Consider your libidos charged…
What They Say:
“Everything will be obvious soon.”
The Review:
Daichi’s father was an astronaut – until he was killed in a launch accident. Now, he’s approaching the summer break of his 2nd year in high school, and to be frank, he’s pretty much lost interest in his studies. Teachers suggesting he might want to follow his father’s career choice isn’t helping, either. An article on the news catches his attention, though – a circular rainbow in the sky, bringing back childhood memories of a boy who could generate such things from his hand. Unbeknownst to him, it’s the Albion Rainbow – something that the members of bad-guy organisation Kil-T-Gang are pleased to see…
So. Captain Earth is an anime-original tale that’s brought to us by Bones and most of the creative crew who were behind Star Driver, and if you’ve seen the frankly FABULOUS adventures of Takuto and co, the basic setup for Captain Earth may seem remarkably familiar, as this opening episode sees Daichi introduced to the Livlaster, an Earth Engine (giant mecha to you and me) whose purpose is to protect Earth from the Kil-T-Gang, who are using remote-controlled mecha of their own to attack Earth for purposes as-yet unrevealed.
And I can’t really be more specific than that, as so far at least the series has been very light on explaining what’s really going on – which the mid-episode eyecatch explicitly notes, assuring us that “Everything will be obvious soon”. For now, though, we get to enjoy the eye candy provided by one of the longest mecha launch sequences I’ve every seen (please don’t play the full thing every episode…), some atmospheric singing to set the tone (and trigger further Star Driver-y memories) and a fair amount of mystery, just waiting to be unravelled.
It’s not unfair, I think, to say that Bones feel they’ve found a formula in Star Driver that they feel is worth milking some more, and that Captain Earth is the result – the inspiration couldn’t be any clearer, with points for comparison all over the place. If the two shows are going to diverge, it’s going to be a wee while yet. On the one hand, that’s not necessarily a bad thing – if you’ve got a formula that’s enjoyable, you may as well run with it – but on the other hand, I don’t know that it’s a formula that will stand up to another 20+ episode run.
Did I enjoy watching this episode? You bet I did, like the return of an old friend that you’re entirely comfortable with. But I’m also hoping that Daichi and his apparent new friends will go off in their own direction before too long. There’s enough different about the setting, for a start, with the scale that the story’s being allowed to play out on being much larger and not just confined to one small island; and with more of a sense that what happens may actually have meaning in the ‘real’ world. But that’s for future episodes to work with. For this episode, we have a promising start, at least.
In Summary:
I’ve probably over-reference Star Driver in this review, but I feel no guilt for it, as the comparison is intended as a compliment. Captain Earth has impressed out of the gate, with a flashy and enjoyable opener. But a good start does not a good series make, and the show has some work to do to carve out a niche for itself. I hope it does.
Content Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 27” Apple iMac, 2.9GHz Core i5, 32GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.9
No references to E7? I got more of that vibe than Stardriver, either way, eyes on.