Troperville
Editing Help
Tools
Toys
|
alt title(s): Linebarrels Of Iron "It's not 'what I should do,' it's 'What I want to do.'"
The Linebarrels of Iron story takes place in a fictional alternate future, centering around a junior-high school student named Kouichi Hayase, who escaped his daily life of being bullied as a child by constantly daydreaming about being a hero. His life was forever changed during a class trip in the year 2016 when an artificial satellite fell from orbit. Due to this "accident", Kouichi was left in a coma for half a year, and upon awakening, found himself with strange powers, including superhuman strength. Then, in 2019, a mysterious robot called "Linebarrel" appears before him. It is revealed that the accident from three years ago was not caused by a satellite, but rather by the Machina robot Linebarrel, and that this turned him into a "Factor", which is the name given to Machina pilots. This leads him to encounter Emi Kizaki, a mysterious amnesiac girl whose unknown past seems to be related to Linebarrel. He joins her in fighting for JUDA, the world's largest medical equipment maker, which happens to secretly own several other Machina robots.
So sayeth The Other Wiki.
Linebarrel looks to play the charmingly cliched Mecha Show straight to the hilt. In the opening chapters a Hot Blooded emotionally underdeveloped brat finds himself piloting a giant robot into all kinds of shiny looking awesome while shouting trite oneliners about being an Ally Of Justice and Hilarity Ensues. Then you start to notice the veneer is chipping away. Shimizu and Shimoguchi make it painfully clear how much of prick the protagonist really is and just how hollow those words about justice ring in his mouth. Then, this is the kicker, they make him mean every damn word.
This series contained examples of:
- Accidental Pervert (Brilliantly masterminded though)
- Ace Custom (the Team leaders in the Katou group, most notable are Sawatari's Idaten, which seems more or less standard barring some cosmetic changes (and rocket engines for a speed boost), and Demitri's Kagutsuchi which is geared towards More Dakka whilst its armour gives it a templar like appearance)
- Ace Pilot (Sawatari (Steam roller) Yuriannu (Bushwhacker) Demitri (Plugger) their respective mecha's are customised to reflect this.)
- Arc Words (Ally of justice.)
- Adaptation Decay (the fact that it was common knowledge that GONZO was almost bankrupt when the anime version was made just makes it worse.)
- A Mech By Any Other Name (Arma's and Machina's, the distinctive difference between the two being armas are mass produced, can't regenerate, and require cables to be inserted into the pilot's spine to pilot it to its fullest potential)
- Badass Biker (Subverted; Domyouji appears to be one, but is actually rather cheerful, light hearted, and easygoing, then its revealed that the bike actually belongs to his dad and that he borrows it regularly)
- Badass Normal (Sawatari, who has frequently fought both Linebarrel AND Verdant to a standstill with only his standard Arma, and looks damn good in the process)
- Bash Brothers (Sawatari and Demitri)
- Beam Spam
- Beach Episode (anime only, complete with attack from a mutated giant squid)
- Berserk Button (never call Ousei ugly, or weird for that matter, it won't end well)
- Beware The Nice Ones (Izuna uses some of the abuse he suffers against his enemies via the Nerve-crack, resulting in some nasty Nightmare fueled Squickyness from the visions sent to anyone affected by it, judging from the resulting screams its probably a good thing the audience can't see what they see)
- Beware The Superman (Similar to Darker Than Black, sociopathic tendencies seem to be a pretty common side-effect of getting superpowers here.)
- BFG (Apparition's sniper rifle, Painkiller's arm mounted beam cannons, and the twin howitzer used by Hind-Kind)
- BFS (the blade 'eliminator' carried by Naked, Talisman's spear/lance 'tail of the kingdom', that large knife Pretender has, Painkiller's Chainsword, the large sword seen with Juda, and arguably 'the executor' used by Linebarrel)
- and It's not just the mechs who use them
- Bishonen Line (the Naked, hidden inside the almost impregnable Glen-Neidr. and Painkiller, which is actually very slender underneath the bulky armour)
- Blade On A Stick (the Katou groups Arma's carry Spears as a standard armarment, and Sawatari in particular is very good with one (well in his mecha at least))
- (Yuriannu's Arma 'Tsubaki-Hime' carries a rather stylised version)
- (and Talisman's weapon, 'tail of the kingdom' combines this with a BFS)
- Chainsaw Good (In addition to its halberd, Yuriannu's Arma 'Tsubaki-Hime' has a pair of chainsaws in hip holsters, and the manga version of the Machina 'Painkiller' wields a giant Chainsword)
- Character Development
- Chekhovs Gun (the machina Apparition)
- Chickification (Miu in the anime, her manga persona is alot more agresssive, ruthless and not to mention is mentally unstable)
- Combat Tentacles (Deceive)
- Complete Monster (several Arma pilots will kill civilians just to taunt the Machina pilots. Or just for kicks.)
