The latest order was delivered this morning, and I just watched the first episode of Kirameki Project. So far I love it.

The big thing in the world is giant robots. All the countries compete to build them, and they are scheduled to meet in some sort of tournament a few months hence.

A mysterious giant robot has been showing up in various countries and challenging the national defenders.

It's the one on the left, which is just about to take out the third and last of Germany's best units. No one knows whose it is, but it's been winning decisively.

Next on its list of countries to check out is the tiny, verdant, beautiful nation of Genes, which is ruled by three princesses, half sisters.

The web site said they were 12, 14 and 24 but in the anime they're all high school age.

On the left is Nene, the youngest. Then Krone, eldest, and de facto ruler in the name of their absent mother. On the right is Kana.

Kana is the main character in the show. She's the wrench wench. When the mysterious robot appears in Genes, Nene goes out to challenge it using a power suit Kana created for her. It permits her to fly; makes her nearly invulnerable, and using it she hold her own against that robot -- until her batteries run out.

Then she's caught in the malfunctioning right hand of the robot, which begins to squeeze her while its crew frantically works to prevent it from killing her -- which no one outside it realizes.

One of the nice things here is that the four guys inside the robot don't seem to be nasty people. Actually, they seem to be pretty nice. But the defenders in Genes don't know that; all they know is that Nene is in danger and the only thing that seems to be able to protect her, and them, is Kana's newest and greatest creation:

Her hangar is decorated like a dollhouse because Kana is... odd. She didn't even want to send it into the fight, but when Nene started screaming, there was no longer any choice. That was at the end of the first episode, and I can hardly wait to see what happens next.

Kana's previous "greatest invention" was Rincle, the red-headed android. The big one hasn't got a name yet, because Kana told Rincle she could pick the name, and she hasn't done it.

Rincle is already a prize. She's voiced by Kaneda Tomoko, who is doing a wonderful job. It hasn't happened yet, but I gather from the OP that Rincle is a shape-changer and can transform into various kinds of vehicles.

The mixture of rendering and hand-drawn cels is interesting, and this is one case where the perceptual difference between them actually works. Generally, the CG in this looks really good, and the opening mech battle (between the mysterious robot and the Germans) was handled quite well.

It also mocks the genre a bit. Three defending robots, right? Naturally, one of them has to be piloted by a girl, and her costume has to be absurd, right? It's in the rules.

She looks like a refugee from Godannar.

The general feel of this series is surprisingly light and upbeat. I was afraid it was going to be grim, but that's not how they're playing it. And a lot of the reason for that is because the "bad guys" just aren't very bad. In fact, they're not bad at all. Once the arm starts malfunctioning and is in danger of killing Nene, those guys really hustle to try to prevent it.

I am definitely looking forward to seeing what happens in the second episode, and I already regret that this series is only 5 episodes long.

UPDATE: Ep 2, the terrible battle between mechas. The invader is called "Big Mighty". The defender is eventually named Junerin. Kana doesn't want to fight, but eventually becomes angry and orders Junerin to take the attacker out. And Junerin unleashes her mighty attack:

She hits him with her hand bag.

Which decked him. A large part of his armor was torn away; a lot of internal damage was done. He went down and took a nine-count to get back up again.

This episode played the schmaltz and melodrama cliches from this genre like a virtuouso keyboardist, and I couldn't stop laughing all the way through it.

But there's heart here. There's a fundamental difference between parody and satire. Satire is mockery, but to really do parody right you must love what you parody. That's what Chuck Jones said in one of his books, when he was talking about the kinds of parody cartoons they made at Termite Terrace, things like The Scarlet Pumpernickel. A more recent example of the same kind of thing is Young Frankenstein.

This clearly has the same kind of affection for the giant robot genre. It's hilarious and foolish, but it's loving humor. It doesn't have the edge that mockery has. It isn't nasty. It isn't mean.

But the humor is keen, and manifests in many ways, big and small. Krone's bishies, for example; she has four personal servants. When need be, they go through a transformation deck and turn into a sentai team, complete with different color costumes and heroic poses. They did that in the second ep, only to be completely ignored by Krone, who was on the radio trying to convince Kana to fight.

I often don't agree with Chris Beveridge, and I sure don't on this one. He gave the series a C+. I think it's a hell of a lot better than that.

UPDATE: End of ep 3, and the show seems to be losing its way a bit. Maybe it'll turn out later that there's a reason for it, or maybe it's another aspect of the parody, but this episode seemed rather melancholy.

Even so, there are several really good things in it. Nene continues to be fun. She's primarily in charge of fan service, especially panchira, and I think her panties are on screen about half the time she is in this episode.

And Kana, Rincle, and Junerin at the beach was funny, especially when Kana told Junerin to get ready to go swimming. Certainly an unusual way to remove clothing, it must be said.

But the segment in Japan was just depressing, and Kana doesn't seem to be very happy, either.

Oh, and they're seriously telegraphing a revelation. I wonder if they'll follow through on it?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 11:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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