OP2 Sequence

OP2: 「流星Lovers」 (Ryuusei Lovers) by JAM Project
Watch the 2nd OP!: Download, Streaming ▼

「白き魔星へ」 (Shiroki Masei he)
“To the White Devil Star”

After two episodes where the quality took a noticeable dip, episode twenty-four returns on a strong note and comes with a surprisingly late second opening sequence too. A lot of it was recycled footage, but there was a handful of new scenes to go along with JAM Project’s “Shooting Star Lovers”. What threw me off was how the new opening theme lacked the adrenaline-pumping excitement as MAXON, even though it sounds a lot better after the 30-second intro. Regardless, it’s a welcome change with only three episodes to go, especially when all I was expecting was a slightly updated sequence with Alt Eisen Riese added in.

The real treat was the episode itself, where the easygoing feast at the beginning made it apparent that the animation wasn’t going to be a half-hearted effort this time around. Seolla flashing her animal-print panties to Arado was one example, but there was actually consistency all across the board, be it normal-looking character faces or goofy ones care of Katina and Russel. It wasn’t perfect, but the animation was back at the level that I’m more than happy with. It also served as a nice lead-in to the decisive battle against the Inspectors, starting a quick pan of Aguija’s Silverwind and Excellen’s upgraded Rein Weiss Ritter, the latter of which is probably the best shot we’ll see of that Personal Trooper in this adaptation.

From that point on it was nothing but SRW goodness with character themes busting out left and right, including Masaki’s original “Neppuu! Shippuu! Cybuster” theme as he dealt the finishing Akashic Buster blow on Aguija. (I’ve loved that theme ever since SRW3.) Along the same lines, I was pretty psyched about Ryouto throwing the Exbein’s Fang Slasher and taking a piece off of Mekibos’ Graterkin with it, since it’s the bread and butter attack for the Huckebein (in the Alpha games at least). Interestingly enough, Mekibos even reminded us about the Huckebein and how it’s supposed to have a Black Hole Engine, which was cool for those familiar with the games but also a slight kick in the face since I didn’t get to see the Gundam-lookalike Personal Trooper I was hoping to.

While Kyousuke got to show Sikalog that Alt Eisen Riese isn’t the same as before, I can’t shake the feeling that three of the five Inspectors were dealt with so quickly. It sort of made me question why this series was subtitled after them to begin with. If anyone should be alluded to in the title, it’s probably “Mr. Black Hole Cluster” in his Granzon — the Masou Kishin robot that I always want to join up in the games but never does. Vigaji as a villain? My money’s on the crazy human scientist who’s enjoying the fruits of his labour a bit too much. “Shuu!!!

With two episodes remaining, I’m actually curious as to how they’ll wrap things up. Echidna’s sacrifice should lead us to the conclusion of the Axel/Beowulf rivalry that the series premiered with in a parallel universe. As such, more Alt versus Soulgain is undoubtedly in store, but there are still Mekibos and Wendolo to deal with on the Inspectors side, Alfimi on the Einst side, and now Shuu on arguably nobody’s side. It’s probably going to be one hell of a finish, and if this episode is any indication of things to come, they might just get it all done in a single episode and have time for an epilogue. Unlikely, but one can hope.

 

Preview

34 Comments

  1. I liked the party scene. It was able to show the many quirks of the characters in a few minutes. Ratsel being a gourmet chef, Latooni and Mai’s crush on Ryusei, Katina and Russel’s close relationship, Arado’s and Seolla’s rowdy affection, Ibis’ obsession over cheesecake. It’s kinda sad that series couldn’t show how likable these characters are laregly due to time constraints.

    fragb85
  2. NEPPU! SHIPPU! CYBUSUTAAAAA, and Shu. Holy shit. Made me came.
    Hmm now that my brain is back into function…
    Well if they continue like this and do everything right you’ll get why it was still called The Inspectors.

    Rockmanshii
    1. Not to mention Lamia’s boobs of steel…

      On the other side of the breast size equation, we have Ibis and her DFC (though she doesn’t seem as flat in the anime compared to her usual portrayal in the game/s — not that I mind). XD

      Incognito
      1. Seolla’s boobs are big but there not THAT big at least compared others. It’s just that she gets to be the butt of any boob jokes thanks to Arado.

