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Review: Accel World (アクセル・ワールド)

Posted by ranpha on 3rd December 2012

Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: Accel World (アクセル・ワールド). Leave a Comment

The main male protagonist, made from chrome.

A few months ago, the horror thriller anime Another wins the audition for this blog ‘Anime of the Year 2012’ title, and today its first challenge comes from a surprisingly good anime series, titled Accel World. Nevertheless, this anime failed to unseat Another from its title because of some very obvious problems with the storyline and at least one unanticipated issue that will really surprise you.

Story:-
4 years before the events in Little Battlers Experience, people in Japan has already stopped using their iPhones and Samsung Galaxies in favor of an augmented reality device called neuro linkers. This device allows their users to dive into Second Life-like virtual worlds, using custom avatars, doing things that the Residents has done many decades previously. The pudgy main male protagonist, a neuro linker user that used it primarily for MMORPGs, was introduced to a dodgy neuro linker app called ‘Brain Burst’ by a mysterious beautiful girl at his middle school. The ‘Brain Burst’ app then allows him to accelerate his biological brain functions, paving the way into the ‘Accelerated World’, a C-like alternate dimension where he has to fight for points, levels and of course, the woman. Unfortunately (for me), there are no signs of 12TB thumb drives in this anime.

If there is anything I can say about this anime’s plot, that would be that it (the story) has a vast amount of potential still left unexplored within it after the last episode, scratching only the surface of a potentially expansive storyline. You know, kinda like Legend of Legendary Heroes, Giant Killing and even Infinite Stratos. And definitely so unlike C, which potential has already been largely exhausted in its final episode. But from what I have watched so far in this anime, the quality of the plot is somewhat inferior to the first two anime titles I mentioned in the sentence preceding the one before this one. But personally I think the inferior plot quality is by design and intentional, mainly because of a reason I will explain below.

The reason why this anime’s plot is inferior to Legend of Legendary Heroes (shortened to ‘LOL Heroes’ from now on) and Giant Killing is because the writer for this anime focused much more on character developments and relationships while keeping the rate of the development of the storyline very low. In LOL Heroes, its writer managed to balance character and story developments better, while in Accel World, its writer focused more on the character developments aspects while somewhat neglecting the plot. And this is where my first complaint comes in: the execution of the writer’s strategy in this anime really can do with more polish.

Accel World: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told.

While Accel World and LOL Heroes has different rate of plot developments, both of them has similar episode count. With the former focusing more on character developments than the latter, does that mean the former performs better when it comes to character developments strategies? The answer to this question is ‘only barely, if at all’. LOL Heroes already has good character developments, with higher regular character counts, and without sacrificing the story advancement too much. This anime, which has lower regular character counts (which automatically gives this anime an advantage) somewhat still cannot outperform LOL Heroes in this aspect, with a margin that matched the effort. Only the main male protagonist has the rate of character developments that commensurates the efforts put by the writer in this anime.

I think the main reason why the character developments in this anime isn’t really as good as it can be to match the efforts put in is because there are not much story to go around within the whole series. The amount of plot in this anime would have been common in a 12-episode series than in one double the length. A subtle time jump inserted somewhere in the middle of the series doesn’t help either, and frankly speaking, this anime needs more of the ‘bouncer episode’ that happens before the time jump. If this anime has a second season, more emphasis should be put on advancing the storyline, so that the balance seen in LOL Heroes is used in Accel World’s future iterations.

Moving to character developments, as mentioned above, this anime has done really well in this aspect as expected from how the story is written. In fact, just like the storyline, there are plenty of developments left in the tank for almost all of the recurring characters. The best character in this anime, for the time being is definitely the main male protagonist, followed by his two childhood friends. The main female protagonist was written out from the story for the whole second half of the series, has a vastly slower character developments than the others in the first half but still is a quite decent character with hidden potential character-wise and story-wise in the future. But I have a MAJOR technical complaint about her that will definitely affect this anime’s rating negatively, and I will elaborate about this later below.

This deus ex machina plot device is one of this anime's problems.

As I have written in the paragraphs above, as of now this anime has inferior storyline compared to what you can see in LOL Heroes and Giant Killing. For now, that can be forgiven as long as this anime has a second season (which as of writing, isn’t confirmed yet), but unfortunately this anime’s plots was plagued by three problems. The first ones would be plot holes (as opposed to loose ends). For example, I was very surprised when I found out that Scarlet Rain is a level 9 Burst Linker, a level she must have attained after the main female protagonist went into exile. But then again, the non-aggression treaty should have been in force, so how on earth did she get level 9? Did she spam the Unlimited Field?

