Satelight wades into this season’s already crowded mecha pool with Sakugan – new English title Sacks&Guns!! (no spaces).  There was a fair amount to like here, mostly on the visual side, but my first impressions is of a melding of Gurren-Lagann and Deca-Dence, but with the charm of the latter more than the former.  And coming from me that’s not exactly a compliment.  I felt like I could see what this series was going for and to an extent, it pulled it off – but ultimately it plays like a wannabe trying too hard for authenticity to actually be authentic.

Wada Junichi is definitely the driving force behind this one – director, series composition, storyboards.  He’s mostly a Bones guy and has been around the block and back a few times, but never sat in the big chair on any really notable shows.  Still, given his track record as a key animator it’s clear he has the chops on the visual side, and they show through here.  Sakugan does look very nice, even mixing in some Made in Abyss-lite imagery (there’s actually a bit of staff crossover).  But I wasn’t too invested in anything that was happening, most of which played as pretty recycled even by mecha standards.

The gist of the story is the usual downtrodden populace working in underground mining operations, with some mythical place with open sky where the privileged live only a dream.  Doing most of the dreaming is Memenpu, a shrill 9 year-old who’s already graduated college and is a master inventor.  She sees dreams of the aforementioned paradise, and eventually receives a package from the mysterious Ururap seemingly intent on luring her there.  Her father Gagamba is dead-set against her becoming a “breaker” and seeing the world, even though his best friend Walsh and his daughter did just that.

Unfortunately what Ururap’s secret gemstone map seems to have lured are kaiju (which apparently stay away from the colonies most of the time.  That signals an early exit stage left for Walsh and his daughter, and a harsh life’s lesson for Memempu.  But it seems to prod Gagamba into “life is short” mode, and he more or less succumbs to his daughter’s demands.  And he’s been hiding a mech, though it doesn’t look a particularly impressive one.

Again, this looked quite nice – I like the backgrounds a lot.  The problem for me is that I didn’t really connect with any of the characters and their interactions (including Memempu and Gagamba) seemed quite wooden.  Sakugan has the aura of a roughly-sewn together quilt of different influences, without anything of itself to anchor it.  First episodes are hard, though, and this certainly wasn’t a bad one – and it seems to be more of a prologue, with the real story starting now.  I’ll check in for at least another episode or two and see if that makes a difference for the better.