First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

OP Sequence

OP: 「UNISONIA」 by TRUE

「出会い」 (Deai)
“Encounter”

Sunrise is back with their specialty in Buddy Complex and Christmas comes early for fans of the mecha genre this year. The story this time focuses on high school student Watase Aoba (Matsuoka Yoshitsugu)—your prototypical normal student with some great chemistry with the gal next to him. It’s just too bad someone from the future wants him dead with a passion, and what was a normal day quickly becomes anything but. I guess it’s a good thing he can’t aim (though Aoba has some great evasion skills), or else this would’ve been a pretty short story.

Buddy Complex’s first episode ultimately ends pretty straight forward, and it was mostly what we expected from a Sunrise original mecha series. In particular, a lot of the premise, designs, and the OP/ED sequences are reminiscent of past Gundam series, especially that of Gundam Seed. Whether that ends up being a good or a bad thing is still to be determined, but at the very least, the time traveling hijinks were promising. I can’t remember the last time Sunrise mixed in a bit of that with their mecha series, and this addition comes as a nice surprise to what was otherwise a pretty generic start. At the same time however, it’s the time traveling does brings more questions than it does answers, and one does hope that they do address some of them before it’s all said and done. Specifically, how Watase ends up within a suit that clearly wasn’t the one he traveled to the future with, and why (and how) Yumihara disappears midway through their portal warp.

For now though, it’s a solid start. It comes with some irony that the shows that meet your expectations typically give you less to talk about, and it was the case here. From a personal standpoint, I enjoyed this introductory episode as a mecha fan, but it’s admittedly nothing too amazing at the moment. How they pull off the main plot (and time-travel part of the story especially) will go a long way towards determining whether it does elevate itself to a higher tier, but even if it doesn’t, it’s likely to be a worthwhile watch for fans of the genre.

This is Sunrise doing their specialty after all, and their association with this series means you can expect a measure of quality from this show. This means high production values in terms of animation and sound, and both have already made their presence known this first episode. Sharp, clear cut animation was present throughout (how bout those basketball scenes?), and the now well known Kato Tatsuya already gave us a glimpse of how potentially epic the soundtrack could be by giving us a few battle themes right off the bat. Last but not least, it has to be noted that we seem to have only hit the tip of the iceberg cast-wise too, which bodes well considering how they pulled off the whole Hina x Aoba natural chemistry thing. It is too bad that Hina doesn’t look like she’ll play a part for a little bit (at least, it wouldn’t be the Hina as we knew her), but his impending “coupling” with Dio looks like it could end up worth watching for the potential ass-kicking it presents.

Looking forward, it’ll be interesting to see how much time they end up giving this series to develop. I’d like to say it looks like it’ll be a two-cour, but things did move fast enough in this introductory episode that it could very well be a one cour. Needless to say, the former would be better than the latter, but… stranger things have happened. We’ll see. All we do know right now is that Dio’s waiting for you, and it’s probably best not to keep him waiting too long.

Author’s Note: Buddy Complex is not scheduled to be covered at this time. If this changes, you’ll see an update in the schedule sometime in the next week or two.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「あの空に還る未来で」 (Ano Sora ni Kaeru Mirai de) by ChouCho

Preview

End Card

78 Comments

  3. Besides the fact there is nothing new we haven’t seen here in a mecha series before (besides time travel), it’s actually off to a good start. Better than Kakumeiki Valvrave, focus is more upon action than story from what I can tell. If the next few episodes give us some plot to go along with the action then we can expect a pretty good mecha anime to accompany the winter season.

    Based upon the speed of the first episode I’m expecting a one cour, but don’t hold me to that, stranger things have happened in anime before.

    Pancakes
    Reply

  4. @randomstroller:
    “I wanted to post that.jpg”

    Anyway this show is the new Sunrise mecha huh? The first episode feels kinda bland, empty. Empty as in when the mechs were crushing the buildings/shooting at it, I was expecting some of the students inside getting hurt. But there were no people inside.

    I feel it’s a bit empty when there are no people getting hurt during a mecha fight.

    Sad to say the whole premise is laced with what seems to be yaoi teasing.

    I’ll give this 3 episodes. If it fails to get me interested, I’ll drop it.

