The leads of Plastic Memories are back, this time as a loli sealed in a pillar and a kid who drives his hoverboard too fast.
Wow, did it get super anime in here or what? One of my strongest impressions coming away is that the show should’ve dispensed entirely with the pretentious opening narration and instead let the scenes play out with the soundtrack accompanying them only. Other than that it didn’t exactly do anything wrong… it just didn’t exactly do anything right, either, and it definitely didn’t do anything we haven’t seen a few hundred times already. The one positive is when it comes to the mechs – they’re CG, and its good CG that blends with the surrounding scenery instead of sticking out like a Furby at a dog show. The way the mechs move, too, is unique, likely since the CG is rendered so fluidly; the presumed villainous mechs have a somewhat insectoid aspect to the their movement, and its mildly unsettling to watch.
But, alas – the rest is a wash. Nice and boring male lead Sogo has at least two girls after his heart even before the comatose loli lands in his arms (but, hey – at least she has clothes on), and the OP and ED make it seem very likely that the loli will be all hot for the hero, too, while also being quite childish. Boobular childhood friend is red-headed and hot-headed – imagine that! – and one-third of her lines consist solely of the lead’s name (and this is truly the only reason why I can recall the male lead’s name). She is trying to ditch an arranged marriage, which would be more interesting as a subplot if a. she weren’t herself hot for the hero, and b. no one had accused Sogo of putting her up to rejecting it… apparently girls love arranged marriages except when boys tell them that arranged marriages are a bad idea? Your guess is as good as mine.
If you’re relatively new to anime, or if it’s been a while since you’ve watched this kind of show, Comet Lucifer might work decently for you. As it is, I started watching Asura Cryin’ last week after not watching a generic magical girlfriend/mech show in a very long time, so that itch has been scratched already. Comet Lucifer does have the advantage of having much better visuals (especially consider Asura Cryin’ looked weirdly dated even when it first aired), but it just isn’t enough. Unless I hear truly amazing things about this one going forward, the timing simply wasn’t right for us. So it goes.
GAR GAR Stegosaurus 