I feel compelled to post right now about Muv Luv Total Eclipse, the last episode left me feeling pretty psyched and therefore in the need to blog about stuff. Considering this show started out as total rubbish it really has come a long way - though it still is visually pretty ugly looking, the delivery of the story has improved a great deal.
Just to recap the background of the show, the story centres around a group of pilots working in a test facility that develops experimental mecha. Most of the show revolves around the relationships between characters and what they do in their time between missions / test flights, the Mecha sections (when they appear) are generally quite fleeting. The reason for Mecha being necessary is that the earth has been invaded by a formidable alien race (or races?) known as BETA, which are pretty good at destroying tanks and aircraft, so something more maneuverable than either of those is pretty handy - but like the Mechs, the BETA are mostly only an aspect of the backstory.
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| The MC has no problems being alpha. |
It's pleasing that the main character in the show is a total badass and isn't entirely dense, though he does harbour an irrational dislike of the Japanese (despite being half-caste himself). Along with the MC are various other pilots, engineers, officers, Soviets (yes, really) and so forth; the most important of these other characters is Yui, veteran of a failed campaign in Japan that is now overseeing R&D for experimental prototypes.
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| PEW PEW PEW |
All this brings me to the last episode, where experimental equipment is finally brought by the test pilots to make use of on front lines. IT WAS AWESOME. Despite the fact that the anime does use badly constructed Zbrush monstrosities, it still kicked ass; and at this point I must restrain myself so as not to give away any spoilers. All you need to know is that it was awesome to see characters organizing themselves in the field (because mission plans went derp) and seeing them extract themselves from a colossal mess.
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The main characters wind each other
up when there's nothing else to do. |
As I have said various times before I'm not a fan of mecha, but I do enjoy how this presents a semi-realistic portrayal of characters in military situations. Just don't mind that they're all wearing body-tight suits. Oh yeah, and be sure to start watching from Episode 3 - the first two episodes are garbage.