- Conspicuous CG (in the anime, mainly for mecha's, explosions and smoke)
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul (subverted with Jack Smith, though his body is an arma. he is, honour issues aside, a rather normal and somewhat well adjusted individual.)
- Dojikko (Emi, for the first few episodes of the anime)
- Dual Wield (Linebarrel manages with twin BFS. Verdant one ups this with the quad wield. Tsubaki-Hime ties with verdant by dual wielding Chainsaws)
- Elite Mooks (the Thunderclap, developed by Kiriyama heavy industries)
- Evil Is Sexy (Yuriannu, oh so very much)
- Eyepatch Of Power (Verdant, interestingly the blind spot is actually noted by kouichi and he tries to exploit this during his second duel with Verdant. it doesn't work.)
- Eyes Of Gold (the precursor to somebody going Super Mode)
- Facing The Bullets One Liner (The first time you hear the page quote)
- Falling Into The Cockpit (To be fair, it did fall ontop of him first...)
- Fashion Victim Villain (The Katou organisation, oh god the katou organisation!)
- Case in point, Hisakata Katou looks like a pimp who talks like Lelouch, Sawatari goes about the place in a blue trenchcoat/suit thing with flames on the sleeves and pant legs, Demitri wouldn't look out of place in the aristocracy, and Masaki is dressed up like a goddamn cowboy!
- Field Of Blades (Verdant)
- First Episode Resurrection
- Five Man Band
- Hayase in Linebarrel, The Hero
- Reiji in Verdant, The Lancer replaced with Yajima in Apparition (in the anime), following Reiji's Face Heel Turn
- Satoru in Hind-Kind, The Big Guy
- The Endo twins in Decieve, The Smart Guy
- Emi in Linebarrel, The Chick
- in the anime this role is taken (or shared depending on your viewpoint) by Miu in Painkiller
- Soubi in Talisman, The Sixth Ranger
- in the anime this role is taken by Domyouji in Jinrai
- Flash Step (Tsubaki-Hime is so agile it seems to disapeer)
- also used by 'Naked', and Linebarrel when in 'Mode-B'
- Form Fitting Wardrobe: Pretty much all the women's outfits stick right onto their skin. Including their school uniforms.
- Go Nagai Sideburns (Sawatari, a rare villain example)
- Gonk (Riku Ousei)
- Groin Attack (Shizuna's way of introducing herself to koichi when they first meet, while yelling about what a douche he is)
- Guns Akimbo (verdant when its carrying the optional submachine guns)
- Hime Cut (the Endo siblings, given that they're identical twins, the only way to distinguish between the two at a glace being the hairpin koichi gives Shizuna)
- Hot Blooded (Koichi, Yamashita, Sawatari)
- Humongous Mecha (the Arma and the Machina)
- I Am Not Left Handed (Kouichi was quite shocked when Verdant's right eye spontaneously healed itself.)
- Ill Boy (Yamashita prior to becomming Hind Kind's factor)
- Impaled With Extreme Prejudice ( Reiji fell on one of verdants swords when the sink-hole containing the mecha opened up underneath Reiji unexpectedly, he gets better, due to it being how he became verdants factor)
- also Yajima, seconds before getting obliterated by mecha sized bullets
- In Name Only (the anime is sometimes called LINO (Linebarrel In Name Only)
- Invisibility Cloak (Apparition's special ability)
- Jerkass/Jerk With A Heart Of Gold (Koichi Hayase. Just Koichi Hayase.)
- Kansai Regional Accent (Shizuna)
- Kill Sat
- Laser Blade (kinda justified, the Executioner was supposed to be a gun, the output setting just gets overclocked.)
