Now this is a case where my time constraints this weekend cut close to the bone.  Concrete Revolutio (I’ll decide on the naming convention later – this is technically a split cour, but with a new title)  is a series that basically demands to be written about at length – one of the easiest shows to blog in ages.  It’s incredibly intellectually dense, full of bright and difficult ideas, with its tendrils in politics and philosophy and every subset of speculative fiction under the sun.  It wasn’t love at first sight with me, but the relationship definitely became fully committed.

Since I can’t do this superb season premiere episode justice in my current circumstances, I think it’s best not to really try.  Suffice to say it was the usual kitchen-sink approach Aikawa Shou and Mizushima Seiji have taken with Concrete Revolutio – they’ve now added several alien elements to the mix, including an android cop with a cowboy aesthetic played by the incomparable Yamadera Kouichi.  We’ve also got the S-Planetarian – who may or may not have re-animated Gross Augen – and a full-on description of the Fumers as the most dangerous aliens in the universe.

Perhaps the most interesting question for me is whether Concrete Revolutio will follow the pattern I speculated it might – expansion for a cour, loaded with time-skips.  That would be followed by contraction – all of the disparate elements coming together in a much more linear narrative.  So far the returns aren’t looking good – the season does start near the end of the established timeline (March of the 47th year of the Shinka Era) but almost immediately jumps back to October of the 46th.  The main thrust of this episode is the genesis of the partnership between Jiro and Shiba, and it’s set in a time where we see the police and military working more closely than ever to combat the “threat” from superhumans, and in the process taking them further and further from Jiro’s ideals.

It should be fascinating indeed to see how Aikawa and the team of elite writers he’s put together to contribute to this series tie it all together and bring the story to a conclusion.  I will definitely make a full effort to give it it’s literary due in the coming weeks.