Why Didn't Someone Tell Me Iron-Blooded Orphans Was Awesome? · 12:35pm Nov 3rd, 2016
It's like Black Lagoon and Gundam Wing had a drunken one-night stand and nine months later Black Lagoon gave birth to a pretty, pretty little bishounen. And then dumped it on the front steps of the Rip-off Church to be sort-of-raised by mercenary nuns. ("Oh, stop bitching, kid. At least I didn't abort you.") I haven't watched all of the Gundams - Sunrise craps out one every other year like clockwork - but as of the first half-dozen episodes, this is the best one I've seen.
The characters are well-defined, everyone has motivations and behaves rationally according to those motives, the writing is sharp but not showy, and the art is, if not top-notch, top-shelf. The politics make *sense*, and the action isn't excessively elaborate or over-the-top. The heroine doesn't witter on about radical pacifism, and the pilot-protagonist isn't a whiny dolt. Well, he is kind of a withdrawn cold-blooded killer, but almost all Gundam protagonists can be found somewhere on the autism spectrum, and "will shoot you in the face if you ask for it and not feel a thing afterwards about it one way or the other" is an interesting variant on the standard model.
And the ensemble of supporting characters are bloody brilliant. The company commander is a great riff on the old bancho cliche, the twin-tailed ojousama is likeably dorky in her earnestness, and the various standards - the gruff crew chief, the amiable supply sergeant, the Lancer, the Quiet Giant, the no-chance Crush Girl - are drawn quickly but deftly. There are perhaps two too many "Doomed Youngbloods" to keep track of, which is a bit annoying, but I guess that's better than a single screechy pest like whasshisname from Captain Harlock. Oh, and the protagonist is about half a foot shorter than the heroine, which is awesome.
Then the guy with a literal harem shows up, and I was just about rolling in the aisles. The Gundam I remember might have had pimpin' bastards like Paptimus Scirocco and Char Aznable with their strings of lust-struck female pilots, but it never would have turned them into basically Warren Jeffs and family, Space Pirates. Space pirate ship, complete with brightly-painted nursery for his youngest coterie of children by various sister-wives.
Now, the show may go to shit soon enough - multi-cour giant robot shows tend to suffer script problems as they run up against the pressure of cranking out an episode a week for an entire year without breaks - but that won't ruin the wonder of the first half-dozen episodes.
And the best thing about it? It's a show about a mercenary company full of clever little bastards defending the honour of a princess. It's like the Black Company with giant robots.
Forgive stalking backlog blogs, some interesting stuff there
I couldn't believe they actually just played his harem straight. Past gundams would have done the same but never explicitly said it, generating endless eyerolls like every other other blueballing in a harem anime.
I'm constantly surprised at how good the show is. I keep expecting there to be some cultural disconnect, but the sensibilities seem to be very...western.
4520037 I need to get back to that show, but there's either something else to do, or I'm out of energy. This year has been kicking my ass when it comes to keeping up on things. But yeah, actual functional harem, complete with child care facilities. Because this shit comes with inevitable side effects, damnit.
I mean, there are harem that headfake this direction, but it usually results in a bodycount. Even shows like Clannad.