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Year: 2011 and 2013
Genre: Harem, Mecha, and Romantic comedy
Episodes: 24
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
There will come a day when women will have power over men in the world, and they will control all the weapons in the world. I have total belief that a woman can control the world far better than a man, and the world might be a happier place for it. How about President Beyonce or President Oprah? I could see Prime Minister Natalie Dormer or even President Eva Green. That would be the coolest thing ever. I’m rolling with President Beyonce.
Infinite Stratos is an anime where women now dominate society over men because they are the only ones who can control powerful mecha suits called IS. The story revolves around a male student who is the only male in the world capable of controlling an IS and his story at the academy.
Overview:
The world has drastically changed in the near future. A Japanese scientist creates a high-tech powered exoskeleton called “Infinite Stratos” (IS). The new technology is anything like the world has ever seen and can bring down the very foundations of the world. As the world deals with this, they decided that the best way to handle this new weapon is that the IS will never be used for military combat and must be equally distributed worldwide. Society soon takes a drastic change when the shift in power goes to women as they are the only ones who can control these new and mighty weapons.
Life seems fine in the world when it is discovered that 15-year-old Ichika Orimura is the only male capable of steering an IS and is quickly enrolled in the Infinite Stratos Academy: an all-female boarding school and run by his legendary pilot sister, Chifuyu Orimura. Things start off bad for Ichika as he becomes the crush of all the girls and is reunited with two of his childhood friends, Houki Shinonono and Lingyin Huang. Things soon become heated when he is constantly challenged by female representatives from different countries that soon fall in love with him. It is about to be an interesting year for Ichika.
Review
Season one of this anime was pretty good. The main theme of this season was to get a general idea of the characters and the situation the world is in. The whole idea of the world’s foremost weapons can only be used by women is very interesting, but the story revolves around one guy that can also use the weapon somewhat takes the thrill out of the anime. The anime is just all these beautiful girls running after an airhead guy. Now I do like how each country has its own representative. It was a little off that each one plays to the stereotypical idea of that country. The highlight of this season was that the final battle scene was pretty good. It was intense and had a nice little cliffhanger to it. Overall, the first season really sets up the stage for a very interesting anime that had a lot of potential until you get to season two, and it all freaking fails dramatically.
Season two was one of the worse anime seasons I have ever watched. It made zero sense with the storyline and made no headway with ANYTHING. I was so frustrated because this anime had some potential, but the story decided to go in a far different direction. Rather than just working off the angle of developing the whole idea of the criminal organization that was after Ichika and his sister, it takes the route of making the show so sexual it’s not even funny. Every episode presented some way that Ichika was caught in a sexual situation or showing the girls in sexual positions or situations. The last episode was once again about the evil organization with Houki’s sister looking like she would be the main villain. It was a total waste of time and effort to watch the last twelve episodes.
The characters in this anime are pretty funny, standard, and a little outrageous. Actually, the stereotype of where they come from is displayed heavily with each girl. Now the main character, Ichika Orimura is the only male who can control an IS in the world. He is the younger brother of Chifuyu, a legendary IS pilot who raised him when the siblings’ parents abandoned them at a young age. I don’t have a problem with Ichika. The dude is surrounded by women all the time, but he is a COMPLETE airhead when it comes to the girls and their feelings. He also the standard male character that tries to be his hardest to get stronger but only gets his ass handed to him.
Now the female characters are pretty stereotypical from the country they come from, but some are really beautiful. First, there is Houki Shinonono. She is the childhood friend of Ichika but hasn’t seen each other for a while. She is the standard heroine who is in love with the main character but has a tough time explaining it while also getting jealous over the other girls. Once again, she is the standard female heroine. Then there is the beautiful Cecilia Alcott. Cecilia is a first-year student at the IS Academy and is an IS Cadet Representative of the United Kingdom. When you think of the United Kingdom, you think of royalty and aristocracy. She is spoiled and has an air of superiority about her, but if you know me, I love that English accent, and she has those blue eyes and blonde hair. The girl is so FINE! The second female character that I LOVE is Charlotte Dunois. Charlotte is a first-year student at the IS Academy and is an IS Cadet Representative of France. She comes to the school under the disguise of being a second male but soon is found out and converts back to a girl. She is really cute. I think she is the cutest and best of all the girls. I just love her French accent.
Next up is Lingyin Huang. Lingyin is a first-year student at the IS Academy, the class representative of her class, and is an IS Cadet Representative of China. She starts off as hostile towards Ichika from some promise they made. She is actually pretty intense and has a little fangtooth to look like a dragon. She is cool but sometimes comes off as overbearing. The most overbearing character is Laura Bodewig. Laura is a first-year student at the IS Academy, and an IS Cadet Representative of Germany. Laura is the stereotypical idea of a German person. One that is intense and is in the army. Yet she is quite funny and has her cute moments. Another one of my favorite characters is Tatenashi Sarashiki. She is the Student Council President of the IS Academy and the 17th leader of the Sarashiki Family, and the IS Representative of Russia. Homegirl is quite pretty and has this playful attitude that everyone will like, even if it is overtly sexual. Her eyes are stunning with that light blue hair. You work it, girl.
The animation of this show was okay but not at all stellar. There were small moments when the girls brought out their IS, and it looked great. Each one was made in a great way and a joy to watch. Even the way each character was drawn was nice because each one was designed in a specific way and color. After that, the animation is pretty standard.
I would talk about the music and the opening and ending song, but that would be detrimental to the brain. Both songs were fun and upbeat, but they were not the highlight. They are the type of songs that are easily forgettable.
Infinite Stratos is the type of anime that has potential but wastes it on a stupid male character that is completely clueless about the girls attracted to him. The storyline is entirely useless, but the fact that the primary weapons can only be controlled by women is a great concept. Girls do rule the world. If it wasn’t for the over-sexualization of the girls, this could’ve been a pretty good anime.
