Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. If you’ve been reading my blogs for a while now you’ve probably noticed I haven’t reviewed a mecha anime yet and the reason for that is quite simple. You see a long time ago I came to the conclusion that pretty much all mecha anime have the same story. Think about it, the story starts off in the future where mankind is at war with some alien race or against each other, than an unknown hero (most likely a boy) shows up who doesn’t have much faith in himself but as the story progresses he starts to gain confidence in himself, he falls in love with the girl who most likely has amnesia and remembers who she really is near the end, he and his rival become friends, and at the climax of the anime when all seems lost the hero digs deep and remembers all of the bonds he has made and unleashes a new power that is strong enough to defeat the final boss, the love interest dies or ends up with the hero and that’s the end. I’m serious, this is like a good chunk of all mecha anime out there, so what’s the point of watching it if I’m just gonna be re-watching the same story all over again. Now to be fair, just because they recycle the same story over and over again that doesn’t mean the anime is gonna suck, there’s a lot more that goes into it such as the characters, plots, and overall themes. There are some good mecha animes out there such as Gurren Lagann, Zoids, the Marcross series and the Gundam series (I never got into the series but everyone who’s watched it seems to like it). Today, we’re gonna be taken a look at one mecha anime that tries to cover up its mistakes by having pretty animation distract the viewer from the major problems that the anime has. The anime I am talking about is Infinite Stratos. Infinite Stratos is an anime that came out at the beginning of 2011. It’s based off the light novel by Izuru Yumizuru which follows the story of a high school boy who can pilot a machine known as IS, the only problem is only females can pilot IS’s and through a series of events he’s forced to go to an international school where he is the only male among the females (how is this a problem again?) trying to fit in, learn how to control his IS and survive high school. There’s also a manga out there by Kenji Akahoshi that only has 5 volumes to it but scanlators are slow in uploading the chapters. Okay, so far the plot sounds good but you’ll quickly see that the story is dull and the anime gets dragged down by bad characters and poor writing. Let’s not beat around the bush anymore, let’s watch Infinite Stratos.
Opening/Ending Song
Our opening is Straight Jet sung by Minami Kuribayashi. I like it. At first I ignored it but after listening to it through the course of the series I got into it and enjoyed it a lot. It’s energetic and Minami is a good singer. I like how she’s hitting those high notes. The ending is Super Stream which is sung by the 5 heroines of the series. On the first episode the first heroine sung the song by herself then in the second episode the second heroine joined her, and then every other episode a new heroine would join them until the 8th episode in which they were all singing the ending. For the most part this song very good, after hearing it the first time I found myself humming it in my head while I was walking to class in college. Much like the opening it’s energetic and the voice actors sing the song very well but the problem is it’s hard to tell the singers apart from each other and it sounds like it’s just one person singing. There are versions on youtube in which each heroine sings the song solo. Hard to decide who sings the song the best considering that these are some pretty top notch voice actors who are well known singers and they’re some of my favorite voice actors.