The second problem this anime has is the numerous amount of forced melodramatic moments has, especially the ones that has to do with the main male protagonist and his relationships with his two childhood friends. The Kaiji-like amount of crying by the former doesn’t help things either. The third problem would be the usage of deus ex machina plot devices and moments like the incarnate system shown in the screenshot above. Would have been nice if the main male protagonist become stronger by just pure effort the way it is in Giant Killing.

The pacing of the storyline that is being told in this anime is quite decent and the flow is flawless. Would have been nice if this anime has a longer storyline that matched Giant Killing and LOL Heroes. As expected, the ending of this anime feels like a typical ending of a story arc, which mean there are still loose ends left in the storyline at the final episode. Therefore a second season will be needed (essential even), but will this anime follows LOL Heroes and Giant Killing in not having one? I sure hope not.

I think it was supposed to be the other way around right?

Character Design:-
Apart from the main male protagonist, the character designs for all the other characters are just typical for the shounen genre. I’ll even say I have the ‘hey I have seen this character design before in other titles’ feelings. Black hairs are not frequent, but actually prominent. Accel World avatars’ design suspiciously looks so much like the suits of the two main protagonists of Tiger and Bunny, but worse in quality and I don’t really like the monotonous designs at all. Virtual reality avatars designs are much better, especially for the main female protagonist’s.

Voice Acting:-
As mentioned above, the main female protagonist of this anime is a decent character even when she play a very minor role in the second half of this anime. But my biggest problem with her is her voice actress, which has done one of the most awful voice acting gigs for a major character in all the anime titles I have ever watched. She (the voice actress) is decent when her character is in kuu mode, but become extremely bad when her character is in dere mode. The awfulness is also evident in some scenes where main female protagonist is in her Accelerated World form, like when she pronounce the end of her self-imposed exile period after the main male protagonist acquire his wings.

Voice acting-wise, she is way worse than Kaidou Jin from Little Battlers Experience (he is the major character that has wooden voice acting I’m talking about in that anime’s review) and also the minor character in Giniro no Olynssis, amongst others. This anime lost one point because of this alone. If this anime gets a second season, her voice actress has to improve greatly by that time or else the director should just replace her with someone that can handle kuudere characters better.

Voice acting by the rest of the characters is patchy at best. The voice actor for the main male protagonist’s best male friend is also below average, but nowhere as bad as the main female protagonist’s. The main male protagonist and his female childhood friend has decent voice actors, but some other characters like Ash Roller and Dusk Taker has very good voice acting gigs.

That awesome life-like fire animation last seen in Yumekui Merry makes its return in this anime.

Music:-
This anime has very good and elaborate electronic OST, especially during battles. The first OP and ED themes are good too, but it is just unfortunate that the second set of the OP and ED themes are not as good as the first one.

Animation/Direction:-
This anime used the blurry animation technique in its battle scenes, therefore one point will be docked from this anime’s final rating. This is a shame because this anime has good choreography efforts that would look better without all the blurring going on. General animation quality is good and flawless, especially that fire animation seen in the screenshot above. The director has done nothing wrong in this anime, a feat considering how this anime was structured.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Yet another series that really need a second season. Whether we will get one or not is still up in the air though.

Even the second worst character when it comes to voice acting has a much better gig when compared to the main female protagonist.

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Review: Little Battlers eXperience (ダンボール戦機)

Posted by ranpha on 8th November 2012

Posted in: anime review, sport genre standard. Tagged: Danboru Senki (series), Little Battlers eXperience (ダンボール戦機). Leave a Comment

The always serious, no-nonsense, business-only main male protagonist. No wonder it is hard to wing in any romance into this anime.

Danboru Senki, or Little Battlers eXperience as it was titled in Animax Asia is the second consecutive Level-5 title I’m going to review today, right after Mobile Suit Gundam AGE. As you may have guessed, I only choose to watch this anime because I previewed some episodes in Animax Asia like Cardfight!! Vanguard is, and not because its storyline are made by the same organization that does Gundam AGE (I only know this when watching this anime). Just like the Gundam, this anime is a 2011 title, but it has no chance at all to dethrone Tiger and Bunny from this blog’s ‘Anime of the Year 2011’ throne. Nevertheless, Little Battlers eXperience (abbreviated LBX from now on) is still a decent series to watch.