    TheMoondoggie
    Reply

    1. Yeah, I’m a little concerned about the rather heavy Yaoi teasing. Yaoi is just not for me. I mean, to each their own, but I don’t enjoy watching it. Plus, it’d be nice to see a show built on a friendship rather than a romance for once. Anime tends to not focus on friendships that much.

      Also, Hina had great chemistry, which would be a waste not to follow up on at some point.

      KaleRylan
      Reply

    2. Well, it’s titled “Buddy Complex”. There were the “brocons”, the “siscons”, now you have the “buddycons”. I suppose after the “Buddy Complex” they could make “Rival Complex”, “Villain Complex”, … etc.

      x
      Reply

      1. Rival-kun maybe? No idea, for some reason I am now imagining Toshino Kyoko from Yuru Yuri starring in a total serious business Mirakurun anime with Chinatsu as the evil witch and Akari providing the comic relief. Or maybe I’m just sad knowing we’re still missing a third season of that awesome, ridiculous, moe-filled, jacked-up, hyper-as-f*ck yuri show.

        Pancakes
        Reply

      1. Yeah, I think the killer is that green-haired guy in the OP. He’s got the same color eyes. And they seem to be wearing the same uniform.

        Plus her robot looked more similar to the bad guy than the various good guy bots we’ve seen so far, but given the random designs, that’s neither here nor there.

        KaleRylan
        Reply

  9. Yup. I’m already loving this. (Maybe I’m just a hardcore shipper but I smiled everytime Aoba and Yumihara had a moment. Especially when she told him to put faith in her and when he did she blushed and said “You’re quick to put faith in people.” XD)

    Aoba is already epic with his ball skills, Yumihara with her mecha skills, Dio with his badass skills. Solid start indeed.

    swordhack4
    Reply

  10. Zephyr!
    Did you feel it! The same sensation when you played THAT GAME. When the last scene where he got transported! SO GOING TO LOOK FORWARD TO THIS!!
    ————————————————————————————-

    Dio is waiting for you

    Nice Coupling

    I feel that Sunrise has been putting a lot of gay innuendo this days in their anime. No offense intended.

    Croos
    Reply

    1. Valvrave is the only thing I can think of that has even the slightest gay that has been done recently by Sunrise before this. Love Live, Gundam Build Fighters are all safe.

      TheMoondoggie
      Reply

    1. It’s a time loop. She’s still there in the future. It’s just not clear how long before we see her. Given her prominence in the promo pics, videos, and OP, I would assume not that long.

      KaleRylan
      Reply

    2. We’ll probably see her again. The show will loop back to that scene where the MC first traveled through time and we’ll get to know what happened to her.

      Yeah I believe she ain’t dead yet.

      TheMoondoggie
      Reply

    3. There were several clues throughout the episode. The girl acted like she knew Aoba already, so did the masked guy, and finally she mentions meeting Dio. Which obviously Aoba hasn’t done yet, which leaves only one answer:
      Future (Future) > Past > Future (Past)

      This is similar to the Ifureeta thing in El Hazard. Basically, the girl comes from a future she’d already met the main character. She went back into the past and sent the MC to the future, but in that part they haven’t met yet. The rest of the story is how the two meet, and what starts the loop in the first place.

      Izaak
      Reply

  17. -_- its not so much that their eyes were big (cause Haruto from Valvrave had huge eyes and they looked normal) but the fact that they all had Moe eyes 0_o. But I’m not going to judge the merit of this series just on character design so I’ll watch it.

    SDFGS
    Reply

  20. First impressions weren’t the best here for me. Most of this felt kinda rushed. Atleast its production values are good as expected by sunrise. Oh well, 3 episode rule I guess.

    Catsrofl
    Reply

  21. Where did the End Card come from, cause I certainly didn’t see it after watching the first episode?

    On an unrelated note, I thought the series was off to a good start. Aoba’s character is a nice change from Haruto’s, being more happy-go-lucky and upbeat then acting as a follower who’s easy to anger.

    Jackpot2121
    Reply

  25. I thought that the time travel element did make it a little more interesting than the standard Sunrise fair.

    But seriously, how bad is this antagonist pilot? He can’t kill a clueless, unarmed kid with a Gundam-sized mech? Was this supposed to be comical?

    They should have been playing the Benny Hill theme during the chase.

