The main male protagonist, alongside one of his comrades.
In the end, I picked the 12-episode mecha anime series titled Giniro no Olynssis instead of the mystery 50-episode I mentioned in my previous blog entry, therefore this very entry comes out relatively very early indeed. Giniro no Olynssis is a 2006 anime, therefore it will be able to challenge the current ‘Anime of the Year 2006’ incumbent, Chocotto Sister. The latter being one of the weaker ‘Anime of the Year’ title holders in this blog, can this mecha anime fire its way to the throne?
To Shinsen-Sub fansub group, the Japanese dialogues in these two scenes could have been translated into a slightly better English that will not cause misunderstandings amongst those with perverted minds, you know, people like me.
Story:-
Sometime in the far future, the post-apocalyptic Earth was infested by plenty of strange machines called Gardeners, whose hobby includes shooting lasers and firing homing missiles against the pockets of humanity that still remains. Our main male protagonist is a member of a group of hunters whose job is to fire back lasers and homing missiles against those Gardeners, which is a back-breaking high-risk repetitive job at the best of times. But out of the blue, his job suddenly become so much easier after he meets a mysterious girl who then gifted him a big bad-ass mecha that he can use to automate his routine job, while cutting down the risk to the very minimum. And of course, he got the girl too, which is a nice bonus!
The story itself is decent although unlike the most recent mecha anime reviewed here Kurogane no Linebarrels, which is a bog-standard shounen title, this anime veers dangerously very close to the kiddy genre territory. The story’s presentation is definitely not this anime’s best aspect, with the first two or three episodes started in such a convoluted manner it is hard for me to decipher what exactly is going on as the story unfolds. The flow of the storyline stabilized as I reached the middle part of the anime though. Surprisingly the pacing is not affected by the haphazard start, but despite the lack of pacing-killer filler episodes, it (the pacing) is still a bit on a slow side.
Having a kiddy-grade storyline (I would not be surprised if the likes of TV-Nihon fansub group is the one that translated this title instead of Shinsen-Subs) means that this anime cannot escape all of the clichés that is associated with the genre. There are no attempts whatsoever to sanitize the storyline the way Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann does. The multiple-character romance subplot in this anime is better than the one in Kurogane no Linebarrels though, and that’s a good thing. The ending is pretty conservative (you shouldn’t really expect more from a kiddy anime title) which makes it predictable, but provides a somewhat ambiguous but still good end to the anime.
Character development in this anime is narrow and probably nearly non-existent. Thinking about this again, it probably really non-existent. The main male protagonist is a static character from the start until the end (relying too much on the mecha power of his) and the main female protagonist depends on the ‘recovering from amnesia’ plot device TWICE to develop her character. That’s pretty much retarded, because using that plot device twice is simply doing it once too many times. Meanwhile, the ‘mysterious babe’ is too secretive for her own good, and the rest of the hunting group are simply there to act as props for the others, except maybe two of them. And that’s a very big ‘maybe’. Therefore, there are no best character(s) I can anoint in this title.
There is nothing that the Shinsen-Subs' translator can do with this shocking naive request from the main female protagonist though. Perverted main female protagonist that anyone will want to bang is still a pervert.
Character Design:-
The main reason why I choose to watch this anime is because it has the same character designer as Kurogane no Linebarrels is, and this anime didn’t disappoint in this aspect. Lack of black hair and abundance of other colors like brown and pink is forgiven in any given setting that involves a post-apocalyptic Earth. And I think the characters in this anime are supposed to be North Americans too, despite names like ‘Tokito’ and ‘Misuzu’. Mecha designs are decent, at least for the black, gold and silver mechas. Monster designs, not so much. A positive aspect for this anime.
Voice Acting:-
It is hard for me to say this, but some of the voice acting in this anime looks and sounds too wooden! The character that pilots the TF-21 is the main culprit, but hell he is not alone. The main male protagonist was also caught red-handed at being wooden at certain scenes, I think near the end of this series. To make it worse, this anime doesn’t have any good voice acting gigs in here, with most of them are just average.
Music:-
The OST in this anime is good, but you cannot say the same thing about any of the OP/ED themes.
Animation/Direction:-
This anime has some jerky animation problems with character animations, although not as bad as what you can see in Mayoi Neko Overrun. General animation quality is good, inclusive of fast-paced scenes. Choreography of action scenes is just average. The directing may have screwed up the early parts of this anime, but has done a relative good job after that. He/she should have ordered a retake for some of the obvious wooden voice acting in this anime though.
Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Incidentally, High School of the Dead has already finished airing this week. I wonder whether I should watch that 2010 anime or the mysterious 50-episode anime title (this is a very popular title) I have mentioned before. Indecision abounds…
This forgetful main female protagonist is a living proof that huge amount of pain can really cure amnesia!
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