Sadly there were no Space Marines, and no Dreadnoughts to defend Luna.
Another season another slim crop of mecha series to follow and with the dreadful lack of new Real Robot all that is left is ML Total Eclipse. I have to be honest as a spin-off of a spin-off things can get completely out of hand, but it will be fun to have no spoilers even if we must gauge the series as it airs. Perhaps they would have been better off leaving the baggage of Muv Luv Alternative behind as inevitably they will have to insert not so subtle fan service to keep VN fans happy, still big bulky robots are still a draw and hopefully will be the main draw. Thankfully the skin tight suits did change color and in an effort to add a veneer of realism they even broke out he great coats during cold nights. Man-kind teeters at the brink of extinction and given how they seem to really want to play this straight I am hoping that this means we will be mercifully spared a pointless beach episode and/or mall rat episode.
The main thing that bothers me so far is that the humans are being pushed back on all major fronts but there seems to be no discernible draft in Imperial Japan. Either all those men going the wrong way were unfit for duty, deserters, cowards, or there really was no draft. This makes no sense to me as if this really is a war for survival every man and woman should be fighting, fixing something, making something, or patching someone back together. It kind of makes the uncle look foolish for saying that they were doing everything they could to prevent young girls from going to the front when there was a horde of military able men going in the opposite direction.
The Zuikaku looks pretty snazzy but it seems that despite the seemingly heavy armament, they can hardly make an impression against the BETA. I am not sure if humans in this alternate universe were able to use Jewish Physics to split the atom, but there seems to be a lack of atomic purging against the BETA. The Lunar Wars were probably the most ideal places to use atomics but instead conventional forces were sent into a meat grinder that was ultimately lost. I was so excited when they announced new wonder weapons to try and halt the BETA advance but, if they are simply planning to use depleted uranium rounds then I dare say their leaders are idiots. Hopefully this Type 99 Radiation Cannon is not a beam weapon of varying destructive potential, they seemed to focus a bit on CIWS blades and squad tactics that it would be tragic for let that all go to waste.
With any luck this war for survival will mean they will be throwing in the kitchen sink. If those armored, cars, tanks, artillery, drones, and ships are all for show I will be sorely disappointed. I have longed for truly combined arms mecha and am more than willing to overlook the skin tight suits they had to incorporate. The PV for the next episode may mean that things are going to get grim, and perhaps a body count will start to mount amongst the eight students. If this is to be an “Only WAR” scenario then I fully expect the BETA to be no more than Tyranids with more limited biomorphs, the kids may be Imperial Guard but this is not Napoleon’s Imperial Guard and given the huge expenditure of man power for time the girls should be thankful that they have more than a flashlight and a crazed commissar to goad them into battle. It’s not going to be as fun as it would if they were fighting something other than bugs, but I just hope it doesn’t degenerate into a Blue Gender end…
I guess Mi-24s weren’t going to be of much use, they should have brought A-10s.
I like where this is going, big bulky, and more like jump infantry.
Oh be still my heart…are we finally getting a homage to 8th MS Team?
For a minute there I read Genshiken…
Well lady I hate to break it to you, 1967 wasn’t exactly a Six Day War for you. In fact it’s almost past a Thirty Years’ War and none of you looks like a Gustavas Adolphus…
I am disappointed that they finally decided to use depleted uranium rounds…come to think of it what happened to the Soviet and American nuke stockpile?
Indeed, but hopefully being a spin off we can cut to the sexy mecha action instead of the ecchi flight suit…
You all need to practice your attack run because you never know when you need to lay in a proton torpedo down a 2m exhaust port…
You also need to work on your spacing and movement…
Little girl you are supposed to smash or shoot the target not be startled by it…
Up and down Currahe, it’s three miles up and three miles down…
Man it makes me wish the enemy wasn’t mindless bugs, I want my urban combat. I want my homage to Norris vs. 8th Team.
Quite why they don’t pack canteens or Gatorade is beyond me…
LOL Satelite, I am digging this real robot detail. A clever use of CIWS…still I am fond of the old R2-D2.
