First Impressions / Infinite Stratos / Series Introduction

OP Sequence

OP: 「STRAIGHT JET」 by 栗林みな実 (Kuribayashi Minami)
Watch the OP!: Download, Streaming ▼

「クラスメイトは全員女」 (Kurasumeito wa Zenin Onna)
“The Classmates Are All Girls”

As with most premieres, the start of Infinite Stratos was primarily about character introductions and establishing the plot, most of which I already mentioned in the Winter 2011 Preview. What was nice though was the cold opening of some IS training that helped offset the lack of any scrimmages for the rest of the episode. In most part, this premiere mainly reiterated the impression I got from the promotional videos. A lot of the scenes and dialogue were taken from this first episode after all, so there wasn’t much in the way of surprises. I had a good idea of type of series I was getting into and I got a good first taste of it.

Looking back, the pacing felt somewhat slow due to the relatively uneventful nature of this first showing, but I like how it eased me into the series. With Orimura Ichika (Uchiyama Kouki) already attending IS Academy as the only male in the world to be able to pilot the Japanese-developed exoskeletons, it felt like I was watching the second episode, so I appreciated the extra time spent familiarizing us with his childhood friend Shinonono Houki, and making the uneasiness he feels in a school full of girls who are interested in him for various “reasons” apparent. I rather enjoyed seeing our tsundere childhood friend character showing her brash yet girlish side right away, as it made it really easy to take a liking to Houki, even without taking Hikasa Youko‘s acting into consideration. In contrast, Ichika’s older sister Chifuyu, who’s both their homeroom teacher, dormitory leader, and the talk of the school due to her championship in the first IS world tournament, provided most of the actual abuse that Ichika had to endure. Voiced by Toyoguchi Megumi, Chifuyu’s stern attitude with her easygoing little brother is something that grabbed my attention almost immediately, since it featured Megumi in a prominent role again and took away some of Ichika’s poor treatment from Houki.

I was prepared for an abusive relationship between our hero and heroine, but deep down inside I was hoping Houki would have a better balance of her polar personalities. Luckily, that appears to be the case so far, considering how she lashed out at Ichika out of embarrassment more than anything else upon finding out that he’s her roommate, and out of a bit of jealousy upon seeing how popular he is among the girls — two reasons I can accept. Whatever the case, the interactions between those two should be the center of attention for most of the series, so if you haven’t found them amiable and fun to watch yet, then there’s a good possibility that this “high-speed school battle romantic comedy” may not be for you.

In terms of progression, it seems like we’re going to get slowly introduced to more of the cast as we go, starting off with Britain’s proud elite representative, Cecilia Alcott. In light of her superior and self-centered complex, Ichika’s stupidity and nonchalant attitude was a breath of fresh air since he unintentionally put her in her place by saying that he also beat a teacher in battle, and later wondering what sort of handicap he shoud give her in their upcoming scrim to determine the class representative. Given my anticipation of hearing Yukana in another high school role, I have to admit that Cecilia left me with mixed feelings. I still love her roles, but here she was obviously cast for the haughty princess-like personality she can portray, similar to the one she used for Mashiro in Mai-Otome. It does double as a bless in disguise however, since various parts of Infinite Stratos’ premise reminds me of a lot of Sunrise’s series. e.g. Girls in powered suits, opening theme by Kuribayashi Minami.

Anyway, I like what I’ve seen so far despite the arguably slow start. We’re guaranteed at least one IS battle next time with Ichika up against Cecilia to decide the class rep though, so those wanting to see more high-speed aerial battles (myself included) will have something to look forward to. My guess is that Ichika will continue to do what he did here and bring Cecilia back down to Earth, which should be interesting since he’s shown that he’s terribly unprepared for piloting an IS. On a production-related note, some people may not like the use of CG for a lot of the battle sequences, but I find a similar approach for the distant shots in STRIKE WITCHES 2 worked well. It’s not too surprising that 8-Bit chose to go that route, when Macross Frontier also used a fair bit of CG.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「SUPER∞STREAM」 by 日笠陽子 (Hikasa Youko)
Watch the ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

Preview

133 Comments

    1. just finish watching the first ep… nice to see a harem main male not a wuss…. and yes the voice acting for this is terrific…. can’t wait for ep 2… wanna see that Cecilia bitch gets hammered…

      Totoro!!
      Reply

  5. man, chifuyu was the hottest! LOL. i see cecilia as really interesting. XD her personality is my type. xD and yey to pikasha!!! i missed her. guess,i’ll be watching the next episode. XD

    keiOnDaisuki
    Reply

  7. I agree that the episode felt slow especially after the opening which gave us a taste of what was to come. Hopefully we will have more skirmishes as these are what I really look forwards to.

    Shadiic
    Reply

  10. I never watched Strike Witches, since the amount of pantsu and the characters turned me off.
    This though reminds me slightly of Mai-Otome. Yeah okay, I admit that Kuribayashi Minami singing the OP song is one of the main reasons. Too bad that she doesn’t voice any of the characters.
    Well, I’ll give this series a chance.

    boingman
    Reply

  13. I can’t wait until next episode. I hope to see some cool fight scenes between Orimura vs Cecilia. I’m kinda surprised, seeing he was against being the class rep but when Cecilia said she won’t allow it he’s all for being class rep and willing to fight for the spot. The childhood friend is always the best and he gets to share the same room as her, what a lucky guy.

    Shimapan
    Reply

  14. I believe that the humor really fails. I couldn’t force myself to crack a smile, and Cecelia is annoying more than anything so far. Hopefully they go more in-depth with her so she doesn’t seem like a loud mouth.

    I don’t mind the concept of the show, but the characters just seem … I don’t know if its the voices or what.

    Swift
    Reply

      1. this was the exact problem i had. either it’s the direction or editor, but the conversations sound like each person talking to themselves instead of a real conversation. no flow between lines, as if they’re not listening to each other.

        i’ll still give this a chance but this unnatural dialogue could get real annoying real fast.

        a42
        Reply

  16. Hmm….. felt like the first episode wasn’t as stellar as I had hoped it to be, but then again most of the scenes were just from the promotional videos, so guess I kinda felt like I already watched it. Anyways it’s already the second ep and battle!!!!!! Haha also lol at the part at Ichika saying Britain cuisine sucks!!! It really does… no offense to any British viewers

    SnipingAllTargets
    Reply

    1. No offense taken, as a Brit I can confirm that our traditional cuisine is indeed not so hot…enough so that the UK’s official favourite dish is actually Indian curry.

      Ninja Penguin
      Reply

      1. Yeah, it kinda sucks how such a prospective series has such a low episode count. But at the same time, there is only 6 volumes of source material which is about 13 episodes worth of stuff.

        Suppa Tenko
        Reply

  19. hehehehehe watching this reminds me of Seitokai Yakuindomo’s Shino Amakusa= Houki Sinonono.they nearly look alike and they share the same seiyuu.
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Well anyway it was very wise of them to make this episode a cliffhanger so that the viewers would want to watch the next episode. i wonder how the battle will be.
    Im looking forward to this anime since i just finish bamboo blade ^_^ which is kendo as well and all the mechaness in it. im still wondering if this will end up as romatic-comedy or pure romance

    ♕Croosboy♕
    Reply

  20. After this episode, I’m really looking forward to the rest of the series. I didn’t really mind the pacing. Seemed to be at the usual pacing as the first episode of most harems.

    Avalanche
    Reply

  22. Wtf, this looks just like Princess Hunter with extra Super Moe Tsundere Ecchi actchun! I really just can’t stand these types of anime’s with this type of cliche outline as their foundation…

    I_am_the_Zodiac_Cow
    Reply

    2. I’m finding after watching episode 2, that this could be a little better than Linebarrel, since linebarrels main character is a lot worse compare to IS. And the combat is a lot more better in IS over linebarrel I have to say so far!

      Comito
      Reply

  25. Lots and lots of running ed’s this past year. Well, last year… whatever.
    Mm, I’m interested enough. I’ll stick with it for a bit and see if it’s got anything up its sleeve. Is this original?