Episodes 1-4
So our story begins right in the middle of class in which we meet our hero of the series Ichika Orimura voiced by Kouki Uchiyama (Soul Eater from Soul Eater) who’s nervous about being the only boy in a school full of schools (can’t say I blame him. Sure, going to a school where the male to female ratio is 1 to 1,000 sounds great at first but after the first week he’ll either be eaten alive by the girls or go insane from no male interaction). After he does a lame introduction of himself in class he’s shocked to see that his sister, Chifuyu voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi (Sylvia from Princess Lover!) is his homeroom teacher and admired by all the girls in the school (why am I not surprise that lesbianism lies within this school?). Chifuyu is considered the greatest pilot of IS’s and representative of Japan in the first IS games winning a gold metal so her popularity is justified. We then get an exposition of the school from the vice homeroom teacher (didn’t know those exist) Maya Yamada voiced by Noriko Shitaya (Kyoko from Is This a Zombie? aka Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?) who basically tells us that the school is an international school set in Japan (obviously, where else would it be) where students from all the world (who all learned how to speak perfect Japanese mind you) come to learn to pilot IS’s, exoskeleton mecha suits that are used for sports and not war due to a global treaty that prohibits it (you seriously mean to tell me that all the global leaders of countries came together, sat down, got along with each other for 20 seconds and agreed not to use the closest thing to an ironman suit as a tool for war against each other? They must been wasted off their balls to sign something like that) and that because of the IS’s females are now the dominant species on the planet since they’re only ones who can pilot them (you hear that Oprah, you finally won). During lunch Ichika’s childhood friend who he hasn’t seen for 6 years Houki Shinonono voiced Yoko Hikasa (Rias from HighSchool DxD) comes to greet him and they go to the roof to where they barely talk to one another and return to class (well that was pointless). Seriously, what was the point of that scene? Was it to establish that the two are childhood friends because they made that clear earlier in the classroom? Or was it to show that Houki has a crush on him, if so then once again I think it was pretty obvious from the beginning that she had a crush on him. Later on, Ichika goes to his dorm room where he finds that Houki is his roommate (I should be surprise but then again they are childhood friends so according to anime law they’re destined to be together no matter what). The next day in class they decide on who their class representative should be. Everyone chooses Ichika except for our second heroine in the series Cecila Alcott, a British girl who’s too full of herself and has way too much pride in her abilities (just think of Asuka from Evangelion only nowhere near as annoying or bitching as her and can actually backup her talk). She’s voiced by the popular Yukana (C.C from Code Geass). After Cecila calls Japan an underdeveloped country (yes, the country who has some of the most advanced technology on the planet, two of the biggest gaming companies in the world, and houses the greatest stories of all time is underdeveloped) and Ichika insults the food of Britain for being disgusting (you guys eat Spotted Dick that’s enough to make anyone lose an appetite) she challenges him to a duel to see who will be the class representative.
At the beginning of episode 2 we learn a little more about the IS’s. Basically, there are 467 IS’s in the world and only one person in the world can create the core (the heart so to speak) of the IS’s that allow them to work. The person who creates these cores and the person behind IS’s is Tabane Shinonono the older sister of Houki who Houki seems to have a dislike for. Why, well its jumping ahead a little bit but after Tabane created the IS she went into hiding so the family was constantly under media harassment trying to find the whereabouts of Tabane. It got so bad that the family was placed into protective services and had to move around a lot. That means our sweet Houki was separated from her childhood friend and crush Ichika. Now, let’s say this situation happened to you and because of your older sibling your forced to move around a lot to locations you know nothing about and your separated from the person you have a crush on because of them. Yeah, I think she has every right to be pissed off at her sister. Ichika gets Houki to train him for the match; even though she denied at first she just can’t pass up an opportunity to spend alone time with Ichika (tsundere thy name is Houki). The day of the duel comes around and right before the battle Ichika gets his very own personal IS called the Byakushiki (White Expressions) which I’m not gonna lie looks pretty cool. He goes off to face Cecila who also has her own personal IS called Blue Tears, an IS that specializes in sniper range combat and defense. The battle style for the IS’s is quite unique, each pilot has shield points which are used to protect you from enemy attacks and use your weapons. You win the battle by making your opponent drop their shield points to zero or the IS can’t function anymore. It’s kinda like those battles from the Medabot series you just keep fighting your opponent until their Medabot ceases to function. Either that or a children’s card game without the use of cards and players aren’t crybabies who take the game way too seriously and call your mom a hor. Right from the get go Ichika gets owned by Cecila since she’s using a gun and he’s using a sword (he should of got Kenshin or Zoro to train him instead of Houki) and because his IS hasn’t finish the fitting settings to match Ichika so he’s a sitting duck out there. But as the battle progress he starts to get the hang of Cecila’s attacks and after his IS completely transforms to match Ichika he charges up his sword and closes in for the final strike on Cecila which makes contact and he wins. *Isis appears* (Isis): Um, master that doesn’t happen, he lost. (Nitsuj): Oh. Wait what? (Isis): Yes. He charges at her and right before he strikes her his shield points reach zero and he loses by default. (Nitsuj): The main character lost? The main protagonist doesn’t win the fight that is required of him? I’m shocked! No seriously, when I first saw this I was totally expecting Ichika to win at the end; this took me completely by surprised, to have the lead character lose right off the bat was very unexpected and new to me at the same time. This is a very interesting way to approach and look at the main character. So Cecila wins the match and is class representative but for some reason feels sad and unsatisfied. The episode ends with Ichika and Houki saying that’ll add IS piloting to his training and Ceclia taking a shower (I think I’ll stay on this scene for a while) thinking about Ichika (and I that’s cue to go to the next scene).
