Air fryer Baked Potatoes are so easy to make, the I wished found out when I got an air fryer a while back. All you need is a potato, olive oil, seasoning, & foil to make. The only downside, it takes almost an hour to make in the air fryer
I love SAO, more than I hate Build Fighters
cross-posted from: https://thelemmy.club/post/54758963
Both are annoying
Like what you like, but don't be an asshole about it
For me, I think Infinite Stratos isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be. It's not good, and I have my issues with it, but I've seen worse
A common talking point when we’re talking about kids shows is that “it’s just a kids show”. But the real question is “in what way”. The closest concrete reason for a show to be considered a “kid show” is because it’s airing on a channel targeting a younger audience and the creators fully intended it to be aimed towards a younger demographic. But outside of that, it’s basically a free for all on what kids can or can’t handle on the shows themselves. Which begs a question, “when can a kids show be taken seriously? Can they deal with mature themes? Should they ever? Is it ok, when they’re trying to be kid-friendly?” Questions like these have been compounded on the Internet for years now, and now I want to give my 2 cents on it through the only way I know how, a long post that only like 2 or 3 people will read and everyone else will complain how long this post is. So here’s my opinion on if stuff made for a younger audience can be taken seriously by an older demographic.
First, I want to clear up some things. For one, anyone can enjoy anything no matter how old they are. Like, an adult can still enjoy a round of Super Mario, while a 12-year old can enjoy a round of Call of Duty. Hell, I still watch some stuff from my childhood and can still have a good time, and I’m in my 20’s. I’m also not going to discuss stuff made for very little kids (Paw Patrol, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Wonder Pets, etc.), since that’s intended for very little kids. Otherwise, let's begin.
Let’s start with a well-known series, Scooby-Doo. This franchise has seen some changes throughout its lifetime. But the key change is from Zombie Island, where the gang finally deals with a supernatural threat. However, it’s a lot deeper than that. While the Zombies being real is a massive change to the series itself, it also led to a couple of moments that completely changed the series. Like having the monsters actually trying to help the gang and the real villains being the humans (though, they do turn into warecats later in the movie). The point is that after this movie, stuff like the live-action movie and Mystery Incorporated followed suit and had real supernatural threats. However, it still maintains the wacky antics from Scooby & Shaggy, so it didn’t throw away the cartoony aspect of the series. So is it possible to take it seriously? If Mystery Incorporated showed us anything, in spite of the silly shenanigans, telling a compelling story with well-handled plot twists, having chemistry with the gang, and showing off some dark moments, is what made it one of the best entries in the franchise. However, we then have What’s New Scooby-Doo, which isn’t bad by any means, but is more because it’s trying to be as wacky as the original, which is hard to take seriously at face value. But otherwise, the franchise, in spite of having a talking dog, still has moments where it gets serious and when it’s a little silly.
Another well-known series that had a shift from silly to serious is the Transformers series. Pointless Hub put it better than I could “It was like 2 kids duking it out on a playground”. Ya, that perfectly sums it up. Not that it makes it a bad thing, as it makes it really entertaining. But like Scooby-Doo, the movie changed the series in a massive way. Except here, it introduced death to the series, for better & worse. It gave the franchise stakes and made the death of an Autobot/Decepticon more impactful. This was used very well in Transformers Prime & Transformers One, while also having the latter deal with deeper themes like Classism & radicalization. However, it also leads to many in the audience to be desensitized by the robot violence (for example: me), making death feel trivial. This is something that the Bayformer movies were very guilty of. So while this is a series made to sell toys, it still has moments that are a lot deeper
Speaking of toy commercials, TMNT has a couple of shows & movies that flip flop from being silly adventures (the 80’s show, 2012 show, & Mutant Mayhem) to being serious stories (the 2003 show & the 2007 movie). One minute they’re fighting aliens with robot bodies, next thing they know, the turtles deal with some family issues. The 2003 show is known for Leo’s depression arc in S4, where he must confront the trauma of his final battle with the Shredder, which negatively impacted his relationship with his brothers & sensei. There’s more dark moments in that show, like the constant torture of Baxter Stockman, Cassie’s home being burned down, the amount of body horror of the show, and so on. However, we then get stuff like Fast Forward & Back to the Sewer, that completely tone down the tone of the series. 2012 and even Rise did have some dark moments at times, but mainly remained silly most of the time.
So we talked about shows that started off silly, but progressively became more serious. But what about vice versa? In this case, both Batman & Spider-Man had shows that started off serious, but became more child-friendly.
In Batman’s case, All 3 shows remain decent for different reasons (I haven’t seen Beware the Batman or Caped Crusader, so I won’t talk about those). In Batman The Animated Series (and by extension The New Batman Adventures), it had a deco noir aesthetic that also translated to the tone of the show. Most of the villains in the show had tragic backstories that made them sympathetic, had mobsters & corporate tycoons that are more evil in a realistic sense, the series deals with serious issues, and the Batfamily are given struggles that feel relatable. However, since it started on Fox Kids, it had to fall under some pretty strict rules (No alcohol, blood, sexual content, or broken glass). The only rule they were able to get away with, were showing real firearms, due to being era appropriate, but that didn’t hinder the quality of the show. The Batman 2004 dials the serious tone down and focuses more on action. While it does have some serious moments, they mostly felt ankle deep & doesn't have much intrigue. And then we have Batman the Brave and the Bold, where the Dark Knight & other super heroes go on wacky adventures and explore the silliness of the DC universe. However, the silliness is handled well through well-written jokes & fun banter between characters. So these 3 shows perfectly highlight the kind of range Batman has.
But what about Spider-Man? While I can't speak for Unlimited, the New Animated Series from 2003, Marvel’s Spider-Man (2017), or the 2 recent ones on Disney+, the 90’s show, Spectacular, & Ultimate perfectly illustrates the kind of tone each era was striving for. The 90’s show had a level of corniness due to both the era it was released in & the amount of restrictions placed upon it by Fox Kids (similar to BTAS, but to a more strict extent). In spite of that, it still had quite some depth to it with the amount of drama it puts Peter into. From dealing with relationship issues with his loved ones, to the amount of hardships he has to face from being Spider-Man, It still has some mature moments that adds a level of suspense. It just needed to work around the restrictions they were dealing with. In Spectaclar’s case, most of the maturity comes from well-written storytelling. Setting up minor details & paying it off later on, character arcs that feel well paced, and the villains feeling like legit threats in both physical & psychological sense. It still had to work with the typical restrictions of children’s television, but the writing was so good that it’s barely noticeable. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for Ultimate Spider-Man. Unlike the previous 2 shows, it plays it very safe and doesn’t allow itself to have any form of depth in both the story and in its characters. While it was similar to Brave & the Bold in its approach, the execution is lacking due to the weak writing. So both superheroes have shows that can be serious or silly, with various outcomes
So I talked about shows that handle different tones pending on their adaptations. But about shows that balance a serious & silly tone in a single series. Something that Avatar the Last Airbender perfectly does. The series remains consistent with its serious tone, with the war torn world our main characters are in and the amount serious topics the show touch upon (genocide, trauma, lose, and even abuse). But the show also has some silly moments at appropriate times to help lighten the mood.
At this point, you can see that shows made for children in mind can be taken seriously with how much they trust their audience to handle the kind of topics they’re dealing with. They can also be lighthearted in certain moments to allow for levity and add a balance of tone. Both of these can work really well if executed properly. However, what if that isn’t the case? Because sometimes being too “mature” or too silly can be damning.
In the case of the former, both Scooby-Doo and the majority of DC has suffered from being overly edgy. In the case of Scooby-Doo, while I haven’t seen the show in its entirety, seeing clips and many negative posts about Velma is proof of how being too “mature” ends up making it appear to be the opposite. From making Velma an unlikable teen with trauma played for laughs to the rest of the gang (Shaggy, Daphne, & Fred) being unlikeable characters of themselves with traits come off as juvenile, and we have one of the worst entries in the franchise. As for DC, this is a hit or miss as they can masterfully handle mature themes tastefully, as shown in the DCAU. However the DCAMU on the other hand, went overboard on the amount of vulgarity in those straight-to-dvd movies. Both of these examples are what Teenagers expect Adult content to be like, but circles but to being immature.
Finally there’s once serious shows becoming obnoxiously silly, to the point of parody. While I did list some good examples of serious shows balancing silly moments, there are times when it might risk degrading in quality. And in the worst case scenario, might end up like Teen Titans Go. A lack for a better word, divisive show. Comparing this with the original Teen Titans from 2004, it’s very clear that they completely threw any sense of seriousness from the show. Does that mean that I’m upset that we never got a Season 6? No, because the series ended on a decent note with Titans Together, and I always view Things Change as an optional epilogue. However, the point is that, looking at TTG, a show that goes way over parody and just becomes Family Guy level of nonsense, and comparing it to the 2004 series, a show that had character arcs & tackled some deep themes, it’s clear to see how things have changed. Whether you like TTG or not is up to you, I’m just stating how the tone completely shifted and how that might lead to some favoring the other show.
Otherwise, here’s my conclusion. No matter how silly something is, it can still be taken seriously if the content of the show trusts the audience with what it’s presenting. However, sometimes something can be too silly that it’s hard to take it at face value, or overly used the “adult content” to where it circles back to being immature. I didn't want to include anime, because it’s easier to tell what age demographic it’s aiming towards (that, and I don’t want an army of weebs throwing a pussy fit).
Did I save the Internet with my opinion on cartoons? Definitely not, I just want to share my opinion. I’m also sure I’ve missed a boat load of other cartoons, but feel free to add to my point. Otherwise, I’ll leave it off her and stop tormenting you with my wall of text.
cross-posted from: https://thelemmy.club/post/54453891
As someone who's been watching anime for over a decade, it may be a shocker to some that I've never seen My Hero Academia. Some may think it's because "I don't like superheroes", but it's actually the opposite. I love Superheroes; I grew up with the DCAU & both 90's & 2000's Marvel cartoons, I'm practically one the few people who still watches some MCU movies in theaters, Spider-Man PS4 is my all-time favorite games, and so on. So why have I never seen this show? Well for a couple reasons;
- 1.) I've felt like Japan's take on superheroes have never fit my tastes in Superheroes (which I'll talk about in the end).
- 2.) The concept seemed off, with a non-powered teen wanting to be a hero in a world where everyone has powers and then gets powers.
- And 3.) The director who worked on it was my mortal enemy, because he made my most hated anime, Gundam Build Fighters. Really mature thinking I know. I have nothing against Kenji Nagasaki nowadays. He seems like the guy who loves what he does, so I don't hate the guy. I just don't like his writing style and I'll talk why soon.
So, what's my opinion on this show? Is it as good as people make it out to be? While it's better than I expected, it unfortunately left so much to be desired. It's just…not as good as the stuff I grew up with. There's stuff I like enough for me to consider it passable, but not enough to make me love it. That's the TL;DR, but I'm going into more detail, so don't go bitching about my wall of text. Otherwise, here's my opinions both Season 1 & Season 2
Season 1; While this is where my issues come from, It's a little forgiveable, since it's the beginning of the series. It's just trying to find its footing and setting you up for this world. It does fine for the most part, but it honestly feels a little barebones.
**Plot: **
The story goes, in a world where people with superpowers called “Quirks” are the norm, our protagonist, Izuku Midoriya, has none. All that changed when he encountered his idol, All-Might. Once they formed a bond, not only he shares his secret with him, but also offers him his Quirk, finally granting Midoriya his dream to go to My Hero Academia & become one of the greatest heroes. Sweet story, hits you in the feels at times. There’s stuff I can easily nitpick, but at a macro scale, it’s a pretty competently told story. However, there’s certain aspects I don’t like. While this show prides itself on being a superhero story, it’s lacking in certain aspects. While we see the basic stuff; heroes saving civilians and fighting bad guys, I feel as though it’s lacking in the minor stuff; like the heroes interacting with civilians, preventing massive disasters, or even heroes quipping. Seriously, none of these heroes have any quippy remarks to make. But I’ll talk about that in S2.
But the story itself actually has some decent build up, since it actually has our protagonist earn his powers through a show of determination & real training. I also think that it has emotional moments that feel earned; like All-Might telling Midoriya that he can be a hero and Midoriya actually getting accepted into UA. Those moments where honestly the highlights. This is going to be a common theme on my thoughts on both seasons, but there’s things that this show does well as an anime, but not well enough as a superhero show. The feel good aspects in the story does feel genuine, but the superhero aspects feels too focused on the action for my tastes. Overall, decent story that lacks stuff I want to see in superhero media.
**Characters: **
Honestly, I guarantee that the characters are what people mainly talk about this show. Do I agree? Well to some extent, yes. While I didn’t care too much about all of them, the ones I did really did leave an impression on me. Luckily it’s because of the stellar english voice acting. I don’t care what the stupid Sub-Elitists will say, MHA’s voice acting is one of its strongest aspects. While the dialogue wasn’t always the best, the acting really did improve it. As for the characters themselves, here’s my thoughts on them
Heroes:
I was honestly shocked how much I actually liked Izuku Midoriya. Many people call him a “nothing protagonist”, but he and another character I liked perfectly represent the Superhero aspect I wanted to see more of in this show. While Midoriya started off the show without a quirk, I was engaged with how heroic he was. Him standing up to a bunch of bullies with quirks and even helping one of them when they were being attacked by a villain really made him a capable enough protagonist in my eyes. I also like that he actually has to train hard to earn his quirk from All-Might. My only complaint is that I wish that the notebook he carries was actually used more. Like his whole gimmick is that he studies heroes to learn from them, but that never helped him much outside of a couple scenes. But I think he’s a strongly written protagonist.
Not a lot of heroes in UA were developed much in this season, so I don't really have too much to say about them. The only ones I want to comment on are Uraraka, Iida, and 2 of the Facility members. Ochaco Uraraka was a pretty fun character with gravity manipulation, as she's cheerful & bubbly. I also really like her rapport with Midoriya, as they have some good banter with one another. Tenya Iida had me worried at 1st, as he looked like the stereotypical smartass. But I was honestly surprised at how much I actually liked him. While he's by the book and eager, it remained interesting with his dedication. I also like his Quirk, makes him a more mature speedster, which is an interesting take. There's more students that were fun to watch; like Kirishima, Momo, Asui, and Shoto, they don't get much to do in this season.
Unfortunately, there's 2 students I genuinely couldn't stand; Minita & Bakugo. Minita is pretty obvious, he's an obnoxious pervert who's only desire is to see boobies. Luckily he's barely in the first 2 seasons, so he's pretty forgettable (most of the time). Bakugo is the complete opposite, as he's in the majority of the series, and I can't name a single thing I like about this asshole. He’s cocky, brash, rude, & just an all round psycho. I wouldn't mind that, if he actually grow throughout the show, but he really doesn't. What's worse is that his behavior is rewarded and there's isn't a single moment where that punk gets what's coming to him. But that's about it for the students.
As for the facility, there's 2 I want to highlight; Aizawa (Eraser Head) & Toshinori (All-Might). Shoto Aizawa was pretty interesting to watch as this cynical but sharp teacher who tests the students in many ways. And his Quirk to block someone else's Quirk just by looking at him is also really cool. But my favorite hero and favorite MHA character is without a doubt All-Might. At first, I thought it was going to be a cynical take on “paragon of justice” like we've been getting lately, but he's actually a genuinely good hero. The secret is that his true self is weaker and he's only able to show himself towards people he's close to, which becomes Midoriya. Speaking of which, they're friendship is honestly the best part of the show. All-Might feels like the mentor Midoriya needs, and Midoriya motivates All-Might to be a shining example. These 2 interactions are easily the best part of the show.
Villains:
If I'm being honest, the villains in this season are really forgettable. Like there's only 2 bad guys that actually left an impression, and that's Shigaraki & Kurogiri. Shigaraki for his bitterness & desire to kill All-Might made him somewhat interesting. And his Quirk to disintegrate objects was honestly really cool and made him and actually threat. And Kurogiri has this mysterious vibe with his calculative demeanor. I also think his Quirk to teleport people to other places is cool too. Though most of that is because of his design being sick AF. However, every other villain really didn't left an impression on me. One of the many cracks in Kenji's writing. At least the Nomus were cool and presented an actual challenge to the heroes.
Overall, the cast has their hit or misses. Some are great; like Midoriya, All-Might, Ochaco, & Iida. Some are decent, but forgettable; like the rest of the UA students & the villains. While others genuinely got on my nerves; like Minata & Bakugo. Whoever's your favorite is completely up to you, but that's my opinion on the cast Verdict:
Season 1 does what it sets out to do, introduce us to this new world and get us comfortable with these new characters. How well it succeeds is a matter of personal tastes. But for me, while it did decently well enough, it kinda felt a little underwhelming. Especially the world building, which I'll talk about in S2. While I liked the main character & his idol, his banter with his friends, & some of the feel-good moments in the show, I was just left underwhelmed for the superhero stuff. Like the last few episodes,it was going to have students train to save & protect civilians like actual superheroes, but instead it's just a bunch of D-list supervillains fighting them. The fights were cool, but that's abou. It. As a shonen anime, it's pretty good. But as a superhero show, it's lacking in a lot of areas. Next
Season 2:
Apparently, this is the highest rated season on MAL with a whopping 8.05. So does this mean it's the greatest anime of all time? I'll say this, it's a lot better than S1, but again, not to the point where I was fanning over this show. Hell, the only parts I genuinely enjoyed about it was the middle chunk involving the internship and the majority of the final exam. Otherwise, my opinions on this season are the same as the last season; decent anime, lackluster superhero show. Now it's time to go into more detail
Plot:
This season has like 3 arcs. The 1st one is your stereotypical tournament arc, the 2nd one has the students do some internships, and the 3rd & finally one has them do a final exam, where they fight the teachers. Honestly out these 3 arcs, the tournament arc is easily my least favorite, for 2 reasons; too fucking long & unsatisfying ending. There's moments I like, like when Iida learns about his brother’s accident and Shoto’s messed up backstory. Those where great moments, but it doesn't excuse the lion’s share this arc takes up. And the fact that Bakugo wins really pissed me off.
On the other hand, I really liked the Internship arc, since it puts the students into the field & teaches them about patrolling as a superhero. It also pairs Midoriya with All-Might’s mentor, Gran Torino. And it introduces a pretty good villain for a change. The Finals arc is a take it or leave it scenario, where I liked some parts, but couldn't stand others. Overall, outside of the tournament arc, I was well engaged with certain parts of the plot. Not enough to make it my favorite, but enough to keep me interested for long enough.