    Poiira
    Reply

    1. I liked him as well. Hopefully he owns the British bitch in a really many way (like a falcon punch, which reminds me in the opening battle did he only punch?) That world needs more manilynes and hopefully he can bring it.

      mario2man
      Reply

    2. Takuto seems a little less clueless about everything too haha. But I can see how you would make the comparison. Takuto reminded me a little bit more of Usui, despite it being a different genre. Bishonen who just happens to be badass at almost everything.

      LaN
      Reply

  33. The only thing that was really going to discourage me from watching this is if I didn’t like the male protagonist. Fortunately, the guy seems to be the second coming of his sister, and isn’t a wuss/super perv/whiner, so I’m looking forward to what happens next.

    paulrenzo
    Reply

  34. I’ve got sources from end to end saying that I.S. is one big hell of a copy-and-paste anime. Fortunately, they want to make an official verdict after watching three episodes of this, hoping that there would be a drastic change that’ll make them hook up. And for some reason, this reminds me of Stratos 4: cute and busty girls operating mechas to protect the world.

    Oh, there we go: one example of copy and paste. Sorry for being an a-hole. I’m critical when watching anime.

    Razgriz
    Reply

  35. Hey, just a quick info (hope I’m not advertising anything)
    I played an online game called cosmic break.. This anime reminds me so much of it.. Practically similar.. I can even compare the design of the mecha..

    acolyte
    Reply

    1. Dammit, I wanted to be the first to mention CB -_-

      I find it kinda hard to compare CB to IS though, because CB is “Girl with a few bits of armor on” wheras IS is “ZOMGMASSIVE exoskeleton that so happens to have someone in it”.

      Vsin
      Reply

  39. Ah Yukana, I can never escape you nor would I even if I could. Despite some rather harsh criticisms from other bloggers this episode received you did a pretty fair and balanced job Divine, which you have my thanks for. As it is I’ll be sticking with this series as well and am looking forward to seeing how that brief glimpse in the beginning of the production value for this series carries over in the next episode.

    KrimzonStriker
    Reply

    1. What…seriously? I get what you mean on some anime the story line sucks and all your left with is loads of bloated fan service, but this was really mild imo…not to mention the storyline and dialogue is really good so far. Are you sure your not watching Strike Witches by accident?

      MC
      Reply

  47. Liked it. Will continue to watch for now.
    I’m guessing the pilot of the antagonist suit in the IS training scene is Ichika’s sister? She was wearing a helmet but she’s probably the only one who could take on all the students at once?

    bertman4
    Reply

  55. My first impression of this, looks dangerous to fly around like that without any decent protection for your head.

    Beyond that I was positively surprised, let’s hope Ichika doesn’t do a Muneakira and turns into a wimp in 2-3 episodes.

    Greg
    Reply

  56. …oh dear..what kind of idiocy inspired that mecha design?…you can shot it down with an handgun if you aim at the head of the pilot…..is there any kind of invisible protection energy shield?no words…

    duk3 fleed
    Reply

    1. They have energy shielding , and its going to be difficult to aim the head of the pilot even with a superb sniper rifle when she/he is flying all over the place. Otherwise conventional weapons wouldn`t be obsolete when the IS was first introduced.

      Grima
      Reply

  57. “Orimura, did you read the reference book before entering this school?”
    “Ahh… is it that massive, thick one?”
    “Yes, it’s written there that it’s compulsory to read it.”
    “Well I made a mistake and threw it away”
    WAM!

    I laughed like crazy during that part.

    MC
    Reply

  58. Great, another series with a physically violent childhood friend and a bratty foreigner. [/sarcasm]

    Unless the MC grows a spine or a more likable character is introduced. This series will just be another harem, but with mechs.

    Snicket
    Reply

  64. so, this is the gundam girl finally.

    Well, just found the mech design ridiculously funny, especially those heavy armor on limbs with no mechanically part but the fragile human body to link them together. Even if they have some anti gravity thing there and floats by themselves (so that the pilot would not need to lift them by themselves), the pilot’s body would definitely be torn apart by Centrifugal force once the machine starts spinning.

    https://randomc.net/image/Infinite%20Stratos/Infinite%20Stratos%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2018.jpg

    hoh
    Reply

  68. I want to like this, I really do. But it’s hard when the jokes are lame and all the female characters (aside from Chifuyu, who is passable) get on my nerves this much. I can only hope they bring in more female characters…ones who aren’t annoying, preferably. I get the feeling I’ll be watching this for the battles and wanting to skip through the school scenes *sigh*

    Overcooled
    Reply

    1. I hear ya. The intro battle was pretty spectacular but what followed was rather formulaic and lackluster.

      Infinite Stratos has just enough of a hook to keep me watching but I get the same feeling I’ll be tuning in solely for the battles.