I wonder if they can use Zuikakus to play basketball…
I like the distinct design, but I would prefer a MALIGN DEITY ROAR every now and then.
May her death be avenged.
Either this is a new ship or they took the 1900 one out of mothballs.
I guess they had to cut corners for lowly ground vehicles.
These SP Artillery pieces are not to scale…
And here comes the horde of Hormagaunts…
I am disappointed by the lack of firing ramps…
I see that the BETA are advancing along the coast…at least the bugs have the sense to not go through the mountains.
So the world is ending and school girls are being packed off to the front, but there is no draft? I guess this ain’t Cadia after all…
I take that back they can animate ground vehicles when given time…
One for the Commandant! One for the Corps! Come on kid, pull! Pull!
At least it wasn’t a cell phone…
Yeah kid you better no shit your self…not only is it embarrassing, that stain will be the for all to see…
Wait how many final defense lines have we had now?
I guess we will not be getting an impressive Battle Frontier CIC.
I am glad the broke out the great coats instead of letting them shiver in those skin tight not Nike Combat Pro flight suits.
If you are what you eat then does that make the BETA mecha?
Good to see that flight capability doesn’t mean ownage…
Probably in 1974…
We must first sing the hymn of activation and anoint this switch with the oil of the Omnissiah. Then we press this big red button labeled “On”
Well at least it is starting to look like a uniform of sort.
So Char and Quattro walk into a bar…
Do I smell a Char Kick coming up?
40 Comments
I am glad you blogged this anime, mr crusader, since you make a real good comment out of it.
I didn’t pay close attention to it, but did BETA land somewhere around Western China when they first invaded the earth. When they made it to Japan, doesn’t that mean billions of lives have been claimed already? So, yeah, it doesn’t make any sense seeing how peaceful the town is during the first half of the episode.
They waited until BETA landed on Kyoto before start panicking? And before that, they attended military school like normal kids? While the elderly people sip tea on their home terrace? And salarymen go to work like normal? Wow. Just wow.
I will take out all my savings, run away on an airplane / ship / raft / swim (lol); before they get that close in frying me alive.
The BETA had two initial invasion points: Canada and Western China(Kashgar)
-America solved this by throwing every nuke they had at them and ultimately succeeded. Unfortunately Canada is now an uninhabitable, radioactive wasteland and Canadians now have a legitimate reason to hate the USA. It also allowed USA to become the most powerful military nation because they never had to deal with a direct BETA invasion.
-Russia did attempt the same tactic in Kashgar but by then, the BETA started fielding Laser-class that ultimately shot down any bomber that approached. They then attempted conventional warfare and lost badly and now the BETA infest the entire Eurasian continent. The essential “front-lines” that hold the BETA now are the British Isles, Africa and (of course) Japan.
Wait. So half the earth is run by Beta, and a quarter of it is a radioactive wasteland. Did I get that right?
And why didn’t the Russians use ICBMs?
Laser-Class BETA shoot down ANYTHING in the air up to 100km with near-perfect accuracy. That’s why its highly recommended that TSF pilots should fly low. The only valid long-range bombardment humanity can use are standard artillery strikes which can still be shot down. Still, its a valid tactic to use artillery to keep Laser-Class BETA occupied instead of getting them to shoot ground forces.
Also the whole disaster on Canada means pretty much that humanity is unwilling to resort to WMD unless as a last resort. Making their own lands uninhabitable is not worth the victory, especially in the long-term.
The thing is though if this really is the Apocalypse then there should be no concern for territory given if there is no means to reclaim lost territory. Still I guess if losses have yet to be catastrophic then i suppose greed will trump survival.
Canada should be proud their sacrifice allowed the rest of the New World to become a fortress. Besides they would have been rolled anyway. They never invested heavily in military spending, most of their major population centers were closer to the US anyways. At least they avoided annexation a la Fallout.
Their sacrifice will be noted in the memories, besides they always did like to harp about doing more for the greater good of the world.