        As for Ibis, she isn’t really a DFC, she’s just really insecure about her bust size. It doesn’t help that she hangs around with women who have bigger boobs. Especially notable with Selena in Alpha 3.

        fragb85
    2. Technically, she has the SECOND largest: a certain imageboard (and some fans) will argue Lamia currently is the champ; in fact, someone made a comparison chart of it floating around on the net somewhere. Naturally, if we include characters from Endless Frontier, both Seolla and Lamia would be knocked out of the current ranking positions.

      advent_child
  3. Okay, watching episodes 23 and 24 comes on the heels of a recent recap marathon of Divine Wars. Stuff that I initially couldn’t make sense of/hinted at in that series (e.g.: the “Elpis Incident”) now makes more sense with The Inspector around. Despite the conspicuous CG and repetitive sound effects (they use the same sound effect for a walking Personal Trooper and the SRX combining sequence), I did like the early bird cameos of some characters who would only be focused on in The Inspector (Ibis, Sleigh, Ricarla and Yuuki) and hey, it’s still SRW. But The Inspector definitely is a big improvement over its predecessor.

    Anyway, glad to see Ratsel living up to his “Mysterious Gourmet” persona and seeing more of the Aussenseiter in action. Still, I’m also hoping that the “Tatsumaki Zankantou” makes its animated appearance soon. They kinda missed a possible awesome moment to use the technique on Vigagi and his Mega Galgau in order to show off Shu’s magnificent bastardry.

    And it is an episode late, but:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Incognito
  4. From the OP, Show Spoiler ▼

    Anyway, I was slightly disappointed at how quickly Aguija and Sikalog went down. After all, if all it took was a point-blank stake and Cybuster (is charging at the Akashic Buster the closest we’ll get to Lee getting DRILLED?), this invasion could have ended a long time ago. Vigaji going down as quickly as he did I can pass off as the Granzon just being overpowered.

    I have to admit, though, that I spent much of the battle laughing. I kept waiting for the Inspectors’ beam absorb to kick in.

    Shiden
    1. Hahaha man, same here, seeing Aguija rush in Akashic Buster made me think of that infamous Lee scene we won’t see animated. I guess she was way too furious to think about this. Her mech was cut in half and she kept fighting!!

      Rockmanshii
  5. Hey Divine;
    With many major events that should be shown (Axel vs Kyosuke, Vindel vs Gilliam plus Lemon vs Excellen, Wendolo vs Mekibos, and then Alfimi plus Regisseur vs everyone), I’m not so sure they’ll be able to finish all of this up in two episodes, let alone one, without a major event being left out or altered. Remember the Moon Cradle? All we got was Shuu god-mode for 2 minutes for what could have been a full episode showcasing OG goodness. They are doing a nice job with what they’ve got though.

    Shinmarizu
    1. Didnt Divine Wars crack over 4 episode worth of material into its final episode? I mean…the final battle in space, rescuing Kusuha, defeating Ingram, fighting Levi, and defeating Septuagin all in 20 minutes? Oh and the epic DiSRX.

      YanDaMan
  6. Masaki!!!! BA-DOOOOM!!!!!! wow! what a sick episode!!! btw- why did they switch up the intro at the last minute?? i coulda easily rode out 26 ep’s with that righteous cheese rock

    BROOKLYN otaku
  7. When Masaki first showed up in Divine Wars, he seemed to be searching quite desperately for Shu Shirakawa, presumably to kill him. And I don’t think they ever really explained their relationship, so I thought they would do so in this series, but, unless I missed it, they still haven’t. Is it just not a crucial piece of data for the anime or was it never explained even in the games?

    Bossun
    1. OG2 never really did anything in regards to Shu, as the anime is actually showing much more than what Shu actually did in the video game itself. He doesn’t even really participate much in the final battle, if at all. At this point, I’d have to say that Inspectors is about to crack in the same way that Divine Wars did with it’s respective translation. The amount of content needed to make this truly enjoyable is far too short. Both games have enough worthwhile material to easily cover 40-50 episodes each, and should have been treated as such.

      Wild
    2. It’s not explained in OG1/2, but it’s explained in the old game and in the new remake Lord of Elemental. It’s not crucial to the current story, but it does help explain Masaki’s character outside “SHUUUUU!” I’ll try to give a… medium length explanation of Masaki’s history. If you hope for a Lord of Elemental anime some day I don’t really recommend reading this since it would spoil the plot, but if you want to know Masaki’s history and motivation now then it may help.

      Someone correct me if I mess something up. I haven’t played Lord of Elemental for a bit so my memory may be a bit fuzzy.

      Show Spoiler ▼

      My apologies for the length. I tried to keep it short by cutting some things, but it did turn out a bit long.

      Zack
  8. “It sort of made me question why this series was subtitled after them to begin with.” by Divine

    Inspectors is a double meaning. A faction and a function. The Inspectors are not the only ones with that function. *Hint* *Hint*

    ReddyRedWolf
  9. I think somebody must of mentioned this already, but I noticed that the cockpit monitors don’t shake in later episodes as seen in episode 1 cybuster is the shit! but the new opening is a thumbs down for me maybe because there wasn’t much new animation, but the theme song great.

    Okui

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *