New Mecha Anime From BONES- Captain Earth

[JDogindy]

Personalally, the last episode was the worst to date. If you are gonna go the route of having the Kiltgang rehire their other members, don't devote 8 minutes to what they were doing on Earth when their true memories were locked, because it makes it look like the dynamic duo "ruined" their lives by having them go back to libido-crazed nutcases. And the next four episodes will follow this exact formula.

I still like the series, but it's starting to get weak.

[Compass]

The first half of Episode 9 was miserable, but the second half was amazing. I think calling this a mecha anime really doesn't sell this. It's really not a traditional mecha anime in any sense.

The Earth Engine isn't some OP Megazord or Gundam with insane powers. It's humanity's best, which is clearly not enough, even against other standard mecha produced by humanity.

Akari's play, as well, came entirely out of left field.

Spoiler

I thought it was totally damsel in distress trope until she pulled out nuclear destruction as the final option. The fact that Akari was willing to sacrifice all of humanity to rob the Kiltgangs of victory, or spare it was something that I never expected to happen.

[Raikoh]

I think calling this a mecha anime really doesn't sell this. It's really not a traditional mecha anime in any sense.

Well, it is BONES. They like doing things that play against type from what I've seen, especially when it comes to their robot series (what other companies have made a magical girl show with robots and a male main character, or a superhero show with robots set in America?).

To be honest, I've enjoyed these last two "Monster of the Week" styled episodes more than the first seven... Mmmmostly because I can follow what's going on. And it isn't being directed like the main character is Teppei instead of Daichi (as he got the lion's share of screentime and development for the first seven episodes).

The mecha action has been falling flat, admittedly. Though they sort of wrote themselves into a corner, first by making Earth Engine so vastly inferior to Kill-T-Gangs, and now by having a four minute time limit, where the first 45 seconds or so is all just getting Earth Engine Ordinary out onto the field.

[JDogindy]

The mecha action has been falling flat, admittedly. Though they sort of wrote themselves into a corner, first by making Earth Engine so vastly inferior to Kill-T-Gangs, and now by having a four minute time limit, where the first 45 seconds or so is all just getting Earth Engine Ordinary out onto the field.

It's even worse considering that the next episode sees the Earth Engine Ordinary falling flat on its mechanical face.

They wrote themselves into a corner by making the Ordinary struggle with its time limit. I don't think having it breeze through ex-Photographer Casino Dealer now Crazed Hedonist then facing its first challenge with ex-or-current Pop Idol turned Crazed Hedonist would be as good, but at least it would provide the incentive as to the difficulty factor Intercept will be dealing with. Having them struggle right from the start may illustrate the difficulty they have to contend with in a more serious note, but for the conventional mecha fan, it not as much fun knowing that the odds of failure happening get lower in exponential levels so early.

Personally, I feel that character development has been stagnant, and if anything, the wrong kind of development has been made for Daichi, who seems to complain a lot about his job. Regular complaints are fine, but the writing seems to differentiate between him being cool with the challenge and him being annoyed with everything. And, it's also annoying that we'll be still dealing with an episodic theme for the next three shows, at least, with the "Designer Children" arc.

[Compass]

This show is lost. I don't know where it's going anymore.

[Vent Noir]

The plot's not great, but the main characters are likeable enough that I'm willing to keep watching for now.

[nacho-wan]

I just want to see the Earth Engine do something. Anything! at least smack a Kiltgang with its knucle. And now it has to content with the new sidekick mecha.

Say id Daichi is Captain Earth, then Teppei is going to be First Mate Nebula?

[Amion]

I don't know why people are unhappy with the latest epsidoes. I really enjoyed episode 9 and 10. Especially the latest one, but that's because Lin is hot. Can't remember her funky Kiltgang name.

And the Nebula is awesome and does not seem so underpowered. And can even pose well enough.

So what's with all the impatience? Like Vent Noir said, the characters are likable enough and so far the show is taking its time with them. I don't need or want flash development so we can end this in thirteen episodes.

So we'll see. But right now I'm happy with what we're getting.

[Compass]

The pacing is all sorts of goofball with these MOTW episodes. Team locates activation location. Team tries to get Designer Child. Designer Children get Designer Child. Mecha fight. Drama. Humanity wins. Someone feels good about themselves. Repeat next week.

[Amion]

I see the problem, but just don't mind three of them in a row I guess. It depends on how many they do this with. Even then, even if it's formulaic, I'm still enjoying the character aspects.

[JDogindy]

Hasn't been a lot of activity lately, but the last couple of episodes have brought down the series to a level I feel it may not recover.

For those who missed it, here's a summary of the two:

Episode 11:

Spoiler

The child of the week, Setsuna, was able to amplify Orgone energy by singing, but she was "adopted" by Doctor Mao, who worked on the project. The episode goes into details about Macbeth's doings and also that Doctor Mao wanted to use Setsuna to achieve immortality by transferring her consciousness over to Setsuna's. Setsuna finds out and runs away, and Doctor Mao is killed by her ex-partner, so we finally have a dead person... and it's a woman . Because of this, Setsuna doesn't "awaken".

Episode 12:

Spoiler

The muscular boy, Baku, was sold in the human trafficking market and eventually was forced into underground fighting, yet to this day, he remains undefeated. Even though he is a tool of the yakuza, he befriended a girl. Also, Baku instinctively avoids Amara and Moco, so he, too, doesn't awaken... yet.

Sounds harmless, right?

Well, the problem is that both present glaring problems in the storytelling because there are a lot of fundamental flaws exposed, such as presenting other problems in life, like human trafficking, but are ignored in favor of just moving a general plot. It also doesn't help that these two episodes also feature outstanding lack of common sense.

[Compass]

The latest few episodes seem to have brought the sinking boat back aloft. However, to call this a "mecha" series is consistently inappropriate. This is just a series that has mechs in it, because why not.

[Amion]

I'll probably get riddled with holes for this, but I'm already about as whole as swiss cheese anyway.

So I'll say it: I just reached the end of the road with Code Geass, and frankly consider it no different. It has mecha, but the Knightmares are there for the heck of it. It's really a highschool/political drama.

I enjoyed the recent episode by the way. It's nice to see that the characters are still developing. And I'm coming to like to hate the main human villain more as he's developed. Nice to see he has contingencies for P.A.K.

[nacho-wan]

Nice to see that PAC had contingencies for dealing with Mr. Manager guy -and that he dealt with the secreatary, that was pretty cool in m book.

[Compass]

So, the series finished up today. Not as much closure as I'd liked, but it was kinda good.

[nacho-wan]

Saw the ending last Sunday and I really liked it. Daichi was uncharacteristic kind to the Earth Engine as he grinded it away in his way to the control room, but so far characters stood consistent to themselves and the stoy did have a satisfactory ending -at least from my point of view. Nobody died for real -except the evil genius that righteously deserved it- and for once it is nice to have a sweet ending in a decade of too much angst in the robot genre.

[Henyo]

ambiguous ending indeed. should we be glad that Captain Earth is not getting a movie like Star Driver?
the final battle with the Earth Engine would remind one of Gurren Lagann's final battle.(decreasing size of mech.)