flashforward where he’s in an intense mecha battle against Yuu.
Production Values
Decent enough, but the art director really likes his darkness and chiaroscuro. Good for mood, bad for storytelling clarity.
There are occasional bursts of fanservice, including booth babes for a mecha expo (briefly mentioned on the news) and the all-naked ED sequence.
Overall Impression
I have no clue what is going on here.
I’m serious. This is an atrocious failure at world-building. INO seems to exist into a bubble detached from the world surrounding it… which itself isn’t even sketched out. What are the other powers at play ? Who is INO fighting against, to have so much weaponry on hand ? How’s “normal” society outside it going ? What’s that group Yuu & Ryo were involved in ? Does anyone have any family ? Fuck if I know. And that’s before going into the show’s official mysteries, such as Yuu’s mecha proficiency and white-hair’s agenda.
Show, you have to give me something to get invested in you. Your characters are too busy talking in riddles to get a good handle on, and the stakes remain thoroughly obscure. Even if there’s a big surprise shake-up down the line, you needed to establish some ground rules much faster than this to carry the show in the meantime. It really feels like you learned all the wrong lessons out of Eva.
This is way too frustrating for me to keep watching, even without accounting for my desire to punch the fansubbers for getting every third sentence wrong.
