Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj and welcome to the Mecha arc. Throughout the month of August we’ll be taking a look at mecha anime from the past, present, and future to see what works, what didn’t work, and how it’s changed over the years for better or for worse. Let’s get things started with Infinite Stratos, I mean Hundred. The first season of Infinite Stratos was a mediocre success that saw a somewhat resurgence in mecha anime which was a genre that had pretty much died out around this time. Sadly, the second season couldn’t keep that momentum going and the series was quickly forgotten years later. Enter Hundred, written by Jun Misaki in 2012-2018 who I’m guessing saw the success of Infinite Stratos and decided to create their own version. This whole series was like a lesser version of Infinite Stratos. It had a similar set up, same mech designs, and girls falling for the main character. Now in 2016, Production IMS turned the series into an anime which might not have been a bad idea if it came years earlier. This anime came 5 years after the first season of Infinite Stratos, and 3 years after the second season. At this point, everybody had moved on and forgotten about the series, and now they were reminded about it once again with this lesser version. How bad is it? Well let’s watch and if you ever feel like you’re losing your sanity just try to count to a hundred to feel better. This is Hundred.
Opening and Ending Theme
So the opening is “Bloodred” by D-Selections. I rather enjoyed the opening song. I like how it begins with that epic chorus that gets you hyped for the anime. The middle part of the song is okay but it couldn’t maintain the hype from the opening song. Luckily, the chorus returns to end the song on a high note and get us hyped.
The ending is “Eyes On Me” by Rumi Okubo and Mayu Yoshioka. Wasn’t a fan of this ending. While the not isn’t bad it just feels out of place here. Also, that ending animation makes me dizzy. The whole ending is just disc spinning around and around. There’s no doubt this gave people motion sickness.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts off in this city getting destroyed by this giant creature known as a Savage a powerful being that can only be destroyed using this device called Hundred however only various people called Slayers can use them. Our main character Hayato voiced by Yoshiaki Hasegawa has decided to enroll in the special ops school that specializes in fighting these savages on the island known as Little Garden since according to studies he has a record high capability of using the Hundred. He arrives on the school where a “guy” by the name of Emil voiced by Rumi Ookubo (Nona from Death Parade) quickly befriends him. At the school assembly two students show up late so the student council president Claire expels them from the school (okay, abuse of power much?). Emil speaks out against this and gets expelled as well (something tells me Claire’s role model is Donald Trump) until finally Hayato speaks out against her and she challenges him to a duel. After getting his Hundred he and Emil go to train where we see Hayato’s Hundred is mechanized arms with a sword (lazy). As for Emil “his” are drones that fly around, shoot laser beams, and can turn into wings (how come the side character gets the cool equipment while the main character gets the lazy equipment? I’m so tired of the main character getting the lazy design. He doesn’t have to use a sword all the time. Let him use other weapons like knives, spears, hammers, axes, bow and arrows, his fist, or guns. I don’t know, just something new and innovative). After training Hayato goes to visit his sister Karen in the hospital. We find out she’s had poor health for most of her life so Hayato struck a deal saying that he would attend Little Garden as long as his sister was put in a world class hospital (good man). As an added bonus his sister gets a busty nurse. He returns to his dorm room where he finds out Emil is his roommate (and despite seeing “him” naked still doesn’t know Emil is a girl). The next day comes where the fight between Claire and Hayato is about to begin (yes. Watch as the student who has fought on the battlefield numerous times and has trained countless hours to master her Hundred lose to a student who hasn’t had his Hundred for 24 hours, zero battle experience, and only a few hours of training).
In the first half of episode 2 Hayato has his match against Claire. The match starts off on a high note with Hayato rushing Claire and grabbing one of her boobs (scene here: https://youtu.be/ijeS0byxx1w, awesome! You may be dense, but you got the right strategy. Catch your opponent off guard). After that, Hayato starts to lose since the difference in skills is made apparent throughout the fight. Just when it seems like Claire is about to finish off Hayato his personality changes and initiates a full armament (kind of like a second mode of the Hundred. Scene here: https://youtu.be/wZvyajWo0yc) where he goes completely berserk and pushes Claire into a corner where she’s forced to do a full armament just to keep up with Hayato and beat him. Despite her victory Claire still doesn’t like the way she won and forfeits her victory making the match a draw. So with this Emil and the other two girls are allowed to stay in the school. In the second half Hayato and Emil go to the Capital the business district of Little Garden where they have (according to Emil) a date. Once again Hayato is completely oblivious to the fact that Emil is a girl and continues to think of him as a guy (you cannot be serious! Look at her and tell me you don’t see a girl!). Karen also shows up to hangout where she lets everyone know that she’s the guard dog of Hayato (scene here: https://youtu.be/Z2bDr98mANA, she may be sick but don’t think she won’t attack you). As they’re all eating Claire along with Erica and Liddy members of the student council and Charlotte a technical expert on Hundreds as well as a child prodigy come in to see them where they recruit Hayato for the Selections a group of students who have permission to go on missions from the government and fight savages. Since they’re shorthanded they want Hayato to join them and since Emil wants to be with Hayato (you still haven’t figured it out man?) “he” wants to join the Selections as well but Liddy says no. In order to prove her skills Emil challenges Liddy to a duel where “he” displays excellent skills until sirens go off alerting everyone about a savage attack not too far from their island. Charlotte tells Claire to take Hayato and Emil and they get ready for their first real battle.