    Thunder
    Reply

  27. Hmm, so time travelling with mechas, that is just up my alley, I’m excited to see where this goes.

    Aoba seems like a good protagonist albeit a little plain at the moment. I did really like his chemistry with Yumihira. She seems hot and badass. Although if they weren’t in a mecha her line about watching him would come off really stalkerish. XD

    I can’t help feeling that Aoba looks like he belongs in card game or dueling anime. He’d fit right along the Digimon protagonists, all he’d need is goggles.

    Diyedas
    Reply

    3. No, I don’t think so. Show Spoiler ▼

      So, I think it’s pretty much what Croos said, “Nope”.

      Pulsewave
      Reply

  33. Never afraid of Sunrise!
    It’s always come with questions and more questions than answers for every episodes show.
    After GC and VV it’s understandable why you don’t cover Sunrise anime anymore.
    Still,I wish this anime to cover.Just give Sunrise one last chance,please.

    Topboy
    Reply

  36. I just Saw Episode 6:

    Well, they are to much on the “SuperHero” side of this Aoba

    As if he dont have any Weak Spots when he is in Copling Mode..

    Well, is this Show more then 13+ Episode long? Because they let their Time with the Story Progression…

    Germanguy
    Reply

    2. Explain to me the whole double-edged sword thing please. I don’t understand it. Aoba’s wavelength perfectly matches the wavelength required to couple… But if someone couples with Aoba, their wavelengths deviates from the one required to couple with anyone?

      J_the_Man
      Reply

      1. Why should i explain a thing, that was told and explained in the Episode? You only need to watch it yourself, to understand. All other would be spoiling the “have not seen Episode 7” Fans here

        Germanguy
        Reply

      5. This will be an answer to an old question I suppose.

        Aoba is able to supposedly pair with everyone because he has the standard brain wave pattern. (let’s say an arbitrary number of 5) This is also, coincidentally, the ideal pattern to operate the machine.

        When two people pair up, I would suppose they would only be compatible if one is ‘above’ the pattern and the other is ‘below’ the pattern. Thus on a number scale, they would only be able to pair up if one has 7 and the other had 3 for example. The closer it gets to 5, the better the pairing. This also means that when two people with a high deviation from the standard (e.g. 7 and 3) pair up, the deviation from both ways is 2, giving a resulting value of 5. But if Aoba pairs with someone else, the deviation would be between 5 and a number such as 7 or 3. The result woudl be close to 5 so as to allow the operation of the system, but this would render one number closer to the other.

        Placed in the other context, it would mean that a deviated value of 4 (between 5 and 3) would be paired with the original 7, yielding 5-6. This is results in a deviation, rendering them less and less able to pilot with anyone other than Aoba.

        Actus
        Reply

    1. Mecha action is good. But this Aoba, shows the Present “High Ace” Pilots, that a Men from the Past is even Higher, and without any training…

      That is this “Superhero” that made him to strong

      Germanguy
      Reply

  40. ep 09:

    Even if this Coupling System is Superhero Powers, Dio is doing it all right. he is giving Aoba the Human side of his “Superhero of the Past”.

    In short, Dio is taking Aoba from the Superhero Cloud slowly back down to earth

    Naruto Guy’s Thumb Up from me, with Smile. Your doing it right

    Germanguy
    Reply

    1. btw, i know now that this coupling system dont have a timer. He checks the Mind of the users, and shutdown if they gets exhausted.. So if the users hold it out, they can expand the time… Nice

      (that was the message of Episode 09)… But seriously, an entire Episode for 1 message.. last time it was, that the Present Hina is not the Hina from Aoba’s past (well even i know it from the first encounter.. Aoba is a slowpoke)

      The Hina from Aoba’s past, is the Hina in the future.. So She will become Aoba’s friend.. Time loops, i love them

      Germanguy
      Reply

  41. Ep: 10

    I want only to Speculate about the Last Minutes (well more Seconds)

    Dou you go there and let Hina and Aoba perform Coupling? .. i think i can see that 🙂

    Because Aoba can coupling with anyone…

    And we still need to see the “New Mechas” from Episode 1. So Hahn was looking to this new ones, in the Background.. Well so much for Secrets, unfold from you self

    Germanguy
    Reply

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