IS: Infinite Stratos


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Title: IS: Infinite Stratos
Japanese Title: IS<インフィニット・ストラトス>
Genre: action, comedy, science fiction, mecha, harem
Premier: 2011-01-06
Animation Studio: 8bit
Director: Yasuhito Kikuchi
Original Creator: Izuru Yumizuru (light novel)
Official Site: http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/is/
Episodes: 12?

Opening Theme: "STRAIGHT JET" by Minami Kuribayashi
Ending Theme: "SUPER∞STREAM" by Yoko Hikasa

Cast:
Kouki Uchiyama as Ichika Orimura
Yōko Hikasa as Houki Shinonono
Asami Shimoda as Rinin Fanerrorsource
Kana Hanazawa as Charles Dunois
Mai Kadowaki as Honne Nohotoke (Nohohon-san)
Makoto Yasumura as Dan Gotanda
Marina Inoue as Laura Bodevihhi
Megumi Toyoguchi as Chifuyu Orimura
Noriko Obata as Ran Gotanda
Noriko Shitaya as Maya Yamada
Yukana as Cecila Olcott
Yukari Tamura as Tabane Shinonono

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Plot:
Infinite Stratos (IS), a weaponized exoskeleton system, has become the dominant tool of warfare and conflict. Unfortunately for the men in society, only women are able to operate Infinite Stratos... with very few exceptions. One of those exceptions is ORIMURA Ichika, an orphan raised by his older sister who is herself a famous IS pilot. When his compatibility with IS is discovered after he accidentally touches an IS at the age of 15, he's given a scholarship and enrolled in a school that specializes in training IS pilots. Which of course means an... interesting life surrounded by girls for this shy, unassuming boy. (~from ANN~)

Note, the synopsis is wrong since it is stated in the first episode that IS have been banned as weapons.

My Thoughts:
Wait, haven't I seen this before? It's a mish-mash of Sky Girls (with Gundam styling), Vandread and every school-life harem anime you have ever seen. And to top it off, Hikasa Youko's performance as the obligatory tsundere childhood friend, Houki is almost a carbon copy of her performance as Maya in Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin. Almost no originality whatsoever. Still, I'll probably keep watching since the character designs are sexy, and the mecha fights look good.
 
Well with seeing this it kind of had the feel of a Super Robot Wars gone anime. In any case it looks like your standard harem series more or less. In any case after the first episode I'm kind of borderlining this series right off the bat due to the fact that he's the only guy in an all girl school.

If that doesn't scream easy harem setup I don't know what does.
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Anyways I'll give this a few episode before I decide on keeping it or dropping it.
 
QUOTE (Kid-Wolf @ Jan 08 2011, 09:54 PM)Well with seeing this it kind of had the feel of a Super Robot Wars gone anime. In any case it looks like your standard harem series more or less. In any case after the first episode I'm kind of borderlining this series right off the bat due to the fact that he's the only guy in an all girl school.

If that doesn't scream easy harem setup I don't know what does.

Anyways I'll give this a few episode before I decide on keeping it or dropping it.

I agree. It is as average as it can get. We got all the stereotypical characters (the old childhoodfriend, the so called unfriendly girl etc..). I immediatelly thought of Ladies vs Butlers but in a robot environment. It wouldn't call this episode a failure but if this is representative for the series it is never going to be able to be one of the better ones this winter.
 
Watched the first episode, while it's a similar type of show (personally hating the childhood friend thing here) the show seems interesting.

Can't say I hate the lack of information in the first episode, it makes me want to keep watching.
 
I'm surprised, the obligatory childhood-friend-turned-main-love-interest is an archetype that isn't normally used for that role. It's usually taken by the ditzy idiot or the hyper-pure-hearted.

The last time I seriously saw something like that happen was Busou Renkin.
 
Extremely bland. Very unoriginal character design, more or less what you'd expect out of an average eroge adaptation.

That said, the flying/training bits were well animated.

Unfortunately that's not enough to save it from the pitifully stupid male lead, and archetypical female support cast.

Cecilia Alcott...possibly the most unoriginal character this season. Sorry, Ladies v. Butlers and ToLoveRu were there before this, and they did it better.
 
QUOTE (Warsprite @ Jan 10 2011, 07:22 PM) Cecilia Alcott...possibly the most unoriginal character this season. Sorry, Ladies v. Butlers and ToLoveRu were there before this, and they did it better.
Indeed since they actually had at least one or two male support casted to keep the male lead balanced out.

Normally an all female dominated series tends to have at least the girls outnumbering the guys, but with having at least 2 to 3 males involved in the series more or less.
 
First I must admit that Im really surprised that Ichika isnt nearly as useless as I thought he would be, considering that its a harem anime. Sure he maybe a bit dumb, but hell I wouldnt have read the reference book either and probably wouldnt get anything from class too, but I wouldve at least known what a representative is ^^
From the femal cast it was to be expected, a childhoodfriend who take the tsundere place, a arrogant and stuckup girl and we probably will get the tomboyish girl and the loli too at some point. Even though I hope there wont be a loli, at least I havent seen one in the OP.

Storywise I wont be expecting much it will pretty surely focus on comedy and shallow romance.
Still I hope we really get to see a few figths since the fight at the beginning looked really good. But Im surprised they dont wear real protectiong, I mean not even the head is protected. Sure its not allowed to be used for military purposes, but still its far to dangerous this way. And the fight at the beginning didnt really look like sport either ^^

Overall nice to watch.
 