Characters:
The characters here are honestly way more interesting here, as they have more to do and are given more screen time. And for once, we actually have a villain with real & understandable motives (maybe generic, but it's something). There's even some new characters to shine. And as always, the English voice acting really carried these characters.
Heroes:
Midoriya is a lot more proactive here and is finally given more chances to show off his Quirk. Speaking of which, I might as well talk about what kind of Quirk it is. “One-for-All” is basically a generational Quirk that increases the user's abilities tenfold. All they need is to take the previous user’s DNA (or in Midoriya’s case, eat All-Might’s hair), along with their consent. I like seeing him struggle at first, since using it greatly damages his body, only to learn to control it a whole lot more. As for Midoriya himself, it's like S1 where he's just really selfless and I just love seeing that in a protagonist. He's just helping in a multitude of ways. Like helping Shoto with his childhood trauma or helping Iida fight a villain when he’s down.
Speaking of which, Tenya Iida is a lot more interesting here. We learn that his family runs a hero business and that he looks up to his brother. So when he learns about the accident that basically ended his superhero career by a psychopath, you want to route for him to get justice. However, I have an issue with how his desire for revenge is handled. Or specifically, how others treated it. When Iida is paired with a professional hero, he tries to stop him from pursuing him, not because it won’t make him feel better, but because it is against the law. Which is fair enough, but I would’ve like if he had a realization that killing the villain that harmed his brother won’t set the heroic example he wants to set. Something like that would’ve been more interesting. I still think Iida is a lot more interesting here.
Ochaka doesn’t really have too much to do, but I like that they expanded on her motivation a little more, as she wants to be a hero to support her family. But the anime doesn’t really have much outside of that. I like that the side characters are expanded a whole lot more, as they have more to do. Momo gets to use her powers, to create things out of thin air, in unique ways. Asui has a solo episode where she stops a bunch of shipjackers. And we get to see more of Kirishima, as he works for a big boss for his internship.
But the character who I think is the most interesting is Shoto Todoroki. For starters, he has a unique combination of both fire & ice powers, but he mainly uses ice powers as his fire power is from his father. That last part is the main talking point, as we see his backstory. His father was an abusive jerk who pushed his son to become stronger to beat All-Might, while also beating his wife for trying to help her son. This leads her to go insane and burn Todoroki’s face with a kettle, hence the scar. This gives him more depth as a character, as you want him to be his own person and break free from his trauma. I also like that it was Midoriya that broke him out of that abusive state of mind, and embraced both sides of himself. And I like that he tried to save Midoriya. Those 2 and Iida were honestly the best characters in this season in my eyes.
The opposite can be said about Mineta and Bakugo. Mineta is an obvious fucking creep, so I have less than nothing to say about him. Bakugo on the other hand earns a spot on my list of most hated anime characters. The only positive I can say is that he actually gets punished in certain parts of the show, like getting thrown into a wrap sheet after the tournament or being tormented by the hero he’s mentoring. Otherwise, I just can’t stand the fucking guy. He doesn't listen to reason, he punches through without thinking about the consequences, and is just an overall rude person. The moment he slapped Midoriya made me want to reach out for the asshole on the screen. But that’s all the students I really have anything to say.
As for the teachers, I’ll say they were pretty interesting. Eraser Head being a cynical teacher was fun to watch, and I like how he tests the students in unique ways. And while I didn’t talk about him in the last season, Present Mic was also a fun watch. I don’t have too much to talk about him as a character, but I like his design as it invokes Jet Set Radio, and his quirk to scream loud is cool too. Similar case to the principle, Nezu, who’s just a smart hamster. That’s just funny to me, I don't know what else to say. Midnight is an interesting character for a couple reasons. 1.) Elizabeth Maxwell does a really good job voicing her, as she matches her seductive demeanor. 2.) He Quirk to disperse sleeping gas is pretty useful and goes well with her fighting style. And 3.) I like how she & Mt. Lady talked about skimpy outfits for superheroines. That’s a pretty meta discussion, but I wished those 2 actually went deep into that and not be a throw away gag. As for All-Might, like last season, he’s the absolute GOAT. I like how he expanded on his backstory more, as he was Quirkless like Midoriya once and he trained under a man named Gran Terrino. He also actually mentors the other students like Shoto and even Bakugo, though you can tell which students he had better luck with. And hanging out with Midoriya will always warm my heart.
Two more heroes I want to talk about are All-Might's mentor Gran Terreno and Shoto’s father, Endevor. Gran Terreno was a fun guy to watch, as he helps Midoriya improve his quirk usage and drops some pieces of wisdom towards him. And this his Quirk to jet through areas is a fun one too. My only nitpick is that he tells Midoriya that he didn’t become a pro hero, because he didn’t want to deal with the “extra work”, when it would've been better if he said that he didn’t want the attention and just wants to be a hero for the sake helping others. That would’ve perfectly tie in to what this season was trying to say. As for the “hero” Endevor, I’ve mentioned this before, but this scumbag beat both Shoto into becoming stronger & his own wife for trying to defend her son. I want to know what the writers were thinking when they made the obvious wife beater bob with fire powers a prominent character, because I’m obviously not going route for a clearly abusive creep who treats like a successor to beat All-Might. But of Endevor & Bakugo (and obviously Mineta), the heroes were honestly quite interesting time around
Villains:
I can’t really say the same about the villains however. They feel very one note and feel like they only exist to give the heroes something to punch. Shigiraki & Kurogiri are basically the same as they were in S1, so I don’t have too much to add. The only villain that was actually interesting, was the new villain Stain. He was the only villain who was even remotely interesting, as he’s the only one who actually serves as a threat. For starters, he’s completely ruthless in his attacks with the amount of times he’ll stab his victims. Sure, a hero can dodge it easily, but that’s where his quirk comes in. He has the ability to paralyze someone by licking their blood. Those traits and his plethora of blades, and we have a deadly foe to deal with. But what makes him a great villain, is his reason for going after heroes. He believes that there’s no true heroes in this world anymore, other than All-Might, and he wants to get rid of all of them. And to be honest, he's not wrong. Most of the heroes we see in this world are basically walking advertisements and only care about the spectacle. With heroes like that, it's kinda hard to tell who's a genuine hero and who's only doing it for fame & glory. The only reason why he wants All-Might to kill him is because he thinks that he's the only “true” hero left.
Unfortunately, all of that comes crashing down when you realize that he's never proven wrong. Not in the way where he's that delusional, but just…no one learns anything. Going back to my Gran Torino point, no one really learns what it truly means to be a hero, let alone called Stan out for his faulty reasoning. And this is where I take issue with Kenji's writing. He introduces a really good concept, but expects the spectacle & aura farming to carry it, instead of actually going deeper with the concept itself. And this is a prime example, where the villain presented a really good point, but everyone solved it with their fists. It's kinda lazy in my eyes, as anything that’s handled with your fists feels shoehorned in. Overall, while I did like Stain as a character, the villains still felt pretty lacklucker in my eyes, as they didn’t have any intrigue that makes a villain interesting. While this show does tease more villains for the next season, let's just say I have no interest whatsoever.
Otherwise, I think the characters are what really keep me somewhat interested in the show. While there were some characters I really didn’t like, The ones I did like were enough for me to keep on staying. They were an improvement from the last season as they had more to do and were a bit more fleshed out. And again, the english voice acting was pretty good.
World Building:
Honestly, while I praised some of the characters in this show, the world they inhabit was what broke the camel’s back in terms of a superhero series. World building in superhero media is what made the stories we see so interesting. Both DC, Marvel, and even Ninja Turtles have such fascinating lore, that it makes the story they’re telling so investing to watch. MHA is just lacking in that area, as there’s not a lot to make it stand out. For starters, I kinda hate the idea that nearly everyone in their world has a quirk. To quote Syndrome “once everyone’s super, no one will be”. If everyone has a quirk, it kind of takes away from the stakes, since everyone can either make a force field or shoot fire. They also don’t explain how humans with no quirks feel about people with quirks. They kinda did that with Midoriya in the S1, but they dropped it immediately. I just think DC & Marvel handled this way better. In the DCAU, a faction called Cadimus is formed out of fear of Metahumans turning against them after learning about an evil version of the Justice League in an alternate universe that took over the world. Marvel has humans forming a prejudice against mutants, to the point where they create giant robots that hunt down mutants in the form of the Sentanels. MHA doesn’t need to follow those examples, but doing something with non-powered heroes would’ve been interesting.
I also wonder if there’s anyone who got their powers through an accident, like a radioactive spider-bite, gamma radiation, a trip to space, or super soldier serum. Going back to the civilians, there’s also rarely moments between the heroes and the civilians. Outside of Midoriya’s mom & All-Might’s detective’s friend Naomasa Tsukauchi (I actually like him & All-Might’s rapport), there’s barely any civilians who actually interact with the heroes in a meaningful way. The closest we got was that coast guard congratulating Asui from saving the day & Bakugo scaring a bunch of kids. I just think back at any super hero media that utilizes the civilians in a meaningful way; Like in Spider-Man 2 with Aunt May & the Train Passagers Peter saved, in Batman Begins with that little boy who Bruce gave one of his gadgets to, hell, even the MCU is loaded with moments like that. Again, I felt like MHA is lacking in that area.
There’s UA, but I don’t really have too much to say, other than the facilities that test their super powers and that stadium. It’s basically just a Japanese High School you’ve seen a million times with the Danger room slapped onto it. I know I’ve been negative about this part of the anime, but there’s certain aspects I actually do like. Like the students making their costumes, choosing their hero names, and you know, the action is pretty good. I also like the friendship between All-Might & Naomasa, as it reminds me of Batman and Commissioner Gordan.
Overall, I just don’t find MHA that interesting in terms of world building, as other super hero stuff has done what it did but better. I get that it’s trying to be more small scale, but it just feels limited in that regard. I think that fight scenes are good enough and the quirks used in pretty unique ways, but that’s all I can really say. I’ve saved the world building section for S2, because it was basically non-existent in the last season. But otherwise, I’m just not impressed
Verdict:
Was this wall of text that not a lot of people are gonna read a way to say that I'm not a fan of MHA? Not exactly, as there’s more to it than that. As a shounen anime, it's alright. It’s good enough for me to see the reason for the popularity. However, I wasn’t watching it as someone who likes anime. It’s just that I was watching this show as someone who grew up with superhero media my whole life. With that lens, I realize that, while you can tell that Kenji’s a massive fan of superheroes, his heart is kinda in the wrong place as it lacks what made superheroes so interesting.
While most of us are going through “superhero fatigue” because of how Disney monopolized Marvel, I feel as though that superheroes can still be cool if handled well. I could just think “man, superheroes were cool”. And I’m not just talking about the live-action stuff. I remember that tender moment in Batman: The Animated Series where Bruce saved one Mr.Freeze’s goons from succumbing to hyperthermia, Scott helping his childhood friend who’s running an orphanage in X-Men the Animated series, Leonardo going through an arc where he tries let go of his trauma, and that ending of PS4 Spider-Man where Peter let Aunt May go to save the city from the virus made me really teary-eyed.
Just watching MHA really made me appreciate the stuff I grew up with, but made me realize how Japan handles Superheroes really doesn’t hold a candle to what I see. Maybe some Japanophile will write a long rant on how they feel the opposite, but I really don’t care. If you like this show, more power to you. I’ll just to the western stuff to get my superhero fix.
Shock of all shock, Infinite Stratos wasn't the greatest and it's not hard to see why it's not a lot of people's favorite. Which saddens me to say, not because I was hoping to tear it down for being “the worst thing ever’ or go “hot take, Infinite Stratos is a based show and you just don't get it”, because it's not your average bad show. It's not like Aldnoah.Zero where the concept was interesting, but poor writing decisions led to its downfall. Or a show where only a handful of positive things are blocking the sum of its negatives (cough cough Witch from Mercury). No, IS does everything it's trying to do well, but what it's trying to do WAS THE ISSUE. This was a Mecha show that tried to follow the trend of having a harem in a RomCom setting. And this isn't going to go into some obnoxious rant on harem shows. Outside of the show we're talking about today and Monster Musume, I haven't seen much of that genre and would probably enjoy it if given a chance.
While I haven't read the light novel it's based on, you can clearly tell that it was trying to mix the Mecha genre that was starting to decline during the 2010’s, with a popular genre of that era, the RomCom harem. That describes an overwhelmingly amount of shows in that decade with an ensemble of female characters fawning over the MC. Combining genres can lead to your project being the best execution of those genres, or can come off as very desperate. But as the creators of the series taught back then, they thought the Mecha genre wasn't a variable genre in the anime sphere anymore. I'm the kind of guy who'll give anything a shot, as long as it aligns with my interests. So here's my thoughts on Infinite Stratos (S1 & S2)
Story:
After the development of special exoskeletons called IS Frames, a school was formed to train ladies to use these frames and improve their uses. And while only women are the only ones able to use IS Frames, it comes as a shocker that a man named Ichika Orimura was able to pilot one. Leading him to be the 1st man to join the academy, with some shenanigans to follow. I had a few issues with the premise the moment I started the show. For one, the only way this premise would work if they stuff the story with various contrivances in the plot. Luckily it’s not as bad as Rent-a-Girlfriend, as that show had contrivances that was pulled out of the writer’s ass, here it's at least justifiable with Ichika being the only man in the academy (though, that’s an issue in it of itself, that I can talk about later). But my issue is how they forced drama in the show though some ecchi BS. Like, Ichika getting attacked by Houki just for entering his room without knowing that she is her roommate. Or walking into his restroom while his other roommate, Charl was showering, just to give them a body wash where he could’ve just knocked instead. I’ve seen a couple of ecchi shows that handled these kinds of situations way better, hence why I find it so annoying in this show. However, there were some moments involving ecchi that were genuinely funny. So it wasn't miserable the whole way.
Another issue is that, you kinda forget this was a Mecha show at times with how overly focused it is with the RomCom side of things. We would spend so long in the school that we don't often see that much action until later on. “Doesn't that mean that we have time to develop the characters”? On paper, yes. In practice….no. 90% of the time we just see the girls fool around with Ichika, and then when they do show some mecha action, it just feels underwhelming. Mainly because it feels like them throwing us a bone instead of feeling necessary to the plot.
Which leads to another issue, there’s no antagonistic force that keeps the plot going until Season 2 with Phantom Task. The issue is that they were introduced way too late into the story, so they don’t have too much gripe on the plot. Overall, the storytelling is poorly written for all the reasons I just listed. These probably won’t be as bad if they balanced both the RomCom stuff with the Mecha action evenly. But since they didn’t, it leads to the show feeling really disjointed. There’s more issues with the writing, but you’ll see within the other sections for what I’m referring to. Otherwise, the storytelling left a pretty bad impression
Characters:
Most of the cast of the show weren’t the worst characters I’ve ever seen, hell most of them were more tolerable than what I expected. It’s just that some of them didn’t left a good impression on me. Which leads to an issue with this being an harem, as the show put all their eggs into the harem basket. The problem is that, if they break, your left with nothing.
Lets start with getting the MC elephant in the room, Ichika Orimura. I heard multiple people calling him the worst part of the show for how dense he is, but I think they were sorta overexaggerating. While Ichika isn’t really a great protagonist, I wouldn’t go as far as to consider him the worst character, but I can see the cracks in the facade. A lot of people call him “dense as a brick”, and….yeah, I can see it. There are some times where he really should’ve read the room. Like when one of the girls asks him to go to a park with her, he asks to invite the others. Or when he sees simulations of their “desires”, of him flirting with them, he doesn’t really make anything of it. But to play devil’s advocate, in most of the other situations he’s in with the other girls, he probably wouldn’t act too differently than how most of us will react. Another issue I have with him is that he sort of remains weak throughout the show. Which wouldn’t be all bad in a vacuum if he grew as a character. But he really doesn’t, and remains weak in terms of fighting throughout the show. A lot of people will complain about “Gary Stus”, being able to do everything, but I find the opposite to be just as bad. There needs to be a balance between being confident and having flaws when it comes to writing an MC and Orimura doesn’t really have that. That said, I don’t think he was straight up awful like most people may think. I thought his backstory of him being kidnapped and being saved by his sister was pretty interesting, and makes his goal to become stronger understandable. I just wished the anime actually made him progressively stronger. I also liked that he was willing to support his friends, but that’s the bare minimum of what I expect from a protagonist.
Since this is a harem, the selling is the girls. While they’re mostly fun waifus, some of them didn’t leave a good impression on me. Mainly because they have something I like to call, “the tsudere trail”, where they start off overly aggressive and hostile, but eventually become clingy towards the MC. Which would work if properly developed, but here, it’s handled pretty poorly.
I’ll start off with the girls with these problems. Houki Shinonono was honestly a mixed bag with me because of this issue, as she started off as pretty unstable & strict. Making her pretty unbearable at first. However, it’s sorta justified with her being raised in a Kendo Dojo and the fact that she & her sister were constantly on the move, because her older sister made a weapon of mass destruction. She’s luckily becoming less bitchy and a lot more mellow, but that 1st impression really didn’t sit well with me. Laura Bodewig is another subject of this issue, as her slapping Ichika was really unnecessary (unless you have a hateboner for the guy). Though it’s also understandable, since she looked up to his sister and he caused her to forfeit a match she was in. Plus her being a test tube baby makes her social skills nonexistent. I’ll say this, she’s pretty funny and Tiffany Grant gave her this hilarious German voice. It’s just that, again, she left a pretty bad impression on me. Kanzashi Sarashiki seemed tamed with her shyness and desire to be saved by “a hero”, with how hostile she acted towards Ichika, it was hard to sympathize with her. She does become more bearable later in the show, but too late to fully get invested in her. But the worst one is easily Lingyin Huang. It’s bad enough that she’s the stereotypical loli. But making her overly impulsive and irresponsible really got on my nerves. Even more so, when she doesn’t grow at all.
While some of these girls become better throughout the show, that 1st impression really dampens any good will they had. It’s the character equivalent of getting your mouth burnt before eating a meal. It’s hard to taste whatever the food has to offer, if the initial bite was physically painful.
That’s not to say all the girls were bad, because there are still some I found interesting. Starting with Cecilia Alcott, while her arrogant and snobby nature can get annoying for some, when she falls for Ichika after their duel, she becomes pretty entertaining at times. Especially with how comically bad she is at cooking. I also like that British accent Brittney Karbowski puts on. But the one who everyone unanimously agrees is the best girl is without a doubt Charlotte Dunois. And for good reason, she has a well balanced personality. She’s kind-hearted, calm, and easy going with everyone, especially Ichika. She may have started as a cross-dressing spy, but that doesn’t make her any less lovable. She’s basically my 2nd favorite girl. Who’s my number 1 favorite? Glad you ask, because it’s without a doubt, Tatenashi Sarashiki. Hell, her in a cat bikini is one of the reasons why I even watched the show. I just like her mischievous nature, along with how charismatic she is. A lot of people said that she didn’t leave an impression because she was introduced in season 2, I still found her enduring.
