Hi Scott, I hope you had a great week. Here we are once again getting ready to review some mechas!
Hi Irina! I know, I’m excited about this too. I remember writing that you wanted to Hi Irina, it hasn’t been bad. If anything, it’s been a bit of a cool down week. I hope your week has been ok. As you know by know, I am always prepared for reviewing some mecha.
Now I have to admit, I don’t have all that much to say about this episode. I was mostly set up with a little bit of recap. I have to say, episode 3 is a bit early to be recapping in my opinion!
I’m kind of there with you. There was just a lot of stuff that happened. Not exactly disjointed, but just nothing really connected thematically. I’m not sure if this was called a pure recap, I suppose there was a lot of material that we viewers already knew.
Anyways, those nationalist vibes are continuing with the introduction of what will likely be our home team. The homeland terrorist with a heart of gold! deadset on retaking Japan! They were really chill about a random kid stealing their irreplaceable mass destruction weapon, I have to say. Most terrorist units would have complained a bit more. Then again, I don’t know any terrorists.
Yes, I absolutely got those nationalistic vibes too. Everything was a little too simple, though I am self admittedly not a terrorist either. This is why I mentioned a couple episodes ago that this should have taken place in an alternative universe. At least there would be some plausible deniability in that case.
You know, a lot of the background story reminds me of Code Geass. Obviously, AMAIM is a completely different anime in pretty much every respect but the past war that left the Japanese as second-hand citizens in Japan combined with the mecha aspect and the strong military antagonists. All of that is pretty much the same. Am I the only one who thinks so?
Oh no, those Code Geass like elements were noticed by a lot of people as they watched AMAIM. Speaking of another should with some questionable nationalistic vibes. It is a bit of a mix of Code Geass and Gundam 00 with Japan controlled by four nations. Quite an interesting mix I suppose.
Most of the episode was really concerned with acclimating Amou to his new environment and introducing the new characters. More specifically Gashin Tezuka the other AMAIM pilot we saw a glimpse of last week. He seems to be the stern type and likely to be the straight man to Gai and even his own AI. Any thoughts on Tezuka?
Gashin Tezuka seems like a cool guy. I really mean that. It feels obvious that Gashin feels like he is trying his best to show his hard edge when he is probably very much like Shiiba Amou in actuality. Their motivations and backstories are just different and that’s about it really. That is at least how my brain works for this at the moment.
Now I’m a sucker for a training montage so I like this episode even though not much happened. I tried to exercise with them a bit. I have to admit my own push-ups look a lot more like Amou’s than Tezuka’s. I’ll work on it!
At least you can do some push-ups. I still struggle in doing them. I’m mainly a machine exercise person when I go to the gym. Just haven’t due to some pandemic things. But yes, training montages are just cool.
I do think that the high point of the episode though, was having them switch AMAIMs for a test duel. It was a fun scene. Gai sure gives some useful guidance…
Yeah, exactly. That was like one of the massive reasons why I woke up for the episode at full capacity.
Now, this is going to be a controversial opinion that is likely to earn me the ire of my collaborator. I think that mechs with swords look silly. I’m not saying I don’t like them or anything but I think it looks really funny. We built these two huge robots with tons of resources and have two highly trained pilots in them just to have them engage in some one-on-one fencing. ‘Cmon, it’s a laugh. However, that is nothing compared to a giant mech with a knife! I think it’s the first time I see that and it was hilarious. I loved it. I wish our thanks would have some type of little swiss army attachments they could just stab at each other with.
Nah, you are honestly fine as long as you don’t mind beam sabers or something special like Voltes V’s Heaven’s Sword that is blatantly awesome because it cuts everything in its way into bits. I think mecha with plain, metal swords are kind of lacking and need something as extraordinary and absurd as a drill of a missile launcher or a massive tomahawk. A small knife is an absurd weapon and fits that bill too.
All in all, it was an ok episode. I had fun with it because it sort of hit a lot of my buttons but it was objectively just fine. Now let’s see where this build-up takes us!
Yeah, it was enjoyable enough to be good. We got introduced to some new characters that seemed pretty neat, some cool action happened, and there was a cool cliffhanger. I’m pretty interested to see what happens next because there is a good cliffhanger here.
I’ve actually forgotten that there was a cliff-hanger.
Oddly enough, I don’t mind the nationalist elements all that much in this show. I’d rather they weren’t there, but I’ve sort of made my peace after episode one. I did think that our main character falling in with them was too… easy, and also we’re probably meant to see it as the “right” thing to do… It’s that sort of thing that keeps me from getting fully into it. But it’s generally got a good pacing for taste, and I’m fine with the characters.
Still, you guys have picked my fourth favourite mecha this season:
Sakugan (explorer mech) > Gyakutan (otaku freedomfighter mechs) > 86 (AI apocalypse mechs) > AMAIM (nationalist freedomfighter mechs)
I might be streching the definition of “mech”, not being a dedicated follower of the genre. I’ve dropped some, too, this season.
Honestly, Sakugan is my favorite this season too.
It didn’t catch my attention at all during the pre-season, then I clikced play. It wasn’t love at first sight, but by the end of episode 1 I was on board. Sakugan is just such fun, and it helps that I liked pretty much every character I met in that episode.
Yeah, Sakugan was such a surprise for me too. But honestly, there is so much to like about it including its characters. It has some serious style that I just dig.
It’s on my to watch list but I haven’t started it. I did start Ranking of Kings after Dawnstorm suggested it and now I’m reading the manga. Let’s just say I liked it
I’m always amazed by how much you go into something when you like it, Irina!
Glad you like it. It’s my favourite premier.
Talking about stretching the definition of Mecha, there seem to be a lot of mech suit clad characters showing up in Platinum End…