In episode 3 we get are first look at the creature known as the Savage these mechanical bug-like creatures (they’re better than the other mechanical bugs I’ve seen in another anime. *Looks to the shelf and sees a Blu-ray copy of Sky Wizards Academy* Another time folks. Another time). There are three of them with one of them being a trenta-class which according to them is bad. Claire, Liddy, and Erica take out of the smaller ones to show Hayato and Emil how it’s done. First, you take out its eyes exposing its crystal core. Next, you try to stop its movement usually by tying it up or distracting it. Finally, you destroy the core thus destroying the Savage (scene here: https://youtu.be/YvG279Tw-4s, and that my friends is how you whoop a Savage’s ass). Hayato and Emil give it a try on the other small one where they manage to beat it while Claire and the others go defeat the trenta-class Savage who takes out Erica and Liddy and almost kills Claire but Hayato comes in to save her in the nick of time (grabbing her breast yet again. The man is a boob fanatic). The Savage attacks Emil ripping her shirt open and it finally gets revealed that Emil’s a girl (finally) and not just any girl (oh God, please don’t do it) but Hayato’s childhood friend (fuck~ every time). Hayato rushes in to save her where he goes into rage mode and goes savage on the Savage (let’s go son) slowly losing himself to the madness until Emil kisses him bringing him back to normal (you mad Claire?). After returning to normal Hayato and Emil combine their powers and destroy the savage saving the island with no casualties (sorry about the destruction. I hope you guys have main character insurance). Once they return to the school Emil explains that Hayato and her have the Savage virus. When they were both little a Savage attacked their city and Emil got attacked by one. Hayato saved her life by sucking out the virus but as a result he too got infected with the virus. Normally people die once they’re infected but if by some stroke of luck they survived their compatibility with the Hundred would go up big time and that’s what happened to Hayato and Emil (they overcame the odds and survived). Since there are less than 10 people in the world who survived the virus, Emil knew that if she went to Little Garden she would one day be reunited with her boy toy Hayato. Also, in order to handle the side effects of the virus (you losing strength in your body) you need to administer an inactive virus through the mouth. Emil has an inactive virus so that means she has to kiss him and she’s more than happy to do it. Claire walks in on them where Hayato slips and kisses her (scene here: https://youtu.be/FfHf5cRAiIs, you’re kind of a man slut Hayato. Kissing different girls all in the same day and shit without any commitment to either of them).
So in episode 4 Hayato is assigned bodyguard duty to the popular idol Sakura. Originally, she was scheduled to sing on the Zwai islands but due to the Savage attack it had to get pushed back. On top of that there’s a possibility that a few stragglers are hiding on the island and they need to protect V.I.Ps. The next day, Hayato arrives to meet Sakura where we find out she requested him to be her bodyguard because she’s interested in him (you and two other girls so far). Most of the episode is just the interactions between Hayato and Sakura where it’s hinted there’s a bit of history between the two in the past (you left her at the altar didn’t you Hayato?). We also see that Sakura has a Hundred as well. A special type which allows her to create illusions for people within her special field (so she’s just like a fairy both literally and figuratively). The episode ends with Hayato taking a bath with Emil and calling her by her real name Emilia.
Episodes 5-8
At the start of episode 5 Hayato goes to visit Claire at her summer house where she flashes Hayato with her boobs while trying to show off her swimsuit (man she has really gone through a character change since the first episode. She went from being the evil bitch to fap material for teens). She then goes on to explain that someone stole variant material a rare ore from the Savages and that Hayato should be on the lookout for anything bizarre or out of the ordinary. She then tries to put him in a speedo and have a swimming contest with him (and there’s the bizarre and out of the ordinary). After this attempted sexual harassment, Hayato goes on a date with Emilia where she goes to get drinks for them and Hayato receives a call from Sakura’s manager saying that Sakura has disappeared on them. Sakura appears behind Hayato and drags him away to the island’s grand canyon site where we find out Hayato and Sakura met when they were children (in fact, Hayato was the one who inspired her to be an idol). In the past when Hayato’s city got attacked he took up shelter with Karen in a bunker where they met Sakura who got separated from her parents and hung out with Hayato and Karen singing to calm herself down. Hayato says her singing is great and this inspired her to become an idol, but tragedy struck shortly after the Savage attack. Sakura gained the same unknown illness as Karen and couldn’t sing anymore until her dad took her to a facility where she was injected with Savage venom where even though the venom cured her and allowed her to sing again she has PTSD as many other kids who were injected with the venom died with her being the only survivor. So, as you can see she’s just like Hayato and Emilia and her compatibility with a Hundred is amazing however due to the experiments she can’t fight (we’ll you can sing and that’s more than enough). Once Hayato tells her he’s in the same boat she’s overjoyed (hopefully she has an inactive virus. If she does Emilia is going to be pissed). They leave the canyon on a bus where it gets attacked by a Savage and ending on a cliffhanger with them about to get crushed by it.