As for the chemistry each girl has with Ichika, it’s obvious that both Charlotte & Tatenashi have better chemistry since they actually care about him and treat him pretty well. Cecilia is a middle ground between genuinely caring about him and going ballistic when he’s near a girl. Laura just wants him to be his “bride” or just house husband, so I don’t have too much to say. Kanzashi appeared way too late to form any meaningful relationship with him. And both Houki & Lin are his childhood friends, with Houki being marginally better than Lin due to actually growing out of “Tsudere phase”. The girls' interactions can be cute when they’re not at odds with Ichika or with each other, but it can get old pretty fast when it goes on for too long.
As for the other girls who aren’t in Ichika’s harem, Both his sister and teacher were entertained in their own right. Chifuyu Orimura kind of rubbed me the wrong way at 1st with her stern and strict demeanor, but as time went on, I see it as pretty believable since she’s Ichika’s older sister. Plus, she does have some badass moments at times and is a pretty confident commander. Maya Yamada is a pretty fun character, since she’s basically the opposite of Chifuyu, Shy and Nervous. She’s also completely chill with her male student landing on her boobs, make that as you will. There’s also Houki’s sister, Tabane Shinonon. There’s not much to say, since she only appears in a couple episodes. All you need to know is that she's a chaotic wild card.
Finally there’s the antagonists, Phantom Tasks, who were unfortunately introduced way too late to have any lasting impact. Too be fair, 2 of the characters could’ve been compelling villains with how they present themselves. Squall Meusel is a mature & level-headed woman, with a ruthless side that can come out if needed. Autumn is arrogant & sadistic, who can put up a convincing professional look to deceive her enemies. The only weak character in the team is Madoka Orimura, who as the name implies, may have some connection to both Ichika and Chifuyu. A shame the show never went anywhere with this, as all we’re left with is a cold & distant girl who wants to kill the Orimura siblings for reasons that we’ll never know about.
In spite of some characters leaving bad impressions or not having the room to grow, I could never say these are “terrible characters”. Poorly written? Sure, I’ll admit that. But a handful of them were still entertaining to watch, especially with the English dub. I've already mentioned Brittiny’s British interruption for Cecila and Tiffany’s German accent for Laura, but everyone else deserves some credit too. Monica Rial makes Houki more bearable, Shannon Emerick’s French accent for Charlotte was pretty cute, I love Jessica Calvello as Tatenashi, Luci Christain does a really good job at bringing out Chifuyu’s strict nature, and even Jessie James Grelle deserves some props for play Ichika. Sentai Filmwork’s dubbing is pretty underrated in the anime English VO industry, as these are pretty great voice actors. But overall, the characters could’ve been better.
World Building (or just the antagonist and mecha lingo):
The most the anime does in terms of world building is add some cool looking tech to the IS Academy, but that’s about it really. So all I’m really going to really talk about is Phantom Pain & the technical stuff with the IS Units. While Phantom Task are an effective threat whenever they show up, the fact that they showed up in season 2 really dampens any impact they could’ve had as antagonists. While we know that they were responsible for kidnapping Ichika, it really doesn’t add anything since it doesn’t give Ichika any personal stake in the plot. There are some moments where they can be sinister, like the aforementioned kidnapping and nearly killing all the IS Academy students in a train, along with some espionage, they just don't have the impact of any other antagonist from any other anime, because they’re not a threat that looms over the narrative.
And then there’s the IS units. In my Kuromukuro review, I talked about the important questions a mecha series has to answer for having mecha in their universes, so I’m going to apply them here to explain why the IS Units don’t really work. For starters, I don’t think mecha needs to be justified by “how are they able to stand up without falling down” or “why don’t they just use jets, tanks, or nukes”, but rather “what led to the creation of these mecha” or “why do certain attacks work and others don’t”. They answer the 2nd question pretty well, since the IS Units have shields and high mobility, but not so much the 1st one. In this universe, the Infinite Stratos Units were made by Tanabe Shinonono for space travel, which is reasonable. However, what’s never explained is why only women can use it and men can’t outside of the main character. There is a throw away line where Tanabe hinted at giving Ichika an IS on purpose, but it’s never explained beyond the anime. It also doesn’t help that the Alaska Treaty feels really hard to get behind, since I doubt the military would turn down these obviously powerful machines with high mobility and powerful weapons (especially America). The latter is also hard to believe, since these were supposed to be used for space work. Yet we’re slapping blasters and swords on these things & allowing high school girls to use them.
And look, I watch a lot of mecha throughout my life. It’s my favorite genre after all. But to explain why this show doesn’t use it’s mecha concept well, I want to talk about other shows. Take Gundam for example, where the reason for having mobile suits was for Zeon to overpower the Federation’s massive space fleet with high mobility and a power system that blocks radar. Leading the Federation to develop their own mobile suits to counteract them. But if you want to use a non-Gundam example, Gurren Lagaan has the Gunmen to fight the Anti-Spirral and what powered them was their “fighting spirit”. Explaining why both humans and Beastmen can use these machines. There’s more mecha, like Knights of Sidonia or even a non-anime example like Pacific Rim that explains the use of mecha way better. That’s not to say that Infinite Stratos uses their mecha poorly, as the fight scenes are really good. Added with animation that was pretty top of the line with 2010’s animation is concerned, and even looks really good by today’s standards. The issue is just that it’s more concerned with being a Harem more than anything.
Mecha:
At that point, the only thing that’s worth talking about is the IS Units themselves. But since this is a Mecha Musume show, it’s kinda hard to compare it to other mecha. All I really want from these designs are cool looking armor and weapons that fit the characters using them. This anime does this really well, but like I said so many times in the past, good mecha designs isn’t enough to carry an anime. But to be fair, a lot of these are really good designs.
Starting with Ichika’s unit, the Byakushiki is a pretty good design for a protagonist. It kinda resembles the Freedom Gundam in a way. It’s pretty mobile and it’s really good at close quarter combat. But unfortunately, it doesn’t have that many weapons. At the beginning, all it has is the “Yukihira Nigata” sword, which is cool and all. But that’s all he has until later on, with his sister’s justification being “it’s not his style”. That finisher with it in the form of the One-Off Ability called the “Reiraku Byakuya” is pretty cool at least. Plus he does get palm blasters later on, so that’s neat.
Moving onto the IS Units used by the girls, they’re all also well designed. Houki’s Akatsubaki seems to be a lot of people’s favorite, and it’s easy to see why. It’s red color scheme fits the character really well, along with the armory that matches her Kendo background. She has 2x Katanas with different abilities; the Amatsuki on the right that can shoot out beams and the Karaware on the left that can send an energy wave. It also has leg mounted blades, winged beam blades that can shoot out, and the One-Off ability called Kenran Butō, which can recover energy or transfer it to other units like the Byakushiki.
Cecilia’s IS Unit, Blue Tears is one of my favorites. A long range unit that looks oddly similar to the Strike Freedom. It has a beam rifle called Blue Pierce, a couple of drones with beam guns, and 2x missile racks. It’s a pretty unique looking long-range sniper unit.
While Lin was annoying AF, her IS unit Shenlong wasn’t half bad. While the pink, yellow, & “brown” don’t really mesh well with each other, the design perfectly represents her Chinese heritage pretty well. But all she really has are 2x chinese scimitar that can combine with each other called Souten Gagetsu and 2x back cannons called Ryuhou. So pretty versatile for a little hellspawn.
There’s 2 types of the same IS Unit called the Rafale-Revive; the Basic and the Custom II. The Rafale-Revive Basic is used by Maya Yamada and it’s a more tactile unit with a sniper rifle & grenade launcher. The green is a pretty good touch. The Rafale-Revive Custom II on the other hand, is Charlotte’s unit and it’s PACK with weapons. An Assault Rifle, Sub machine gun, a shotgun, a knife, and a pile bunker. All of that and a good mix of Orange & White makes this another favorite IS Unit of mine.
Laura’s Schwarzer Regen never really left an impression on me. Like, it looks good with the black & red. It just is not as great as the other IS Units. It is however loaded to the teeth with weapons; 6x wired blades, 2x beam blades, a rail gun called the Purizushi, and the ability to block a lot of projectile attacks.
Another favorite of mine is Tatenashi’s Mysterious Lady. I love the aquatic look with the light blue & white color scheme with red highlights. It has a whip sword, a lance with a gatling gun, the ability to control water with nanomachines to create clones, and her One-Off ability called Sökkvabekkr can create a pretty powerful field. I’m starting to realize that my favorite IS Units are used by my favorite girls, who would’ve thought.
Kanzashi’s IS Unit, Uchigane Nishiki is pretty cool, albeit unremarkable since it basically shares the same color scheme as Mysterious Lady, which makes sense. She has a Naginata, a particle cannon, and a lot of missiles. Balletus numbers.
The final IS Units are all from Phantom Task, and they all look pretty good as well. Madoka has 2 IS Units; Silent Zephyrs and Black Knight. Both of them have a good mix of black & purple. As for their weapons; Silent Zephyrs have drones with shields, the Star Breaker cannon, and a knife. While Black Knight has a Buster sword, 2x lancer bits, 6x drones, and a gatling gun. Both of these make Madoka a massive threat.
Autumn’s IS Unit, Arachne is a really unique design, being one the only demi-human looking machines in the show. Its armaments include 4x bladed legs, a cannon in the abdomen, a railgun, a machine gun, some spider webs for twiping acting, and the spider half can explode if need be.
The final IS Unite we got is Sqaull’s unit, Golden Dawn. And true to its name, it’s a really shiny unit with some pink to break it up. But all it has is 2x claw cannons and its tail. I know there’s also Silver Gospel & White Knight, but they didn’t show up enough to make a lasting impact.
Overall, these are genuinely really good designs. Hell, dare I say better than most Mecha I've seen. And as mentioned before, the fight scenes we see are really good. The issue that all of this is basically 2nd Fidel towards the harem stuff. All to sell waifu figures. Side tangent, I'm surprised they haven't made any model kits of these girls. Bandai did make figures for their Armor Girls Project line, it's a massive no brainer to turn a handful of these IS designs into model kits. Even now, since we have stuff like Megami Device & 30 Minute Sisters that are the apex of mecha musume model kits. But umm… yeah time for the conclusion.
Verdict:
It has been a spell since I've seen a show like this. Infinite Stratos isn't the worst series I've seen, hell it's not even close. It's not even in the discussion when I think about my most hated anime. It's a completely watchable show, with entertaining characters & good action. But the issue is that it had trouble balancing both its genres and became a run of the mill RomCom show that doesn't leave an impact beyond being a guilty pleasure harem show. But that's why Infinite Stratos is as infamous as it is, so you probably knew that already.
I often hear what an Infinite Stratos reboot would look like. But ignoring how contemporary the show feels, it would be hard to do a reboot without just making a new show. Because the issue with the show isn't that it has aged, as the true issue is buried at the core of the show. A harem show trying so hard to appeal its audience that it forgets to be a Mecha show.
Such a shame we'll never get to see this story finished, as the creator, Izuru Yumizuru, left the industry indefinitely due to copyright disputes & losers online bullying him into retirement. Now he's a Vtuber, don't ask. And it's not like the series did poorly. It may have received some bad critical reception, but it still sold really well. When it came to Blu Ray sells, it out sold SAO II, Gurren Lagann, Kill La Kill, and even Full Metal Alchemist. Yet it still didn't have a chance to finish it story or continue it like the shows I listed. Something similar happened to Gargantia having its 2nd season being outright cancelled in spite of its great reception. And it's now become a common thing in the industry, when an anime is released being instantly popular and being on the highest sells charts, but their stories won't likely be completed due to lack of source material or the studios lacking the needed resources & professional animators. Something that has become an issue in the late 2010’s and it's definitely becoming an issue now.
Infinite Stratos became what it is due to the market not caring about Mecha anymore. However, 2 years after the show finished, Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans released to rave reviews. Now I know anything with the name “Gundam” will dominate in the Mecha industry, but this was also released when the franchise was at its lowest point compared to the 90s & 2000’s. Either way, that show got people talking because it was a show that had a story tackling social themes like poverty, had characters with real depth to them, and had Mecha actually that felt grounded. So those ideas of Mecha weren't out of style or anything. Proving that Infinite Stratos was a flawed concept from the very beginning
Samurai have been part of various media for centuries, especially in their place of origin, Japan. From Seven Samurai to Samurai Champloo, these warriors have been well represented for generations. But what if you combine them with another staple of Japanese media, giant robots? You’ll get various answers, but one major stand out is Netflix’s 2016 anime, Kuromukuro.
I have quite some nostalgia for this show, as I remember watching this anime on summer break during High School with a PS4 my dad bought me in 2017. Whenever I watch a show from my past, it’s often a coin toss whether I can still enjoy it as an adult, or whether it'll age like milk. I am happy to say that Kuromukuro is the former, but it does have some things that hold it back. That’s my obligatory TL;DR so people won’t complain about my long reviews, but let’s get into it.
**Story: **
Centuries after his final battle, a samurai by the name Kennosuke Tokisada Oma finds himself in modern Japan that’s nothing like the feudal Japan he grew up in to say the least. Right in time for unknown aliens known as “Efidorg” to invade Earth to capture an artifact called “the pivot stone”. Leading him to team up with other soldiers from Earth in this timeline, along with a highschooler named Yukina Shirahane who is forced into this by pure coincidence. Together they fight the unknown threat and learn about their true motives. It’s a pretty simple premise that is paced out really well. I like how we don’t know about the aliens in the beginning, as it makes them more of a threat. It also makes the fight scenes more intense, as we don’t know how our heroes will defeat them. I also like the down time the heroes have, as it not only allows for brevity with the tone of the show, but it also allows us to see Kennosuke interacting with modern day society.
The only thing that I didn’t enjoy was the high school stuff in the show. There are times when it is interesting, like when Yukina felt guilty for what happened to 2 of her classmates or the accident during the festival. Otherwise, the stuff that happens in their school pales in comparison to the alien fights. The worst part is this small “arc” where one of the students is moving away and doesn’t know how to tell any, and it gets dropped towards the end. I don’t know, I just found that really boring and meaningless.
On the whole, the storytelling is pretty decent. Nothing that’ll reinvent the wheel, but I thought it was pretty fun. I really like the fight against the aliens, and seeing our protagonist out of time interact with the modern world around us was neat. The highschool stuff may have drag it down it, but luckily not enough to make it intolerable. So overall, pretty decent story.
Characters:
But what’s a story without some characters? From both my watches, I often liked the 2 main leads and somewhat tolerated the side characters. This is a decent cast for 2 reasons. 1.) The interactions they have with one another is pretty charming and it adds a level of depth to these characters. And 2.) The english voice cast is really solid. Not only do we have the usual big names, but the voice direction was handled pretty well here.
Starting with the Samurai out of time, Kennosuke Tokisada Oma. He’s honestly the best character in the show, bar none. And it’s for 2 reasons (again). For 1.) He’s actually funny. I think the fish out of water angle was used at its best with Ken. A Samurai from Feudal Japan interacting with modern day technology is genuinely funny and a laugh out of me. 2.) He has the most depth to him, because he’s emotionally aimless after basically losing everything. He lost the castle he was loyal to, the princess he devoted his life to, and doesn’t really have a purpose anymore. This makes us sympathetic towards the guy, as we want him to find a new purpose in life and let go of his past grief (too bad the ending threw that away, but I’ll burn that bridge when I get there).
As for the deuteragonist, Yukina Shirahane was a pretty good foil towards Kennosuke. She’s also aimless in life, but she’s a little more timid and shy most of the time. However, unlike Kennosuke whose arc was a lot more clear, Yukina is a little all over the place. Mainly when she quit piloting the Kuromukuro. At 1st, she seems put off by the fact that one of the Efidorg pilots looked like a human before blowing himself up, but then she learned that her high school friends were MIA, so I thought that meant that she needed to learn that it’s important to let that grief go whenever she’s in combat (or something like). But when Kennosuke found her, she just “wants to be appreciated”? Like, where did that come from? Luckily there’s other aspects of her character that make her pretty likeable. Mainly, her empathy, as she connects to a lot of people. Even towards one of the Efidorg characters when they were turning a new leaf.
As for the connection between Kennosuke & Yukina, it’s one of my favorite parts of the anime. I just love seeing Yukina keeping Kennosuke out of trouble and Kennosuke getting Yukina out of her shell. It’s a cute dynamic elevated by some good chemistry and especially the voice cast. Kennosuke is voiced by Bryce Papenbrook and Yukina is voiced by Cherami Leigh. If you’re aware of voice acting roles as much as I am, you’ll know that both VAs also voice Kirito and Asuna from Sword Art Online. That fact actually makes their dynamic really more enjoyable, as it’s basically just Asuna keeping Kirito with a samurai mindset out of trouble. Those 2 are the best characters, which is a shame, since everyone else isn't as good. Not bad, as there were some that kept me entertained as I was watching. But, they don’t have a lasting impression as much as the main 2.
Starting with Kurobe labs personnel, most of them were pretty entertaining, just not that deep as characters. Hiromi Shirahane is Yukina’s mom & the director of the Labs, and it’s pretty comedic how laidback she is with her duties as a director and as a mother. However, when push comes to shove, she’s willing to support her daughter and do whatever it takes to protect her. As for the person who’s really keeping Kurobe Labs in check, Arthur Graham was a pretty calm and collective commander who made sure everyone was kept in line without being overly strict about it. Beth and Rita were the stereotypical women in the chair, where they state the situation at hand. Every mecha series needs people like them, so there’s not a lot to comment on. Same thing with the mechanics, like Paula or Minoru. Dr. Hausen is a pretty interesting character for the Doctor archetype, as he’s pretty much a wild card. One minute, he’s a dedicated doctor who does everything to keep his patients healthy, and next thing you know, he wants to use people like Kennosuke or even Yukina as test subjects. I remember thinking that he was going to willing join Elfidorg, but luckily he doesn’t and remain loyal to the Labs for better & worse.
