What They Say:
“Do Guys From the Sky Have Undies?”
In a world fueled by one’s conviction, one man falls from the sky. He claims to come from beyond the wall, though the world as we know it only exists inside.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
From the genius mind behind Code Geass, Goro Taniguchi, comes this new science fiction adventure. Lingalid, a land encased by a wall that is treated as a godlike figure, lies two nations with extremely opposing ideologies. One nation believes in the might of brawn, the Republic of Rekka, and the other, Lutoh chooses to use their heads to be victorious. For some mysterious reason, this godlike wall drops rakuho, a chest contains bind warpers that are armbands that allow people to transform into briheight, a form of humanoid mechas. These briheights are based upon a person’s conviction that creates a special power. These two nations fight for these magical objects. And if you engage in a briheight battle and lose then the loser gets sent to the shadow realm. I’m kidding about the shadow realm but they do die and became dust if they falter in battle. That a heck of a lot of information to grasp in only the first five minutes of the show.
It’s a shame that this show isn’t slowing down to flesh out the places in this world. A small town that resembles the Wild West appears. The first chance to get to know something about this world and its the boonies. A wimpy man is attempting to hunt bunnies to eat but he runs away. Evolution has become reversed as the bunny becomes the hunter. Luckily for him, there is a capable woman, Elsha, to save him from the snares of the little scary rabbit. Unfortunately for the town, one rabbit isn’t enough to feed everyone.
The wall drops a container that holds rakuho into the small village. Everyone is racing to this town to get their hands on the rakuho. The container opens up to reveal a man with amnesia kicking the fearful man. What a way to make an entrance as the hot-headed protagonist Back Arrow spends the entire episode buck naked. Everyone bats an eye and is mortified at witnessing such a sight. He claims to be from beyond the wall which has everyone in laughter. The wall is the aspect that the show should go into more details. All we know is that Back Arrow undies are beyond the wall. The village is under attack by a bandit. It’s frustrating to see that the rules were just introduced and they already getting exceptions. Back Arrow beats the bandit in a briheight battle but the bandit doesn’t die. He also doesn’t have any conviction to add injury to insult. I understand the need to introduce a quirky character but it’s skipping too many steps at once.
There is so much happening in this episode and drags down this episode. It’s tackling more than it can chew for an introduction. It halfheartedly introduces the world but it isn’t enough to have a sense of everything in it. It starts with the religious aspects as people treat the wall with reverence, the Cold War between two nations fight over the mysterious rakuho and the naked protagonist with the mysterious powers.
The best part of mecha shows is seeing all the designs that the illustrators come up with. The mecha designs are one of this series’s strongest aspects. These designs have a wide range of designs focusing on cool battle mecha for the guys to cute adorable mechas for the women. The fights between the briheights are a beauty to watch.
In Summary
Back Arrow has a not so stellar start but there are signs that something great can happen with this show. It needs to pick on what elements it wants to focus on to achieve its potential. This is a science fiction story but also taking a trip down memory lane into feudal China and the American Wild West is a bit daunting. Having ambition is fine but it needs a leg to support this ambition.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Funimation