In the opening moments of episode 6 everyone has escaped the bus and Hayato takes on the Savage all by himself where we see it can regenerate at will. Emilia and two other students from the school come to help out but the Savage is ultimately defeated by a group of Hunters, slayers who are part of illegal organizations. They defeat the savage and steal its core (which pretty much holds the same power as a variant stone and can be used to create a Hundred) where we see they’re also variants (a few in the world my ass! Seriously, in the span of 6 episodes we just met 6 of them). After that things settle down and Hayato receives a call from Sakura who has gotten cold feet about her performance. She reveals that because she’s a variant her voice allows her to reach anyone who has the virus dormant inside of them so now she’s worried that her songs aren’t actually reaching them (why is this bothering you now? Didn’t seem to bother you in the past so why now of all times?). Hayato tells her to have faith in her singing saying how much it reached him and his sister when they were kids and this makes her feel better. The next night at the concert Sakura blows the roof off the place and gives Hayato a kiss on the cheek the next day she leaves saying she will see him again soon (scene here: https://youtu.be/VPtHiGQv4XU). And by soon she means the next day where she breaks into his room and everything (scenes here: https://youtu.be/_94bBElZX38 and https://youtu.be/uuQyZDnZ7Ow).
In episode 7 as everyone is enjoying a day at the beach (scene here: https://youtu.be/c1TCp9oHYKg, you know giving us fanservice and stuff) they get a surprise visit from Judar the big brother of Claire who has a mission for all of them and takes an interest in Hayato where he shows him the power source of Little Garden Liza Harvey the first slayer and variant as well as Claire’s little sister. The reason why Judar has shown Hayato this is because he believes Hayato might be able to awaken her because he has divine blood. At the request of Judar, Hayato tries to awaken her but his power isn’t enough so he takes his leave and Hayato doesn’t ask any questions out of respect for Claire who obviously doesn’t want to talk about it (we’ll save that for pillow talk). Sometime later they take off for their operation which is a clean-up operation in China where some 50 Savages have gathered and they’ll be working with others from various nations to defeat the Savages. At the camp we meet a girl named Claudia who reveals to us that Emilia is the princess of a nation called Gudenburg (no doubt located somewhere in Germany). She was best friends with Emilia and now she wants her to come back home, but Emilia says no because she’s in love with Hayato so Claudia challenges him to a duel for Emilia where he wins (scene here: https://youtu.be/xxMEYXYyLVE).
Nothing much happens in episode 8. They split up into teams of 5 with Hayato getting stuck with Emilia (obviously), Claudia (our lesbian relief), Erica (a stooge of Claire), and finally Claire along with her fine ass that the episode enjoys focusing on (*Nitsuj and the Jack Bros. take out their phones and snap shots of Claire’s ass* (Nitsuj): Nice). They go into the forest and start hunting down Savages where they manage to kill quite a few no problem. That night, they take turns keeping watch where Claudia tricks Hayato and Claire to go investigate by the river so that she can tell Emilia they’re on a date (in the middle of a forest infested with killer robotic insects?). They do come across a Savage where Claire slips in some mud and gets saved by Hayato (3 points on Claire’s affection for Hayato). She goes to wash off by the lake (jump in with her Hayato) where she talks about her sister Liza. Apparently due to an experiment conducted by Claire’s mother, Liza was born a variant and at a young age displayed amazing skills and talents (that tends to happen when you inject your fertilized egg with steroids or in this case Savage juice). One day Liza unleashed her powers to save Claire from a Savage where she fell into a coma however her body keeps releasing energy (enough to power an island. When they said they wanted to go green I’m pretty sure this isn’t what they had in mind). Claire soon assumed the position of council president of Little Garden in order to protect Liza from Judar and their mother who think of Liza as nothing more than a weapon for them to use. After bathing she gets out of the lake and slips again only this time she falls on top of Hayato who grabs one of her breasts (if he did not get hard from seeing that girl naked I will be convinced that he is not a man) and all of a sudden a distress signal goes out telling slayers to be on the lookout for Hunters who are attacking slayers (what a boner killer). Hayato goes to get the others while the episode ends with Claire going to face the Hunters herself (she’s got this).
