Rinne no Lagrange–First Episode Review

Episode Summary: Kyono Madoka is a girl blessed with talent in many sports, as well as a bright and friendly spirit. Always prepared to aid someone in need, she even wears her swimsuit underneath her school uniform, which comes in handy when she notices someone drowning on her way to school. Her classmates at school keep prodding her to join a club (other than the "Sweat Suit" club, which is of Madoka's own making), but her schedule for helping out each of the other clubs in turn doesn't give her the time to devote to just one.

Madoka meets a girl named Lan one day, when Lan returns Madoka's discarded school uniform to her. She becomes a comrade of Madoka's by joining the Sweat Suit club, then turns around and whisks Madoka off to an artificial island where Madoka is introduced to the robot she will now be piloting. It's just in the nick of time, too; an enemy attacks their compound and Madoka is forced to fight. Luckily her mastery of wrestling moves gives her a clear advantage over her opponent.

Thoughts: I wavered back-and-forth about including this episode with the previously-posted "dregs" entry before finally deciding that it deserved a more robust review. This episode's problem really isn't that it's "bad" so much as it simply doesn't leave much of an impression, as it relies so much on genre tropes that it really offers nothing new to its audience.

I read an interesting blog post several weeks ago about the concept of a "Mary Sue" in fiction. For those who aren't familiar with the term, a Mary Sue is an original female character, usually created for use in fan fiction, who is unrealistically perfect. She may have special powers, or she might be supernaturally beautiful in some way. The point is that she's unrealistic as a person to a large degree, more an example of wish-fulfillment than someone meant to reflect the mundane realities of our world. Most people I've met are very dismissive of these types of characters, and on paper it makes sense; why would we as women want to be misrepresented by someone who doesn't reflect our own reality? The point of the post, though, is that fiction, mainstream fiction in fact, is filled to the brim with these sorts of characters, the only difference being that those characters are male. The example the author gives is Batman, but consider all the tales of kings and heroes and gunslingers that exist and have become classics, the thing we admire about those people is that they're more skilled and ethically infallible than we are (or at least superhuman in some way and respected for it).

I was very close to spending a large part of this review complaining about the fact that Madoka is a very unrealistic character who's good at just about everything she tries. She's everything to everyone in each of those sports clubs with which she helps out, and she's got the type of spirited, "genki" personality that makes her the embodiment of the "can-do" attitude. She saves the lives of people in need she sees on her way to school. She takes to piloting the Vox robot (after she forces a takeover of the controls, that is) naturally and with no training whatsoever. It's like the creators of the show wanted to save themselves the trouble of writing and animating portions of the series that address how a real person would require several hours of instruction and training to pilot a huge experimental machine. It's not realistic... yet the situation is set-up exactly the same as the majority of other mecha series that star male characters instead of female. And while I may have criticized several other mecha series for indulging in the tropes of the trade, to single out this one by using the loaded term "Mary Sue" seems out-of-line. Let's just say that I'm unbelieving of most or all situations that would dump a youngster into the seat of a military vehicle, especially when it appears that there are plenty of capable adults around to do the job instead. This is not an exception.

Character classification dilemmas aside, the biggest problem with this episode (and by extension, possibly the entire series), is that, aside from some nice artwork, it's very generic. Its setup feels very similar to Star Driver in that it brings mecha anime to the seaside (heck, Madoka and Takuto are pretty similar as protagonists go, too), but aside from an atypical setting, nothing surprising happens in this first episode and it lacks a good hook. The only real mystery left unanswered so far is the big one about who Madoka will be fighting and why she'll be fighting them (the opponent she battles in this episode isn't really given a proper introduction or explanation). A scene near the halfway point suggests that there might be some invasion of alien bishounen to come, but that's not the sort of story development that gives me a lot of confidence in a show's future.

And then there's the unnecessary fanservice. This show is much tamer than I would have suspected after seeing the PV (the video seems to include all of the three or four panty/crotch shots that were in the entire episode, and none of those are particularly extreme), but the preview for the second episode looks as though it will introduce the third primary character, and her character design seems geared to, shall we say, draw the eyes downward. I experience a sinking feeling in situations like this because I want to be able to recommend a female-focused show to others and to praise a series for highlighting girls as potential heroes. I also want to encourage more varied representations of body types in anime, because at best right now you tend to only get "thin" and "thinner," when it comes to female character designs. But when having a different body type means "we got to animate really big breasts moving unrealistically in order to please a certain fan demographic," it really highlights the message that women aren't represented in ways that don't involve their bodies as eye candy. This could be a perfectly pleasant, if unremarkable show, but once again it has to be overshadowed by this seemingly insatiable need to pander, and that is really sad.

This isn't a show that I have high hopes for, and thus far it hasn't demonstrated a good "hook." I also worry about its focus on one particular audience demographic (thought I'm not surprised that it has that focus). If it seemed to have a stronger vision or if I had any reason to believe that its intended audience was wider, I might be more inclined to give it another shot. As it is, this seems like a pretty but all-to-generic reiteration of several mecha series that happens to feature female characters.

Pros:

• The look of the show is very nice and its setting is a bit out of the ordinary.
• The primary cast seems to consist of young women, which is a pleasant surprise.

Cons:

• Despite starring women, women do not seem to be one of the show's target demographics thus far.
• The show adheres closely to genre tropes and doesn't try to do anything creative with them.

Recommended? While it would have been a mistake for me to lump this in with the worst-of-the-worst from this season, the first episode doesn't do enough to distinguish itself for it to be noteworthy. Thus far this is a pass.

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