Posted by OP Sequence
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
OP: 「カタラレズトモ」 (Katararezutomo) by ZAQ
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「東京の魔女」 (Toukyou no Majo)
“Tokyo Witch”
Concrete Revolutio is definitely something out of this world.
Man, where do I even begin with this show? From a time skip to giant morphing aliens, Concrete Revolutio really puts your mind to work if you’re trying to keep up with it. After watching the episode a second time in order to get a handle on everything, let me see if I can briefly summarize it.
Hitoyoshi Jirou is our protagonist and works for the Japanese bureau that oversees Superhumans or choujins. After stumbling upon Hoshino Kikko, he enlists her help to stop what looks to be an undercover deal that involves the trade of some really important information between a prominent Japanese scientist and a corporate spy. After stopping the deal, all hell breaks loose and the spy reveals he’s an alien and Kikko transforms into a magical girl. After a running around for a bit, for some reason the alien grows into a giant and another, the self-proclaimed protector of earth named Grosse Augen, appears and whisks the the alien off into a different seam of time and space. Fast forward a little and the spy/alien gets obliterated, Grosse Augen gets sent home since he’s actually residing within a human’s body, and everyone is all smiles as Kikko joins the bureau that Jirou is a part of.
Except it isn’t all smiles since in-between all of this, there are multiple flash forwards that paints Jirou as the bad guy and the human who hosted Grosse Augen is alive and kicking even though he should for all intents and purposes be dead.
What Did I Just Watch?
Instead of trying to piece together tons of tiny pieces of information, let me just get some of my general impressions out. Concrete Revolutio is a really fun to watch show when it isn’t trying to cram exposition down your throat. From the retro color palette to the intense action scenes, there’s more than enough to keep both your mind and your eyes happy. However, all that ends up being eclipsed with the amount of information this first episode tried to slam into our heads. With two separate timelines running at the same time and characters just popping in and out of nowhere, you feel like you’re missing something by the time the episode comes to a close. That said, I’ll admit that I was really fond of Kikko’s character. Something about her unwillingness to admit she’s a witch and her awkwardness as she tries to play it off while obviously in her outfit made me chuckle.
All I know for sure is that this first episode didn’t do a great job at drawing me in for more. If anything, the reveal at the end of the episode had me more confused and flustered than surprised and anxious for more. In any case, I’m really hoping this first episode was more for getting our feet wet with next week’s being all the filler we desperately need.
Catch you next week! Maybe.
ED Sequence
 |
 |
 |
ED: 「The Beginning」 by 山本陽介 (Yamamoto Yohske)
Preview
 |
 |
 |
Is it bad that I’m more distracted by the effort expended on the key animation than the amount of skin shown when that alien crawls out of Kikko’s chest — er, cute thing squirms out of her bosom? I can totally see a Shirobako moment for this cut… Junior animator “Senpai, please stuff this plushie down your shirt for reference.” Right sized senpai, “Hi?!” Junior animator waving storyboard at senpai, “No, not that kind or reference!” ^_^;
BTW, if that “cute thing” is not evil, it’s sure trying to give Kyubay a run for his money.
Whole thing’s one big love song to tokusatsu and I couldn’t love it more <3
About Grosse Augen, you just need see some episodes of Ultraman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraman
Ultraman is an alien that come to earth to protect mankind from space monsters and reside inside a human body, Shin Hayata.
I think the translation get wrong about Kikko being a “wicht”. I think the correct translation for “mahou shoujo” is “magical girl” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_girl
I think we will see a lot of anime troppes and genres mixed in /concrete Revolution, for example I think that is a good bet we will see a sentai team (power rangers), with gaint robo made of diferent vehicles.
The kid said Majo-ko, not Mahou, so witch was right as translation.
I loved it, and thought it was pretty confusing but it all came together by the end.
I am still curious what the point of Kikko saying “she’s 20 years old” now meant, if anything.