- Lightning Bruiser (Glen-Neidr, and Ousei's Arma 'Yaoyorozu')
- Mad Bomber (Ousei)
- Mayfly December Romance (Soubi and his wife, as a result of him being Talisman's Factor and therefore not aging)
- Mecha Mooks (Any Arma not being piloted by a named character is screwed)
- Modesty Bedsheet (averted in the manga, where you can see Yuriannu's side boob, as she is laying on her stomach with the bed sheet around her lower waist.)
- Murder The Hypotenuse ( Kiriyama Eiji had Reiji's sister killed so that Reiji would be dependant on him. worse still Reiji knows Eiji was responsible and plans to take revenge for it.)
- Mysterious Woman (Yuriannu Faithful)
- Nice Job Breaking It Hero (Koichi's antics when he first recieves linebarrel results in a bridge being destroyed, civilian casulties, and his best friend getting blown into little gibby bits by the machina apparition, Nice job breaking it koichi.)
- Nightmare Fuel (the one time you see one of Izuna's nerve crack visions, involves the person affected seeing linebarrel grow many times bigger than its usual size and transfrom into a massive deamon)
- the Machina-humans in the anime.
- No Holds Barred Beatdown (Verdant hands out one to Linebarrel, twice the second time in the manga Verdant slices Linebarrel in half at the waist.
- No Name Given (A mecha example in the case for the Arma's themselves, save the squad captains, which are named 'Idaten'(Sawatari's),'Tsubaki-hime'(Yuriannu's),'Kagutsuchi' (Demitri's), and 'Yaoyorozu' (Ousei's))
- Normally I Would Be Dead Now (variation, one way of becoming a factor for a machina is for it to kill you by accident when it does not have a factor, to which it will revive you via Nano Machines) if it does have a factor, then you stay dead until that factor dies
- Not So Harmless (Emi dropping Linebarrel on top of Ousei, who's trying to use her as a hostage)
- Rocket Punch (Hind-Kind's Bullet Fist)
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old (Though Soubi looks seventeen it's revealed that he is actually over 70, this is due to being born as Talisman's factor. Eventually, each and every Factor will suffer his fate, as Machina don't allow them to grow old, unless they find out how to counter the effect.)
- Red Headed Hero
- Sexy Secretary (Yuriannu's disguise while she's around Eiji Kiriyama, in reality shes a member of the katou group)
- Shock And Awe (Soubi's Machina 'Talisman' carries a lance/spear named 'tail of the kingdom' that can electrocute enemies from a distance)
- Smug Snake (Kiriyama Eiji)
- Special Effects Failure (the CG in the anime looks really really bad, was charitably described as 'not GONZO's best')
- Stuffed Into The Fridge (Yajima he gets better.(in the anime at least) Ousei, and Demitri)
- Super Mode
- Super Prototype (All The Machina, though the Ace pilots in the Katou group use Ace Customs)
- Tag Team Twins (Endo siblings on Deceive)
- Team Mom (Yui Ogawa)
- Theme Naming (Verdant, Linebarrel, Hind-Kind, Decieve, Painkiller, Apparition, Glen-Neidr, Naked, Shangri-La, Pretender, Talisman, Juda, it goes on, though we've yet to figure out what the theme actually is...)
- for some of the machina it's blatantly obvious, usually describing its ability (decieve, specialises in psycological warfare, confusing and decieving them with images planted in their heads and Apparition true to its name is a stealth based unit) or appearance (Talisman looks like a medieval knight/royal guard of sorts (according to backround fluff) while pretender can transform into a jet) however for some of the others it gets confusing (verdant is a descriptive term for a green meadow, and shangri-la usually refers to a garden of eden esqe paridise, odd considering the the two mecha in question are a dark blue close combat robot and submarine respectively)
- The Theme Park Version (the anime adaptation)
- Three Laws Compliant (The Machina can't kill unless they have a factor on board)
- Transforming Mecha (Pretender)
- Viewer Gender Confusion ('sup, Satoru! His being male did nothing to stop the Anime adaptation from sticking him in a bikini during the Beach Episode)
- We Hardly Knew Ye (Demitri, for whom, literaly no information is given regarding his background)
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness (Ousei, who's sociopathic tendencies lead to him becoming a liability for the katou organisation.)
|
|