That’s all the personal, but about the GAUS pilots? They’re pretty entertaining too, at least most of them. Tom Borden was easily the funniest, as he’s pretty loud mouth & cocky. Basically embodying a lot of Americans, like most anime parodying us. I think most of the humor from this character definitely came from Todd Haberkorn’s performance. The man is always extra with his roles, what can I say. Sophie Noel started off as cold at first, which kinda gave me a bad impression at first. But over the series she started to warm up a little and began to be more supportive towards her teammates. Especially towards Kennosuke, since they had a small rivalry in the beginning. I also really liked her butler, Sebastian. Think Alfred Pennyworth, but also as a mecha pilot. The only GAUS pilot I didn’t really care for was Shenmei Liu, as she didn’t have much of a background. She does throw some witty snark sometimes, and is a decent counterbalance with Tom, but I wish she & him had more interactions to show their banterous relationship. The crew at Kurobe Labs were fun to watch, as their interactions with the Main characters were pretty cute.
I can’t say the same thing towards the Highschool kids. Not all of them were bad, but man were they a drag on the plot. Mika Ogino serves as the expressive highschool friend towards Yukina, which is fine. Though Christina Vee is giving a pretty good performance with this character. Jundai Kayahara had some funny moments here and there, with his desire to be a twitch streamer. Also the twist that he’s Dr. Hausen's son was pretty funny. The only characters that got my nerves were Ryoto Akagi & Jose Carlos Takasuka. Ryoto was pretty obnoxious at times with his tough and impulsive personality, but his desire to be with Yukina kinda made things worse. Him wanting to be a GAUS pilot could’ve been interesting, and that training sequence was fun. But that went nowhere until the epilouge. And while Carlos wasn’t annoying in terms of personality, as he was pretty laid back & timid. But his arc of him needing to tell his friends that he’s moving was really annoying & pointless. Oh no, I’m moving away. How should I tell my friends/s. THERE"S FUCKING ALIENS ATTACKING EARTH, NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT YOU MOVING BACK TO HAWAII!!!! The teachers were honestly the best characters in the high school cast. Naoki Takekuma was pretty interesting, as I thought that he was going to be a one note teacher character. But they actually made him pretty interesting, as he can do first aid out of the blue, he actually cares about the students’ future, and I like that little speech he gave to motivate them into becoming better. Plus, Kyle McCarley does a pretty good job at this role. And Marina Unami was pretty funny, with her desire to get Kennosuke & Yukina together.
As for the other Shirahanes, Yakushi Osho seemed like a good uncle, and I liked that he was the 1st person who communicated with Kennosuke, outside of Yukina, give the fact that he is a monk. Koharu was cute too, as Yukina’s little sister. It’s also kinda ironic that Cassandra Lee Morris voices her, if you know what I mean. So that’s the important characters from Earth.
But what about the Efidorgs? They really don’t really have much personality, outside of wanting world domination & viewing themselves as superior. This would usually be a negative, but personality, I think it’s appropriate. Not only knowing less of them makes them more of a threat, it also makes learning about their goals more interesting. The only character with any kind of characterization is Muetta. It turns out that she’s a clone of princess Yukki, but she had her mind altered to serve the Efidorgs. While she was hell bent on killing Kennosuke, once she learned about how she was nothing more than a clone with fake memories, you can’t help but feel bad about her. Her life was a lie and was created for nothing more to fulfill the Efidorgs goals, so she didn’t have much of a choice. I liked that after getting a pep talk from Yukina, she joins the team to fight back. And finally we have a twist-hero, Zelleager Myundef Vishrai (or just Zell for short). Throughout the story, you expected him to be part of the Efidorgs, as Kennosuke keeped calling them “Orges” and this looks like said Orgers from Japanese folklore. But it turns out that he is actually a pretty chill guy who wants to support our heroes. Especially since he knew Yukina’s father and unfortunately witnessed his death. I like how he’s built up throughout the show; he starts off from watching within the shadows, but eventually supports Ken and the gang.
Overall I think this is a really strong cast of characters. From their banter to the voice acting, I just like seeing these characters on screen. And while the antagonists didn’t have much personality, they did their jobs really well.
World Building (or just the antagonist and mecha lingo):
In terms of world building, there’s honestly not a ton to discuss. So I’ll just use this time to discuss the antagonists and the technical aspects of the mecha used in this show. The villains of the show are called Efidorgs, and they basically serve as the main cause of a lot of the conflicts of the show. They may be the stereotypical world conquering aliens, but the more we learn about them, the more sinister they become. For starters, they steal DNA from the inhabitants of the planet they’re invading, so they can clone them for their ranks. They also mind control said inhabitants, as we see towards the end, to do grueling labor. So the amount of heinous actions they commit already makes them pretty evil, but it doesn’t stop there. They’re after an artifact called the "Pivot Stone”, which will allow them to teleport their forces to invade any planet they choose. Think the Tesseract from Avengers, with a glowing light in the sky. All of these make them pretty effective villains.
As for the mecha in this show, I like how they have different terms depending on who is using them. On Earth, they would call them a Geoframe, Kennosuke calls them a Mukuro, and Efidorg calls them Grongels. It’s a minor detail that I appreciate, as it differentiates them from one another. When it comes to explaining why a world has mecha, I don’t think it should be something like “how are they able to stand up without falling down” or “why don’t they just use jets, tanks, or nukes”. Realistic questions like that just makes discussing mecha pretty boring. For me, I think a good question to ask is, “what led to the creation of these mecha” or “why do certain attacks work and others don’t”. In this show, the reason why the Geoframes were created was because they were based on the Kuromukuro, a machine that lay dormant until Kennousuke awakened it. And the reason why only melee attacks work, is because the Grongels have a Gravitational Field that blocks all ranged attacks. Whether it’s believable or not, I’ll leave up to you. But for me personally, it made the units they pilot more interesting and made the fights more engaging. So overall, I like how they handled it.
Mecha:
Since I got the mecha jargon out of the way, I can talk about the designs themselves. These are some pretty good designs, with some pretty good weapons to boot. It’s just a shame that the Kuromukuro wiki is lacking in details, but that ain’t going to stop me. Starting with the titular Mukuro, the Kuromukuro. Out of every samurai based mecha, this one’s probably the best one. I like the black & red color scheme, broken up with golden bolts. It also has a cube that is essentially a core fighter, that Kennosuke called horse. It only has 2 katanas, but in this case it is appropriate. For starters, the enemy Grongels have a barrier that blocks all ranged attacks, so even if it has some range armaments, it wouldn’t do much anyways. Another reason is because Kennosuke is a trained samurai who only really knew how to use swords. It’s better than the Sengoku Astray, I’ll say that much. Also, I like how it gets a flight pack in the form of the Crow, giving it atmospheric abilities & a Yari spear.
The other Geoframes are pretty cool, namely the GAUS units. Both GAUS 1 & 2 are pretty well designed and I like the blocky look of them. I also like how differently they fight, with GAUS 1 being more mobile and aggressive & mobile, while GAUS 2 is more reserved & durable. They all have about the same loadout; a gatling gun that’s basically useless in this situation, a shield, and some knives. Later on, it gets an explosive spear that becomes more effective against the Grongels. Another thing I like about this show, the mecha grow as they face new challenges. They eventually get a 3rd unit that’s basically the same, but with a broad sword from an enemy unit I’ll talk about later. The Dwarf looks fine with their machine guns & missiles, but they are unfortunately cannon fodder towards the Grongels.
Which leads to the Efidorg’s Grongels themselves. Each of them have a gimmick that makes them a unique challenge for the Geoframes. The Cactus are the basic footsoldiers units with knife hands, but in swarms they’re pretty deadly. The Headless are grunts with the same 2x katanas the Kuromukuro wields, and are also a threat in numbers. As for the general units;
All of the Grongels from Efidorg gives the Geoframes a really good challenge and pushes them to think outside the box. This does everything Aldnoah.Zero failed to do.
Overall, I just really like these designs. They look good, are well equipped, and were framed pretty well in the fight scenes with some good CGI animation. What more can you want? Well……
Ending:
I really like this anime, I really do. But MAAANNN the ending sucked so much. It’s basically the opposite of Gundam 00: Awakening of the Trailblazer, where the ending was so good, it gaslighted everyone into thinking the rest of the movie was good. In Kuromukuro’s case, for the longest time, I thought the ending ruined the anime for me. “How bad was the ending” you may ask? To explain, I have to talk about how the show ends.
It starts with Kuromukuro and the gang finally taking Kurobe Labs back after Efidorg took it over in one of the episodes. It was a really good fight with our heroes using everything they had at their disposal and finally defeating the Efidorgs. However, they learn that the group they were fighting was just a scouting party, and they were using the Pivot Stone to bring in the real army. Since they stopped said army, they won’t be coming for god knows how long. After that, Zell, Muretta, & Kennosuke decided to join the fight. And then after saying their goodbyes to Yukina and their friends, we jump to years later where Yukina and Sophie go into space to join the battle. A battle, WE NEVER FUCKING SEE.
That last part got me genuinely mad. Because they never intended to follow this up beyond a light novel. If you intend to make no more than 26 episodes and have no intention in making a spinoff, then why the fuck would in a goddamn cliffhanger. I haven’t been this mad at an ending since “Things Changed” from Teen Titans. At least that episode had a message for the audience, even though it was a poorly made episode. I know, no one will give a shit about my bitching, but endings stick with you man, there’s no denying that.
Verdict:
In spite of me complaining about the ending, I genuinely think this is a really good show. From the loveable main cast to the really good mecha action, this is one of the highlights of the late 2010’s. I think what I like about this show the most is how it balances some fun mecha action with Slice of Life moments. I’m not sure if we’ll ever get another show like this, but I’m glad we got a gem like this during the “Dark Age of Mecha”.
As someone who's been watching anime for over a decade, it may be a shocker to some that I've never seen My Hero Academia. Some may think it's because "I don't like superheroes", but it's actually the opposite. I love Superheroes; I grew up with the DCAU & both 90's & 2000's Marvel cartoons, I'm practically one the few people who still watches some MCU movies in theaters, Spider-Man PS4 is my all-time favorite games, and so on. So why have I never seen this show? Well for a couple reasons;
So, what's my opinion on this show? Is it as good as people make it out to be? While it's better than I expected, it unfortunately left so much to be desired. It's just…not as good as the stuff I grew up with. There's stuff I like enough for me to consider it passable, but not enough to make me love it. That's the TL;DR, but I'm going into more detail, so don't go bitching about my wall of text. Otherwise, here's my opinions both Season 1 & Season 2
Season 1; While this is where my issues come from, It's a little forgiveable, since it's the beginning of the series. It's just trying to find its footing and setting you up for this world. It does fine for the most part, but it honestly feels a little barebones.
**Plot: **
The story goes, in a world where people with superpowers called “Quirks” are the norm, our protagonist, Izuku Midoriya, has none. All that changed when he encountered his idol, All-Might. Once they formed a bond, not only he shares his secret with him, but also offers him his Quirk, finally granting Midoriya his dream to go to My Hero Academia & become one of the greatest heroes. Sweet story, hits you in the feels at times. There’s stuff I can easily nitpick, but at a macro scale, it’s a pretty competently told story. However, there’s certain aspects I don’t like. While this show prides itself on being a superhero story, it’s lacking in certain aspects. While we see the basic stuff; heroes saving civilians and fighting bad guys, I feel as though it’s lacking in the minor stuff; like the heroes interacting with civilians, preventing massive disasters, or even heroes quipping. Seriously, none of these heroes have any quippy remarks to make. But I’ll talk about that in S2.
But the story itself actually has some decent build up, since it actually has our protagonist earn his powers through a show of determination & real training. I also think that it has emotional moments that feel earned; like All-Might telling Midoriya that he can be a hero and Midoriya actually getting accepted into UA. Those moments where honestly the highlights. This is going to be a common theme on my thoughts on both seasons, but there’s things that this show does well as an anime, but not well enough as a superhero show. The feel good aspects in the story does feel genuine, but the superhero aspects feels too focused on the action for my tastes. Overall, decent story that lacks stuff I want to see in superhero media.
**Characters: **
Honestly, I guarantee that the characters are what people mainly talk about this show. Do I agree? Well to some extent, yes. While I didn’t care too much about all of them, the ones I did really did leave an impression on me. Luckily it’s because of the stellar english voice acting. I don’t care what the stupid Sub-Elitists will say, MHA’s voice acting is one of its strongest aspects. While the dialogue wasn’t always the best, the acting really did improve it. As for the characters themselves, here’s my thoughts on them
Heroes:
I was honestly shocked how much I actually liked Izuku Midoriya. Many people call him a “nothing protagonist”, but he and another character I liked perfectly represent the Superhero aspect I wanted to see more of in this show. While Midoriya started off the show without a quirk, I was engaged with how heroic he was. Him standing up to a bunch of bullies with quirks and even helping one of them when they were being attacked by a villain really made him a capable enough protagonist in my eyes. I also like that he actually has to train hard to earn his quirk from All-Might. My only complaint is that I wish that the notebook he carries was actually used more. Like his whole gimmick is that he studies heroes to learn from them, but that never helped him much outside of a couple scenes. But I think he’s a strongly written protagonist.
Not a lot of heroes in UA were developed much in this season, so I don't really have too much to say about them. The only ones I want to comment on are Uraraka, Iida, and 2 of the Facility members. Ochaco Uraraka was a pretty fun character with gravity manipulation, as she's cheerful & bubbly. I also really like her rapport with Midoriya, as they have some good banter with one another. Tenya Iida had me worried at 1st, as he looked like the stereotypical smartass. But I was honestly surprised at how much I actually liked him. While he's by the book and eager, it remained interesting with his dedication. I also like his Quirk, makes him a more mature speedster, which is an interesting take. There's more students that were fun to watch; like Kirishima, Momo, Asui, and Shoto, they don't get much to do in this season.
Unfortunately, there's 2 students I genuinely couldn't stand; Minita & Bakugo. Minita is pretty obvious, he's an obnoxious pervert who's only desire is to see boobies. Luckily he's barely in the first 2 seasons, so he's pretty forgettable (most of the time). Bakugo is the complete opposite, as he's in the majority of the series, and I can't name a single thing I like about this asshole. He’s cocky, brash, rude, & just an all round psycho. I wouldn't mind that, if he actually grow throughout the show, but he really doesn't. What's worse is that his behavior is rewarded and there's isn't a single moment where that punk gets what's coming to him. But that's about it for the students.
As for the facility, there's 2 I want to highlight; Aizawa (Eraser Head) & Toshinori (All-Might). Shoto Aizawa was pretty interesting to watch as this cynical but sharp teacher who tests the students in many ways. And his Quirk to block someone else's Quirk just by looking at him is also really cool. But my favorite hero and favorite MHA character is without a doubt All-Might. At first, I thought it was going to be a cynical take on “paragon of justice” like we've been getting lately, but he's actually a genuinely good hero. The secret is that his true self is weaker and he's only able to show himself towards people he's close to, which becomes Midoriya. Speaking of which, they're friendship is honestly the best part of the show. All-Might feels like the mentor Midoriya needs, and Midoriya motivates All-Might to be a shining example. These 2 interactions are easily the best part of the show.
Villains:
If I'm being honest, the villains in this season are really forgettable. Like there's only 2 bad guys that actually left an impression, and that's Shigaraki & Kurogiri. Shigaraki for his bitterness & desire to kill All-Might made him somewhat interesting. And his Quirk to disintegrate objects was honestly really cool and made him and actually threat. And Kurogiri has this mysterious vibe with his calculative demeanor. I also think his Quirk to teleport people to other places is cool too. Though most of that is because of his design being sick AF. However, every other villain really didn't left an impression on me. One of the many cracks in Kenji's writing. At least the Nomus were cool and presented an actual challenge to the heroes.
Overall, the cast has their hit or misses. Some are great; like Midoriya, All-Might, Ochaco, & Iida. Some are decent, but forgettable; like the rest of the UA students & the villains. While others genuinely got on my nerves; like Minata & Bakugo. Whoever's your favorite is completely up to you, but that's my opinion on the cast Verdict:
Season 1 does what it sets out to do, introduce us to this new world and get us comfortable with these new characters. How well it succeeds is a matter of personal tastes. But for me, while it did decently well enough, it kinda felt a little underwhelming. Especially the world building, which I'll talk about in S2. While I liked the main character & his idol, his banter with his friends, & some of the feel-good moments in the show, I was just left underwhelmed for the superhero stuff. Like the last few episodes,it was going to have students train to save & protect civilians like actual superheroes, but instead it's just a bunch of D-list supervillains fighting them. The fights were cool, but that's abou. It. As a shonen anime, it's pretty good. But as a superhero show, it's lacking in a lot of areas. Next
Season 2:
Apparently, this is the highest rated season on MAL with a whopping 8.05. So does this mean it's the greatest anime of all time? I'll say this, it's a lot better than S1, but again, not to the point where I was fanning over this show. Hell, the only parts I genuinely enjoyed about it was the middle chunk involving the internship and the majority of the final exam. Otherwise, my opinions on this season are the same as the last season; decent anime, lackluster superhero show. Now it's time to go into more detail
Plot:
This season has like 3 arcs. The 1st one is your stereotypical tournament arc, the 2nd one has the students do some internships, and the 3rd & finally one has them do a final exam, where they fight the teachers. Honestly out these 3 arcs, the tournament arc is easily my least favorite, for 2 reasons; too fucking long & unsatisfying ending. There's moments I like, like when Iida learns about his brother’s accident and Shoto’s messed up backstory. Those where great moments, but it doesn't excuse the lion’s share this arc takes up. And the fact that Bakugo wins really pissed me off.
On the other hand, I really liked the Internship arc, since it puts the students into the field & teaches them about patrolling as a superhero. It also pairs Midoriya with All-Might’s mentor, Gran Torino. And it introduces a pretty good villain for a change. The Finals arc is a take it or leave it scenario, where I liked some parts, but couldn't stand others. Overall, outside of the tournament arc, I was well engaged with certain parts of the plot. Not enough to make it my favorite, but enough to keep me interested for long enough.
Characters:
The characters here are honestly way more interesting here, as they have more to do and are given more screen time. And for once, we actually have a villain with real & understandable motives (maybe generic, but it's something). There's even some new characters to shine. And as always, the English voice acting really carried these characters.
Heroes:
Midoriya is a lot more proactive here and is finally given more chances to show off his Quirk. Speaking of which, I might as well talk about what kind of Quirk it is. “One-for-All” is basically a generational Quirk that increases the user's abilities tenfold. All they need is to take the previous user’s DNA (or in Midoriya’s case, eat All-Might’s hair), along with their consent. I like seeing him struggle at first, since using it greatly damages his body, only to learn to control it a whole lot more. As for Midoriya himself, it's like S1 where he's just really selfless and I just love seeing that in a protagonist. He's just helping in a multitude of ways. Like helping Shoto with his childhood trauma or helping Iida fight a villain when he’s down.