Episode 3 starts off with Ichika and Cecila performing flying techniques during a class training section in which Ichika crashes into the ground causing everyone to panic (oh no, the only dick within a 50 mile radius gone!). We also see that Cecila has developed a crush on Ichika and has started calling him Ichika-san instead of Orimura-san (this is kinda big in Japan). Still, this sudden love interest comes out of nowhere in the anime. To be fair Cecila does have a valid reason why she likes Ichika that the anime does a poor job at explaining it, but the light novel and manga fill in the blanks for us. Basically, her father was a spoiled man who had no role inside or outside the family and was pretty weak and indecisive (https://youtu.be/gswxFuYIxoc). After her parents died in a train accident and men tried to married her for her fortune she vowed she would never marry a weak guy. However, after seeing Ichika not back down from her and showing his manly side in the fight she began to develop feelings for him (never estimate the power of a man’s swagger). Later on Cecila steps down as class representative and gives the role over to Ichika. The next day a new transfer student comes to the school named Lin Yin Fang (not sure if it’s Lin or Rin but for the sake of the review I’ll call her Lin) voiced by Asami Shimoda (Ami and Mami from Idolm@ster) who is the second childhood friend of Ichika (this one has a yandere personality) and the IS representative for China. And as you would imagine she also has a crush on Ichika which the anime does another poor job at explaining. Her story is that she was a Chinese girl growing up in Japan which made her the target for many pranks. One day when she was being bullied by 4 guys Ichika came to her rescue and thus she fell in love with him. After Lin finds out that Houki is his roommate she tries to get Houki to switch rooms with her which she rejects. Before leaving she asks Ichika if he remembers the promise they made when they were children and while he remembers it he missed the context behind it (dumbass. When you’re dealing with girls the 3 things you don’t forget are your anniversary, their birthday, and promises. If you forget anyone of those your ass is dead). The promise they kept was that if she became a great cook he would eat her meals everyday (in others words she tricked him into agreeing to be her boyfriend). They decide to make a bet in which if Ichika wins the Inter-class tournament she’ll tell him exactly what she meant by it. The episode ends with the tournament beginning and Ichika facing Lin in the first round.
The battle begins in episode 4 where Lin is piloting her own IS called Shenlong a close ranged combat IS with dual cannons and a double-sided sword (this would be my IS if they existed). Lin outmatches Ichika right away but I will admit he’s doing a much better job than in the first battle; he closes the gap between him and Lin using his new move called ignition boost where he’s about to win (Isis: Win-blocking in 3, 2, 1) until an unmanned IS crashes in through the arena barrier and begins attacking (Isis: Totally called it). Ichika and Lin fight back and come up with a plan in which Lin fires her cannon at Ichika in which he absorbs that power to get one final hit on the IS but misses (epic fail). But that’s okay because it was all a set up for Cecila to get a clear shot at the IS and destroy it. However, the machine fires one last shot in which Ichika dives head-on into to it and . . . I have no idea what happens (I’m serious), we just cut to the next scene of him in the nurse’s office with Lin by his bedside trying to kiss him as he sleeps. The episode ends with us finding out that the unmanned IS had an unregistered core (https://youtu.be/kdhhQhqi_AE, agreed). Oh, and the bet, pushed aside, Lin plays it off that she just wanted him to try her food because she’s not ready to confess yet.