Episodes 9-12
At the start of episode 9 Claire takes on the Hunters where it begins to rain so it slows down the charging time of her weapons (not sure how that works but for the sake of my sanity I’ll allow it) so she gets beat up. Just when she’s about to get killed (you guessed it) Hayato and the others come in to rescue her where they manage to catch the Hunters except for the boy who takes on Hayato overusing his variant powers and starting to cough up blood. We do get to see images of his past where we see that he and his sisters were slaves in a country until they escaped where they met a scientist who injected them with Savage fluid (eww). Just as he and Hayato fight, a dragon Savage pops up from the ocean to attack them (Savage: Notice me~! (Hayato): No~). They try to attack it, but its barrier is too strong even with the combined power of everyone in the area. They call Charlotte who tells them that if Hayato injects the variant virus into Claire she should have the power necessary to break the barrier which means Hayato has to kiss her. So Hayato much to the dismay of Emil (just kiss him when this is all over) kisses Claire and she gains the variant virus where her firepower increases allowing the barrier to get destroyed and Hayato delivers the final blow (alright mission accomplished, let’s go home). The Hunters are brought back to Little Garden under the orders of Judar who has a plan for them.
Nothing much to say about episode 10. Once the Hunters are taken in they confess that they were working under the orders of Vitaly a female scientist who’s a fugitive and the one who experimented on Sakura in the past. Now the hunt is on to find Vitaly and arrest her. While that’s going on Little Garden is having a festa to celebrate its anniversary. At the festival Emil gets forced into a maid outfit where we see she’s well-endowed breast wise (damn Emil’s been holding out on us. How has she been able to hide those monsters). After that, Hayato and Emil go to Sakura’s concert where Karen will also be performing with her and she has her own Hundred as well (she’s also a pretty good singer).
In episode 11 Little Garden gets attacked by Vitaly. She unleashes custom made Savages known as replicants on the island who don’t have a core thus they’re harder to fight and destroy. A plane full of replicants crashes on the barrier above the concert and begin chopping away at it. Hayato and Emil are sent to deal with them while Vitaly makes her way down to the holding cell of the Hunters. At first, they don’t want to help her since they don’t like the idea of hurting innocent people, but she forces them into it via torture.
In episode 12 the replicants release a sound that nullifies Hundreds and leaves everyone at their mercy. We find out that Vitaly’s plan is to kill Liza and once she reaches her Judar is there to greet her where we find out the two have some history with each other (oh do tell). It turns out that the two used to date each other in the past but Judar used her and then discarded her like yesterday’s trash and now she wants revenge by killing Liza (oh sure don’t go for the other sister. . .with dat ass). She takes out a gun and fires at Liza but the bullets get stopped by a force field (what was your plan for this again? How could you not see this coming?). Liza is awake thanks to Sakura and Karen’s singing just like Judar planned. He kills Vitaly (he’ll always remember your night in Osaka) and the ghost of Liza goes to Sakura and Karen and tells them that their songs can nullify the replicants sound so they begin to sing and Hayato goes full force taking out the replicants and dropping into the city falling unconscious. One of the replicants survived so the Hunters fight it where Nesat goes berserk and fuses with it which is bad because soon she’ll explode and take everyone down with her. Liza goes to Hayato and in a dream, kisses him, and tells him that only he can save her. Claire’s about to kill Nesat but Hayato steps in and using his words and actions he manages to save Nesat from exploding and save Little Garden (well she’s in the harem. Way to get youself a dark-skin girl Hayato). That night, as the fireworks go off and Hayato and Emil are alone she kisses him saying she wants to stay with him forever and he accepts her (wow, he actually chose someone. (Baron): This means nothing~! (Nitsuj): So true). They kiss again with everyone walking in on them which forces Emil to reveal who she truly is in front of everyone.
Final Thoughts
Oh my goodness this was bad. If this anime came out in 2011 or 2012 I would have been more forgiving of it, but to have it come out in 2016 is unacceptable. The characters are bland, the story is uninteresting, the mechs aren’t creative, the fights and animation are low quality and like I said at the beginning it’s almost a carbon-copy of Infinite Stratos. The anime is unbelievably predictable that you’ll find yourself predicting everything that happens before it happens. Thus, making the anime boring. I will give credit and say that the girls are cute. My favorite girl had to be Claire and the fanservice done with her was enjoyable. However, everything else is just bad. I feel bad for saying that because I really do think the team behind this were trying to make a good anime but unfortunately the source material is just lazy and way behind the times.
Final Score
The final score for Hundred is a 3/10. If you are slightly interested in this series, then skip the anime and check out the light novel. I’ve read a little bit of it and I did find it more interesting than the anime but not by that much. Looks like I’ll need to go back further if I want to find a good mecha anime. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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