Tenka Seiha » Infinite Stratos OVA — Failure of the Franco-Anglo Alliance

Infinite Stratos OVA — Failure of the Franco-Anglo Alliance

December 5th, 2011

The invasion of Japanese soil did not proceed as planned.

Impressions:

Oh boy… montages! And Houki! Fan-bloody-tastic. And Ichika somehow actually managing to surpass his previous cluelessness by him being unable to hear Houki shout out that she likes him over the fireworks, despite us, the audience, able to. Actually, given that he didn’t press the issue or even wonder about it afterwards, it’s also quite likely that he had just tuned her out entirely long before that point. Would that I had the same talent. While she wasn’t in her completely annoying angsty mode here like she was for practically the entire second half of the show proper, she still remained only slightly more interesting than a moldly towel and successfully chewed up pretty much the entire second half of the episode.

The first half was a little better, but again, montages, montages, montages as well as not really delivering any of the kind of goods that you’d expect with an OVA or special. Believe me, after the Anglo-Franco alliance at the start showed up to beg for Ichika to stuff things in their mouths, I was gearing up, but… nothing. Hell, I’m not even sure if Lingyin had more than five lines. Have some fun with these characters or something. Make them play Twister, strip Jenga, or the King game. Those always turn out well. One round of Clay-Pictionary with "Germany builds a pathetic mountain" is phoning it in. It’s not even phallic enough to make a good penis joke. This is a show where the default battle suit is a one-piece swimsuit. If you’re going to make a one-off special, have a little fun, or at the very least, don’t be so bloody bland. This was probably the most vapid the show’s ever been. Even the beach episode at least had some eye candy and crab-butt jokes to make.

Posted in Infinite Stratos | 13 Comments »

13 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

NoName says:

December 6, 2011 at 6:13 am

Ichika is probably the worst main character I’ve seen in a harem anime. In fact, this anime exagerates the harem stuff so much that makes my eyes bleed. And here I thought nobody could surpass Touma from Index anime in terms of cluelessness. While I do realise we are omniscient in terms of knowing what’s happening in the anime, Ichika must have brain damage for not realising anything.

Still, I respect the anime for being better than the novels, which DESCRIBE COMPLETELY ALL THE STUPID HAREM MOMENTS, which normally is half or more of the content of the novel. To the point of wanting to tear the novel if you had it.

Baby Choo Choo says:

December 6, 2011 at 7:23 am

Every main character of a harem is the worst main character of a harem anime in my opinion. I don’t think stupid even begins to describe male leads of these shows. You would think that in, what, 30+ years of anime? they would come up up with something new, but apparently ‘playing it safe’ is a requirement instead of a suggestion.

To be fair though, I guess there have been some harem shows that tried something new and succeeded, but the majority of it all has been garbage IMO.

When you think about, the guy from School Days is arguably one of the more realistic/likeable male leads. lol, ok hear me out here: teenage boy raging from head to toe with hormones with a flood of girls coming his way and what does he do?

He bangs each and every one of them.

He was nothing if not an opportunist. Sure he was an a-hole, but he could tell when a girl was into him and he took advantage of it. He knew what was going on. I know this is crazy, but I think harem leads could learn a thing of 2 from him.
- EXM says:
  
  December 6, 2011 at 10:25 am
  
  Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari main character is the best character in the show. So your generalization doesn’t apply. Generic harem leads sucks sure. But the non-standard ones are usually god tier. Also note Legend of Legendary heroes didn’t have a shitty MC. Neither did Code Geass.
  - Nanaya says:
    
    December 6, 2011 at 12:26 pm
    
    I wouldn’t say Lelouch counts, as even though he was intelligent enough to notice it he completely lacked a harem drive you see in the others. The only time he even acknowledged one of them like that was when he was in full-on self-destructive depressive mode or about to die.
    
    It’s the same reason I never saw the Kurenai series as a harem, the MC doesn’t really acknowledge them like that or plan on living long enough for that. They’re walking friend zones. Which is highly amusing in its own way.
    
    Also, for me the Kampher MC takes the spotlight for mind-numbingly dumbest main character ever, and all that role entails. When that show was airing I developed stress twitches that didn’t go away until the series was over.
    
    Now to drink coffee so I can wake up and regret putting this much thought into it.
Steven Den Beste says:

December 7, 2011 at 8:43 am

Kouta in Kanokon is easily much worse than Ichika!
- Anon says:
  
  December 9, 2011 at 5:49 pm
  
  Really? The anime does not go as far as the manga were the it got very close to crossing the “this is H” line, cannot speak for the novels but even in the anime Kouta had his moments (remenber the spanking?)
  
  And yes, Infinite Stratos is “Infinite Dense” and the novel makes that even more clear (Charlotte even commented that Ichika was the final boss at one point) since he get their inner thoughts and Ichika is the rest, half the fun is seeing him completely failing to recognize it and the rest of the Harem torpedo each other and also setting themselves for disappointment.
  
  As for the OVA, I think it covers two smaller arcs that is when they first visit their house and then the festival … those are really very minor arcs before the whole Birthday incident.

jingoi says:

December 6, 2011 at 11:43 am

Forgot about that one, going to download the remaining eps after remembering how superior that series is over this shit(IS). So Kenshi/TenchiV3 hasn’t picked any girls at the end?

I’m on the ship that throws Houki and Lingyin overboard so I won’t be watching this OVA (except to view fanservice) or finishing eps 11-12, IS is only useful to me as doujin material so I hope some stuff for Ran pops up soon.

I agree with the stuff about Makoto but usually the comeback I read for what a harem male should do is that it would become hentai.

AfroSquirrel says:

December 6, 2011 at 4:50 pm

An OVA and they still haven’t made a proper ‘Char’ joke? I am disappointed by this failure.

Hayate-kun says:

December 6, 2011 at 5:43 pm

This episode is basically taking the light novel chapters and animating them with few changes here and there. That’s why the episode isn’t as fleshed out as one would think and they took out quite a few things too so I’m somewhat disappointed.

I’ve read the light novels, but the way the anime is going is that they are trying to lean more and more towards the Ichiki X Houki coupling.

There are chapters where each character are somewhat individualized and they have fun with the characters. Like the Rin-Cecilia Alliance to get some special tickets in an attempt to get some alone time with him later on during a pool amusement park contest. Or the Charlotte-Laura pair day out shopping for clothes for Laura with a foiling a robbery afterwards when they are somehow helping out a poor manager into working in a maid cafe, Laura as a maid and Charlotte as a butler. Houki’s chapter was done in the later half of this OVA.

The OVA is a bit half-assed as they could have done several OVA episodes specializing in each of the characters as each of those chapters would provide all the material the episodes would need.