Episodes 5-8
We start off episode 5 with Ichika going over to a friend’s house for a campus holiday. His friend’s name is Dan Gotanada, we don’t know that much about him but he does have a little sister named Ran who is a year younger than them and has a crush on Ichika who is oblivious to it. Yeah, I forgot to mention, Ichika is kinda of oblivious to the hidden affections of the girls around him which often frustrates them. He does this throughout the whole anime. Ichika returns to the dorm where we find out that the living arrangements have finally been changed with Houki moving out but not before making a promise with Ichika that if she wins next month’s IS tournament he would go out with her. Some of the other students overhear this promise and rumors begin to spread that whoever wins the tournament goes on a date with Ichika. The next day in class a new transfer student arrives (are you beginning to see a pattern here), a boy named Charles Dunois the IS representative from France who is obviously a girl posing as a boy. How do you I know this? Well, because she’s voiced by Kana Hanazawa (Tomoka from Ro-kyu-bu), who has a habit of voicing cute and sweet girls in anime so there’s no way Charles is a boy. And I’ll come out and say it, this is the girl I’m cheering for, I want her to end up with Ichika at the end of the series, because out of all of the girls she has the best relationship with Ichika; we see her open up to him, depend on him, and trust him more then we see the other girls. Plus, she’s so damn cute and nice, how can you not choose her. Anyway, she’s posing as a boy to get closer to Ichika and figure out how he’s able to pilot an IS and collect data on his IS because her father who she’s only talked to for 2 hours of her life orders her to do it saying that he’ll throw her in jail if she fails (https://youtu.be/EYWbatgKN4g). After class greetings they go out to the field for IS training where Cecila and Lin get into an exhibition fight with Maya-sensei who easily beats the both of them without taking any damage (flawless victory! Finish them!). After class they all have lunch on the roof in which all the girls make a bento (a homemade lunch) for Ichika to eat (as long as there’s no spotted dick in those bentos I am totally happy). The next day in class another transfer student arrives (What is with all the transfer students? The school year has only been 2½ months so far and we’ve already had 3 transfer students that we know about, for all we know there could be more). The transfer student’s name is Laura Bodewig voiced by Marina Inoue (Yoko from Gurren Lagann) who is the IS representative from Germany (I expect nothing but a subtle performance from her). After she introduces herself she walks over to where Ichika is sitting and bitch slaps him saying that she’ll never accept him as Chifuyu’s younger sibling (don’t let this girl make you her bitch. Also subtlety has just flown out the window). We go to episode 6 where we find out that Chifuyu used to be Laura’s instructor in Germany. During the second IS tournament Ichika was kidnapped by some masked man and held hostage in a disclosed location. Germany told Chifuyu where he was located and in exchange for the information she agreed to become an instructor for Germany for 1 year. Ichika returns to his dorm where he finds out that Charles is really a girl (that didn’t take long). Charles confesses and tells Ichika the whole story about how she’s the illegitimate child of her father who owns an IS company in France that isn’t doing so well because there IS models are behind England and Germany’s models (this is surprising how). After telling the truth she apologizes to Ichika for lying (how sweet) and prepares to go back to France where she’ll no doubt be punish for being discovered but Ichika says that he’ll keep her identity a secret and that she shouldn’t listen to her father’s order. Ichika reveals that he and Chifuyu also had bad parents who abandoned them, vows that he will protect her and that she’ll be safe at IS academy because the students there don’t belong to any country, organization, or group (really, then perhaps you don’t mind explaining why the academy has only two teachers that are from Japan, the school is in Japan, and all the students learned Japanese in order to attend? Yeah, let’s face it, you guys all belong to Japan). So Charles decides to stay and can rest easy knowing Ichika is protecting her.