Speaking of which, Tenya Iida is a lot more interesting here. We learn that his family runs a hero business and that he looks up to his brother. So when he learns about the accident that basically ended his superhero career by a psychopath, you want to route for him to get justice. However, I have an issue with how his desire for revenge is handled. Or specifically, how others treated it. When Iida is paired with a professional hero, he tries to stop him from pursuing him, not because it won’t make him feel better, but because it is against the law. Which is fair enough, but I would’ve like if he had a realization that killing the villain that harmed his brother won’t set the heroic example he wants to set. Something like that would’ve been more interesting. I still think Iida is a lot more interesting here.
Ochaka doesn’t really have too much to do, but I like that they expanded on her motivation a little more, as she wants to be a hero to support her family. But the anime doesn’t really have much outside of that. I like that the side characters are expanded a whole lot more, as they have more to do. Momo gets to use her powers, to create things out of thin air, in unique ways. Asui has a solo episode where she stops a bunch of shipjackers. And we get to see more of Kirishima, as he works for a big boss for his internship.
But the character who I think is the most interesting is Shoto Todoroki. For starters, he has a unique combination of both fire & ice powers, but he mainly uses ice powers as his fire power is from his father. That last part is the main talking point, as we see his backstory. His father was an abusive jerk who pushed his son to become stronger to beat All-Might, while also beating his wife for trying to help her son. This leads her to go insane and burn Todoroki’s face with a kettle, hence the scar. This gives him more depth as a character, as you want him to be his own person and break free from his trauma. I also like that it was Midoriya that broke him out of that abusive state of mind, and embraced both sides of himself. And I like that he tried to save Midoriya. Those 2 and Iida were honestly the best characters in this season in my eyes.
The opposite can be said about Mineta and Bakugo. Mineta is an obvious fucking creep, so I have less than nothing to say about him. Bakugo on the other hand earns a spot on my list of most hated anime characters. The only positive I can say is that he actually gets punished in certain parts of the show, like getting thrown into a wrap sheet after the tournament or being tormented by the hero he’s mentoring. Otherwise, I just can’t stand the fucking guy. He doesn't listen to reason, he punches through without thinking about the consequences, and is just an overall rude person. The moment he slapped Midoriya made me want to reach out for the asshole on the screen. But that’s all the students I really have anything to say.
As for the teachers, I’ll say they were pretty interesting. Eraser Head being a cynical teacher was fun to watch, and I like how he tests the students in unique ways. And while I didn’t talk about him in the last season, Present Mic was also a fun watch. I don’t have too much to talk about him as a character, but I like his design as it invokes Jet Set Radio, and his quirk to scream loud is cool too. Similar case to the principle, Nezu, who’s just a smart hamster. That’s just funny to me, I don't know what else to say. Midnight is an interesting character for a couple reasons. 1.) Elizabeth Maxwell does a really good job voicing her, as she matches her seductive demeanor. 2.) He Quirk to disperse sleeping gas is pretty useful and goes well with her fighting style. And 3.) I like how she & Mt. Lady talked about skimpy outfits for superheroines. That’s a pretty meta discussion, but I wished those 2 actually went deep into that and not be a throw away gag. As for All-Might, like last season, he’s the absolute GOAT. I like how he expanded on his backstory more, as he was Quirkless like Midoriya once and he trained under a man named Gran Terrino. He also actually mentors the other students like Shoto and even Bakugo, though you can tell which students he had better luck with. And hanging out with Midoriya will always warm my heart.
Two more heroes I want to talk about are All-Might's mentor Gran Terreno and Shoto’s father, Endevor. Gran Terreno was a fun guy to watch, as he helps Midoriya improve his quirk usage and drops some pieces of wisdom towards him. And this his Quirk to jet through areas is a fun one too. My only nitpick is that he tells Midoriya that he didn’t become a pro hero, because he didn’t want to deal with the “extra work”, when it would've been better if he said that he didn’t want the attention and just wants to be a hero for the sake helping others. That would’ve perfectly tie in to what this season was trying to say. As for the “hero” Endevor, I’ve mentioned this before, but this scumbag beat both Shoto into becoming stronger & his own wife for trying to defend her son. I want to know what the writers were thinking when they made the obvious wife beater bob with fire powers a prominent character, because I’m obviously not going route for a clearly abusive creep who treats like a successor to beat All-Might. But of Endevor & Bakugo (and obviously Mineta), the heroes were honestly quite interesting time around
Villains:
I can’t really say the same about the villains however. They feel very one note and feel like they only exist to give the heroes something to punch. Shigiraki & Kurogiri are basically the same as they were in S1, so I don’t have too much to add. The only villain that was actually interesting, was the new villain Stain. He was the only villain who was even remotely interesting, as he’s the only one who actually serves as a threat. For starters, he’s completely ruthless in his attacks with the amount of times he’ll stab his victims. Sure, a hero can dodge it easily, but that’s where his quirk comes in. He has the ability to paralyze someone by licking their blood. Those traits and his plethora of blades, and we have a deadly foe to deal with. But what makes him a great villain, is his reason for going after heroes. He believes that there’s no true heroes in this world anymore, other than All-Might, and he wants to get rid of all of them. And to be honest, he's not wrong. Most of the heroes we see in this world are basically walking advertisements and only care about the spectacle. With heroes like that, it's kinda hard to tell who's a genuine hero and who's only doing it for fame & glory. The only reason why he wants All-Might to kill him is because he thinks that he's the only “true” hero left.
Unfortunately, all of that comes crashing down when you realize that he's never proven wrong. Not in the way where he's that delusional, but just…no one learns anything. Going back to my Gran Torino point, no one really learns what it truly means to be a hero, let alone called Stan out for his faulty reasoning. And this is where I take issue with Kenji's writing. He introduces a really good concept, but expects the spectacle & aura farming to carry it, instead of actually going deeper with the concept itself. And this is a prime example, where the villain presented a really good point, but everyone solved it with their fists. It's kinda lazy in my eyes, as anything that’s handled with your fists feels shoehorned in. Overall, while I did like Stain as a character, the villains still felt pretty lacklucker in my eyes, as they didn’t have any intrigue that makes a villain interesting. While this show does tease more villains for the next season, let's just say I have no interest whatsoever.
Otherwise, I think the characters are what really keep me somewhat interested in the show. While there were some characters I really didn’t like, The ones I did like were enough for me to keep on staying. They were an improvement from the last season as they had more to do and were a bit more fleshed out. And again, the english voice acting was pretty good.
World Building:
Honestly, while I praised some of the characters in this show, the world they inhabit was what broke the camel’s back in terms of a superhero series. World building in superhero media is what made the stories we see so interesting. Both DC, Marvel, and even Ninja Turtles have such fascinating lore, that it makes the story they’re telling so investing to watch. MHA is just lacking in that area, as there’s not a lot to make it stand out. For starters, I kinda hate the idea that nearly everyone in their world has a quirk. To quote Syndrome “once everyone’s super, no one will be”. If everyone has a quirk, it kind of takes away from the stakes, since everyone can either make a force field or shoot fire. They also don’t explain how humans with no quirks feel about people with quirks. They kinda did that with Midoriya in the S1, but they dropped it immediately. I just think DC & Marvel handled this way better. In the DCAU, a faction called Cadimus is formed out of fear of Metahumans turning against them after learning about an evil version of the Justice League in an alternate universe that took over the world. Marvel has humans forming a prejudice against mutants, to the point where they create giant robots that hunt down mutants in the form of the Sentanels. MHA doesn’t need to follow those examples, but doing something with non-powered heroes would’ve been interesting.
I also wonder if there’s anyone who got their powers through an accident, like a radioactive spider-bite, gamma radiation, a trip to space, or super soldier serum. Going back to the civilians, there’s also rarely moments between the heroes and the civilians. Outside of Midoriya’s mom & All-Might’s detective’s friend Naomasa Tsukauchi (I actually like him & All-Might’s rapport), there’s barely any civilians who actually interact with the heroes in a meaningful way. The closest we got was that coast guard congratulating Asui from saving the day & Bakugo scaring a bunch of kids. I just think back at any super hero media that utilizes the civilians in a meaningful way; Like in Spider-Man 2 with Aunt May & the Train Passagers Peter saved, in Batman Begins with that little boy who Bruce gave one of his gadgets to, hell, even the MCU is loaded with moments like that. Again, I felt like MHA is lacking in that area.
There’s UA, but I don’t really have too much to say, other than the facilities that test their super powers and that stadium. It’s basically just a Japanese High School you’ve seen a million times with the Danger room slapped onto it. I know I’ve been negative about this part of the anime, but there’s certain aspects I actually do like. Like the students making their costumes, choosing their hero names, and you know, the action is pretty good. I also like the friendship between All-Might & Naomasa, as it reminds me of Batman and Commissioner Gordan.
Overall, I just don’t find MHA that interesting in terms of world building, as other super hero stuff has done what it did but better. I get that it’s trying to be more small scale, but it just feels limited in that regard. I think that fight scenes are good enough and the quirks used in pretty unique ways, but that’s all I can really say. I’ve saved the world building section for S2, because it was basically non-existent in the last season. But otherwise, I’m just not impressed
Verdict:
Was this wall of text that not a lot of people are gonna read a way to say that I'm not a fan of MHA? Not exactly, as there’s more to it than that. As a shounen anime, it's alright. It’s good enough for me to see the reason for the popularity. However, I wasn’t watching it as someone who likes anime. It’s just that I was watching this show as someone who grew up with superhero media my whole life. With that lens, I realize that, while you can tell that Kenji’s a massive fan of superheroes, his heart is kinda in the wrong place as it lacks what made superheroes so interesting.
While most of us are going through “superhero fatigue” because of how Disney monopolized Marvel, I feel as though that superheroes can still be cool if handled well. I could just think “man, superheroes were cool”. And I’m not just talking about the live-action stuff. I remember that tender moment in Batman: The Animated Series where Bruce saved one Mr.Freeze’s goons from succumbing to hyperthermia, Scott helping his childhood friend who’s running an orphanage in X-Men the Animated series, Leonardo going through an arc where he tries let go of his trauma, and that ending of PS4 Spider-Man where Peter let Aunt May go to save the city from the virus made me really teary-eyed.
Just watching MHA really made me appreciate the stuff I grew up with, but made me realize how Japan handles Superheroes really doesn’t hold a candle to what I see. Maybe some Japanophile will write a long rant on how they feel the opposite, but I really don’t care. If you like this show, more power to you. I’ll just to the western stuff to get my superhero fix.
Anime from top left to bottom right:
During the mid 2010’s, we Mecha fans entered a period I like to call, “The Dark Age of Mecha”. Where shows with giant bipedal robots were harshly overlooked by the next Isekai anime that conquered our attention spans at this point of time. While there were still some great shows like Iron Blooded Orphans, SSSS. Gridman, and even Knights & Magic (When in Rome), there were a handful of Mecha that either flopped hard; Aldnoah.Zero, Macross Delta, and Infinite Staros, or were forgotten as time went on; like Gargantia, Buddy Complex, and Majestic Princes. But there's one that isn't talked about as much. One where you don't see many analysis videos, retrospectives, or straight up reviews about how it's an unheard gem or getting ripped to shreds. And that anime is 2014’s Captain Earth (not the environmental cartoon I've never heard of).
Everytime I mention this anime, people typically go, “huh, what”? And what's weirder is that, despite After War Gundam X being my 1st anime, Captain Earth was the first one I actually finished. This was the 1st anime I've finished in 2015. A couple years later, after watching this anime after a long time, I'm really surprised how much I still like it. Unlike Aldnoah.Zero that I grew to despise as time goes on, I still have a soft spot for this anime after all these years. Granted, I now recognize its faults as an adult after seeing over 200 titles. So let's take a look at this underrated gem and see its merits and demerits.
A teenage boy by the name of Daichi Manatsu goes to Tanegashima for the summer after seeing a news report of a circular shaped rainbow floating over the island. A phenomenon that reminded him of his friend, Teppei Arashi, a boy with powers he met in an abandoned warehouse when he was little. While there he gets a mysterious weapon called a Livlaster that allows him to pilot the towering weapon, The Earth Engine Impacter. With this, he must defend Earth from extraterrestrial beings known as the Planetary Gears. It's a pretty straight forward plot that goes for the typical villain of the week format. The Planetary Gears try to attack Earth, Daichi has to stop them. It gets a little more complicated when we get more Kill-T-Gang members, when a new faction comes into play, & the lore behind all of these factions gets unveiled.
This anime does have enough down time to learn more about our characters and I do like the summer time stuff. The only problems I can think of are with the villains, but I'll get to that later. It's a simple story, but a decent one at least. I can at least vibe out to the summer time stuff.
The one thing I'm surprised no one ever talks about with this anime, is the characters. You may think the reason is because they're forgettable, and I disagree. They're just filled with quirks, personality, and depth that I'm surprised that no one even brought this up. Ok, not everyone sticks the landing, but the ones who do really left an impression.
But let's start with the Globe crew with the main boy Daichi Manatsu. Out of all of the Mecha protagonists who came out this era, Daichi was the one that many forgot about. Which Is a fucking shame since he's a pretty funny character. He's a pretty dorky character who gets himself into odd situations and just goes along with it. Like, he's given a gun, told to pilot a Mecha, and just goes along with it. Of course he's awkward about it at first, but he still does it anyway. He has enough quirks to make him stand out of the usual blank slate MC trope.
In contrast, we have his buddy Teppei Arashi who's more quiet and reserved. He's the more reasonable one with him once being part of the enemy team, and he does care about his friends a lot. So much so that he sacrificed his powers in order to become human. I also did get a kick out of his & Daichi’s bromance, like this game they play which is essentially a dick measuring contest to see who can pull off the best stunts in exchange for a necklace.
Hana Mutou is a pretty docile character who finds comfort in her friends. Makes sense since her whole existence is to wield a gun for people who can’t, so she charises the people who view her as a person instead of a weapon. Speaking of which, I think her relationship with Daichi works just fine. It doesn’t feel forced as I can see why she would fall for Daichi, as he was the 1st person who views as an actual person instead of the weapon her creators view her as. The next character is honestly some I guarantee most of you have seen if you ever had a belly button fetish, Akari Yomatsuri. Ms. Belly Button Forte herself is a little bundle of joy who provides a lot of the show’s comedic moments, like calling out her dad’s relationship with his co-workers or just pushing Daichi’s buttons with her own belly button magic. Despite being the comic relief, she still helps her team in many situations, like helping Daichi in his 1st fight or just straight hacking Australia (that part really got a massive laugh out of me). However, I felt her relationship with Teppei felt a little undercooked since they didn’t really have too much in common. The chemistry was there, I just wish they had more time together, like that time they had to break out his deadbeat dad. But that’s just me.
I think the Midsummer Knights are honestly the best group of characters since they interact like best friends during the summer. They have chemistry with one another and the dynamic is always different depending on the duo present: Daichi x Teppei: bromantic, Hana x Akari: girls night out, Daichi x Akari & Teppei x Hana: brother & sister like dynamic, Daichi x Hana & Teppei x Akari: Highschool sweetheart.
Too bad this chemistry doesn’t really apply to the adult characters. The members at the Tanegashima base aren’t necessarily bad characters, they just don’t have much to do outside of providing exposition. Nishikubo Tsutomu is fine, as he’s a genuinely good guy as he treats both Daichi (his nephew), Teppei, & Hana as they’re his own kids, he has a nice back & forth with his daughter & co-workers, and has quite a few moments of vulnerability like fearing Daichi might go down the same road his father did. But characters like Peter Westvillage & Rita Hino are just sorta there. They’re just his work colleagues and not much else. Sander & Trias aren’t worth talking about as they never serve much relevance to the plot outside of doing their 9-5 when they’re not playing Galaga or something. There’s also the Globe group in space in a station called “Tenkaido”, but there’s only like three. Tsubaki Yomatsu is Tsutomu’s ex-wife & Akari’s mom who works in space. There are some moments where she interacts with her ex-husband and when she acts like a mother towards Hana, but that’s about it. She barely interacts with either Daichi or Teppai and we never really know why she even divorced Tsutomu to begin with. Is it for work reasons? Did they have a fight? They seemed to be on good terms, so probably not. So she doesn’t really have much of a character. Mia & Rena are just Sander & Trias again, but now horny for Teppei, so I won’t even bother. The Globe characters are decent characters, with the Midsummer Knights being the highlight, but some just lack the proper screen time to have their personalities fully flourish.
The Planetary Gears on the other hand are a little more divisive. The 1st pair we meet are Amara & Moco (aka sexy team rocket). Amara is just your generic bad guy who views humanity as nothing more than a power source. He’s responsible for the death of Daichi’s father and for that big crystal on the moon, two things that never really become relevant again. I think out of all of the Planetary Gears, he's easily the weakest one in terms of character. Moco on the other hand is loaded with personality, she's more energetic and seductive. Between the two, I've found myself more invested in her than in Amara. I also do like this subtle trait where she grows to appreciate Earth and finally destroys her own Ego cube.
It's kinda ironic that the weakest part of the show spawned better characters than the main 2, as the rest of the Planetary Gears are honestly more interesting. They started off as regular people with normal lives, but once they remember that they're the bad guys they show off a darker side to them. Zin started off as a casino worker who had dreams of becoming a photographer, but then becomes more daring & arrogant as he gambles with people’s lives, including his own. Ai is a pop idol who was pretty insecure, who pretended to be cheerful & lively as a mask for her fans. And then once she awakens, she becomes more playful with her enemies while retaining her love for her fans. Lin is a competitive soul with an obsession with speed (kinda reminds of that TNBA episode with that rocket lady). Her personality remains intact and just becomes more aggressive. Baku’s origin story is a little more complicated & dark as he was taken in for Child trafficking, adopted by a Yakuza boss to protect his daughter, watched them die in a boat explosion, and is forced into an underground ring. His awakening kinda took too long and the “ghost Yakuza” subplot is sorta meaningless since it doesn't get brought up again. At least his character is pretty neat, as he's pretty reserved and just wants to protect the girl he loves. He only really rejoins the Gears out of grief after losing her. I honestly think Setsuna is the most interesting as she's the only sense of reason in the group. She started off as a lively & happy teen who loves to swim & view nature. She's also the one I feel the most bad for, as she learned the hard way that her caretaker was only using her, giving her trust issues towards other people. She becomes more cold, but still has some form of remorse towards humanity.
