Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de / First Impressions / Series Introduction

OP Sequence

OP: 「retrospective world」 by 下野紘、岡本信彦 (Shimono Hiro, Okamoto Nobuhiko)

「コンシューム大陸 厳しい（ハード）戦争」 (Konshūmu Tairiku Hādo Sensou)
“The Hard Wars of Consume”

So here we have the premiere of the second to last new anime of fall 2012. To say that expectations have been low for Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de would probably be an understatement – a lot of people don’t even seem to be aware of its existence let alone hyped for it. But perhaps this is a good thing – no hype means there can be no hype trainwreck and dashed expectations! Video game related anime seem to be in vogue at the moment, so what better time to adapt Crimson (known primarily for their distinctive art-style in various h-doujin) and Anastasia Shestakova’s console war parody manga? For those who may be curious, you can actually read the manga entirely online (in Japanese of course).

To quickly summarise the events of the episode for this series intro, after the death of Til, (Uchiyama Kouki) Gear (Okamoto Nobuhiko) resolves to finally join Segua in their war against Ninteldo. After arriving in the capital, he quickly gets added to the country’s special forces by Ramses (Monden Yukiko), proves himself to Opal (Kitta Izumi) and ends up being trained by Tejilof (Shimono Hiro) to rescue the captive general Alex.

Perhaps the biggest focus in Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de is on its references and parodies. Almost nothing goes by without being in some way related to the age old console war between Nintendo and Sega, for whom Ninteldo and Segua are named respectively. Even the continent – Consume – over which they fight is an obvious reference to the fact that the companies battled over consumers in the past with their games. I’m going to try and point out as many of these references as I possibly can, though I’m bound to miss a few here and there (and there are some which I’m sure I should get but just can’t quite grasp).

Let’s start with characters since their references are generally the most blatant. Before we begin, it’s probably worth noting that several of the characters, rather than being direct references to a character within a series, tend to be references to a game series in general. Gear (whose name is likely a reference to the Sega Game Gear) is obviously modelled around Sonic the Hedgehog, the titular character of Sonic the Hedgehog and someone most people will be familiar with! Going hand in hand with that is Til, most likely a Sonic’s sidekick Tails. Everything about Gear is a reference to Sonic, from his blue-tinted flashbacks to all his lines about running and going fast (but only to a first stage level, hence why he couldn’t beat Tejilof!). Next we have Nel (Mimori Suzuko), seemingly a parody of Nei from Phantasy Star II. Ramses and Tejilof are both references to puzzle games (hence why they both graduated from Puzzle Magic Academy). The former refers to Coulmns while the latter refers to Tetris. As a game which was released under a large number of different brands (including Sega), Tetris is treated as a mercenary in this instance. As you might expect from a game which involves slotting objects between other objects, Tejilof is extremely fond of his innuendos and gap-filling puns. Last on the Segua side of the war is Opal, an anthropomorphisation of the sentient spaceship Opa Opa from Fantasy Zone. Her instant dislike of Gear seems to be partially related to a mysterious man, but could also be considered prophetic – Opa Opa is frequently seen as Sega’s first ever mascot character until the position was stolen away by Sonic.

The Ninteldo forces are much larger, but few have been introduced so far (which means less work for me!). First we have Marcus (Ono Atsushi), who parodies Mario all the way down to destroying a ship by jumping on it. We also have Zerig (Koyasu Takehito) acting out his role as Link, and a quick glimpse of a character representing Fire Emblem. Outside of characters, there are a few other references. Outori, the capital of Segua, is most likely a reference to a particular area with similar style in Phantasy Star Universe and the concept of Red vs Blue has been around in video games for a long time (and coincidentally reflects the colours of two of Nintendo and Sega’s biggest franchises).

As the first anime solely produced by 5th Avenue, the animation is nothing spectacular. The few fight scenes we were treated to were rather minimal in nature, and Gear’s speed gives them an opportunity to skimp on the details. The completely random (and censored) fanservice seems a little unnecessary too, particularly the early scene with Ramses, but I guess that’s nothing less than should be expected of an anime overseen by Crimson. I wonder just how much tearing of clothing we’ll be seeing throughout the other episodes! On the other hand, the music is quite a nice touch, seemingly paying homage to older video game soundtracks which is extremely fitting given the whole parody setting. All in all, it’s certainly not an anime to take seriously, but still good for some fun (especially if you happen to be a video game fanatic)!

tl;dr: @MoombaDS – References! References everywhere! I actually quite like some of these character designs too. #AoiSekai

Random thoughts:

  • ‘Things are moving a little too fast.’ Certainly not a line I would’ve expected to hear from Sonic, but perhaps fitting given that the pacing of the episode also felt like it was a little on the brisk side at times.
  • Gear’s speed is so great he tears away clothes on impact! I fully suspect this will be a recurring element in combat…
  • I feel like I should recognise this dungeon layout. Any thoughts?
  • Unfortunately, the next episode doesn’t air for roughly three months, but since I plan to blog it, I’ll see you guys then!

Full-length images: 05, 15, 16, 18, 22, 24, 26, 27, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「０と１の花」 (0 to 1 no Hana) by 橘田いずみ、三森すずこ (Kitta Izumi, Mimori Suzuko)

Preview

49 Comments

      2. Abrupt magical girl-esque transformation sequence is ecchi! Opa Opa is ecchi! Shimono Hiro is super ecchi!! I’m helping >:3~

        But seriously, Mooms is more than pervy enough for this show, no worries.

        Stilts
        Reply

  11. pretty decent,
    simple and straightforward plot(for now),likable characters,average animation.
    with all the serious and complicated shows this season this is nice breather(not that the show by itself is bad).

    shadowalker
    Reply

    1. I don’t see how that is true? Based off console wars, Sony is for sure more successful than Nintendo. I guess the whole 90% continent thing can also mean Nintendo was awesome with their sales in the beginning and Sony was losing money but eventually switched after people lost interest in the motion-control gimmicks.

      pdpfortune
      Reply

  20. Thanks for covering the show, I only managed to figure out half of the references and was unsure of who that Opal chick was. The parody of Link being a blood-thirsty killer was surprising but fun to watch. Hope it gets better 3 months later.

    T.K.
    Reply

  26. I was pleasantly surprised by how fun this first episode was for me. You’re absolutely right in that I could never enjoy it if I had to take it seriously, but given that it’s derived from a parody webcomic for the Console Wars era of video games, I doubt that was ever a real concern.

    I’m really liking some of the character designs, Gear’s, Zerig’s, and Opal’s (Tejilof’s is pretty clever too).

    I was surprised by how racy some of the scenes and dialog was, so I’m not sure what to make of this series’s intended demographic yet, but if this debut is anything to go off of, I’ll be sticking around.

    Ashen
    Reply

  28. 2nd episode confirmed going to be aired next week. Thursday, 27th December 23:00 (UTC+9) on Tokyo MX channel.

    I hope 5th Avenue and Crimson had learned so it is better than the 1st episode based on the viewers feedback.

    Melina
    Reply

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