I’ve already wondered what Japan’s fascination is with “childhood friends” in anime. Is that a common thing in Japan, or just wishful thinking on a lot of people? Much like Ore no Imouto was with little sisters, of which I have no thing for like /a/ wants to believe, I don’t have any childhood friends I consider to be best childhood friends. I had friends as a child, but nothing to the degree you see in anime, and certainly not female.
Infinite Stratos looks to be a pretty good start to my Winter 2011 season with something that reminds me largely of Sky Girls meets Gunparade March meets Generic Childhood Friend who is Tsundere (protip: MAYOI NEKO OVERRUN) which instead of going through how the only man to be able to pilot an IS unit, Ichika Orimura, ended up in a school of all females, simply shows you a teaser battle and dumps you straight into day one of class. The series borrows some archetypes from Strike Witches, namely Chifuyu Orimura, the straight-laced older sister who clearly borrows from Mio Sakamoto’s archetype, to Cecilia Alcott who is Perrine H. Clostermann almost to the tee, and Houki Sinonono who could be considered Gertrud Barkhorn, but really she reminds me more of Fumino Serizawa from Mayoi Neko Overrun what with the obvious tsundere and childhood friend syndrome. Like any mecha harem series, many more females will be bound to come, and the series doesn’t pull its punches, giving you a FFUUUU ending right off the first episode with a Ichika v. Cecilla duel next episode.
TLDR Watch This: You like potential harem series, robots, girls piloting robots, eventual fanservice, and the need to get your kicks in before BANNED IN TOKYO.
TLDR Don’t Watch This: If you hate tsunderes, a DEEPfag, most of /a/ (STOP LIKING WHAT I DON’T LIKE) or cold hard steel doesn’t get your girth going.
Sub Group: Ayako
First Rating: 8
Had my second bout with Bell’s Palsy again today and feeling pretty tired so I’ll stick the Madoka review in this weekend with the rest of the new stuff coming out soon. It’s pretty trippy.