As characters, they're fine and they have enough personality to make them interesting, but not much else. They don't really parallel the heroes all that much and their motivation is to just destroy Earth. I'll get more into them as a group, but I just enjoy them as characters. The only characters left to talk about are the people at Macbeth, it's just a short list. Masaki Kube is just the company owner who's basically the easily manipulated dad who doesn't really serve much purpose. His secretary, Hitomi Makini, is basically smug when the kids get in trouble. There's not a whole lot I can comment on. And their relationship is just meh. Finally, we have Puck the AI. I honestly feel like his inclusion feels out of nowhere as he really does manipulate both Kube & the Planetary Gears and take over his body. That last part he's just so he can bang every woman in the company. As for his true intentions…..I dunno. Take over the world I guess? He never really made his intentions clear as just controlling people for no apparent reason and then tries to destroy Earth by turning into a TG Caption & possessing Hana. He just exists to be an ERJB, you can take him out entirely and nothing will change. I'm not gonna bother with Salty Dog until the world building section, they have little to personality themselves. I'm not gonna bother with the civilians either as they don't really have much weight on the plot at all.
Saying that these characters are divisive would be an overstatement as there was rarely a character I straight up hated. The only one I hated was Reito Hirosue for forcing those kids to wear torture headphones, manipulating Daichi into fighting in a damaged Mecha, kidnapping Hana twice, and threatening to blow up Tenkaido. But that's the only one I hated. Everyone else was just meh at worst and really likable at best. The Midsummer Knights were a really likable foursome with real chemistry and even the Planetary Gears had enough quirks to make them interesting. So overall, a very quirky cast of characters.
This is where all the criticisms come from, as the world of Captain Earth is not well defined to say the least. It's not as confusing as G-Reco or as frustrating as Aldnoah, but it has some holes here & there. For starters it doesn't really expand on the Japanese island of Tanegashima. Usually anime or any Japanese media promotes certain prefectures in Japan; Okinawa in Yakuza 3, Hokkaido in the recent Hokkaido Gals are Super Adorable anime, Totori in that one episode of Uzaki Chan Wants to Hang Out, etc. Even Ghost of Tsushima promotes Tsushima to a certain extent, and that was a game made in the US. But here, Tanegashima isn't really promoted as much. The Midsummer Knights spend more time in Tokyo than in Tanegashima. Such a shame too, cuz there aren't any videos highlighting the attractions on the island, nothing from Abroad in Japan, Only in Japan, Paolo from Tokyo, or those silent channels. Has anyone even gone to Tanegashima? Cuz it could surely use some PR.
But enough on Japanese propaganda, what about the world of Captain Earth itself? Well… that's a whole can of worms that sorta messes up the anime. Not because these were bad ideas, but how they were presented. For starters, at the start of the anime it was revealed that Amara in his Mecha form made a giant crystal on the moon, as I stated earlier. Apparently, it killed a couple of people and they basically hid it from the public. And how the fuck is that possible, THERE'S A GIANT ASS PINK CRYSTAL ON THE FUCKING MOON. And since the moon can turn by itself, there's no way no one wouldn't notice that.
There's also the finer details like how did the relatives of the dead not know about the accident, something like that isn't something that's easy to cover up. And that's just the start of the anime, what about everything else? Well, to get to that, we have to get into the factions. For Globe, there’s not much to them outside of being a space exploration company that defends Earth from the Planetary Gears. Not much is expanded on them, outside of having some bases on Tanegashima, Australia, and space with Tenkaido. Their bosses, Saltydog, aren't really the most interesting bunch either. The only part I find interesting is the fact that Tsutomu actually has some beef with them and is exercising his authority as head of Globe. Like banning their torture headphones & straight up cutting ties with them.
But outside of that, they feel like an afterthought compared to the real villains. And their true goals are kinda stupid too. Their goal is to put a select number of people in the Tenkaido, put them in stasis, nuke the earth to kill the Kill-T-Gang, and then release them after the bombardment is over. Yeah, it’s a stupid plan, what can I tell you. What’s worse is that they’re so hellbent on stopping the Midsummer Knights just because they can’t have children running their operations. Again, these guys aren’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
Speaking of the Midsummer Knights, we gotta talk about them guns. The Livlaster are basically just laser guns that function like those G-Cons from AWGX, but they not only serve as keys to the Mechs, they also provide them power as well. They can also function as regular laser guns as well. Daichi's Livlaster can just shoot a regular laser (& auto aim I guess), Teppei's can create a shield, & Hana’s can shoot curved beams. I honestly wished there were more gunfights in the anime to see what these guns can really do.
Now onto the real villains of the anime, The Planetary Gears. From what I gather, they’re a group of space vampires that suck a lifeform’s “Orgone Energy” (don’t ask me what that is). In their avatar form, they have a vast assortment of abilities; telepathy through kissing, tracing, telekinesis, and immortality. Honestly, while serving perfectly fine as antagonists, most of their lore is kinda confusing. They can do these random things and have a self-explanatory goal, but there’s barely a moment where we grasp the depth of the lore. It’s also ever explained how the Planetary Gears got a hold of these Avatar forms; did it happen when they interacted with Orgone Energy? Did they pick them randomly like ghosts? You guesses are as good as mine. There’s also the streak of episodes that has them getting the old gang back together, which is many considered the weakest part of the anime since it took too long. The characters were interesting, sure, but wouldn’t it be better if they just got them together in the beginning..
And then the final faction is Macbeth, but all they do is provide the Planetary Gears with their equipment and not much else outside of being exposed for creating designer children. There’s also some nickpicks to the lore that I’m gonna make; like if gambling is illegal in Japan, why is there a casino in Odaiba that’s available to the public. Same thing for that underground ring that Rita somehow knows about. Also, where the fuck did Akari got that stack of dough to bribe that black man. And before I forget, there’s one last piece of lore that was never really explained or expanded upon, and that’s the blue haired child with the flute that gave Daichi, Teppei, & Hana Uzaki the Livlaster. Her backstory was never explained, her goals were never clear, and she was never even given a name. Which is strange, since she’s the backbone of most of the events of the anime. But that’s about it for world building. Some of these ideas don’t sound bad on paper, and if executed differently, it could’ve made the world way more interesting. The real issue is that the anime either barely elaborates on the lore or just leaves out information entirely, kinda like G-Reco. But unlike Tomino’s confusing passion project, there’s at least some info that’ll give you the basics to help you follow along. So overall, world building could use some work. But it’s still better than Aldnoah.Zero’s world building.
Safe to say that the Mecha design definitely slaps here. Accompanied by the greatest combination sequence (that’s probably expensive) and great action that’s helped by the amazing animation, the mecha really did carry this anime. Shigeto Koyama, Masaki Asai, and the underrated king Takayuki Yanasei really cooked with these designs and brought their mad designer skills to the table.
But let's start with the machines from Globe, with the poster boy himself, the Earth Engine. And can I just say that I love the color scheme on this thing. Something about that red, white, & blue with orange parts just makes a patriotic part of my brain so happy. But the design is a good balance of armored defense with its bulky exterior & nimble mobility the amount of thrusters it has. It also has some pretty decent weapons as well. A head cannon that would make the ZZ Gundam blush, 2x arm mounted guns, and 2x chest vulcans. It also uses its fists as melee weapons. Next we got the big blue himself, the Nebula Engine. This one’s a lot more focused on its 2x arm cannons that can shoot massive beams, create 2x energy blades, or create 2x shields that can take a square like shape or an orb to protect its allies. Its design is pretty similar to that of the Earth Engine, it just now has those long antennas. Both engines also used a weapon called the Pasmagnum, which is a rideable gun that has a pretty powerful blast. And finally we got the very red Flare Engine that has 2x cannons that are 3x stronger than regular cannons. It’s such a shame that the Flare only appeared once, as it probably would’ve made for a good unit for the backlines while the boys are handling the front. Speaking of teamwork, each Engine has a small mecha inside of them called “Ordinary”, which are basically like Core blocks from Gundam, but in mecha mode. Design wise, they look okay, but they leave a lot to be desired when it comes to the armaments department. All it has are 2x beam pistols and that’s it. Couldn’t they have beam gauntlets or small back beam cannons? Either way, Globe has some pretty decent designs, well symmetrical and well equipped (for the most part).
The Mecha on the Planetary Gear’s side on the other hand are more on the weird side of things. They’re still pretty well designed, but are just on the more unconventional side of things. The 1st Kill-T-Gang we see in action is Malkin, a hit & run type machine that excels in long range combat and high mobility. It can shoot beams out of its hands & can hack Globe’s unmanned impactors. Despite it's odd feminine design, I do love it's role as a high mobility machine with a specialty on ranged combat. The Planetary Gears also have landed based Mechs called Machine Goodfellows. Funny thing, both the subtitles & the wiki calls them “mobile suits”. I mean, the term “Kidou Senshi” has become so synonymous with try that word that it checks out. Whether or not it can go up against a mobile suit, I'll leave up to you. As for the Machine Goodfellow “Moukouto Usagi”, it's a pretty decent design. It still resembles Malkin with those wings acting like antennas. And its Submachine gun arms perfectly fit that role of hit & run. Next we got the Amarok, a close range machine made to fit Amara’s aggressive fighting style. He can make some gear style bouncing pads & generate shields. He can also shoot lasers, but that's only in the 1st opening and not in the actual anime itself. I honestly like the aggressive looking design, making it look more deadly. It's Machine Goodfellow on the other hand kinda looks a little basic. All it really has is a rifle and that's about it. It looks fine, it's like something ripped out of Virtual-On. And before I talk about the other Kill-T-Gangs & Machine Goodfellows, I gotta talk about the Ego Cubes. These are essentially where all of their power is stored and what gives them power. They're basically like a Core Block, but more powerful. And these things can't be destroyed until the user themselves willingly does it. Neat idea, since it justifies why they keep appearing. As for the other Mecha, outside of 2 of them, the rest are pretty great.
So that’s all of the Kill-T-Gangs, but there’s more mechanics to discuss. Like Globe’s unmanned impactors, they just shoot missiles and that’s it. But the Cerberus ones from Salty Dog can teleport & shoot lasers, which is pretty neat though. Salty Dog also got some big unmanned impactors too, with some of them looking like they came from a fucking shooting up game. There’s not a whole lot I can comment on. The final mecha is the mama jamba herself, Robin Goodfellow. And this thing is massive, like Galactis or Unicron huge. Giant arm spears, cross beams, armor as thick as Hana (both Mutou & Uzaki), and some inner defensive measures, this thing screams ERJB (Evil Robot Jeff Bridges).
And that’s all the mecha in Captain Earth, every since of one of them. Say what you want about the anime itself, but these designs are honestly really top tier. While not all of them were winners, the ones that were sure as hell made a nice impression. There’s a reason why the Earth Engine used to be my profile pic. So overall, great designs all around.
The ending was honestly really great, albeit a little bitter sweet. We have Daichi in his Earth Engine busting into Robin Goodfellow with the 1st opening Believer’s High blasting through the background (that opening slaps BTW). He sacrifices every piece of his Impactor to get through the defense systems, only leaving his Earth Ordinary left for him to use. Once he reaches Hana, he saves her true love’s kiss. They then destroy Puck & Robin Goodfellow by crossing the streams. But as they were about to escape, Puck has the last laugh and traps both of them in the explosion. You would think that they would’ve instantly died from that, and I thought that for a while. But then I remember “Entangled Link”, which is what allowed Teppei to survive a Pasmagnum blast when Daichi was forced to shoot at a bunch of space debris, & what allowed Daichi to teleport to Robin Goodfellow. And at the end, we see Daichi & Hana with a damaged Earth Engine Ordinary somewhere. When I was a kid, I thought it was some interpretation of Heaven. But with “Entangled Link” in mind, they might have teleported at the last minute & ended up in some unknown area. But “it’s up for interpretation”, I’m sorry I just have to.
Tossing nostalgia goggles aside, this anime does admittedly have a handful of problems. The plot is a little too reliant on the villain of the week format, some elements of the world don't really make sense in the grand scheme of things, and…. That’s it. No joke, those are my only issues with the anime. Everything else ain’t half bad. The characters are really lively, have chemistry with one another, the mechanical designs are pretty good with some great action (even though some scenes use a little work), and the summer aesthetic really does make it feel like a summer anime. So it has a lot going for it. A lot more than Aldnoah.Zero.
Speaking of which, how would I compare those two? Between an anime that I would rather go through again and the anime I don’t even want to think about again? I would pick Captain Earth, Hands Down. I think Aldnoah is the most hateable of the bunch because it tries way too hard to be like other mecha and has boring ass characters that we couldn’t care less about. BTW for everyone in my Aldnoah.Zero saying that I don’t like this anime because “It wasn’t Gundam enough”...you know, there’s like 5 other mecha anime I liked that are nothing like Gundam. So try harder, prove me wrong, gimme a legitimately good reason why Aldnoah.Zero doesn’t suck (and don’t bother bringing up the music).
Captain Earth meanwhile is just more fun to watch and has more likable characters & mecha action that feels smooth. I just can’t really bring myself to hate this anime. It’s kinda like that show/movie you watched as a kid that you really enjoyed, and despite learning about the hate it gets over the years you still love it, flaws and all. That’s basically me with Captain Earth. It’s not a perfect series, but it has some good moments. If only it wasn't forgotten by time. So overall, decent summer anime to watch with a cold ramune & some ramen.
Aldnoah. Zero is the most disappointing thing since my birth. I'm surprised there's barely anyone who trashed this anime to death already, but I'm here to perform the task. Because I DO NOT LIKE THIS ANIME, I barely like it ironically. This isn't a guilty pleasure anime, cuz I don't feel any pleasure anytime I watch or think about it, only guilt. You have to be gullible to think this anime is good. I know this, because I was gullible. I remember watching this during middle school when I just started to watch anime, and I was pretty invested to some degree. Militaristic Mecha fighting alien Mecha, that concept alone interested my newbie weeb brain. And I love Mecha bro, I've loved it way before I began watching anime. And then High School came around and Darling in the Franxx became popular, instantly making this anime obsolete as A-1’s best Mecha (keep in mind: this was way before 86 came out). And once I rewatched Aldnoah, I was like “Jesus Christ, WHAT DID I LIKE ABOUT THIS ANIME”. That's when I realized I didn't really liked this anime, that it's dumb and it's filled shit I don't like. Once my generation realized this, there was peace in the Mecha community for a brief time as we were enjoying new Mecha shows. There was no more war, we as a community have moved beyond this anime, we solved the gunpla shortage, everything was at peace. And then Darling in the Franxx ended in a not so good way.
AND NOW, YOU PEOPLE ARE CALLING AD GOOD? WHEN THE FUCK DID WE GO BACK TO THIS? I've seen so many people unironically defend this anime and shit on other anime like Ren-a-Girlfriend, even though it has the same problems, anime with bad writing and worse characters. But people say Aldnoah.Zero is redeemed, because it's better than Darling in the Franxx. Now 1st of all, Darling in the Franxx ain't even that bad. I don't love everything about it, but I can't legitimately call it a bad anime. I have full respect for Mecha fans who hate Aldnoah and Darling, that's completely understandable. What hurts me is when people say DitF is bad, and AD isn't. And before you say “at least it's a realistic view of the Mecha genre”, I'll say “WHO THE FUCK SAYS THAT”. Being realistic isn't enough to be good, and besides, an anime can be unrealistic and be really good. Gurren Lagann has nothing realistic about it and yet it's the best anime out there, everyone loves it. Aldnoah.Zero is a realistic look between real and super robot, yes. But it's not done well at all. If you think I'm gonna be praising these 2 short seasons, then I'm sorry, you people don't know me very well. Maybe we can be friends in another lifetime. Cuz now, imma take this anime down a peg, cuz I hate them and when people don't agree with me I get uncomfortable.
But before I tear this anime apart, I might as well talk about the stuff I do like. It's not the worst anime ever so it gotta have some redeeming qualities, right? (*Let's see*, I like the music a lot). Side note: everything positive I'm gonna say has a huge “but” in the end
And that's it for praise, this anime fails at every single level of storytelling. It just goes downhill from here. However, I'm gonna use a bunch of Mecha anime (mainly Gundam) and even SAO as a comparison (you'll find out why soon.)
Season 1:
You know how a variety Mecha (or just any anime in general) explains their world in the 1st 2 minutes of the anime? With the OG Gundam it explains what started the One Year War, Sword Art Online showed us a kid entering the Virtual world, Code Geass explains how Britainia took over Japan, etc. It tells us everything we need to know about the world we are about to enter. And how does Aldnoah start? I guy talking about Earth to a blonde lady and then it pans out to a spaceship with no explanation. This sets the tone of the anime, IT'S FUCKING UNINVESTING. It doesn't give us a reason to get invested in this world or its characters who we just met. We don't even know what's going on until later in the episode when we're given some lazy exposition.
As for the plot itself, I'm gonna be honest, I never knew the plot of the anime. Sure, you can just say “it's just about people fighting aliens in giant robots'', but I'm pretty sure there's a better way to explain it. So what I got, is after a planned assassination towards the Princess of the Vers, Asseylum Vers Allusia, the Vers Martian Empire uses this as an excuse to launch a full on tantrum on Earth and our cardboard standees have to fight to survive. Now the 1st question on my mind is, why does Mars want to attack Earth? Well I hope you're ready to die with that question in mind, because this anime is gonna answer that question for you. None of the Martians ever give a solid reason why they hate humans so much or why they need to conquer Earth. They're just mindlessly evil, and it's ok for an anime to have the usual hammy mustache twirling villain, especially in Mecha. But this is an anime that's trying to be as serious as other real mecha that came before, that had way more compelling villains with understandable motivations. Take Zeon for example from Gundam, they're going to war with the Earth Federation for independence for the space colonies. They may have done some fucked up shit, but at least you understand their reasoning. But in this anime, there's no solid reason as to why they're doing this. Sure, they say that they want Earth’s resources, however none of us ever get a sense of why they need it. We don't see any other Martians suffering without those resources or even see them hating Earth that much. There's more that sucks about the Martians, but I'll save that for later along with how most of the human characters aren't that good either.
But for now, let's the concept of Militaristic Mecha forced to fight Super Mecha. It's a cool concept on paper, but I feel this anime doesn't pull it off as well as it could've. The 1st few minutes of the 2nd episode really did a good job as establishing the Martians as a threat and the fights are strategically well planned out. But the more I think about it, the 1st 2 Kataphraks would have easily been dealt with in another way, and I'll get to that later. But ya, I found the plot held back by the really poor writing.