Personally, the greatest device you can find in this anime version of 2050 is not the LBX or the fortified cardboard, but the 12 Terabytes pendrive as shown above. It is funny though that that pen drive still use USB connector instead of something like Thunderbolt connector. Transferring files into/from that pendrive will surely takes hours!

Story:-
38 years in the future, kids in that era has abandoned their touch-only iPhones and Samsung Galaxies in favor of flip phones with keypads that is common 50 years previously. The reason for this is that such phones are the only effective control method for the LBX, a miniature robotic toy that is the rage at that time. Our main protagonist would really like to have one of those toys, but his mother, exercising her role as a responsible parent, disallow him from having one. But one day, he meets a mysterious person under a bridge who then gives him a free LBX, and suddenly he find himself having to save the world with it…

Let just say that this anime is an amalgam of both Cardfight!! Vanguard (the characters) and also Angelic Layer (the plot device) with a ‘save the world’ plot and plenty of tournaments. And you would not be wrong either if you think that this anime shares the same demographic with Gundam AGE, but definitely not with Angelic Layer. The story itself is decent but sadly very predictable. If the writer think I cannot see the pivot of the antagonist identity from a hundred miles away, he/she will be for a shock.

As I mentioned before above, the main protagonist has to save the world with his LBX with a couple of side-kicks (thankfully there are no romance at all here), therefore there will be plenty of LBX battles as his team participates in LBX tournaments in-between of sneaking into buildings and sewers. And here comes another of my complaint about this anime: very many of the LBX battles in this anime are very poorly written. I am not talking about battle’s choreography here, but I am referring on how the battles are conducted to reach the ending that the writer intended for any given LBX battles.

A good example for this is the last two battles in the Akihabara tournament. The first one, between the main protagonist and the grandson of the main antagonist, was completely marred by a mid-tier finishing function technique used by main protagonist that somehow managed to take out his opposing team. While the opposing team do have flawed tactics, the usage of the said mid-tier finishing function by the main protagonist to end the battle isn’t exactly appropriate in that situation. When he first started the opening sequence for that particular finishing function, I exclaimed to myself “That technique will not work”. But it turned out to be working, and therefore I . If he uses one of his higher tier function techniques, that one-hit attack would have been more believable.

The second battle, between the main protagonist and the Master King, is much better, with actual working tactics by the main protagonist’s team against a stronger opponent. No need for blatant deus ex machina moments at all unlike the battle that happens before that one. And unfortunately for this anime, battles like this one are the minority unlike the battles that happened before this one. This is a shame because unlike Cardfight!! Vanguard (and just like Angelic Layer), luck doesn’t have a disproportionate role in LBX battles, with skills, LBX specs, and tactics being more important aspects of the battles. This anime would have been much better if the good writing in Cardfight!! Vanguard duels can be incorporated into many of the LBX battles here.

Another minor nitpick I have about this anime's storyline is the antagonist lackeys' preference to send LBXes to deal with intruders to their facilities instead of doing it themselves. The old-fashioned way of sending burly men in black to deal with intruders, like in the rare scene above, always works and would have thwarted the main protagonist's dream of saving the world from devastation.

Speaking about luck in Cardfight!! Vanguard, I would really wished Animax Asia to stop its misleading Cardfight!! Vanguard advertisement that claims that the game ‘isn’t about luck’. The way its gameplay are structured, luck can easily gazump any other factors in play in a Vanguard duel. The only way the Vanguard game can eliminate luck as the main factor that can determine the result would be to allow players to manually arrange the orders of the cards in the drawing deck before a duel started.

Character developments in this anime is completely different from what you can see in Cardfight!! Vanguard. In the latter, its main protagonist has never played the game before and have to learn his way to the top of the nationals with plenty of hard work, team play and heavy doses of luck. In this anime, the main protagonist is already a quite good LBX player and throughout the series, he only lost a major battle once. This fact means two consequences. This first one is the character development of the main protagonist is vastly inferior and nearly static when compared to his counterpart in Cardfight!! Vanguard. In fact, I think his two sidekicks has better character developments than him! Fortunately for him, this anime’s ‘substantial save the world’ plot means this anime can get away with being a story-driven series, covering the weakness in its main character.