Not much really happens in episode 7 except for two important things. First, Lin and Cecila get into an IS battle with Laura who has her own IS called Schwarzer Regen (translation: Black Rain) which has high a .80 caliber railgun, 6 wired daggers, beam sabers, and an ability known as AIC which stops projectiles aimed at Laura (okay I change my mind, I want Laura’s IS). Laura overpowers them and even damages their IS while trying to severely injure them forcing the IS to shut down. Ichika jumps in to stop Laura but is stopped by her AIC and can’t move. Laura is about to attack him until Charles comes in with her own IS called Raphael-Revive Custom II which specializes in machines guns, a big knife for close range combat, and a shield-piercing battering ram. She fires on Laura who allows Ichika to escape and get Lin and Cecila to safety. Chifuyu comes in and stops the fight saying that they can settle this in the tournament happening tomorrow. The other important thing that happens in this episode is that the tournament will be a tag team tournament so Ichika and Charles form a team which makes Charles very happy and those who are participating but don’t have a partner are paired up randomly. The day of the tournament arrives and in the first round Ichika and Charles are going up against Laura (what are the odds) and her partner which was chosen at random Houki (again what are the odds) who is using an IS called Uchigane which are used for training purposes at the school for students, the only weapon it has is a katana.
Episode 8 is where the battle begins with Ichika and Charles working together to take out Houki first. They then focus their attention on Laura who is overwhelmed by the two until she unleashes her hidden power that has been lying dormant within her. We get a quick flashback that tells us that Laura was a test-tube baby originally created to become the perfect soldier (they didn’t learn their lesson after the Red Skull incident during WWII). When the IS were introduced they infused her left eye with hyper-sensors to make her a better pilot for the IS but the experiment failed because the body couldn’t adjust to the sensors and Laura’s skills deteriorated. Cutting back to the fight, those sensors have taken over Laura’s body and transform her and her IS into a dark mech that goes berserk (can we have one tournament that doesn’t end with people running out of the stadium panicking and screaming for their lives). Ichika wants to save her but has run out of energy to summon his IS, but Charles transfers her remaining power to Ichika which is enough to summon the Yukihira. He faces the dark mech and gets one good slash at its stomach which saves Laura and stops the dark mech (oh my God he won! Ha, it took eight episodes but he finally did it). That night when Ichika and Charles are bathing together in the open bath which has been made especially for them (keep in mind the school and staff still believes that Charles is a man) where she says that she’s going to stay at the academy because Ichika is there (awww) and that she wants Ichika to start calling her by her real name Charlotte (you do that. Me, I will continue to call her Charles). The next day in class Charles comes clean and shows everyone that she’s a girl. This shocks everyone because they were taking a bath together last night and Lin comes crashing through the classroom with her IS and fires her dragon cannon at him but is saved by Laura who comes out of nowhere giving him a passionate kiss (get you some Ichika) and she declares that Ichika will be her wife in front of the entire class to the end of the episode (well, I think we know who wears the pants in their relationship).
