When this first appeared, I tried it out to see what it was like.
Let me give out my "Gush" first. The first 3 episodes were a great set up to the series, setting up the characters, setting, and events. Ihano and his crew are all High School students in training Mecha facing the Martian Army, which at most comprises of a few Super Robots which each have a devastating special ability. The show makes good use of this in the first 3 episodes by having Ihano and Friends set up analysis of the enemy machine, logically sort out it's weakness and then execute a plan to defeat it. With Ihano swearing vengeance in the killing blow.
That was what drew me into the show, but sadly that didn't turn out anywhere. Ihano and Slaine's rivalry came out of left field, Ihano seemed to solve everything in a instant with SCIENCE and just generally the rest of the cast seemed not as important. This was prevalent in both Seasons and left this Troper without much to feel towards the show.
I praise the show for going to Real Robot with the mechs of the Earth forces, with no special units, and Ihano's being a training mech. It felt rather Armored Trooper VOTOMS, which I love. The designs were unique and even helped differentiate the Earth Forces from the Martian forces, where Earth's were blocky and mechanical, Mars had sleek almost artistic looking robots.
Sadly my praise is out, the series was a disappointment through and through, with Ihano and Slaine being the Spotlight stealers and a plot that made little sense in the end.
A Disappointment
When this first appeared, I tried it out to see what it was like.
Let me give out my "Gush" first. The first 3 episodes were a great set up to the series, setting up the characters, setting, and events. Ihano and his crew are all High School students in training Mecha facing the Martian Army, which at most comprises of a few Super Robots which each have a devastating special ability. The show makes good use of this in the first 3 episodes by having Ihano and Friends set up analysis of the enemy machine, logically sort out it's weakness and then execute a plan to defeat it. With Ihano swearing vengeance in the killing blow.
That was what drew me into the show, but sadly that didn't turn out anywhere. Ihano and Slaine's rivalry came out of left field, Ihano seemed to solve everything in a instant with SCIENCE and just generally the rest of the cast seemed not as important. This was prevalent in both Seasons and left this Troper without much to feel towards the show.
I praise the show for going to Real Robot with the mechs of the Earth forces, with no special units, and Ihano's being a training mech. It felt rather Armored Trooper VOTOMS, which I love. The designs were unique and even helped differentiate the Earth Forces from the Martian forces, where Earth's were blocky and mechanical, Mars had sleek almost artistic looking robots.
Sadly my praise is out, the series was a disappointment through and through, with Ihano and Slaine being the Spotlight stealers and a plot that made little sense in the end.