Full list of the review series can be found on this page, 3rd post from bottom:
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?uid=251338&show=userpage&do=blog&blogid=29009&page=0
TEASER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvva6RwSdS4
This anime can be seen as the attempt to make a more serious version of Plawress Sanshirou. It still has to do with a videogame and typing macros commands as fast as possible, yet it is also about a war between Earth and the moon using huge mecha. I must say that for its time the show was way too beyond its time as far as science fiction goes. I mean they ARE showing people playing online videogames a decade before such a thing was even possible. Of course the games are solely based on vector graphics and thus it takes some imagination to figure out what the hell is going on with those weird white lines on a black background.
Anyways, the game aspect of the anime is only used as a hook as the actual story is about the war and not some game tournament. The protagonist is a manic player of a brand new game that uses military supercomputer CPU and even hacks it if it needs more resources to run the game, a thing which has to do with evolving the controlled robot to an advanced form. Now for reasons that made sense only in the in-laws of the show, under proper circumstances items can materialize outside of the virtual world. I don’t know how but if you have watched the Tron movie or the Gantz anime then you get the basics. Anything can be translated to data and with enough energy can be digitized or created out of thin air. This fringe science is the source of power ups as well as the excuse of how the lead robots can teleport anywhere they want or make weapons and upgrades appear seemingly out of nowhere. I must say that within the context of the show it is acceptable.
Just like in Plawres, the plot is partly slice of life and partly battles with robots controlled with keyboards (not levers or paddles or switches). Unlike Plawress, the core story is far darker and complicating, full of death and human pathos. The villains of the show for example are not generic megalomaniacs but denizens of the moon, human colonists and convicts who were abandoned to die by Earth after they were deemed needless. Thus they begin a war or vengeance against Earth with an army of robots, and predictably encounter strong resistance by the lead hero and his best friend, who by accident manage to materialize their virtual robots when they hacked into the main computer of the army and gained control of the world’s air traffic. Instead of being court marshaled they are instead drafted into the war, since their m@d typ1n 5k1Lz make them essential in the war. Later on more villains appear, this time aliens who are INDEED megalomaniacs who want to take over the world yet have internal disputes that again makes them more interesting than generic bad guys.
The plot is fairly episodic, with the villains trying to scheme ways to destroy important parts of Earth or ambushing the lead robot. There are also many episodes dedicated to colorize a character. The only actual progress in the show is when the robots get upgrades or some villain gets killed.
The battles are interesting for their quirk of materialization, a thing which makes them feel like a videogame of sorts. The vector graphics make every special effect to look interesting, even if they are essentially crude 3D objects. I just say they excuse the time displacements and the teleportations, like watching a science documentary explaining the fourth dimension. It is hardly as intelligent as I describe it but the illusion is similar. In practice the battles are run of the mill mecha action which uses “magic” as a source for superpowers.
Although the concept of the show and the dark story are far more interesting than the childish plot of Plawres, I still didn’t like it more or even the same. In fact, after awhile I found it to be stupid. Shouldn’t the military confiscate the robot and create a million copies out of thin air to take out the invaders? If not possible, shouldn’t they give the piloting to more experienced people than a bunch of kids? Isn’t the whole vector magic thing way too convenient?
Furthermore, the heroes in this anime are hardly as likable as those in Plawres. Plawres was full of humorous, naughty, mysterious and playful characters you just loved to watch, whereas Lezarion has this bunch of serious looking military men and some kids who don’t even seem to be afraid with an army of robots killing their friend and having to kill them before it is too late. They felt too robotic and uncaring, stuck to their mentality of loyalty and high ideals. I mean the hero in Plawres was just trying to have fun and grow stronger, whereas this one here is just… playing games and if the aliens attack goes to fight them with little care. And why is that blonde chick next to him all the time? She doesn’t play games and is completely useless to the plot. If she is in love with him, she sure didn’t show it much. She just comes along for the ride and ends up being nothing but fan service.
In fact the villains are far more interesting than the heroes. They are full of human emotions, driven by hate and betrayal, having a goal in mind and never giving up no matter how many times they lose. They even have a backdrop to excuse their behavior. The good guys don’t have that; they are ok with the way things are and just preserve the status quo just so they can play videogames all day long. Well that is not interesting.
Another thing I didn’t like was the amount of violence and gore in the show. I mean, sure, it is ok to have some than none at all but they sure overdid it at times. This is a show for children and here they are showing some really macabre scenes that turn it to a psychological thriller.
All the above come to show their ugly face at once in the finale of the show. Since the heroes are completely dry of something to bother showing, the plot is 80% showing how the villains prepare for the final battle, and how they self destroy under their own internal power games. Isn’t it silly to have bad guys taking the entire spotlight because the good guys are completely boring? And man, what’s the deal with the gory deaths? Is this even for kids? We are talking about some really creepy ways to die here. And what the hell is that cat spirit doing here? Is it some deus ex machina plot devise to rashly finish the story? And WTH half the planet is now in ruins and tens of millions died and all we see is the kids playing videogames like nothing of all that mattered at all? This is plain retarded!
It is a real shame to see such an interesting concept being ruined by bad directing. The heroes are irritatingly uncaring, the villains are likable but they keep dying in horrible to stare ways, and the whole plot is full of cheese that simply does not fit in a story full of death and alien invasions. So in the end of the day I only liked the concept and the premise but not the execution. I can’t really say it is a worthy watch but it sure is an irritating one.
And now for some excused scorings.
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