I procrastinated this post and started getting hard and harder to write and dragged on longer then needed. To the point though, I originally picked this up because I like insert songs in my anime and this was bound to have tons. I was not disappointing in this aspect, but it failed in every other possible category. This is what happens when the focus of the anime on selling more CDs.
Story
The plot started out pretty strong and kept me captivated with their grim dark feel they had for the first half of the season. Things start to take a turn for the worse as the story starts to play out and it becomes apparent that the power music will beat everything. They threw out any sensibility out the window and the plot went to hell. Humourous albeit, but tons of plot holes everywhere.
~3/10
Immersion
The one key thing was the setting was a bit cheesy. I understand it needed to be as such to sell the music, but the power of music can only take you so far! At least they didn't take it as far as Macross Frontier did. The pacing was decent, nothing super fast, but decent. Sadly, this show was suppose to be 2 cour, I don't think I would have been able to last this show if it was dragged out for double the length.
~6/10
Characters
This show tried to push the characters together and force development; In a sense, it worked. By the end, they were much more fleshed out characters, minus Hibiki who is just a mindless droid. At least we get to see slightly development among the characters, even if it was a bit rushed. That was probably the cut down on episodes that played the large effect this.
~7/10
Animation
This where the art and animation differ greatly depending on which episode you are watching. The budget for this show was so abysmally small, it was a wonder why they chose a plot that involved battles which costs more money to animate. The character designs were done well in concept. The problem was half the time they looked awkward due to the terrible budget. When you can see the huge flaws in the drawing when the character is up close, something is wrong. I have yet to see a show with such bad quality; This includes Persona 4.
~0/10
Personal Satisfaction
Only 2 good things came from this show, the music and character designs. I really loved their armor designs, if only we had good shots of them. I mean 2/3 of the armors were just absolutely awesome when they bothered to draw it well. The music was well done too, which is a big deal since that was their aim to sell from the beginning. The problem is it doesn't make up for the eye cancer this show probably gave me and I never even got good looks at the armor designs I liked.
~3/10
Overall
This was just a prime example of how low budgets ruin shows. They had a decent premise with some good concepts but they couldn't deliver it at all. You could tell they cut corners everywhere they could, this is not the right way of doing things. It would have been better if they condensed the show even further to have a very solid short run then the crap we got here.
Final Score [4/10]
~Pearz
