Active Raid

Brought to by the same man who brought Code Geass to the TV screen.

Basically the show's take on Patlabor. With powered armor. With the same Destructive Savior reputation.

Two episodes have currently aired.

edited 20th Feb '16 6:12:42 AM by Ominae

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

I've yet to watch the second episode, so I'll comment on it later...

I like it. A futuristic police action show with sentai-like armors? Hell yeah. The crew seems fun and quirky. I liked how the newbie was trying to act all important but got shot down and proved wrong at every turn.

I liked the second episode more than the first as the pacing seemed to be better and we got to see what the main female character is capable of. The series seems to have a nice mix of action and humour (the popups scene was particularly humorous) and the bad guy seems interesting and a little Genre Savvy and his loli companion is interesting.

Knowledge is Power, Guard it Well

I'll watch the 2nd episode tomorrow since I came home late from a lobster buffet (Then again, I didn't eat a lot of lobster).

---

Character page is up. Depending on things, I may need backup to help create the other pages (Trivia/YMMV, etc).

edited 15th Jan '16 7:38:41 AM by Ominae

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

Episode 2: Of course talking heads, and petty desk jockeys talk shit about Division 8. Ha I'd like to see them try and close it. The whole city would be overrun with Willwear related crime in a week.

That's supposed to be Hinata's "much younger" sister? They look like twins! Why is Japan holding out on the secret of eternal youth from the rest of us?!

Asami once again tried to act like she knew better, but ended up foiled by... pop-up ads, and ended up causing more collateral damage than they did last episode. Great job Asami!

I can't help but feel that spamming pop-ups on the HUD of what's supposed to be a mass-produced system is kind of absolutely friggin' stupid.

It would be "stupid" if this was Ghost in the Shell, but this isn't like that. When you watch that kind of show, you expect at least the pretense of self-seriousness and a degree of extrapolated realism.

But, like a lot of people have been saying elsewhere, Active Raid is much closer to stuff like the live-action Japanese superhero genre, where a lot of silly and unrealistic things can happen.

There is some attempt to comment on certain situations in Japan, with the whole bureaucratic angle and all, but it's not treated quite as seriously as you'd expect in a different production. It is closer to mild satire. In other words, it's probably easier -and more beneficial- to accept that sort of gag as a lighthearted joke rather than to be disappointed because it's not part of a truly serious sci-fi world.

I never said I was disappointed it wasn't serious, I was just saying that popups on a HUD is extremely counter-productive, and feels more like something that would show up on a full-blown gag mecha series.

Episode 3: I wasn't expecting karaoke cosplay, trap idols, hacker battles and a live concert but it was certainly entertaining. The loli hanging around with the bad guy is getting suspicious as well seeing as the one time there was another person in the room, she didn't even seem to notice her.

Knowledge is Power, Guard it Well

Why is a stage engagement willwear equipped with a weapon grade speakers and can run circles around police willwear?

Also, this might have been the worst case of Hollywood Hacking I've seen outside off CSI. They're typing buttons so fast, amazing!

It seems the antagonist is just some asshole rich hacker out to cause trouble for no good reason. And he looks like he would be obsessed with curry.

Gee, media vultures are at it again huh?

This episode might just crossed the line between entertainingly silly and plain stupid for me.

I will say the way the Liko app in particular has been treated so far is both plausible and hilarious. Other than that, I didn't mind the over-the-top portrayal of hacking and whatever else they've done with computers. I have no expectations of technological accuracy here.

The show seems to be hinting, not even too subtly, that supposedly standard use willwear are being modified by the bad guys in order to commit crimes.

As far as I'm concerned, the series remains just as entertainingly silly as it has always been.

I had a good laugh when the idol shown on the episode was a trap.

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

Episode 4: The Government's Intelligence database is called Orochi? That's not suspicious at all. Good episode in all, the banter between the two main guys is entertaining and they don't really let it interfere with there work which is nice. SDF woman was suspicious and I am still a bit confused about just what is going on with the bad guy.

Knowledge is Power, Guard it Well

Yep, Orochi sounds sinister as hell, but well it's a government project so that's a given.

Takeru and Souchiro butting heads was hilarious. They make a great comedic duo.

Souchiro ex-girlfriend seems to have some kind of a grudge against him. I guess she's his ex for a reason.

Ungrateful politician is ungrateful.

This show has the type of villain that annoys me the most - he doesn't interact with the heroes or really does anything but sits around and makes cryptic comments.

Looks like I didn't mishear anything when the USDF was mentioned. Looks like the JSDF moniker was dropped.

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

Episode 5: Gambling and missiles, because this show just does whatever it wants.

Celebrating getting in the red... good sport he is.

It occurs to me that Logos is basically what stupid people think 4chan is like.

Nice to get focus on Madoka, a character who until this episode stood out so little I actually forgot she's there at all. Who knew she was such a cool gambler.

So in a surprising twist, the guy they have to play is the one behind the plot. Inconceivable!

Pretty different episode but in a good way. Division 8 gets more quirky with each new fact revealed about them.

Episode 6: Come on guys, you can't have an episode about how wilwears replaced giant robots, only to show giant robots to be thousand time cooler. You're undermining the very premise of your own show. Now I'm thinking "Man, this show would be so much better with more giant robots.''

To be fair, the said giant robots in question were considered "inefficient" in-universe. Cool they might be, but when most of the badguys are less than ten feet in height even IN power armor, it's definitely too much. XD

Finally! People who like this show!
I'm just going to say, Kyoukai and Rin are adorable. I'm in it for the cute. The whole "this is what this type of thing would be like if it were real" thing is nice, and I like it, but the main draw of it for me is the cute character designs.
I want to see more of the school, though. Why do I want to say I think the purple-eyed Student Council guy is involved in something? Hmmm...

I made this Idolized Julius Kingsley icon back when Akito first came out, and now that the crossover is actually happening, I don't care.

On the topic of character designs, I'm kind of weirded out at how the guys are absolutely Tosh/Shunya Saeki, but the girls seemed to have been rejected designs from Love Live, because they don't look like any designs that Tosh came up with (both in porn and mainstream comics like Shokugeki No Soma).

edited 17th Feb '16 12:12:48 PM by MyssaRei

Both Rins look like Shirley from Code Geass, but in opposite ways, and I think that's actually pretty interesting. Also, not connected by artists (I don't think?) but Myucel from Outbreak Company also looks like Shirley, and if you put her and Rin and Rin next to each other, you wouldn't say they looked anything alike, but you add Shirley, and it fits.

I made this Idolized Julius Kingsley icon back when Akito first came out, and now that the crossover is actually happening, I don't care.

Code Geass was done by CLAMP. This one was done by Shunya Saeki, AKA Tosh for those who used to follow his porn manga. His women don't look anything like the designs we got for the ladies in Active Raid.

Heck, just look at Shokugeki No Soma to see what I mean. Tosh's girls are kind of distinctive.

edited 17th Feb '16 12:12:35 PM by MyssaRei

Wait, Tosh did the character design?! I wouldn't be able to tell in a million years!

Ahaha, I guess people have gotten so used to him drawing Soma that we've forgotten his, ahem, earlier works of a much lewder nature. But yeah, he contributed concepts for Active Raid, which was why I was surprised at how the girls didn't look like anyone he'd design. At all.

Yeah that what surprised me. If you compare Shokugeki to his... earlier works, the style is consistent and distinct. But not here.