QUOTE (Killer_Ossi @ Jan 12 2011, 04:42 AM) But Im surprised they dont wear real protectiong, I mean not even the head is protected. Sure its not allowed to be used for military purposes, but still its far to dangerous this way.
Don't put logic into an anime
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Think about Saint Seiya...those five Bronze Saint's cross expose even more parts of their body, and their headgears always get knocked off/sent flying away...yet they receive the beating of the century and they can still get back on their feet
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I know I know. But thats just so unlogically that its already hurting me ^^
 
QUOTE (Killer_Ossi @ Jan 12 2011, 07:14 AM) I know I know. But thats just so unlogically that its already hurting me ^^
Before we go in to the whole "Catgirl killing" logic here just so you know this seems like a stock series to fill in short gaps since there is nothing new, or last minute things happened.

Besides there's nothing really logical about this series aside from the IS being used as a sport... for now at least. Although later on I'm sure they are going to use it for fighting purposes, but that might be later on in the series.
 
Well, the flash-forward at the beginning of the episode certainly showed them fighting for real. My guess is that the school is front for some sort of secret alien fighting organization or something like that. Hence all the secrecy about the MC's older sister.
 
Episode 2 is out. The dialog is still a bit too-straight forward, and leaves very little for the viewer to figure out. That said, Ichika was actually respectable in the ep, as compared to ep1 where he seems like a total fool. Cecilia's personality started to differentiate a bit from her archetype also.

Generally, the episode focused more on fighting than ep1, which was a fairly big improvement, considering the anime's strong animation compared to its relatively weak dialog.

The whole "the mecha has a soul" thing is basically a rip out of Eureka 7/Evangelion or a dozen other other series, so I hope they don't focus too much on that.

Overall, big improvement over episode 1. If the series as a whole takes after ep2, it could be pretty okay.
 
A good second ep. The fighting scene was pretty good, too bad that Ichika lost because of this stupid rule, but I expected that rule to exist.

Its really a good thing that Ichika actually has guts since its makes the anime a lot better. Still I dont really know if this anime gets deeper or stays as a slice-of-life show. Unfortunately it looks like the latter.
 
QUOTE The fighting scene was pretty good, too bad that Ichika lost because of this stupid rule, but I expected that rule to exist.

Actually I was pleased he lost, although I was very much hoping for Cecilia to just straight up win, rather than win on a technicality. It can be a bit dull when the main character wins every fight ^^
 
QUOTE (Warsprite @ Jan 14 2011, 07:22 PM) Actually I was pleased he lost, although I was very much hoping for Cecilia to just straight up win, rather than win on a technicality. It can be a bit dull when the main character wins every fight ^^
Yes but if Cecilia would win easily than he again would only be the useless dumb mainguy like in any other series. There would then be no point him beeing the only male student and the only other than Cecilia who beat an instructor. I think they chose the best way.

And Cecilia would stay the same as she was before, a stuck up and arrogant b*tch instead of undergoing a expecting change.
 
A good second episode with a nice fight. That Ichika lost was not such a surprise since he doesn't know a lot about the IS system. It would have a lot more boring if he suddenly would be able to win without ever knowing the system. That would have been like the whole education part is completely for nothing.
The characters are still somewhat bland. Houki may be the only one who shows some progress although she may still be the childhoodfriend who keeps on denying she likes him. I do hope that the writers are able to do something with that family part of her. For the rest the only interesting person is Ichika's sister. Why did she give Ichika that IS system? Has she a reason for giving him her system? Cecilia is just boring and now she may become one of the persons who falls for Ichika.
Sadly i am starting to get afraid that this series is going to become one big harem show with a weak storyline to connect it..
 
QUOTE (nijlandp @ Jan 15 2011, 08:00 AM) Cecilia is just boring and now she may become one of the persons who falls for Ichika.
Sadly i am starting to get afraid that this series is going to become one big harem show with a weak storyline to connect it..
She is. In the first ep's ED, Houki was the only one chasing after him, in the 2nd ep's ED, Cecilia is also chasing after him. But yeah, this is going to be a harem show. I'm just hoping there are enough battle scenes to keep me entertained
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QUOTE
Yes but if Cecilia would win easily than he again would only be the useless dumb mainguy like in any other series. There would then be no point him beeing the only male student and the only other than Cecilia who beat an instructor. I think they chose the best way.

Yeah, an easy win would have been bad too.
 
QUOTE (nijlandp @ Jan 15 2011, 10:00 AM) I do hope that the writers are able to do something with that family part of her. For the rest the only interesting person is Ichika's sister. Why did she give Ichika that IS system? Has she a reason for giving him her system?
They stated in the episode that he was getting a personal IS for research reasons, which makes sense. He's the only male who's ever been able to pilot an IS, so you give him a Personal IS which collects data on him whenever he uses it and it may help to show WHY he's able to pilot the IS and also possibly how to get other men to be able to pilot an IS.

While many parts of this show are fairly generic seeming, I'm still watching it - it's interesting IMO with the mecha twist, and I'm hoping we get some good action out of it as the series progresses. Maybe something kinda like Mai Hime - teach the girls all about how to use their powers even though there's peace, all of a sudden things go to shit and war breaks out and the girls are the only hope. Except instead of powers it's mecha suits, and there's one lone guy who is capable of fighting too.
 
Ok I have to ask isn't there an unwritten rule in harem series that you're only allowed to have at least one childhood friend? So why is it that we now have two. Although the plot convience is more along the line of one preplace the other at a point it seems. So hurray for lot convience.
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Sorry couldn't help it there.

In any case pretty much he becomes the class rep since I think Cecillia noticed that if they didn't call the match she would of lost in a hardcore-like manner. With that in mind I think that might be the reason why she more or less fell for him.

In any case why do I get this odd feeling that major fight scenes are going to be on the even episodes while some kind of plot movement are on the odd episodes?
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