NotCliche

I realized that this post may be the first post that actually begins properly with the first episode. My humble apologies to the other bloggers on this site.

I picked up Regios after a long haitus from the anime scene, and it was an immediate love-hate relationship. How so? Well, let’s start with the opening.

I hate bugs. Especially giant ones that can potentially destroy a city.

Within the first minute, a monster appears, and the impression I got was – “Oh no,  not another EVA clone!”. Fortunately, this was dismissed by the appearance of the mysterious biker dudes, which I assume are going to kill off this giant bug.

Giant bug (or is it a monster?) lays some eggs which yields leeches, and the biker dudes take off their cloaks to reveal themselves – well, most of them anyway. I would have thought they’d use the bikes to attack the giant bug, but noooo, they use their LEET SKILLZ to attack. One uses a thread thing, another uses a sword, and one just uses his bare hands. Is it just me, or did the script-writer’s inspiration come from martial arts? Also, this brief shot below brought back violent memories.

Rena Rune isn’t really looking too well. Perhaps her previous involvement in the Aquarion has aged her?

This show is about to get on my nerves. Why is it that the old lady in the wheelchair resembes Rena Rune from Genesis of Aquarion? I had bad memories watching that crazy knock-off of EVA and Power Rangers show. Anyway, the biker dudes try to  kill the giant bug with whatever LEET SKILLZ they have, and the scene fades out, presumably to start the show proper.

The show begins with a parting kiss scene at a train station (or bus stop, or something like that) in an unknown city.

Gone with the wind. Is it just me, or does the guy look so familiar?

After a long ride (which is about one minute’s worth of stills and shots of the car/train/bus vehicle travelling), the show jumps straight into a crisis at some military unit.

What, Cagalli? I can see where this show is going…

Apparently the military unit happens to be students in the Military Arts course (or specialization?) at some school in the city. The unnamed commander of the platoon decides to quit on them, and the (supposedly assumed) second-in-charge, Nina (wait, this seems familiar…) tries to convince him to stay, unsuccessfully. A fellow platoon mate drives this point home by “assassinating” Nina through his scope – perhaps to say that Nina will be character assassinated in the future?

He looks like Kurz Weber (Full Metal Panic), and uses a sniper rifle just as Kurz does. Wow.

With that, Nina and the rest of the platoon goes about the school grounds to scout out freshmen to top up their strength. Unfortunately, it seems that most of the potential candidates have already been scouted out (with a short Amuro Ray impersonator scene), and the show introduces us to Dean, who seems to ignore Nina like a housefly (hey, another familiar scene).

Meanwhile, Kira Yamato Layfon, the guy who was kissed at the train/bus/car station, arrives in school, and bumps into members of the school paparazzi press.

These are original characters, I hope.

Layfon seems to be reluctant about mentioning which city he came from, and is saved by a fight between two students, which catches the attention of the school press. The fight gets dangerous as they activate their weapons, part of the school building gets destroyed and Meishen is about to be crushed by the debris when Kira Yamato activates SEED mode Layfon uses his kei (it was mentioned that people have kei, just before the fight started) and rescues her after being prompted by a telepathic girl.

MAI HEERO!

After the interlude, we see Layfon summoned to the student council’s office to meet the president, Karyan, who begins to scrutinize Layfon’s admissions data. At the same time, Nina and Harley are in the platoon locker rooms (I think), discussing about Layfon’s potential. When Harley mentions that Layfon might get expelled, Nina rushes off to the student council office.

Father Abel Nightroad (Trinity Blood) decides to go yaoi with Atsunobu Hayashimizu (Full Metal Panic), and his IVF offspring from a surrogate mother is named Karyan Loss.

Karyan introduces himself to Layfon, decides to transfer Layfon over from General Studies to Military Arts, increases his scholarship level, and calls for the seamstresses to suit him up, after explaining why he has to force Leyfon to take up Military Arts. Nina arrives at the office just after Layfon is dressed in uniform, and requests to take Layfon under her wing.

Awkward position + awkward moment = Uhh…

When school ends for the day, Nina and Layfon depart at the same tram station, and Layfon spots the telepathic girl venting her anger on a giant vent (or whatever structure that is, no pun intended). Leyfon attempts to talk to her, but she walks out on him. Later that night, we see Meishen having fantasies about Layfon.

One photograph on the forehead is all it takes for this girl to be satisfied.

Meanwhile, we see the telepathic girl notice her brother, Karyan (shock and awe!) meeting up with the two students who were fighting, and the ex-17th platoon commander as well. Karyan spots her sister and waves, making her say “Bastard”.

Gears within gears. How crafty can Karyan be?

After the animation gaffe where the yellow trim on Nina’s uniform turns blue on her left, while she puts up Layfon’s name on the platoon ORBAT (order of battle) chart, we see Layfon sleeping, and the giant bug battle returns to torment our sense of logic.

Apparently, Zangetsu used to kill giant bugs before retiring in Ichigo’s blade in Bleach.

The battle ends with a climax with the biker who looks like Layfon executing the finishing blow on the giant bug. At this point, I am confused – is this giant bug story in the “real world” in the anime, or just a story in which the girl we saw kissing Layfon at the start is writing about, since we see a shot of the girl writing what appears to be a draft for book publishing? Or is it that the girl is responsible for this entire mess? Looks like we’ll have to wait and see in future episodes.

You might be interested in...

1. Chrome Shelled Regios 02
2. Chrome Shelled Regios 03
3. Chrome Shelled Regios 04
4. Strange Japan Incident: Girl Gets Haircut By Hooded Assailant
5. Sora no Woto — First Impressions: Kanata Is Like Akari The Second!