We’re sampling the summer season’s selection! Check out our other pilot write-up’s –
- ALDNOAH ZERO ** SWORD ART ONLINE II ** RAIL WARS ** YAMISHIBAI + AI-MAI-MI
- GLASSLIP ** AKAME GA KILL ** SAMURAI JAM ** PERSONA 4 ** DRAMAtical mURDER
Half the time, it feels like the suit in a mecha suit is an
actual product, and the show’s been constructed to sell that product in about the same
way that BMW tried to sell you cars by having Clive Owen
drive them around on various missions.
Which is maybe an overly abstract way of saying that a lot
of mech shows feel really interchangeable after a while…
We joke a lot about the Rock or Suck scale but - - if I’m to
put my serious face on for a second - - I’ll readily acknowledge that plenty of
series land somewhere in the perfectly-adequate middle than on either extremity
of quality. I’m a lot less interested these days in a serious military SF
exploration of how warfare between giant robo suits would play out,
tactically. Still, even despite that, I felt like this snippet of ARGEVOLLEN was a
perfectly fine way to kill a half-hour. The future history isn’t that distinct,
and the all-too-earnest lead and his collection of hot blooded female
associates aren’t that memorable, but they do the job they’re supposed to do; and there’s something admirable about a show being that workmanlike.
Hell, I even got into the segments where legions of
identical CG armors are running into eachother, and that’s usually where I
check out. Their other-ness actually integrates well into the scenery, and the show
adroitly keeps things simple when setting up their fight. We don’t
get bogged down in a history lesson. We don’t have to listen to self-serious battlefield
philosophizing. The shows gets straight to what you’ve come for, and again,
there’s something admirable in being that direct.
While I don’t feel compelled to follow ARGEVOLLEN along on
this campaign, I think I owe it a respectful salute, at least.
Watch "Encounter" and decide for yourself.
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