Vertex Force – 01

The first of this season’s pair of mecha originals, headlined by Takamura Kazuhiro, a rather prominent animator from Gainax days. But unfortunately Vertex Force is mostly CGI, including the non-action sequences (which are most of the first episode). It’s not the worst CG I’ve seen in anime by a long stretch, and it’s a very odd sort of “80-20%” mix with some hand-drawn cuts mixed in. But my default is that CGI character animation is always going to look like ass until someone proves me wrong. And today is not that day.

The episode itself was fine, nothing special but competent with a boilerplate mecha premise. A pair of siblings named Akira and Haruka live in Okinawa, where their mom runs a cafe. He’s one of those 13 year-old boys that looks about 10, she’s a 16 year-old bruiser who has an alien mecha power called “Engine” inherited from their (presumed) late father in addition to her athleticism. He was from a planet called Theia and apparently died protecting Earth from a robot (or robots) called EDVA. We know all this because of some lazy exposition by explanation (with diagrams), which as you know is a major pet peeve of mine.

As we join the story Earth has suffered from “Power Down”, a strange event which caused all computers to crash two weeks earlier. This was apparently caused by a blonde-haired female alien, though, the vibe is she’s probably on Team Good. EDVA – or one of them – comes after Akira and Haruka and when she seems down and out (thanks partly to its puke attack), Akira suddenly manifests an Engine for the first time and comes to her rescue.

It’s all broadly in that “fine” category. I do find it odd that Haruka’s Engine literally sounds like a lawnmower engine when it’s cranking out the revs but apart from that (and the exposition), there was nothing egregiously off about this premiere. That said while I’ll check out another ep to see how it strikes me, it doesn’t seem likely to be a blogging candidate at this point

Seitokai ni mo Ana wa Aru! – 01

Easy and straightforward, hard pass. I could see from the first flame that this show had a bunch of old-school animator types working on it, and indeed it does. The look is pleasingly retro. But it’s a gag comedy and it’s not funny, and that’s a problem that’s impossible to overcome. And indeed most student council comedies aren’t funny to me (Seitokai no Ichizon being a rare exception). It has ecchi if that was what you were looking for (the nipple misdirect did get a chuckle from me, as I thought exactly what I supposed to) but 95% of it was painfully dire. The manga has a decent rep so I had some small hope, but at least it’s a quick and clean decision.

Marronnier Oukoku no Shichinin no Kishi – 01

It’s obviously not a high bar, but I would say that was the most interesting of this trio for sure. Not exactly pulse-quickening but kind of charming in a quirky, “Princess Bride” sort of way. It’s not like we get much jousei anime so I always like to give them a shot. There is the JC Staff issue, of course. It’s a given these days that anything they produce is going to be at or near the bottom of the barrel in terms of production values, but they hide it adequately enough here with the watercolor storybook aesthetic that the minimal animation isn’t hugely obtrusive. And the OP and ED are quite nice. Sayama Kiyoko is a very experienced and competent director and that certainly doesn’t hurt.

The story here is that the Marronnier (which is French for chestnut, the reason it’s called “Maron” in Japanese) Kingdom rests at the hub of a wheel of eight countries. The seven knights of the realm are the sons of the master of arms, Baribara. All of them have noun or adjective names that they embody. Baribara decides to send them out on diplomatic missions to the other seven countries, each of them assigned to the country that suits their quirk. Their prime directive, though, seems to be “rescue a princess” – one that seems distressingly unlikely to be fulfilled in an ambassadorial role.

There is a princess at home, though – her name is Brynhilde and she’s at the heart of the most engaging subplot in the premiere. She decides to dress as a man named “Bruno” and go off to search for nuts for her pet, Little Squirrel. Her regular bodyguard has hemorrhoids flaring up so the brother named Chilly is assigned to look after her. Their adventures in the woods are charming in a silly way, and by the end of them – during which “Bruno” has mostly been riding on his shoulders – the absence of a certain something has Chilly suspecting Bruno may not be what he claims to be. And a mutual attraction seems to be forming.

The other romance subplot appears to be eldest brother Insomniac and sword trainee Eleonara, who’s been betrothed to him but seems not to have been told. There are various other offshoots here but it’s too early to say whether any of them will prove compelling. All in all though this was endearing in a sneaky way, a premiere I liked better by the end than I realized during the viewing. In a very tentative way I’d say The Seven Knights of the Marronnier Kingdom (which has been “Seven Brides For Seven Brothers” in my head since its announcement and I can’t unthink it) has some upside potential.