      Who Dat
      Reply

  73. I’m glad they didn’t give Cecillia the full “drill” hairstyle. I swear that’s the worst looking thing ever.

    As unoriginal as this anime might be it still looks like it will be fun to watch.

    sealouse
    Reply

  76. I have to agree that there is nothing new in the plot — the fundamental premise that females outperform males in giant robot piloting is too similar to the Tenchi spin-off Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari. Granted its shortcoming, I still feel that the opening of the story was well told and well presented. The main character is likable, and even acts like a man, a trait that seems to be disappearing in nowadays’ manga. This anime is still ranked high on my watch list of the season.

    Matroid
    Reply

    1. Iirc the male pilots in Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari were not outperformed by the female pilots, nor do I remember such a fact ever being mentioned. The male pilots were simply rarer than the much more numerous female pilots.

      Ninja Penguin
      Reply

  78. yeah this does feel like episode 2 in plot, i feel that they could of shifted the plot back about half an episode i might be happy.

    and was the big battle at the beginning really nessasary? i mean really that was next to useless form a story perspective, and way too damn much for a teaser.

    evil713
    Reply

    1. I think the big battle was “necessary” in the sense of sending a signal to the viewers that there will be more big battles to come. And I think this is okay for an introduction episode. After all, this anime is in the giant robot genre. Giant robots just do what giant robots do.

      Matroid
      Reply

  81. Give Houki a lance and call her Kan’u. <3

    I really enjoyed Strike Witches. Like A LOT. (Especially Lynette, Bishop ♥) Now that this has come out, I'm more than satisfied. Hell I wanna drop Star Driver!! 8D

    Shirt
    Reply

    1. You mean you’re only now figureing out that show is trash?…I was so excited when I realized Pretty Boy’s (or whatever his name was)voice actor was the same one from Tamaki in Ouran…but then I ditched it after like 3 episodes it was so bad…

      MC
      Reply

  82. Too bad the man in this show doesn’t have a perverted side to him. A hot chick that sleeps on the other bed next to his, hot women everywhere and him being the only man there. Almost like paradise.

    SilentCid
    Reply

    1. It could easily turn out to be a very very bad thing. Like seriously? That fagfuck from Asobi ni Iku yo! was a piece of work. He was so far down the gay meter that I couldn’t stand the sight of him when Eris and the other girls were kissing him. Dx UGH! I get so heated just thinking about how that crap show ended. I’m sure this guy’s got ten times more nuts in his sack than that fagini. Dx

      Shirt
      Reply

      1. I like how this main character isn’t a sex freak like pretty much most protagonists we have seen so far. One thing I am wondering is… why are the head and joints exposed on the exoskeleton? Wouldn’t that make one really easy to headshot or get a limb chopped off?
        And judging by what I read from the manga
        Show Spoiler ▼

        Suppa Tenko
        Reply

  83. i enjoy this sort of anime ( only one pre season) whenever there are several anime that tell in depth story and stuff; it nice to have at least one anime where you KNOW it a no-brainer no original story to enjoy, simply enjoy the harem situation with abit of action 🙂

    lkaze
    Reply

  86. I’m hooked to this series, nice introductory episode, I just don’t get why males can’t used the exoskeleton in a seemingly sci-fi series, if this is supernatural then I will understand. Anyways, back to the series, I like the character designs of the female cast, it’s screaming harem and I’m quite a sucker for this setup.

    Ghostalker
    Reply

  87. Just watched the first episode, and its pretty normal starter episode and the relations involved with characters with comedy romance novels in anime I’ve seen so far. Though can’t remember when the last time I’ve seen the clueless main star become fame and glory later on! Should be good to continue watching!

    Comito
    Reply

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