Episodes 9-12 and OVA
Episode 9 opens up with Ichika waking up to a naked Laura who has snuck into his room and slept with him (just an average every day morning for a harem anime) and Houki coming into the room, misunderstanding the situation and attacking Ichika (oh, yeah, because he clearly looks like the kind of guy who would force girls into bed with him). After that scene Ichika accompanies Charles into town to help her pick out a swimsuit because the school is going on a seaside school trip soon. This means only one thing. This is a fanservice episode! *Begins playing the song Summer Time Love by M-flo*. In episode 10 the group goes to meet in Chifuyu’s room who tells them that she knows they all have the hots for Ichika (she is an older sister after all) and that if they want him then they’ll have to take him by force from her (woah, that could be taken the wrong the way. Please don’t say you two are in an incest relationship because that would just totally destroy the series for me). The next day we finally get to meet Houki’s older sister and creator of the IS Tabane voiced by Yukari Tamura (Ranpha from the Galaxy Angel TV series) who despite being a genius has a very child-like and energetic personality, we see that she’s always full energy and has a no worry attitude. However she can be quite rude to people not caring for them at all. In fact, the only people she shows any sort of affection for is Ichika, Houki, and Chifuyu. Everybody else just gets the cold shoulder from her. They don’t show it in the anime but there’s one scene where Ceclia asks Tabane to check her IS in which Tabane just flat says no in a cold and rude manner. She shows up to deliver Houki her own personal IS called Akatsubaki (Red Camellia) which was made from the experimental data from Ichika’s IS so it’s kinda like the twin sister of Byakushiki. The main weapons are two katanas and a foot blade. She takes it for a test drive where she does well in controlling it and in good time because another unmanned IS codename Silver Gospel has gone berserk and Ichika and Houki are developed to take it down since their IS are the only ones that can match the Gospel’s supersonic speed. Alright, before continuing there are a few things I gotta point out here. The Silver Gospel isn’t an unmanned IS, the IS is actually the IS of Natasha Fairs, the IS representative of USA. We don’t get to see her in the anime but in the light novel her IS is in fact Silver Gospel. I don’t know why they called it an unmanned IS, I heard that they changed the script so that the information the characters receive confirmed it was an unmanned IS but in several scenes we see that the pilot does have breast and a human figure so chances are the IS was being piloted by a human but at the end of the anime we never get confirmation about this.
In episode 11 Ichika and Houki confront Silver Gospel over the ocean where an illegal fishing ship is at and gets caught in the crossfire. Ichika goes to protect them much to Houki’s dismay because she sees them as criminals who don’t deserve to be saved but Ichika reminds her that power is used to protect people both good and bad and that she’s acting completely different from her usual self. After hearing Ichika’s words of power she stops what she’s doing and has a breakdown in the middle of the battle (sure, have a good cry in the middle of the battle WITH THE BERSERK IS). The Gospel fires on Houki and Ichika gets in the way of the fire to protect Houki and gets severely injured. So was it just standing there waiting for them to finish their talk and then attack them? I mean that’s very considerate but still these guys are trying to destroy you (Berserk IS: Alright you guys time to die! Oh, wait, you guys are talking. Take your time, I’ll wait, I gotta do my taxes anyway. I should probably be destroying you but still manners are manners). Houki brings Ichika back to the base for treatment where everyone is shocked and sad to see Ichika injured. Even Chifuyu who’s usually calm, cold, and focus was worried about Ichika. Houki blames herself for what happened to Ichika (as well as she should it is her fault) and even goes as far as saying she’s going to quit piloting her IS until Lin shows up, slaps her, and tells her to get over it and take responsibility for what she’s done. Houki listens to her and the rest of girls meet up, discover the location of the Gospel and go to take it down without the permission of their supervisors (hell hath no fury like a group of girls who watch the man they love get hurt).
In the final episode the girls fight the Gospel where they do a good job, even injury the thing until it goes into 2nd shift which is like the super saiyin mode except instead of getting gold spikey hair the machine just gets stronger. The Gospel begins taking them down one at a time until Ichika who has fully recovered thanks to his IS (yeah, I don’t get it either the IS somehow went all White Mage on us and recovered him) and goes off to fight the Gospel himself after going into 2nd shift with his IS. So they all team up to take down Gospel and we get a pretty good fight scene ending with Ichika driving his sword into the Gospel making it shut down (I hope to God the Gospel is unmanned otherwise this gonna cause an international incident). They return to the base where they are told to keep the incident classified and we end the series with Houki and Ichika having a moment by the ocean where they’re about to kiss until the other girls find them and begin firing on Ichika trying to kill him as he runs away with Houki and his arms.