I'm starting off with the main character himself, Inaho Kaisaka. And I have something to say, whenever people call Kirito a boring character, remember that Inaho exists. He only has one facial expression, and it never changes. At least Kirito shows emotions throughout SAO and actually has interests in the series. What does Inaho have that shows he has human emotions? Even when his fucking friend dies RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM, he keeps a straight face during and after his death. If that doesn't cement how emotionless he is, then I don't know what will. He doesn't care about his sister, his friends, hell, it doesn't even look like he even cares about the war going on. I don't mind stoic protagonists, I just stated that Kirito is fine, as he still has moments where he cares about the people and the world around him in both the virtual world and real world. But this isn’t the case for Inaho, he just has zero emotions.
And I haven't even gotten to the rest of the Terrain characters. Outside of Marito and Calm, who would've worked as great characters if they were better used in a better anime, the majority of the characters have barely any chemistry with each other. Zero, I mean no chemistry. We don't care about these characters and we're supposed to be rooting for them to survive. They only exist to tell us about what’s going on in the war and how powerful the Martians are. They don't talk about how they feel or how much this war is taking a mental toll on them.
I think that's why Marito and Calm are the only characters I thought had potential. Marito has experience fighting the Martian and has trauma from it, so it would've been interesting if he's forced to confront his past. As Calm, he's the only one who shows actual hate towards the Martians and unlike the Martians (who only hate Terrains because they're told to), he has actual reasons why. His home was destroyed and his best friend was killed by the Martians, so it's more understandable. So it would’ve been interesting if he found out if the Princess was alive and learns to let go of his hate. I honestly think that Marito and Calm should've been the main characters instead of Inaho, and have this mentor and student dynamic where they learn from one another. Magbaredge is another character who I thought would've been cool if she was given more to do. She could've been like Sumeragi from Gundam 00, where she's fighting against her past demons, or in this case Marito’s. She reveals that she's the sister of the soldier that Marito forcibly killed. This could've been a really good arc where Magbaredge learns to forgive Marito.
And then we have the Martians, both good and bad. Let's go with good Martians, Slaine Troyard and Princess Asseylum. With them being the 1st characters to appear 1st in the series, you'll think that the anime would focus on giving them some interesting traits to make us invested in them. And yet, none have any traits that make them interesting. And I know that people say that Slaine is the only good character, but only because he has an actual motivation to save the princess. Outside of that, all he does is do what his bosses tell him to do while being abused by him. The moment when he helped Inaho fight against one of the Martians, I thought he would’ve joined them to take on the landing castle. But no, he gets shot down, tortured by his abusive boss, gets saved by Sazbone, and joins him for no reason. And he doesn’t get any better as we see in season 2. And trust me, I’ll get to that soon, VERY SOON.
But now let's move onto the next “good” Martian, Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia. But before that, there’s something I want to say, her loli maid, Eddeolrittuo, is the most annoying character in the anime and doesn’t need to exist. But on to Asseylum, and as a princess character, I think she is probably the worst one I've seen so far. She’s so gullible and arrogant, that it’s so unbearable. After seeing Martians more than willing to kill humans and seeing that her OWN PEOPLE wanted her dead, she still thinks that there’s still a chance for people to get along with the people of Earth. To the point where she makes a really dumb decision that leads to the last safe place on Earth to be attacked and destroyed. Also, they forced her in this love triangle between Inaho and Slaine, but not only it doesn’t work, but it also becomes meaningless in season 2 (trust me, season 2 fucks up a lot of shit).
Before I move on, I want to bring up Kudelia from Iron Blooded Orphans for comparison. She starts off similarly to Asseylum in the beginning of the anime, where she thinks that once she gives her speech, everything will be better. But there’s one major difference, Kudelia eventually learns that not only people from Mars are suffering, but also people around space are suffering as well. She finally gets shit done and calls out Gjallarhorn for the shady shit they’ve been doing. If Asseylum had a similar arc, she would’ve been a way better character.
Now onto the bad guys, and all you need to know is that they hate Terrains. That’s it, that’s their only personality trait and we don’t learn anything else about them. They are just cartoonishly evil, to the point where we can’t even view them as actual villains. To the point where the Orbital Knights were forgettable, to the point where their mecha are the only memorable thing about them. Count Cruhteo and Lord Saazbaum are the only recurring villains and they aren’t that different, with Cruhteo being a slight but not so good exception. Sure, he tries to help the princess eventually, But that was after he constantly abused Slaine, dropped his landing castle onto Japan, and tortured him for info. So it was not only very rushed, but also some wasted potential. He should’ve been someone who grew to see how immoral Martian’s invasion is and how he grew to see both Terrains & Martians as similar. And then there’s Lord Saazbaum, where they tried and failed to make his motivations understandable. He shows Slaine this PowerPoint of Martians hating Earth, while giving exposition explaining how Earth won’t share their resources. This honestly feels kinda weak, because we don’t see any of the Terrains rejecting them. I also found his other reasoning for hating Earth really dumb. His girlfriend dies while on a mission and now he blames Terrains for it. And want to know how she dies? Because the portal on the moon blows up and the falling debris kills her. If one of the Earth soldiers actually got a shot off of her, then I would’ve bought it. But her death was caused because of the arrogance of the Martians thinking their hot shit. Saazbaum should’ve been mad at the Vers for sending them on this mission. And he doesn’t become any more interesting as the series goes on.
So ya, the cast of characters on both the good and bad side really drags this anime down. They don't develop at all and don’t have anything interesting about them. If they were given any motivations, arcs, or personalities, we might have cared a little more. But no, these characters are very forgettable. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
With it being a Mecha anime, you'll think the world building would be interesting, right? Unfortunately, it's handled pretty poorly. There's so much shit that doesn't make any sense. Like the assassination itself. For starters, why didn't they just plant a bomb under the limo instead of putting a rocket launcher into a public parking lot? That place was very conspicuous and could've been easily witnessed by anyone. Also out of the multiple soldiers with guns, none of them bothered intercepting those missiles. And trust me, this is only scratching the surface. Now let's talk about how the United Forces of Earth (UFE for short) handles the threat. When it comes to the Martian Kataphraks, I understand why they have a hard time dealing with them. They have far more advanced Mecha and have plenty of time for preparation, that I understand. What I don't understand is why they didn't counter the missiles while they were in the air. They could've prevented severe damage to their communication systems , especially since they already had jets in the air.
Another thing that bugged me was the Aldnoah Drives themselves, since we're never explained how they work. All we know is that only people with the Vers bloodline, along with the Orbital Knights who swore their devotion to them. But, how exactly does that work? Especially since Slaine’s dad was the one who made them. So why would he make it so only one person and his family can use it? Overall, there's so much that doesn't make any sense in the world, to the point where I can't even get invested. Maybe I'm missing something, feel free to call me out for it (just be civil about it)
As I said before, the Mecha designs on the Terrain Kataphrakts are pretty good. The Sleipniers and Areions do look practical and militaristic, I can definitely see these 2 being used in real life combat. However, I do wish their load out is a bit better. They do have assault rifles (with a grenade launcher), sniper rifles, a pistol, and knife, which ain't bad. But it wouldn't hurt to have a bazooka and a heated melee weapon. It would've also been cool if they had different types of Sleipniers and Areions (like a sniper type, cannon type, melee type, etc.). I don't know, that's something I've always liked about Mecha, they have a variety of Mecha types for multiple situations. Take Gundam’s GMs for example, they have a variety of types; there's the GM Sniper, GM Cannon, GM Striker, GM Night Seeker, etc. Each of them are made with a specific role and use specific weapons to achieve their missions. But that's just a suggestion, I still like their designs.
As for the Martian Kataphraks, I can't really say the same thing. They look weird, and not in a villainous way. The Electris looks like a Gau (a Zeonic carrier) with arms and legs, the Argyle looks like white fat duke, and the Hellas is a metal octopus. Although I do like the idea of real mecha fighting these super Mecha with Strategic planning, I found that these fights could've been easily solved. The Electris may have a barrier that absorbs everything, but if it trips it'll sink into any surface. The Argyle literally only has one melee weapon, so you could've handled it with long ranged attacks. The only ones I thought were cool were the Dioscuria and the Tharsis. They actually do look like a threat and are designed pretty well. The Dioscuria looks like the final boss, with the abilities of the 1st 3 Kataphrakts. But those long fingers are a bit too much. And although the Tharsis looks like it's gonna help the Terrains, it barely does anything on screen. It only charges Into the fight at the last minute, and that's it.
There are more of them, but they only appear for one second each and never again until season 2. The mechanical designs (at least on the Terrian’s side) aren't half bad, but the one thing that kinda ruins it is the 3-D animation. They really do look out of place with the 2-D animation and don't move that smoothly. A-1 Pictures obviously didn't realize that Mecha can always be 2-D animated too. So overall, I would like to say the Kataphrakts are the saving grace of the anime, but would honestly be lying. If they were animated better and were designed differently (with the exception of the Sleipniers and Areions), maybe that wouldn't be the case.
Season 2: I think season 2 is probably the worst Mecha anime I've seen. There's so much wrong with this anime, to the point where it makes the last one look worse. There's barely anything redeemable about it, and I'll tell you why
It's literally the same plot as the last season. Martians bad, Earth good, they fight. But one slight difference is that now Slaine is now the leader and Princess Asseylum is now siding with them. Now first of all, those 2 differences are going to be the key difference of why this anime straight up sucks, but I'll get to that later. But all I can say is that this anime tries nothing new. That's the best I can put it. Even the 1st few minutes of the anime is a recap of what happened in the last episode. So there's barely a plot, believe me when I say that this isn't even the worst of it
Now let's start off with the man himself, Slaine Troyard. And saying his character change from hero to villain came out of nowhere like saying the change from Zeta’s dark tone to ZZ’s goofy tone came out of nowhere. Because his change in personality makes no Goddamn sense. To give you some form of context, in the last episode after Saazbaum shot Asseylum, Slaine then shot him multiple times and then shot Inaho for trying to reach the princess. And after that he took Saazbaum back into space. Let me remind you, he dedicated his life to protecting her and even killed one of the Orbital Knights after one of them revealed he wanted to kill her. So his switch to the dark side is just absurd. And yes, you can make the argument that he did that to save her life with Martian medical equipment, but that doesn't matter since he goes behind her back towards the end.
Speaking of bitch, let's talk about the “Princess”. She's a fake. She's actually Asseylum's sister, Lemrina Vers Envers. Now 1st of all, when did Asseylum ever mention that she ever had a sister? Sure she's her half sister, but she never even mentioned she had any siblings in this damn anime. So what's her Half sister’s motivations? Well I can't tell you, because I don't know. She basically exists to take Asseylum’s place and that's it. It's basically like what they did in Gundam SEED Destiny with Meer pretending to be Lacus. But that anime at least gave her some motivation as to why she wants to be Lacus. Here, we barely get anything from Lemrina. All we know is that she barely interacted with her sister when they were little and they have different mothers. She also introduces a plot hole in the story, but I'll get to that later.
Now let's talk about Lord Saazbaum, there's not a lot to talk about. Especially since he gets kicked out of the story 3 episodes in. How, you may ask? Slaine backstabbed him after a battle between him and Inaho. Ok, he really should've seen this coming. Especially after shooting the princess right in front of Slaine. Speaking of wasting, the new cast of Martian characters suck. None of them are memorable in the slightest. Half of them exist to give Slaine a hard time while the other either support him or the real princess. I should probably get to her too, right?
Well she's literally in a coma for half the season. And once she wakes up, she escapes the moon, has a chat with her grandpa, and marries some random dude we barely met or cared about. If you didn't like her in the last season, you definitely won't in this season.
Now let's go to Terrains characters, they're not as bad as the Martians, but they aren't much better either. Inaho Kaizuka is as much of a machine as he was in season 1, especially with him becoming a Cyborg with his robotic eye. And although I keep complaining about Inaho being boring, I honestly thought this could've been a good way to show his descent into him giving into the war. Let me explain, if he started the series with some form of human emotion and progressively show less and less emotions, this could've easily been a great example of the war taking his humanity away. But I digress, let's get back to another problem with Inaho, his rivalry with Slaine Troyard. This is probably the worst rivalry I've seen in any anime I've seen for one reason, there's not a connection to make them rivals. They barely interacted with each other in season 1 outside of them teaming up with each other to fight a Kataphrak and when Slaine shot Inaho. The only thing they have in common is that they're from Earth and they like Asseylum, which isn't enough to make an investing rivalry. Let's talk about Lelouch and Suzaku’s rivalry really quickly. Both were once friends and now they're fighting each for similar reasons. Lelouch is fighting his family & people for revenge while Suzaku is fighting his people for peace within both the Japanese and Britainians. Both have different and conflicting goals, but are fighting in a similar situation from one another. It's called a juxtaposition, which a rivalry heavily depends on. Without this, Inaho and Slaine’s rivalry feels very weak and uninteresting. Since neither of them have conflicting goals that we agree with, differing personalities that we find appealing, or tragedies we can sympathize with.
As for the other characters on the Terrain side, they're just as boring and forgettable as the last season. They barely do anything significant enough to affect the plot. Not even Calm has anything to do. However, I do like how Marito gets more involved in the fights and even manages to score some kills on some Martians. But I find his relationship with Magbaredge kinda weird. Like, last season, it was revealed that she's the sister of the man Marito killed. And Now they're cool with each other? When did they work things out, especially since Magbaredge never brought up her brother in the whole season. These 2 should've had an arc where they worked out this drama and maybe have some form of romance, especially since Magbaredge always uses the line, “you know why you have trouble finding a date”. Or maybe not, I don't know. Moving on to another character who's not used poorly, Rayet. Like the last season, she's supposed to be a Martian who works with the Terrains, and yet it doesn't work well. Especially in this season with her hating herself for being a Martian, and we're supposed to care. And it really doesn't work. And it's not just her, basically everyone else on the Terrain side has nothing to do.
So overall, the characters on both sides are either unchanged for worse, bastardized, or forgotten about. So both the plot and characters sucks shit, and I haven't gotten to the worst part.
For being the second season, you expect them to at least expand on the world. And it does….. And make a lot of plot holes in the meantime. If you thought the plot holes were bad in season 1, it has nothing on season 2. So let's start with the most glaring plot hole, how both Inaho and Asseylum survive getting shot in the head. Believe when I say, this makes Kira Yamato’s survival in a FUCKING NUKE look more realistic than this. I may be a mad man for saying that, but I'll stand by it. But that's not the worst of it, the next worst plot hole is that both sides have a military base on the moon. WHEN THE FUCK DID THEY HAVE MOON BASES? Both sides could've used the extra resources during the war. And sure you may say, “they could've built it during the 16 months between season 1 & 2”. I don't need to be an engineer to tell you that 16 months isn't nearly enough to build a space station on the broken moon. Especially with the situation both of them are in.
And oh wait there's more, apparently there's another thing that doesn't make any sense. You wanna know how Lemira passes herself off as Asseylum you may ask? By shapeshifting herself as her sister herself. Now this is writing 101, but how the fuck can they do that? Is it like Aldnoah, and it's an ability that only the royal bloodline? Can all Martians do it too? This is something that was also presented in season 1, but I thought that Princess Asseylum only had this ability. But once I saw Lemira turn into Asseylum and Asseylum turning into her, that's when I began to ask questions. Like was killing the Princess even necessary if you have someone who can disguise as her and make the Martians think the Terrains tried to hurt? Or is attacking Earth even necessary when you disguise yourself and invade it secretly via Marvel's Secret Invasion? But that's all the plot holes I wanted to point out, the rest of the world building ain't worth remembering.
I will say this, Mecha designs are pretty good (if you ignore the CGI animation). I do like the new variants of the Sleipniers and Areions for space, but I would've liked it if it had a booster instead of grappling hooks. However, with the amount of debris in space it makes a bit of sense. I also like the Martian Kataphrakts here a lot more than season 1, since they're better designed, more of an actual threat, and made the fight scenes more creative.
However, I find it weird that the other Martians use these octopus looking fighter ships instead of mass produced Kataphraks. That's another thing I never understood, you have a handful of powerful Mecha and yet never attempted to make a Kataphrak easy to use by regular Martians. There's that cloning Kataphrak, but that is not really the same.
And the final battle between Inaho’s Sleipnier and Slaine's Tharsis was probably the best fight scene in the whole series. If I just shut my brain off and pretend it's a short Mecha film, it's actually pretty good. However I like this fight until the ending, when I'm reminded that this is a bad anime. Because Inaho tries to save Slaine when they try to re-enter the atmosphere, and the anime cuts the whole thing with Inaho just straight up arresting Slaine. Ok, that's my opinion on the Mecha designs and fights, now let's shit on the ending.
Finally thoughts: I think the worst thing about this anime (as you can probably tell from this review) is that it tries to be like a variety of mecha anime without understanding why they’re good. It tries to be like the original Gundam series with the villains but not giving them compelling motivations, It tries to be like Gundam 00 with the real mecha vs super mecha fight but not balancing both sides, and it tries to be like Gundam SEED & Code Geass with the princess & rival thing but not making their princess likable or giving the rivals compelling character traits. It fails at everything that made the aforementioned Mecha special. Did no one on the writing team ever think that any of this would be better if they tweaked it a bit and wrote it in a more compelling way. At this point I just doubt that anyone on the development team actually gave a shit. So the anime is over now and I feel dead inside. It baffles me that people watch this anime and think it's good, because I'm not kidding when I say I hope I go the rest of my life without ever watching this anime again. I hate it. I would rather watch Sword Art Online (an anime that actually gets better over time despite it's faults) over this garbage any day of the fucking week. If you think that I'm a contrarian for saying that, then fine. Because outside of the music and the Mecha fight scenes, this anime falls flat in every single way in writing in the most noticeable way possible, which is why I don't like it. If you actually like this anime and think I'm dumb for say all of this, feel free to argue you're piece in a civilized way.
cross-posted from: https://thelemmy.club/post/54200687
I usually don’t watch anime to follow trends, as whenever I watch a show, it’s either because of aligning interests or just simple curiosity. That last part is usually a coin toss, but it’s often not that bad. At worst, I’ll go “not my thing, but I get why people might like it” (like Berserk or Nagatoro). But with Rent-a-Girlfriend, IT.WASN’T.EVEN.THAT. If you’ve been on the internet for long enough, you’ll be very aware of this show’s infamous reputation. At best, it’s just another show to make the usual waifu merch. At worst, it’s loaded with the worst writing along with the worst characters. The former is something I can probably tolerate, but the latter is the foundation of how much I’ll tolerate a show. But this show just made my blood boil with how unlikeable the characters. To put it simply, I didn’t enjoy my time with this show. That’s the lightest TL;DR I’ll give you since, boy oh BOY did I not enjoy my time with this show. It wasn’t “so bad it’s good”, IT WAS JUST BAD. From the MC being the definition of unlikeable to horribly written contrivances with the plot, the stuff I liked about it is so far between. I'm not sure how cookie cutter my opinions will be on the show, but I'll say this right now, this show is unlike anything I've seen, and not in a good way. Before I get into this show, I want to make something clear. I have nothing against the people who like this show, you do you. I’m also not going deep into the real-life logistics of actually renting a girlfriend (yes, you can rent a girlfriend IRL in Japan), since that’s kind of a touchy subject. That, and I’m not willing to go through some random Japan glazing vlog like I used to in the past. Otherwise, here’s my full thoughts on Rent-A-Girlfriend
- Plot: So here's how the story goes, a young college student has recently broken up with his 1st girlfriend. To cope, he hires a girl to pretend to be his girlfriend and to have company. However, some circumstances force them to keep this charade up for a while, leading to a multitude of shenanigans and some misunderstandings.