Need more gattai! Nenshin! Just marathoned Sousei no Aquarion last night. All I have to say is… all the sexual innuendo during gattai. And they’ve improved teleportation – no more getting back nekkid GAR bodies.
If I want female mech pilots, I would rather watch that lesbian-theme mecha show whose name escapes me at the moment. You know, the one with that needs two pilots one and only pure girls that haven’t chosen to be men fly them…
Simoun, buddy
To clarify some points about the Muv-Luv Alternative-verse
-Muv-Luv Alternative is NOT a spinoff of Muv-Luv, its the third of a trilogy that was planned form the start. TE is a spin-off though.
-Fighter Planes are non-existent because Laser BETA are highly effective at anti-aircraft and pretty much one-shoted any plane that came close to 100 km . This necessitates the creation of the TSF and its developments essentially mirror real life fighter planes. So basically, there are MiG’s, F-4 Phantoms, F-15 Strike Eagles, A-10 Thunderbolts, etc. only they are now giant robots and not planes.
-The Type-77 Gekishins(the training machines) are bulky because they are essentially modified exports from America’s F-4 Phantom, the very first 2nd generation TSF. They are old and obsolete but still reliable enough to serve in the front lines. The Type-82 Zuikaku(the TSF that are deployed at the end) are heavily modifed F-4′s for better performance to serve under the Royal Guard. Most of the newer TSF should have sleeker designs.
-About the draftees you are pretty much looking at them. Most of the young men were already drafted into the war and since the world was desperate for recruits that they allowed women to serve. Young male soldiers are pretty uncommon now since they are mostly dead and most males in the front lines are older, grizzled veterans who survived countless battles.
-The skintight suits do actually serve a purpose. They are very good shock absorbents and protect the wearer from the elements. Not much use against a horde of Tyranid expys though but its better than nothing.
-Combined arms IS a very relevant on MLA. One thing it does very well is show how very real military deployment is, right down to battle logistics. For example, TSF’s and infantry forces are reliant on heavy artillery from Battleships and support vehicles for and even artillery has limited ammo so they can’t afford to blanket an are constatnly. Whether TE gets to show this properly remains to be seen.
Hell. They should just animate Starcraft, with the zerg invading Earth. I’d like to see more of those Blizzard cut scenes, except 30 minutes long.
It will be a Korean production. Yes, it will make a better show.
Warhammer would be a much better choice, since blizzard ripped games workshop off anyway and the universe is much more detailed, especially in terms of combat.
Wait wasn’t the first one a spin off of Kimi ga Nozumu Ein?
As for the skin tight suits…call me a heretic but I prefer power armor, failing that carapace. +6 armor save is WORTHLESS
I like the awesome display of heavy artillery, but I would like to see more field artillery.
If I am looking at the draftees then I wonder how all those male refugees were found unfit for duty. If this is the end of the world then it must be some outstanding reason.
Muv-Luv is set on the same world as Kimi ga Nozumu Ein but it isn’t a spin-off per se. In fact Akane is a prominent side-character in one of the girls routes. The idea of the Muv-Luv trilogy was to introduce a generic harem protagonist in the first VN and then have that protagonist end up trapped in a grimdark parallel universe where there is a BETA invasion in the other two VN.
Oh and the Kimi ga characters? They are in the Alternative-verse as well. The parallel version of Mitsuki is particularly awesome.
I think infantry are moot against BETA. They’ll just get mauled. TSFs I imagine are harder to be trained in than even fighter jets since you need combat expertise with the ability to operate it. That’ll take years and years to train and they just don’t have the resources to do so. All they have is the people who’ve been doing it their whole lives.
That’s the misconception with infantry though in most games infantry are junk, but infantry have been an enduring part of warfare since the beginning and not without reason. Fact is human are adaptable and very capable of improvising, more over they are the least logistically trouble some, and the ability of humans to be inspired to go on half rations and fight in seemingly hopeless situations still means something. The ability to traverse almost all manner of terrain also increases tactical and strategic possibilities. Infantry of course need to be armed, but even now infantry can be a nuisance to every other weapon system in war. Artillery is the King of Battle, Infantry is the Queen, Armor is the arm of decision. Quite where a TSF falls is an interesting question, hopefully it will combine some aspect of infantry and armor.