Jirou either betrayed the organization, or left to do his own thing, or found something out he didnt like and left without telling Kikko why.
Somewhere along the way he became a superhuman, as he is still human with no abilities except his fancy mech/car, but in the future, he has..some kinda fire..powers
I’m wondering if every episode will be connected in future/past like this.
Notice that “I’m just a normal human” Jirou has his left arm bandaged, and that future Jirou unwraps his bandages before releasing his powers. I suspect this may be a case of “sealed evil in an arm”.
has Haruhi Suzumiya been writing the scenario?
Takaii’s right; the premiere was insane.
However, I think there’s a method to this messy madness, and it has me intrigued.
This has the potential to either be a semi-serious piece of eccentric genius, or a complete catastrophe.
Sticking with this for now.
They tricked me! I was expecting a psychedelic run full of camp. Yet the flashforwards (or the psychedelic scenes are the flashbacks?) showed a grimmer world of Watchmen.
Nevertheless, I’m interested in both timelines. Confusing as it may be, a show with magical girls, superheroes, mecha, secret agencies, alien spies and Ultraman expies isn’t something you see everyday.
This show is ridiculous. Ridiculous stupid. Ridiculously awesome and fun.
I was watching it and then I was like “Is this PreCure?” and then further down the lines “Wait. This is PreCure+Star Drivers” and then yet further down the line “Woah. It’s Precure+Star Drivers+80’s Mecha and Power Rangerish”. It’s amazing to watch.
By the way, is it just me or is Kikko ridiculously cute when she was fidgeting in the car because he was calling her by her name?
That ED though was very trippy.
Mainly watching this for 3 reasons: 1.BONES, 2.the art style, and 3.the music.
The first episode was indeed a tad confusing, it felt like they were cramming a lot of material into one episode. However upon a second viewing I was able to get the gist of it. Besides, a lot of it will probably become clearer as we progress further through the story, so I’m not super bothered. I’ll give it a couple more episodes to prove itself story-wise.
What I really love so far though is the art style. It’s unique, but still retains that “BONES” look. I was surprised to read in other forums that some people are put off by it… It’s definitely more bold and stylized than the mainstream look, but I think it fits the whimsical setting of the show perfectly.
I love this. It is made up of staff I like a lot and on the top of it, Hekiru Hikawa is the original character designer. I love the vibrant colours and non-linear method of telling the story. All it needs to do is develop the main story and expand on it.
Any anime by Shou Aikawa is typically so busy, it’s very hard to analyse the first episode in my opinion. It takes a few episodes to have characters grow on you. I think this anime is no different. It is very experimental and not afraid to take chances. While the pacing is all over the place, I still like the introduction a lot.
WAAAAAAAH. Where to put my focus first? From Mahou Shoujos to Mechas, the show didn’t waste its time showing a bit of everything that I honestly didn’t find to have much sense. I am still in. The time skip is jarring too to be honest.
I felt the show’s ending was quite straight forward: The human officer was set to give his life so G.A. could get home (he initially merged to save G.A.’s life), since he knew G.A. was too injured to do it on his own. The protagonist decides to then use the captured evil alien’s body via similar merging to save the now endangered life of the human offer after G.A. left it. Thus giving the human officer a new OP alien body. Clearly our protagonist has issues with the protocol employed by his agency and likely as a result ended up with him in the future coming to odds with them (rebelling, voluntarily leaving, or committing some crime are all plausible here) or.
I am definitely digging this show so far, it’s not only visually pleasurable but also captivating/different. It’s completely over the top in many regards, and serious/mature in others.
The colours kinda remind me of Mawaru Penguindrum.
I’d much rather more of that.
Seems interesting. In spite of the apparently messy time-skip montage, the plot actually made sense. Coherent convolution- in a medium where convolution more often than no equates to confusion. It’s a good omen- I think. I’m cautiously positive…
Well that was a strange one. I’m interested though in checking out another episode