shinigami’s blog

We are off to a good start. A bunch of mecha with odd looking feet fall in an Western movie setting. The camera dutifully spins around them for the classic shoot out scene. Beware the awesome looking weapons of destruction, their funny feet and their nice moves. We find out this all happens in a virtual reality of some sort, the wired district. I can get why the western thing, but…. a children’s clothing shop? Called “Child Kids“? Nice touch there. >.>

The next few scenes throw in some lines like “How can every Electronic Brain in this Site be flatlined?” and “It might be a Virus terrorism attack” and creepy dolls, which gets my hopes up that this won’t be ripping off Zegapain.

Then, BAM, Ghost-in-the-Net-chan. More tech speak. Scared pilot: “Who is that girl? What is that thing?” People die messily. They were also logged in Matrix-style.

The OP kicks in. I could have lived without the matrix in the background and the “Steppen Wolf”.

And then the Matrix rip-off comes in full force. Souma Touru (Fruits Basket fans, this is just a coincidence. Don’t squee yet. :P) is a hacker, there is a guy who interrogates, and then another who gives him the chance to join the “good guys” in exchange for his past misdeeds being forgotten. (The “bad cop” in that bad cop/good cop scene was way too jumpy and over the top. ) Touru is a bad ass and he also has quite a temper, but he accepts so that his team mates are set free. Awwww.

He walks in the rain talking about how everything sucks and how you can live in your perfect virtual world. The image with the plugged in guy and the large colorful screens remind me of William Gibson. And the conspiracy freak talking on TV is not exactly an original element. I hope they pursue this instead of the lead’s kick ass career in FLAK (ah, yes, that’s the name of the UN organization he joined.) Also note the cool (possibly evil) looking chick. She will come in later.

We find out more about ghost-chan. There are rumors about a ghost in the wired, and if you see her you are flatlined (i.e. you die). The whole thing, including that scene, reminds me of feardotcom.

Touru goes to his old hangout and jacks in. The hackerz meeting place is a nice sunny hill with lotsa flowers and floating thingies. We find out why he freaked out at the beginning of the ep: their leader wanted to dissolve the team, and they decided to go out with a bang. This never bodes well, however. They hack into FLAK, the leader gets pwned and the rest get arrested. The scene where the leader is killed is all dramatic, but I find it hard to empathize: much like at war, they knew the risks involved in something that big. Just because he yelled “we are not terrorists” he expected to get out with a slap on the wrist?
And is that “scat” on the guy’s back? O.o
Touru gets the dead guys’ crucifix and swears revenge. So very original.

One thing I have to mention is that everyone seems to have over the top expressions, which is a bit odd and distracting in such an anime. Speaking of distracting, here’s the rest of the FLAK team: HotLips (this was Northy’s idea) who promptly hits on him, Playboy, the support chick with glasses (note the rack), and, arriving late, Ayane, the cool chick with an attitude. And, wait for it… yes, the chick on TV is back and look at those two babies she is showing to the camera.

The terrorists attack. Tooru wants a piece of the action against direct orders (as always). Mecha action time. But first, take off scene, complete with corny effects. And Touru looks silly in that plug suit. Well, nevermind that, the mecha, the mecha. It’s a CGI fest and moderately interesting, but 2 hilarious things happen:

1. Tooru realizes it’s not a game and stands there frozen. Gee, wasn’t that time when you saw your friend die in front of you enough of a clue? Apparently not. The Playboy saves him and appeals to his pride, but it’s all for nothing. Tooru just stands there, till he gets pwned by BattleLust!chick (Because he is a wuss in this scene, the maverick role is played by Ayane, who disobbeys orders too and takes off on her own.)

2. Just as Tooru is about to become the ex-lead of this show, The Mystery Mecha appears.
Yes, the Mystery mecha is pink. And it has a rack. Either the lead’s archnemesis is a woman, or some guy is really embarassed in that thing.

The Pink Mecha of Revenge is part of a team that’s a mystery to both the Chinese bad guys, and the UN good guys. Just then more players are added: the TV chick with the huge rack is now working with FLAK. And, as it happens, ex-Steppen Wolf chick Tsukina is working for VSS. Not a happy reunion, because Tooru is heavy on double standards.
Willuknight noticed that Tsukina is wearing a very Aria uniform.

The final scene of the episode really sucks.
Touru is off in his dream land, where it’s night for some reason, and he meets a mysterious sleeping girl. Before you can say “.hack//sign” she wakes up and…

Gah! Not here too!
Huge pink ribbon!
Onii-chan!
In fact, I got so annoyed I wrote this

All in all, not that bad, but not very good either. I’m not sure if it’s better than SRWOG - Divine Wars. Then again, we’ll synchro more of this, so we’ll see.

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed