Thrust into a larger world, one high school student finds herself piloting an alien craft of quite an ancient origin.
What They Say:
Madoka Kyono is an energetic girl who is full of passion. As the proud – and only – member of the Kamogawa Girls’ High School Jersey Club, she goes around helping people in need. But Madoka’s life is turned upside down when she is suddenly asked by a mysterious girl named Lan to pilot a robot. Motivated by her desire to protect the people and city of Kamogawa, Madoka agrees to pilot the resurrected Vox robot to fight against extraterrestrials that have come to attack Earth.
Contains episodes 1-12.
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this series is quite good as we get the original Japanese language in stereo along with the new English language dub, both of which are encoded using the DTS-HD MA lossless codec. The show is one that has a decent balance of action and dialogue where the bulk of it is admittedly just dialogue. But it handles things very well across the forward soundstage when it comes to the action with the mecha flying around and the weaponry itself. There’s some good placement and impact from it all and it definitely makes for a more engaging sequence. The dialogue is straightforward throughout but with some of the action sequences and some of the comedy oriented pieces, it does a decent job of balancing things out with some good placement. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we didn’t have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally airing in 2012, the transfer for this twelve episode TV series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p using the AVC code. The show is spread across two discs evenly with six on each, giving it plenty of space to work with and it uses it well. The series, animated by Xebec, has a strong, colorful and vibrant look to it that definitely stands out well here. There’s some very vibrant moments when it comes to the craft themselves and that definitely stands out beautifully with a solid look to it. The character animation has some nice detail to it but largely they go for simple and easy costume designs that make them easy to identify. The show works some good backgrounds to it overall though and there is detail, but it’s not an overly done one. The series has a strong look overall that ties together in a good looking way. Colors are solid throughout, cross coloration and line noise are non-existent and it has a smooth and clean look.
Packaging:
The packaging for this release is pretty nicely done as it comes in a standard sized Blu-ray case where the discs are both held against the interior walls. The front cover artwork looks good as we get the three main girls on Madoka’s Vox where the character artwork is kind of small overall, but it provides some good full length shots of them with some good expressions. The character artwork is bright and colorful and it blends well with the mecha artwork itself, which dominates the cover. The logo is simple and is the same as the Japanese one so it has some good colors to it while not being overly large. The back cover is nicely laid out as well with the upper half showing off the command island with some welcome colors for the sky and plenty of detail. The premise is very simple and short and there are a few pictures that’s decent but doesn’t do much to sell the show in a big way. The discs extras and features are listed and the production credits round it out as well. Add in some of the usual logos and basic technical information along the bottom, which makes me wish they were using more traditional technical grids, you have all the information but it’s just spread out a bit.
Menu:
The menu design for the show works a similar angle to the front cover as we get a static image that has the three girls together, but in slightly different outfits for them. The background uses the advanced technology as it’s basis while the foreground brings out the three main girls where they’re in more of a street clothes aspect, except for Lan, and they have some cute expressions that reinforce their friendship. The menu navigation along the bottom is simple and to the point and it looks decent when used as the pop-up menu. Submenu navigation is quick and easy and everything loads quickly and without any problems.
Extras:
The extras for this release are straightforward on the second volume as we get the clean opening and closings, some production artwork and a look at the Kamogawa Drama pieces.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
An original series from Xebec, Lagrange premiered in the winter season of 2012 and had a follow-up season that landed in the summer of the same year. The two seasons were simulcast by Viz Media, and we had caught the first season as it aired, though it left me a bit frustrated compared to what the previews presented and the actual show itself. Xebec has done a wide variety of shs over the years but original shows are the ones that I get drawn to the most and what they do here is fairly standard stuff which is what dragged it down a bit for me when I watched it on a weekly basis. Thankfully, the show does hold up better when marathoned in its first season like this and it left me looking forward to the second half.
The show deals with a slightly near future time period where we’re introduced to Madoka, a high school girl who is the primary (and only) member of the Jersey Club, a group at the Kamogawa High School in Kamogawa that basically exists to help out other clubs. Madoka is the kind of girl that just does well by others and is always involved in making sure they’re all doing well and succeeding. A lot of this comes from her childhood and how she always viewed her older sister, but essentially Madoka is painted as a really good kid, albeit one without any friends it seems. All of that starts to change when a mysterious young woman named Lan arrives and asks Madoka to pilot a giant robot to help defend the city. It’s a kind of surreal moment, but because of how it unfolds, it works well to throw Madoka into a difficult and dangerous situation where she’s piloting something called a Vox, which naturally responds to her easily.
Madoka gets introduced to Novumundos, which is the Earth organization that has worked with an alien race known as Le Garite in order to deal with an oncoming threat to the world. In essence, the craft that she and Lan can pilot, the Vox, are part of a much larger problem where they can lead to the end of everything. With some members of Le Garite helping, they’re looking to stave off an attack by De Metrio, a group that’s in pursuit of the craft themselves and the power they represent. The show initially introduces us to a trio of men from that side that throw themselves at Novumundos, which is why Madoka gets drawn into it, and that leads to the exploration of what Madoka is capable of with her Vox, which is named Aura. There’s obviously some back and forth that goes on for a few episodes and the De Metrio young men even find themselves planetbound for awhile and mingling with the regular humans while searching out for more information.
Lagrange spends its time getting us to know the basics, which largely comes from getting Madoka introduced to Novumundos which helps to expand the overall scope of the series. Through it, we get to know Lan a good bit as well as she’s from Le Garite herself and has a slight otherworldly aspect about her as she tries to understand the basics of how things in Kamogawa works. The show also brings in a more outgoing girl with Muginami, who ends up starting as a transfer student and also a pilot of a Vox herself that draws her into the Jersey Club. The core of the show may be all about the battle between the sides, but there’s also a heavy component about friendship that comes through between the main trio and what they have to cope with as friends and as people from very different worlds that are caught up in a larger problem.
Lagrange does generally follow some predictable paths and it works to build the mythos more, but it does feel superficial at times. There’s a decent cast in general and we do get a look at them across the show, but it also introduces some unwelcome characters. One is Asteria, the granddaughter of the founder of Novumundos and she plays up the cute little blonde loli aspect but with a great deal of power behind her. She essentially drops into the show in the second half and throws a huge spanner in the works and even causes friction among the new friends which makes it all worse. She has a legitimate reason for existing, but they play it up in some ways that really just don’t work well for me. I did find myself more interested in Villagulio though when he was introduced as he has a real lightness and sense of fun about him. With his connection to the others from De Metrio, especially once they’re on Earth, it’s fun seeing how he does in the end play with them, but also move them towards a bigger place, whcih is what the season ends with in a predictable way.
In Summary:
Lagrange, in its first season, present a fairly straightforward and familiar story of a young woman who finds herself caught up in some ages old science fiction adventure. It plays to the high school material well enough and to the novice with great power drawn into something much larger. Xebec presents a very good looking show here with some smooth animation, solid character designs and apealing mecha material, both in regular and transformed modes, and the series as a whole goes pretty big with what at’s the core of it with the story of the Ovids, Madoka’s Vox and what the title itself means. But it’s also a show that does play pretty straight with the viewer so there aren’t a lot of surprises. What drives it is the characters themselves, and it’s easy to see why the developed a fanbase individually pretty easily. Lagrange has a good sense of fun about itself as it plays out and it does get serious at times, but it’s a show that’s certainly familiar.
Features:
Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Production Artwork, Clean Opening, Clean Closing, Kamogaawa Drama
Content Grade: B
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: B-
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: June 11th, 2013
MSRP: $54.97
Running Time: 300 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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