Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse (Review)
Quick synopsis: Since 1973, an invasion of aliens known as BETA upon Earth is driving human civilization into nearly collapse. Facing an enormous mass of enemy force, mankind has developed large humanoid arms called as Tactical Surface Fighters and deployed them to its defense lines through out the world. However, all those efforts could slow down defeats but could not stop BETA, and mankind is forced to abandon major area of the Eurasian Continent. For 30 years, mankind is bogged down in an endless war against BETA without any hopes of victory. In 2001, the Imperial Japan faces difficulties in the development of a next-generation main Tactical Surface Fighters (TSF) as it defends the front lines of the Far East. The UN has proposed a joint development program between the Imperial Japan and the United States as a part of its international mutual development project of TSF, the Prominence Project. Yui Takamura, a surface pilot of the Imperial Royal Guards of Japan, is given responsibility for the project and sets off to Alaska. Meanwhile, Yuya Bridges, also a surface pilot of the US Army, was heading to the same destination. Yet they never knew that their encounter would change their destiny drastically. This story with exciting human dramas and robot actions takes place in the development of a new Tactical Surface Fighters, the most important and effective weapons against BETA, at a crisis of human extinction.
Personal thoughts: Instead of doing this series. They should have done the original Muv-Luv series because personally I prefer the original visual novel story. But this series isn’t too bad nor it is good. Turns out for me, it was below average.
The Review:
Storyline & Plot: 3.5/10
Utter rubbish. Let’s face it, the first 3 episode of this series is absolutely ridiculous. I don’t see the point of going through her story of what happened to her in the past. There is also very little connection between the show’s story then and the first 3 episode. The plot focus on fighting each other and didn’t really focus much on BETA. Which by right, is their main enemy. All of the episode tells us that rather than BETA fucking up our world, we actually fuck ourselves instead. The story main focus should be defeating BETA, not showing off your TAF to other nation. Worst still, the producers of the show decided to give us beach and Onsen bath episode. In you guys term, it will be called “fan service”. Personally, this isn’t a storyline suited for such things. This is supposed to be a serious anime and it turns into a typical Otaku like anime that would make them go like this “OH MY GOD!!! SO HOT!!! I HOPED THAT A DOUJINSHI WILL COME OUT FOR THIS SCENE!!!” or something like that….
Art & Character Design: 5/10
The art and character design was supposed to be good. In fact, I like the character design very much and so does the TAF. But here’s the thing, the animation was cheap. Thanks to its cheapness, the animation was bad enough that error especially the character’s eyes were drawn either not to scale or very badly. If you don’t believe me, go watch the mid episodes of the series and you will know what I am talking about. It was only then until people complain about it, they start to improve the animation later by just a little. Just who are they hiring to draw these characters for anime? Cheap Chinese workers?
Entertainment & Execution: 6.5/10
Entertaining? Well, despite the fact that the storyline and art isn’t that good. Yes, overall it was still entertaining. The reason was because of the battle scene of TAF and also TAF against the BETA. It was pretty cool and well done. As for comedy, it was average. Romance, I like the fact that the guy is completely clueless that his superior fell in love with him.
Music: 8/10
Superb. I like the opening and the 2nd opening theme song by Kuribayashi Minami. I also like the 2nd opening and ending credits. Even though, they have bad animation but at least they did a good job on the credits.
Overall: 5.5/10
Already on our list of Top 10 worst anime of 2012. This anime was bad. Very bad. They could improve a lot of things such as animation and storyline. I don’t see this anime getting season 2 as the sales of this anime was pretty bad, partly due to the animation quality. But if you don’t believe us or just watch it because of hot girls, then go ahead and give it a try. Don’t say that I didn’t warned you.