The second one is his static character development highly likely contribute on the issue of poor writing in the LBX battle scenes I have mentioned above. The need to make him keep winning many battles against superior opponents caused the writer to write in some stupid scenes in them. After all, having a strong-from-the-start main protagonist is really hard for a storyline, with only Hellsing being the series that got it right.

The overall pacing in this anime is faster than Cardfight!! Vanguard’s, and that’s a good thing. Pacing is not only good inside LBX battles and tournaments, but also outside it in the general storyline. The flow of the storyline is good for at least the first half of the anime, but become slightly muddled after that. The ending is full with clichés and pretty much predictable as I mentioned above, but at least better than the one in Gundam AGE. And it turned out the ending is just an end to a very big arc, because there are already a second season underway, just like Cardfight!! Vanguard is. And I will definitely watch it when it finished.

Assasins of 2050 also use toys as the tool of the trade, and that's why he failed. What happened with the old-school way of using high-powered rifles?
Assassins of 2050 also use toys as the tool of the trade, and that's why he failed. What happened with the old-school way of using high-powered rifles?

Character Design:-
Actually, the character design in this anime has exactly the same template as Gundam AGE’s, and that’s not exactly suprising because of their Level-5 connections. Black hairs are also rare here, in this anime’s setting that takes place merely 38 years in the future (still not enough evolution for X-Rounder-like powers it seems). LBX designs are great too, with plenty of variations and probably better than mecha designs in Gundam AGE.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting quality in this anime is decent overall; somewhere in-between Cardfight!! Vanguard (worse) and Gundam AGE (better). There are no outstanding voice acting gigs in this anime, but there is one major character with consistently wooden voice acting performance…

Music:-
The OST for this anime is good, especially for LBX battles scenes, and that’s all there to it. This is because the four OP/ED themes this anime has are at best, forgettable.

An epic battle between humans and machine is about to begin here! The humans are going to be crushed into mincemeats…

Animation/Direction:-
When watching Gundam AGE back then, there is something odd I have noticed about a certain animation technique Sunrise may have used but I didn’t make a comment about it in its review because I’m not certain what have really happened. But after watching this anime, I can confidently say that both titles has a very well done CGI + 2D animation integration, the best ever I have ever seen. But what makes the CGI sequences in these two anime titles different than what I have seen before in other CGI-employing anime titles I have reviewed before is that the CGI (mostly for mecha/LBX animations) are almost undistinguished in look and feel when compared to traditional 2D animations around it. They look so similar, I believe that the future where an anime series can be completely produced using CGI only is not that far off.

Meanwhile, 2D animation quality in this anime is decent, up to par with what you can see in Gundam AGE. Character animation is lacking a bit though, but not as bad as in Cardfight!! Vanguard. Choreography in action scenes (LBX battles of course) is done well too, especially in scenes where the main protagonist managed to get himself out from stick situations. The directing is flawless, especially with camera works in LBX battles, storytelling and pacing management.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Not bad considering that the sport genre handicap has been applied to this anime. Maybe the next series I should watch is Inazuma Eleven?

The most popular phones in 2050 looks suspiciously like phones that are popular in 2000s. Nokia may stage a comeback by then.

Shortlink: http://wp.me/prgSo-zU

Review: Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (機動戦士ガンダムAGE <エイジ>)

Posted by ranpha on 26th October 2012

Posted in: anime review, STOP THAT BLURRY ANIMATION TECHNIQUE NOW!. Tagged: Gundam (series), Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (機動戦士ガンダムAGE ). 3 comments

The first arc's main protagonist.

After cancelling my plan to watch Steins;Gate as I waited for the Blu-ray version, my attention then switched to a high-priority anime title that just ended its run when I watched Endless Eight. Mobile Suit Gundam AGE is the second Gundam series reviewed here after Mobile Suit Gundam 00. There is a very important change made in this latest non-Universal Century (U.C.) Gundam installment, that set it apart from Gundam 00 and other non-U.C. titles like Gundam SEED and Gundam Wing, both I have watched before starting this blog. This change, which I can call very drastic, revolutionary even, caused this Gundam title to be vastly different in unexpected ways compared to its predecessors in the past. Want to know what the change is? You should continue reading then.

These lines right in the first episode clearly shows what this anime's target demographic is.

