I’ve been waiting for a decent mecha anime with a new world and concept and had hoped after BBK’s pilot episode that I’d found just that. The character designs and CG were implemented well enough to please visually. This is a good anime example of good CG, unlike the mess that is Aijin.
Yet, the further we went along, the more apparent became the weaknesses. It took much too long for me to warm up to the main group of kids surrounding Azuma. The villains were comically evil until we randomly received some back stories and individual motivations near the end. I don’t know if I should agree with the heroes or villains. Both sides have ideas and things they are fighting, so no one is being evil so the sake of being evil. but, I can’t help but felt that I am being forced feed all this too quickly to actually feel any strong emotion.
The ending wasn’t even that–just a dissatisfying point to more to come with a little resolution to the fight on Treasure Island, and big sister revealed annoyed me because I never liked her since the pilot, and now she may play a big part in season 2 doesn’t sit well with me at all. I will still watch season 2 to see how they resolve the story.
If you like a strong story driven mecha anime then give Iron Blood Orphans a shot because I think that show does a lot better with its storytelling.
