Soukou no Strain Ep. 1
Soukou no Strain, S-Strain for short, is yet another mecha anime. But does it fall into the pits of the generic and average mecha titles out there? I don’t think so. This was a surprising debut in my opinion and from what I’ve seen I’m liking the direction they’re taking things.
The first episode was fantastic. First off, it opened with the main character, Sara, seeing her brother, Ralph, off to his military post. We’re then thrown a few years into the future where Sara is now in an academy that trains Reasoners (they are the type of humans who pilot STRAINs and possess duplicates of themselves called MIMICs). We’re shown Sara and three of her friends going through various training missions and lectures before the really good stuff starts.
About midway through the episode, during the nighttime, the academy is attacked by an enemy force called TUMORs (which seem to be some sort of parasitic-type robot). It’s a complete ambush and no one at the academy is properly prepared. Numerous soldiers, instructors, and students are killed in the raid. As Sara and her three friends climb into their STRAINs to take on the enemy they encounter another, more advanced STRAIN coming to their rescue. Or so they think. Sara’s three friends are immediately killed by the traitorous STRAIN and she herself is dispatched of only to eject and follow after the enemy STRAIN on foot.
The traitorous Reasoner lands at an old military building where something seems to be stored. We’re shown a little girl in a tank. The mysterious Reasoner grabs her and returns to his STRAIN. Before he can, Sara stops shoots at him and he turns around. Sara is shocked and drops her gun because the traitor seems to resemble her brother, Ralph. The Reasoner manages to break for it with the mysterious girl in his arms and Sara follows suit in an abandoned STRAIN thinking that he is her older brother. She’s quickly defeated and crashes. She awakens the next morning completely devastated and bursts into tears.
I must say I really enjoyed this first episode. However, I do feel really bad for Sara losing her three friends so quickly but I think the loss of their lives adds to the reality of the battlefield. Next episode brings in some new Reasoners and we get to see just how badly Sara is damaged, emotionally and mentally.
Soukou no Strain a.k.a. S-Strain
OP: Message by Yoko
ED: Umi no Opal by Sema
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Hmm, if this turns out to be good, I might blog this.
Stop killing my HDD!!
>.>
<.<
Cool looking mechs + fast-paced action sequences + a female pilot for a protagonist = I like. ^_^
[...] I had watched this episode a week ago after seeing this post by Kita ze Inbou. I had planned on watching it when I was checking out the new fall season shows, but completely forgot about it when I had engrossed myself in all the other new series. Even so, it wasn’t that high on my list, but the first episode really hooked me. The quality was pretty pathetic (but expected since it’s a new studio), but the significant thing is that, regardless of that, I still loved the episode. And I usually hate anime with poor quality. Another saving factor is that the CG used for the mecha is really good, and the giant ‘Strains’ present yet another pretty unique mecha type. It’s not just your ordinary big robot, but a totally different concept altogether, though it hasn’t really been explained in detail. The other memorable unique mecha type is Neon Genesis Evangelion, with its bio-mechanical concept. These Strains require a ‘Mimic’ to function, which is essentially a clone of the pilot, grown from a cell extracted from the embryo (or something like that). There are also regular mecha, but of course they’re inferior to the Strains. [...]
That was awesommeee~!!!
The plot is fast-paced and action packed, but gave me time to process all the new info and everything made sense. After watching it, I’m set on watching the whole season.