Buddy Complex

Sunrise follows up ludicrous failed Code Geass half-attempt super robot ridiculous nonsense with just a touch of yaoi with somewhat more sensible pleasant Gundam Seed-ey time travel.

...with just a touch of yaoi.

I might like this, previews made it out to be pretty generic and uninteresting, but it does a lot of subtle things right. If Sunrise can keep a level head and stop going batshit insane halfway through, this might turn out very well, if not very remarkable. But then, who the hell knows what's running through those guys' heads.

Well, it's Sunrise, it'll be a wild ride...so guess I'm hyped enough.

For the record, this being done by Studio 8, which is the same sunrise subdivision that did Love Live amongst other shows - NOT the same studio that was responsible for Valvrave.

I'm fairly optimistic about this show: Aoba was on the ball and not acting like a wuss, and Hina was adorkable without being irritating. They've gotten the framing device out of the way nicely and gotten a fair bit of foreshadowing done without giving away the whole plot.

The only thing I don't like is that the setup is vulnerable to far too much fujoshi-pandering for my tastes, and the mecha designs right now are painfully boring.

edited 6th Jan '14 6:39:14 PM by HighVelocityPointyThings

Vulnerable to? The title and 'nice coupling' are basically telling the fujoshi to go to town

I'm not worried about what the fujoshi do on their own - I'm worried about the directors derailing plot and/or characterization to appeal to them.

Saw the episode. OP and ED were generic, so meh. The girl is pretty well done, due to the time traveling shenanigans, but sadly from now on we'll see the past self of her, which will probably not be as developed yet.

The mecha designs are SHIT. SHIT. SHIT. SHIT. Frankly speaking they're really bad. Wincing the whole time. God.

Also I am inclined to point out that you have a giant mecha. How can it be so difficult to kill a person? Even without auto-aiming, do you not know the basics of trapping someone by shooting in front of them? Not at them? That pisses me off but fine.

That aside the time travel mechanic is interesting enough.

When has that actually happen though? Derailing the plot or character development just to appeal to fujoshi?

I don't think the enemy pilot was in the right mind-state to think of any other tactic besides trying to shoot and stab aoba

Yeah but even then, it can't be so hard to kill one person. If I was piloting a Gundam and I aimed at someone in their general vicinity and shot them with my beam rifle chances are the resulting explosion will kill them. Now, the guns in BC uses normal bullets rather, but even then, when you shoot it at the ground that creates a pretty strong shockwave, AND the surrounding ground cracks and shakes and stuff. I just can't get my mind around how the protagonist survived that long.

Take your pick of really good reflexes, clear thinking, benefiting from a stable time loop that guarantees he survives, or his opponent being rendered incompetent by his reliance on his controls, earth's yellow sun, or plot armor.

Honestly, I'm willing to let it slide since Aoba actually did something to prove his worth in the first episode.

Oh right, stable time loop. That's cool then, I forgot, time travel mechanics.

finished watching episode 2.

the time travel/stable time loop angle seems okay at a first glance and we now know that the girl that was sent back in time by the older!MC to protect the younger!MC is on the opposing side of the war, so we have something to look forward to. I'm mildly optimistic: Valvave went flying off the rails almost immediately, so there's hope.

still, I would not be totally surprised if we ever got something like the "cream in your coffee" speech at some point.

Honestly, Valvrave might be an improvement, as this seems a bit bland.

Awwwh, I was kinda hoping Dio would be the robot, Chamber style.

I havn't actually seen much Sunrise stuff(I'm newish and most of the franchises were intimidatingly large)....I know the "useless guy falls into the cockpit" is intrinsic to the formula, but do all these things have Nazi expy bad guys? Complete with goofy salute chant.

Coupling...er, ok. I feel bad for the girl already. How does that even work? They just link and both power up? How broken is that???

I hope an interesting characther shows up soon. Help us future-Nazi-Hina, your our only hope.

edited 15th Jan '14 2:57:05 AM by kiukiuclk

Bored now. Homoerotic subtext is not enough to make up how bland everything else is

This is significantly better than Valvrave, in that the main character didn't make me want to reach through the screen and wring his neck. Two thumbs up, so far - I think this one's only twelve episodes, so the wild ride should be over fast.

They don't have technology to see through the smoke?

That's some very mild military... Chain of command, pointing guns... Also a bit annoying to be that gung-ho about punishment before even figuring out what the situation is.

Anyway, yes, rather bland. So far, I'm not sure there's a single character with more personality than one short step above your average mook. And the homoerotic subtext is way too forced to even be amusing. It's through terminology rather than characters. He had better chemistry with Hina even if you discount the first episode where she actually appeared.

I might give it another episode if I'm bored enough.

I'm willing to accept the homoerotic subtext as being unintentional - or at least less obvious in the original language. Beyond that, this is a fairly standard second episode. We see some fighting, we get a bit of infodumping, and we set up our first major arc. It's been done before, but that doesn't mean it's not well-executed.

Re: The Valvrave comparisons - For every show that breaks the rules and violates the formula, you've got to have one or more which hold true to it. If that's all that Buddy Complex winds up being, that's fine by me. They've given me enough (plot, character, premise, whatever)-candy to keep watching.

It's more obvious in Japanese. 'Coupling' is their term for what we'd call 'ships', and '____ complex' is almost always sexual

Well, I don't know what to tell you then. Maybe it does lend credence to those rumors floating around earlier regarding a sudden shift in tone.

A sudden shift in tone would probably help, depending on what the shift is to. I was pretty much going to drop this till Hina showed up again. Maybe I'll give it one more shot to show something interesting.

I sure hope the show gets better from here...Only thing I liked about the episode was that Hina is on the enemy side. Those are some bad mecha designs, and thing reminds me so much of Gundam, even considering this is a Sunrise show(Not that Gundam-ish is a bad thing. Just that the thing really isn't making me hype much).

And I will shoot myself on the foot if that homoerotic subtext isn't intentional. Nice Coupling! Buddy Complex! Connect with Dio! Accept! First Proposing! At least that was fun.

Also, I have a feeling I heard the singer who sang the OP somewhere before. Anyone who knows what her name is would be nice.

edited 14th Jan '14 4:43:43 AM by danna45

I know the "useless guy falls into the cockpit" is intrinsic to the formula, but do all things have Nazi expy bad guys? Complete with goofy salute chant.

Might be completely the opposite.

In ordinary circumstances, this would be a bit of a stretch, but since Sunrise ended their last show with the machine-gunning of the Elders of Zion and the formation of the Third Galactic Reich...

Episode 2: No glaring flaws to speak of, but it doesn't have any great strength either. Might be because it's bland, or might be because it's a slow burn series, I dunno.

Third episode is out, and it's still action heavy. They must really have budget for this one.

The action itself is really good - both sides are acting intelligently, and there's not a Mecha-Mook to be seen.

I realize that it's been said countless times about countless times but I appreciate how believably all the characters are acting. Generic this may be - that doesn't mean it's not being handled incredibly competently.

So much stupid in this show. Your winning. Just grab her and bring her back in the mech. How stupid are you?

I can't imagine it's exactly easy to remove someone from a cockpit mid-air and bring them back into your own.