Amaim Warrior At The Borderline aka Kyōkai Senki

Been a while since I've seen original mech anime/manga stuff, especially from Sunrise.

Had to do something about the trope page with using the name laid out by Funi.

I watched the first episode.

I can see myself sighing a lot at the world building decisions.

Well and more than a few raised middle digits, but given I am Australian and we're the starter villains (you can say Oceania all you want but we are the most populous nation in the region by far and when you name the mechs "Bunyip Boomerang"...) I feel entitled to some rude comments and snark.

You’re entitled to it, the way the Aussies are painted in this episode borders on comical villainy.

Pretty much the best part about this show is the mecha themselves. Still nice yo see traditional animation for mecha. Everything about the story is kinda iffy.

Gotta sit down and watch it and stop being lazy.

Episode 2: The Grumpy Old Man is strong with this one.

Honestly the entire first half of the episode is basically complaining about city dwellers and "Kids these days" not appreciating the traditional/rural life.

RIP the old man’s boat.

Nice to see MC can’t bulldoze his way through his enemies yet. No complaints on the action front. MC’s character feels a bit wishy-washy though.

Guess it’s finally time to meet La Résistance next episode.

Finally had time to sit down and watch it.

Looks like the action's focusing on Shikoku, Chugoku and Kansai. Wish the show mentions which flag goes to which supernation (Judging by Ocenian being mentioned).

Episode 2 specifically mentions Asian (just "Asian") and Eurasian forces in addition to Oceanian.

Episode 3: Amou meets the Resistance, who’ll be his new pals. They’re friendly. Mostly a setup episode.

Looks like episode 5 gave some details on the AMAIMS.

Also named officially the Asia Free Trade Entente for the Asia-Pacific (likely on the latter part) supernation that has occupied land in Japan.

Between the vampiric/oni imagery of the villain veering into pretty literal Demonization and the rank hypocrisy of the Asian Free Trade Entente (shades of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere anyone) this is probably the most objectionable episode yet.

Heard that's the main reason why Bilibili panicked and decided to stop it in mainland China.

Yeah, well China and Australia are this series designated punching bag.

When I saw episode 4, I didn't mind the Chinese villain but I just didn't like how they gave him pointy ears just to make a monster out of him.

Latest episode (10) has Yatagarasu heading to Tohoku, which is Eurasian military territory.

Mecha fights still as good as before. That noble should get himself a spanking high-spec Amaim, surely he can afford one.

Episode 12: Nice chunky fight against Ghost.

Having come from this week's episode, liked the following:

1. Yatagarasu only acting on the information Brad deliberately provided to Amou and Gashin (with Sofia implied to have done the same for Shion on Brad's orders) about Ghost in the Oki Islands when they heard that the AFTE were abandoning the islands when Ghost attacked their outposts on the island, thus leaving the people living there to their fate.

2. The AFTE officer from episode 6 being the type to help a wounded subordinate even if it meant certain death.

3. Gouken and his Yatagarasu subordinates opting not to kill the aforementioned AFTE officer and his subordinates out of humanitarian reasons yet choosing to take them prisoner.

Yep, it was cool that the Japanese forces had the sense to restrain the fleeing AFTE soldiers as prisoners.

Looks like Brad's liking his catch of the day.

Ghost's AMAIM AI that is.

Brad is definitely setting himself up as the primary antagonist for the second half.

The big question for me is if we will see Amou at all in the second half. Would actually be cool if we spent the season without him.

Edited by fillerdude on Dec 31st 2021 at 8:10:55 AM

Resurrecting this thread because the next episode will air tomorrow at the latest according to this.

Having re-watched the last two episodes of the first part to prep for the upcoming episode, I theorize Amou is alive because as shown below, Kenbu's body didn't seem to be hit when Ghost blew itself up:

Also, I marked out debris falling into the ocean in the following scene:

Then, as shown back in the first episode, piloted AMAI Ms have their cockpits in the rear directly below the head:

Of course we have to wait until tomorrow at the latest for whether or not Amou is alive.

Looks like Brad has his way with the captured Ghost AI.

English dubbing is already in place for AMAIM.

Up to episode 4 of the new season. Ho-hum to the glum Amou. Sorry, you can’t do drama well, show.