Think Dear Evan Hansen, but with a degenerate college student instead. You've seen this type of story before, a simple lie leads to a road of unfortunate events that forces our leads into a position they set up for themselves. And I've never liked those stories one bit. Mainly because of the amount of contrivances the force into the story, and this anime’s no different. This show is loaded with contrivances out of the wazoo. Like how both Kazuya & Chizuru’s grandmothers just so happened to be staying at the same hospital. Or how Chizuru just so happened to be attending Kazuma’s college, while also living in the same apartment complex. Look, any story will always have some form of contrivances. That's just an unavoidable fact in storytelling. But the way this anime handles it is just so bad. Like, even if I dispense my level of disbelief, the amount of coincidences in this show is too specific to even buy into it. So the storytelling sucks, and I haven’t even gotten to the characters.
- Characters: I’m not joking when I say that this show has arguably one of the worst characters in any anime I’ve seen in my life. There’s so much wrong with them, that I don’t even know where to begin. Like I said in the beginning, characters in a show are a make it or break it kind of scenario. And these characters broke any form of enjoyment I could’ve possibly have in this show.
Kazuya Kinoshita is easily the worst main character in any anime I’ve ever seen. Every problem in this anime happened because of his bad decision making. Like, why did he bring Chizuru to the hospital instead of cancelling the date. That stupid decision led them to the situation of the plot. And I wouldn’t mind it, if the story goes out its way to make him part of a cautionary tale. But the anime wants us to relate to him and feel bad for him. Which again, wouldn’t be an issue, but the problem is that he’s so annoying to follow. He’s such a pathetic wimp that I can’t even feel bad for him. When he broke up with his ex, Mami (who I’ll get to shortly), he "pleasures" himself towards her photos. If you want us to feel bad for the MC and root for him, showing us him beating off his old flame IS A TERRIBLE WAY TO DO IT. And he just acts uncomfortably awkward whenever he’s on screen, where I just want him to shut up. The only times I thought he was decent, was when he actually helped Chizuru when she fell overboard. That was a decent moment. Overwise, he just sucks as a character. Some may say “would you prefer a MC who’s vanilla”. YA I WOULD PREFER A VANILLA MC. I would rather have the most vanilla piece of toast, over this asshole anytime of the fucking week.
And some of you may go, “aren't the girls of the show supposed to be the main selling point”? Maybe you’re right, but then I’ll have to complain that these are the worst girls in any anime. There’s only 2 girls I can somewhat tolerate, and that’s me putting it lightly. Starting with Chizuru Ichinose, I can at least see what she does in this anime is “understandable”. Like, she took the job as a rental girlfriend because she wanted to be an actress, she doesn’t want her college friends or family to know about her job, and she’s trying to keep it by following the policies. I wouldn’t call her a bad character as I would with Kazuya and the rest of the characters, as there’s a reason why she has this charismatic mask hiding her stern demeanor. My issue is that she, like the rest of the characters, doesn’t really have a character arc. She does grow to care about Kazuya, sure, but she never really develops as a person. Where she learns to show her true self more often or to loosen up a little. Otherwise, she’s not the kind of girl I would like to follow along with. But she’s at least tolerable to say the least. Her chemistry with Kazuya suck though, but I’ll talk about that later.
If I had to pick the only character I actually like, it would easily be Sumi Sakurasawa. She may have only shown up for one episode, but I think she was the most interesting, as she was a shy girl who wanted to be better as a Rental Girlfriend. That’s a really interesting character that would’ve been nice to see.
Otherwise, the other 2 girls completely sucked ass. Ruka Sarashina was really annoying, as she tried butting in at the worst times and took Kazuya from Chizuru through blackmail. And her reasoning is because…her heartbeat gets heightened when she’s near Kazuya. Why didn’t she take on an exciting hobby instead? And her being a rival rental GF never plays into the plot, as the anime never acknowledges it beyond that one time. Having a rival rental GF would’ve been interesting honestly, as it could’ve added some drama, but this anime wasn’t brave enough to do so. However, the worst character in the show is easily Mami Nanami. I’ve heard so many warnings about her, but nothing could’ve prepared me for how unlikeable she was in the show. When she learned that Kazuya was dating again, she didn’t hesitate to steal him from Chizuru. It gets worse once she learns that Chizuru is a Rental Girlfriend, she tries to blackmail her. This honestly could’ve been interesting if she had an established motive or backstory, but she doesn’t. Instead, she comes off as CW’s Iris West, where she didn’t want to date the MC but also didn't want the MC to be with another girl. I don’t need to tell you why that’s annoying.
I think the worst thing about all of these girls is that they have no chemistry with Kazuya in any way, shape or form. Chizuru is only pretending to date him because of the situation their grandmas put them in. Otherwise, none of them have anything to latch onto with him. Mami is his literal Ex, so moments with him are cringe AF. Ruka is a nuisance more often than not & the fact that she's only with him to "increase her heart rate" make their relationship more fake than the literal Rental Girlfriend.
I'll say other harems at least has you understand why the girls like the MC. In Monster Musume, Kimihito Kurusu at least helped the girls in that show; Miia with a place to stay, bought Papi ice cream, help Centora catch a robber, & saved Mero from falling in front of a pole. Kurusu may be a blank slate, but at least he does the work to earn the girls respect. “You can’t compare Rent-A-Girlfriend to Monster Musume, that’s a real harem”. IDK what defense people will come up with, but since I know it’ll happen, compare Rent-A-Girlfriend to Sword Art Online (technically not a harem, but hear me out). In that show, Kirito may have only fallen for Asuna as they both connected throughout the series, but he help Silica revive her pet, Lisbeth open up more, reconnected with his sister Suguha after 2 years of isolation, and help Asada through he PTSD. But I hope you get my point, Rent-a-Girlfried is just bad at being a harem with how the girls interact with the MC. If a show is failing at being the genre it was conceived as, that show IS NOT LOOKING AT A GOOD REVIEW. No way in hell.
- Conclusion:
While watching this show, I was screaming in agony at the screen at every decision made by the characters. But once the show ended, I sat there in dead silence, wondering what the hell I just watched. I could’ve dropped this show any time I wanted, but I was determined to finish it. And I did it, I finished the 1st season of RENT A FUCKING GIRLFRIEND. So I have every right to state the obvious. This is one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen in my life.
No, I take that back, Rent-A-Girlfriend IS THE WORST SHOW I’VE EVER SEEN. What does practically every show have in common; from your Batman: The Animated Series to your Sword Art Onlines of the world, your Toradoras to your Regular Shows? Stories that progress with characters developing while facing new challenges (like new antagonists or personal conflicts). The story of Rent-A-Girlfriend has no progression whatsoever. Any potential drama introduced immediately gets forgotten, and characters end how they started. I have never seen, let alone discussed such a nothing show on my time on the internet.
This is a new low that I must criticize all media by at this point. I don’t usually give number scores to the shows I talk about, as my opinions may differ from one person to another, so I look at anime at certain tiers; S-tiers being on the top, followed up by A-tier,B-tier, C-tier, D-tier, and E-tier.
- An S-tier anime are all time favorites of mine, shows I can watch till the moon turns blue. Any issue I have is minor at absolute best, as I love the show that much (Ex: Gundam 00 & Gundam Unicorn)
- An A-tier show is a show that is amazing and perfectly earns my praise, has a few flaws that prevent it from being my all time favorite (Ex: Psycho Pass & Girls Und Panzer)
- A B-Tier show is a just a really good show. May be rough around the edges, but are still fun to watch (Ex: SAO & Uzaki chan).
- A C-Tier show is a show that has quite a few issues and is divisive, but I still enjoy it (Build Divers and Captain Earth).
- A D-Tier show is a show that I have a lot of personal issues with and have a hard time watching, but is still beloved by the fandom in some form (Witch from Mercury and Nagatoro).
- And E-Tier show is just a straight up bad show, as any redeeming qualities are so minimal, that it’s just straight up bad (Aldnoah.Zero & Twilight Axis).
Rent-A-Girlfriend, now becoming the worst thing I’ve ever watch, leads me to form a new tier; THE F-TIER. This is for the lowest of the low, your Boku no Picos, your Mars of Destruction. Anime that is so unwatchable, that defines comprehension. And that’s how I would describe RAS, a mindless slog that wastes your time with false promises & little to no hope of things improve. I don’t care how the other seasons are, if I hated this season alone, what do you think the other seasons can do to change my opinion? I hate this show, and has now earned the crown of my most hated anime of all time, even beating out Macross Delta. It is THAT BAD.
"it's not enough to get Sony to stop" some may say. However, it's better to do something than do nothing. You can defend Sony all you want, but they need to get called out with their bullshit
I usually don’t watch anime to follow trends, as whenever I watch a show, it’s either because of aligning interests or just simple curiosity. That last part is usually a coin toss, but it’s often not that bad. At worst, I’ll go “not my thing, but I get why people might like it” (like Berserk or Nagatoro). But with Rent-a-Girlfriend, IT.WASN’T.EVEN.THAT. If you’ve been on the internet for long enough, you’ll be very aware of this show’s infamous reputation. At best, it’s just another show to make the usual waifu merch. At worst, it’s loaded with the worst writing along with the worst characters. The former is something I can probably tolerate, but the latter is the foundation of how much I’ll tolerate a show. But this show just made my blood boil with how unlikeable the characters. To put it simply, I didn’t enjoy my time with this show. That’s the lightest TL;DR I’ll give you since, boy oh BOY did I not enjoy my time with this show. It wasn’t “so bad it’s good”, IT WAS JUST BAD. From the MC being the definition of unlikeable to horribly written contrivances with the plot, the stuff I liked about it is so far between. I'm not sure how cookie cutter my opinions will be on the show, but I'll say this right now, this show is unlike anything I've seen, and not in a good way. Before I get into this show, I want to make something clear. I have nothing against the people who like this show, you do you. I’m also not going deep into the real-life logistics of actually renting a girlfriend (yes, you can rent a girlfriend IRL in Japan), since that’s kind of a touchy subject. That, and I’m not willing to go through some random Japan glazing vlog like I used to in the past. Otherwise, here’s my full thoughts on Rent-A-Girlfriend
Think Dear Evan Hansen, but with a degenerate college student instead. You've seen this type of story before, a simple lie leads to a road of unfortunate events that forces our leads into a position they set up for themselves. And I've never liked those stories one bit. Mainly because of the amount of contrivances the force into the story, and this anime’s no different. This show is loaded with contrivances out of the wazoo. Like how both Kazuya & Chizuru’s grandmothers just so happened to be staying at the same hospital. Or how Chizuru just so happened to be attending Kazuma’s college, while also living in the same apartment complex. Look, any story will always have some form of contrivances. That's just an unavoidable fact in storytelling. But the way this anime handles it is just so bad. Like, even if I dispense my level of disbelief, the amount of coincidences in this show is too specific to even buy into it. So the storytelling sucks, and I haven’t even gotten to the characters.
Kazuya Kinoshita is easily the worst main character in any anime I’ve ever seen. Every problem in this anime happened because of his bad decision making. Like, why did he bring Chizuru to the hospital instead of cancelling the date. That stupid decision led them to the situation of the plot. And I wouldn’t mind it, if the story goes out its way to make him part of a cautionary tale. But the anime wants us to relate to him and feel bad for him. Which again, wouldn’t be an issue, but the problem is that he’s so annoying to follow. He’s such a pathetic wimp that I can’t even feel bad for him. When he broke up with his ex, Mami (who I’ll get to shortly), he "pleasures" himself towards her photos. If you want us to feel bad for the MC and root for him, showing us him beating off his old flame IS A TERRIBLE WAY TO DO IT. And he just acts uncomfortably awkward whenever he’s on screen, where I just want him to shut up. The only times I thought he was decent, was when he actually helped Chizuru when she fell overboard. That was a decent moment. Overwise, he just sucks as a character. Some may say “would you prefer a MC who’s vanilla”. YA I WOULD PREFER A VANILLA MC. I would rather have the most vanilla piece of toast, over this asshole anytime of the fucking week.
And some of you may go, “aren't the girls of the show supposed to be the main selling point”? Maybe you’re right, but then I’ll have to complain that these are the worst girls in any anime. There’s only 2 girls I can somewhat tolerate, and that’s me putting it lightly. Starting with Chizuru Ichinose, I can at least see what she does in this anime is “understandable”. Like, she took the job as a rental girlfriend because she wanted to be an actress, she doesn’t want her college friends or family to know about her job, and she’s trying to keep it by following the policies. I wouldn’t call her a bad character as I would with Kazuya and the rest of the characters, as there’s a reason why she has this charismatic mask hiding her stern demeanor. My issue is that she, like the rest of the characters, doesn’t really have a character arc. She does grow to care about Kazuya, sure, but she never really develops as a person. Where she learns to show her true self more often or to loosen up a little. Otherwise, she’s not the kind of girl I would like to follow along with. But she’s at least tolerable to say the least. Her chemistry with Kazuya suck though, but I’ll talk about that later.
If I had to pick the only character I actually like, it would easily be Sumi Sakurasawa. She may have only shown up for one episode, but I think she was the most interesting, as she was a shy girl who wanted to be better as a Rental Girlfriend. That’s a really interesting character that would’ve been nice to see.
Otherwise, the other 2 girls completely sucked ass. Ruka Sarashina was really annoying, as she tried butting in at the worst times and took Kazuya from Chizuru through blackmail. And her reasoning is because…her heartbeat gets heightened when she’s near Kazuya. Why didn’t she take on an exciting hobby instead? And her being a rival rental GF never plays into the plot, as the anime never acknowledges it beyond that one time. Having a rival rental GF would’ve been interesting honestly, as it could’ve added some drama, but this anime wasn’t brave enough to do so. However, the worst character in the show is easily Mami Nanami. I’ve heard so many warnings about her, but nothing could’ve prepared me for how unlikeable she was in the show. When she learned that Kazuya was dating again, she didn’t hesitate to steal him from Chizuru. It gets worse once she learns that Chizuru is a Rental Girlfriend, she tries to blackmail her. This honestly could’ve been interesting if she had an established motive or backstory, but she doesn’t. Instead, she comes off as CW’s Iris West, where she didn’t want to date the MC but also didn't want the MC to be with another girl. I don’t need to tell you why that’s annoying.
I think the worst thing about all of these girls is that they have no chemistry with Kazuya in any way, shape or form. Chizuru is only pretending to date him because of the situation their grandmas put them in. Otherwise, none of them have anything to latch onto with him. Mami is his literal Ex, so moments with him are cringe AF. Ruka is a nuisance more often than not & the fact that she's only with him to "increase her heart rate" make their relationship more fake than the literal Rental Girlfriend.
I'll say other harems at least has you understand why the girls like the MC. In Monster Musume, Kimihito Kurusu at least helped the girls in that show; Miia with a place to stay, bought Papi ice cream, help Centora catch a robber, & saved Mero from falling in front of a pole. Kurusu may be a blank slate, but at least he does the work to earn the girls respect. “You can’t compare Rent-A-Girlfriend to Monster Musume, that’s a real harem”. IDK what defense people will come up with, but since I know it’ll happen, compare Rent-A-Girlfriend to Sword Art Online (technically not a harem, but hear me out). In that show, Kirito may have only fallen for Asuna as they both connected throughout the series, but he help Silica revive her pet, Lisbeth open up more, reconnected with his sister Suguha after 2 years of isolation, and help Asada through he PTSD. But I hope you get my point, Rent-a-Girlfried is just bad at being a harem with how the girls interact with the MC. If a show is failing at being the genre it was conceived as, that show IS NOT LOOKING AT A GOOD REVIEW. No way in hell.
While watching this show, I was screaming in agony at the screen at every decision made by the characters. But once the show ended, I sat there in dead silence, wondering what the hell I just watched. I could’ve dropped this show any time I wanted, but I was determined to finish it. And I did it, I finished the 1st season of RENT A FUCKING GIRLFRIEND. So I have every right to state the obvious. This is one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen in my life.
No, I take that back, Rent-A-Girlfriend IS THE WORST SHOW I’VE EVER SEEN. What does practically every show have in common; from your Batman: The Animated Series to your Sword Art Onlines of the world, your Toradoras to your Regular Shows? Stories that progress with characters developing while facing new challenges (like new antagonists or personal conflicts). The story of Rent-A-Girlfriend has no progression whatsoever. Any potential drama introduced immediately gets forgotten, and characters end how they started. I have never seen, let alone discussed such a nothing show on my time on the internet.
This is a new low that I must criticize all media by at this point. I don’t usually give number scores to the shows I talk about, as my opinions may differ from one person to another, so I look at anime at certain tiers; S-tiers being on the top, followed up by A-tier,B-tier, C-tier, D-tier, and E-tier.
Rent-A-Girlfriend, now becoming the worst thing I’ve ever watch, leads me to form a new tier; THE F-TIER. This is for the lowest of the low, your Boku no Picos, your Mars of Destruction. Anime that is so unwatchable, that defines comprehension. And that’s how I would describe RAS, a mindless slog that wastes your time with false promises & little to no hope of things improve. I don’t care how the other seasons are, if I hated this season alone, what do you think the other seasons can do to change my opinion? I hate this show, and has now earned the crown of my most hated anime of all time, even beating out Macross Delta. It is THAT BAD.