Story:-
A few years before the start of this series, our main male protagonist’s family were killed in an attack of their space colony by an unidentified space invaders. To fulfill his mother’s dying wish, he started to build a mobile suit under the mentoring of his foster father, and as the construction finished, those unidentified aliens conveniently shows up and try to destroy the colony he is living on. Seeing that, he then gets into the cockpit, straps on the seat-belt, fired up the mobile suit and went all-out gun blazing kicking alien’s ass. Oh a question: did mobile suit pilots in Gundam Wing, SEED and 00 wear seat belts?

The change I have mentioned above that makes this Gundam series to be different than its non-U.C. predecessors is the switch of target demographic. It only takes me two or three episodes to realize that whoever writes the storyline for this anime is targeting a more mainstream, and different, young viewership compared to Gundam 00 and co. If the likes of Gundam 00/SEED/Wing shared their audiences with U.C. Gundam titles, Gundam AGE instead shares its intended target demographic with, surprise, surprise, Cardfight!! Vanguard.

With the demographic switch, the storyline 4-arc anime series has a less-nuanced approach to the battle between good and evil, starker differences between black and white and more reliance on characters’ deaths as a plot device, which is the staple of many titles that targets the same demographic as this anime is. This is probably why this Gundam series is less talked-about compared to other non-U.C. titles out there in cyberspace. Is this a good thing? In theory, the answer is yes, after all, watching titles like Cardfight!! Vanguard is one of my guilty pleasures. But practically, problems with presentations and plot executions prevents this anime from reaching its absolute potential.

And lines like this later in the series reinforced that switch.

This 49-episode series is divided into 4 arcs, with the first three having a different main protagonist. The first arc is just your typical mecha action hero stuff common in titles subbed by TV-Nihon fansub group. You won’t see this kind of storyline in previous Gundam titles, whether U.C. or non-U.C. ones. Romantic subplots in this arc is good though, vastly better than the one in Gundam 00, and actually is very instrumental in shaping this arc main protagonist’s character in subsequent arcs. The second arc, featuring the son of the first arc’s main protagonist fathered with his second-choice childhood friend, is even better because he (the second arc’s main protagonist) is basically Shinn Asuka done right, with believable path to redemption to boot. The fact that he doesn’t have the X-Rounder powers helps his characterization greatly. Romance subplots in this arc isn’t really as good or has as much impact as the one in the previous arc though.

The third arc, featuring the son of the second arc’s main protagonist fathered with his first-choice high-school friend, is the worst arc in the whole series. The reason for this is that this arc repeats exactly the same mistakes done in the second season of Gundam 00; cliché-laden dialogues and predictable plot. Plus, the fact that this arc’s main protagonist is the weakest link in the family doesn’t help either. This arc has almost zero romantic subplots, which is probably a good thing. The fourth arc, featuring all three main protagonists of the past arcs, is better and is an improvement from the third arc, but not as good as the first and second arcs. I have a major complaint about the final arc, which will be explained later below.

What detracts from this Gundam’s unique storyline (when compared to other Gundam titles) is presentation. In the very first episode, I can already see haphazard scene transitions right from the start, which in turn also affect the flow of the story negatively. But this problem seems to be reduced in subsequent arcs, or maybe I just have gotten used to it? Another problem that this Gundam has that its non-U.C. predecessors doesn’t have is numerous forced drama scenes. For example, someone has to explain why that Riria kid goes to the surface of Fardain in her first attempt when the two Fardain factions started to shoot at each other.

As I mentioned before, this Gundam has pivoted its storyline to target a different demographic, the one that is the same as Cardfight!! Vanguard. If there is any issue you can have with this switch, that would the the writer’s failures to remove common clichés that is common in the genre out from the storyline. The most prominent of those clichés seen in this anime would be the abundance of moments of serendipity and convenience. An example of this can be seen in episode 9, when the 1st arc main protagonist meets the alien’s mobile suit far away from his Diva mothership, he can conveniently summon his Gundam to fight it as if the Diva is located right next to him. If this is Gundam SEED or 00, the main protagonist would have to fight the alien’s mobile suit using the Shadolls mobile suit that can be found at the workshop he is in.

This mobile suit transfer scene depicted above is the worst breaker of suspension of disbelief in the history of the anime industry.

