Infinite Stratos: Summary/Review

OK, first things first....

SPOILERS!

Now that that's out of the way, down to business. And that business is my previously promised review/opinion on last season's anime, Infinite Stratos. If you don't want to hear my opinions or any of the finer details, scroll down to the bottom where I've put a nice convenient summary of the anime's performance.

SUMMARY

Background
Infinite Stratos takes place in the near future (think 2060) where the brilliant scientist Dr Shinonono Tabane has developed a single pilot exoskeleton weapon system called Infinite Stratos, or IS for short. The catch: IS can only be piloted women. Needless to say, this has caused massive social upheaval, with women now the dominant gender. IS cannot be used for war or conflict thanks to a hinted at "Alaska Treaty." Their uses are therefore constrained to gladiator like sporting events in which two IS pilots duke it out. Almost all prospective IS pilots are selected and trained at the prestigious and originally named IS Academy. Now with the back story out of the way, onto the.....
Background: 10/10 A highly original idea, that ignored it's greatest asset of social upheaval and focused on one idiot with too many girlfriends.


Plot
The background should make the plot pretty obvious. With the status quo of society firmly set, along came a spider. And by spider I mean a clumsy, stupid, thickheaded, lucky boy by the name of Orimura Ichika. He has the unexplained ability to be the only male on the planet that can pilot an IS. Predictable, no? Needless to say, he is promptly enrolled in the IS Academy, which in this case means big freakin harem. Remember? School for IS pilots, only girls can pilot IS? Yeah. After meeting his own private harem (see Characters) Ichika solves a big crisis and makes out with Houki. Pretty predictable, pretty formulaic. Not much to say here.
Plot: 5/10 The single most formulaic plot ever. I actually figured out how it would end by episode 5.

Characters

Orimura Ichika is a 15 year old wunderkind (translation: wonder kid) that can pilot an IS as a male. He is generally easily confused, very dense, and couldn't detect a flirt if it danced naked in front of him. Appropriate analogy no? His IS is supposedly the equivalent of Jesus, and despite this he fails in every fight he participates in. Kind of annoying, but overall moderately easy to relate with thanks to his adorable awkwardness.

Ichika meets up with stereotype number 1, Shinonono Houki, his TSUNDERE CHILDHOOD FRIEND who is so stereotypical it hurts. Did I mention her stereotypeness? Throughout the series he meets up with four more lovely females, who all represent a country in some way. (Houki represents Japan), which leads to some fan flame wars over which nationality is best, ignoring the characters themselves.




Second addition to Ichika's burgeoning harem is Cecilia Alcott, representing Britain, and who is quite possibly the most conceited prick ever to walk the planet. I mean, representations of Westerners in anime are rarely good, but this is something else.






Third up is Fan Rin, representing China. Long story short? Little sister. Next.







Next to appear is Charles Dunoa, repping France and supposedly another male pilot. Why supposedly I hear you cry? Cause (s)he's got a massive freakin ponytail and blushes whenever in the same building as Ichika.The subterfuge lasts about one episode before her being reintroduced as Charlotte Dunoa. Her character actually gets some fleshing out with the story of her father pressuring her to get close to Ichika in order to give her father an edge in the IS manufacturing business, but this isn't explored to deeply.






Last is Laura Bodewig from Germany. She is basically a clone or something, used and abused by a military she doesn't understand, and eventually dumped in IS academy in order to again, gather info on Ichika. Following orders from her CO, she makes Ichika her WIFE (WHAT?!) and sleeps naked with him.














Orimura Chifuyu is Ichika's older sister, ex IS world champion pilot, and one of the teachers at the IS academy. She also used to instruct Laura in the German Army due to some deal she made that I can't explain without giving away too much. She's actually quite amusing and engaging as a character. I'm kinda stumped about what else to say. A good older sister character. Wow.








Characters: 7/10 While at least two of these major characters could have been cut with no real loss to the narrative, the characters the studio actually tried on turned out alright.

Overall
Overall, IS is a pleasing and entertaining show, with some engaging characters and an ingenious premise that I was saddened to not see them exploit more.
Background 10/10
Plot 5/10
Characters 7/10


Overall 7/10, pleasing but not revolutionary


My next review will be for "Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai." For those of us who aren't Japanese speakers or otaku who have heard of this show before, that means "There is no way my little sister can be this cute." Heads up, its hilarious. Should be up by next Tuesday.

Till then

Padraig