Machines require parts, grease, fuel, and oil, it will not run without all of these things. Horses in ye olde days wouldn’t do anything if they were hungry.
You know I can’t exactly tell you what that civilian crowd was but at least in the main story it was explictly stated that the reason that woman are fighting is because most of the man were drafted long time ago.
Yeah hopefully it was just an over sight. IMHO the birthrate and the recruitment rate should be synonymous. If a kid can’t field strip a small arm by age 10 clearly they were born in the wrong era.
1) America used nukes to nuke the shit out of Canada when BETAs showed up there, and nuke-equivalents get used at other points later in time. They are rarely used though since people don’t want to irradiate large swaths of their own countries.
2) A big theme in the universe is that countries get really realpolitik with the BETAs, in the sense of like “Let’s let the Reds handle the BETAs in their territory on their own to thin out their ranks a bit”, or how in even in this dark hour countries are trying to jockey for hegemony rather than getting their shit together.
I do respect a series where the USA has a reason to nuke Canada, haha. That’s one of the great world tidbits to come out of this series.
If there was ever a good time to nuke Canada I’d say saving the New World is as good a justification as we’ll ever get. I am sure the Canadian would have been proud to be of service to the rest of the world through their noble sacrifice.
I am disappointed that the God Emperor of Man-kind has not stepped into unite Terra and create his 20 Primarchs and 20 Space Marine Legions. Damn politicians…
give it too early to tell til later eps unless pull a ga rei zero’s rocks falls & nearly everyone get “whack”?
I like what I am seeing so far, gritty, realistic, and GRIMDARK.
if only instead of a bunch of young silly girls they had some old dirty bad ass mooks flying those suits i could get into this show. Its high time for some gritty tragic battles of battle hardened troops and less ecchi crap and moe.
BLOG ON BRAVE CRUSADER!!!! may the gods smile on you.
Also i must say this… HOW BOUT DEM HEAT!!!!!!!!!!
Wait for ep 2!
I just saw it…FUUUUUUUUU
DAT EP2
it’s like seeing D.Gray ManxSaving Private Ryan x Warhammer 40,000xGundam.
I wonder if all those monks went SPLAT!
Too bad it’s not shown.
Good for Battier, though Juwan Howard getting a ring as the last scrub from the Fab 5 is rather disgraceful.
Still You idiots promised 8, call me when Lebron gets ‘em all of ‘em in the worst Sports Town to ever exist.
I don’t think they need to be old dirty monks, but a bit of religious fervor wouldn’t hurt. Let their souls be armored like the Predator, and let them be armed with the three great guns of faith, purity, and zeal.
Jesus f***** Christ, Japan. Jesus H. f**** Christ. Why?! Not the Hime character. Never the Hime character!
The cost of this war will be high, souls such as these I bring to the Emperor’s table…
Yoshimune Kouki twatted that all those men in the evacuation scenes was an animation oversight.
Thanks for that one, that was a real WTF? Moment. The men were running from the battlefield, it was a shameful display!
Is there any information about space assets of BETA?
Is there anything up there stop Humanity trying orbital bombardment?
That “anything” is called laser class.
See here (beware of possible Spoilers):
http://muvluv.wikia.com/wiki/BETA
“I guess Mi-24s weren’t going to be of much use, they should have brought A-10s.”
Don’t ever stop being an arrogant (US-)American, Crusader.
It’s a legitimate criticism the Mi-24 was a fine experiment but having a gunship/troop transport hybrid wasn’t an unqualified success, hence why the Russians eventually started using dedicated gunships after their Afghan Intervention. Also nothing chews through heavy armor like the A-10, the Mi-24 also suffered from a lack of range and needed good airfields at altitude when loaded for bear.