Still talking about the example I mentioned above, that event has a scene that destroys suspension of disbelief, something I last seen in Gosick. The moment the main protagonist’s team mate says “You have 15 seconds to perform the mobile suit transfer” (or something to that effect), I instantly scream “That sir, is fucking bullshit”. There is no way a normal human being, that only wear normal clothes instead of a pilot or a spacesuit, can even survive one second in deep space vacuum. This is totally bad writing by whoever wrote this story. As I mentioned the last paragraph, this anime employs plenty of the ‘moments of convenience’ plot device; I can easily think of a couple of methods using the ‘moments of convenience’ thingy that will allow the main protagonist to switch mobile suits while still keeping suspension of disbelief intact.

Amongst all non-U.C. Gundam titles I have watched, Gundam AGE has the fastest pacing of them all. With only 49 episodes yet having 4 substantial arcs within it, this is pretty much inevitable. If this Gundam wants to have the similar excellent pacing seen in Gundam 00 for example, this anime will need at least 30 extra episodes at the minimum, and personally I think should have been done. The fast pacing this anime has is also definitely one of the factors that contribute to the haphazard flow of the storyline I mentioned before.

Character developments in this anime is mixed bag at best. The obvious best character in this anime is the main protagonist of the second arc, BUT only in that arc. Him in the third and fourth arc is just so-so. The first arc’s main protagonist is quite decent in his own arc, but become much better (and senile?) in the final arc, overshadowing both of his descendants in the process. The less said about his grandchild, the better. My biggest problem about characterization in this anime is how some secondary characters that appears in the second and third arc simply melted away into nothingness (read: written out of the storyline) without any explanation whatsoever.

Speaking about the ending, I have two main problems with it. The first beef I have with the ending would be the fact that it was crammed into merely two episodes or something, causing the pacing to go through the roof. My second problem with the ending is how it was written. If you expect epic mobile suit duels befitting for a finale scene, you will be disappointed. The two main antagonists in the anime loses their finale battles mainly because they are distracted, not because their opponents are superior to them. Definitely a letdown considering the build-up to the finale.

The third arc's main protagonist.

Character Design:-
If you can’t discern the demographic change just by looking at the storyline, the drastic change of character designs in Gundam AGE should slap you into reality. Again, the character designs in this anime is similar to ones in anime titles that are subbed by TV-Nihon fansub group. And the character designs in this anime is pretty much typical of anime titles that aims for that target demographic. Black hairs are rare, but then again this anime is set up in a futuristic age where humans live in space colonies, therefore I expect the humans of that time has evolved to ditch the black hairs and acquires dark green dreadlocks instead (plus X-Rounder powers as a bonus).

Only the mecha designs did not really change, although the Gundam designs in this anime resembles more of its counterparts in U.C. Gundam titles than in the past non-U.C. Gundam titles. To maximize the SKU that Bandai can sell, each Gundam version has the ability to ‘evolve’ into different shapes with different accessories and different power-ups. This actually helps the storyline a lot, not to mention the benefits for character developments and Bandai’s coffers.

The best thing that happened in the second arc, and possibly the whole series too.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is good in general, and better than the last one seen in Gundam 00. But even that, I do not think there is any outstanding voice acting gigs in this anime.

Music:-
If you are expecting any JAM Project OP/ED themes in this anime, then you will be for a disappointment. Between all 8 OP/ED themes in this anime, only the 2nd and 3rd ED themes are good. The OST itself are excellent, especially the one that plays in important events in the first arc.

Animation/Direction:-
This anime used the motion blurring animation technique in many of its action scenes, therefore a point will be docked from its final evaluation. Other than that issue, regretfully I have to report that the animation quality in this Gundam title has regressed when compared to what seen in Gundam 00. Choreography for action scenes are better though, except for important battles in the finale. The director hasn’t made any blunders character-wise too, unlike his counterpart in Gundam 00.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. I think Sunrise’s decision to pivot this anime’s storyline to target a more mainstream demographic is a good one, but the execution could do with more improvements. Sunrise should keep this demographic change for the next non–U.C. Gundam title (while keeping U.C. Gundam titles for Gundam’s more traditional fans) and then ask the Tiger & Bunny’s director and writer to make it happen. The prospect of a Gundam title that is as awesome as Tiger and Bunny is truly salivating.

This Westernized method of presentation has never been seen in a Gundam title before. Unfortunately, its usage is restricted to the first half of the series only.