There is an OVA out there that came out a few months after the anime ended. The OVA is split into two parts and takes place during summer vacation. In the first half the girls go to visit Ichika’s house where they play games and have a cook off with each other. In the second half we focus on Houki who has gone home to her family’s shrine to help out for the summer festival. Ichika shows up and hangs out with her but their alone time together is ruined by Ran who has gotten separated from her brother. After they reunite Ran with her brother the two go off to a secluded area where Houki tries to confess to Ichika but her confession is drowned out by the fireworks going off in the background. All in all the OVA isn’t bad but at the same time nothing of interest happens. If you wanna see it go ahead, but if you wanna skip over it that’s fine too, you won’t miss anything major.
Final thoughts
This anime is okay but dull. I say it’s okay because there’s nothing that really pushes it into being bad or degrading to watch but the anime is quite dull to watch. Let’s start by looking at the characters. Ichika is your typical high school boy who is oblivious to the affections of the girls around him but still acts like a gentleman towards them. Houki is your typical tsundere childhood friend, Cecila your snobby girl, Lin the yandere childhood friend, and Laura is the girl who gets carried away easily. They’re not fully developed characters and are your cliché anime characters you see in any harem anime. The only one out of the girls who is interesting and worth liking is Charles who has a good backstory, a fully developed character and is pretty cool. The plot contradicts what the IS are supposed to be used for. We’re told that the IS are used for sports and not war but throughout the anime all we see is them using the IS to do battles with each other and stop threats. Yeah, these things are totally not used for war. The ending is also kinda a letdown especially when we find out why the Gospel went all berserk in the first place. I won’t spoil it but let’s just say a certain genius wanted her little sister to have a great debut for the world to see. The writing is just poorly done; every other episode is just a new girl coming, fighting Ichika and then falling in love with him which the anime does a poor job at explaining why they love him.
With that being said I feel that there are a few good things about this anime. First off is Ichika not being the typical strong male lead who always wins. I do like that he never really wins a fight until the 8th episode as if to show that he’s not the strongest out there, he has a lot to learn, and that does make him a somewhat interesting character from the average male lead in mecha animes. Make him start off weak where he realizes his strengths and weaknesses and then have him get stronger as the anime progresses. I do like that the girls aren’t all just drooling over him; they can be tough on him when they need to be, not constantly showering him with love and praise. I also like the harem idea of girls coming from different countries. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a harem plan go international before and from what I’ve read he gets a girl from Russia and USA. All he needs is a girl from Africa, South America and Australia and his collection will be complete. The fight scenes between the IS’s are good and enjoyable to watch with music that adds to the excitement of the fight and music that matches up well with other scenes. But the biggest positive this anime has going for it is the animation. The animation is amazing, it is a joy to watch, and the IS’s look badass and cool.
Also there are character albums of the 5 heroines singing their own character song as well as the ending theme of the anime. My favorite was Charles’ song Ma Cherie, Ma Cherie which has a pleasant France feel to it and Lin’s song Delicious Smile which sounds like a Chinese New Year song. Cecila’s song is okay but I couldn’t bring myself to like Houki or Laura’s song. They also have a second character album out called the vocal collection album which in this the album has all the girls singing a new song that all sound very good. I like each song sung on this album, if I had to pick my favorite it would most likely be Lin’s song Time is Love.
Final score
Infinite Stratos gets a 6/10. Despite the dullness there’s a lot of potential for this series to be great, if the author can add more personality and character to the girls and Ichika than I guarantee you this series will become popular in no time. There is a light novel of the series out there which you can find here: http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/?title=Infinite_Stratos#Volume_7_.28Full_Text_-_PDF.29 I haven’t gotten a chance to read it yet so hopefully as the story progresses we’ll see the changes I mention. Well, that’ll do it for me, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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