Chrome Shelled Regios

Chrome Shelled Regios has just concluded their first season, and while it really surprised me with the depth of its character design, it really didn't do much else to impress me.

Despite a really questionable story, this series managed to hook me in from the get-go. A light action/comedy/drama, the characters in this universe are appealing and very likable, even if some of the character memes are completely nonoriginal. You start with a modest, but clearly way-overskilled, transfer student to a military academy city, add a random assortment of harem archetype girls, and top it off with a Koyasu Takehito leader character, you have generic adventure anime #9999 right? Maybe, but I personally found this cast interesting.

The early episodes are lighthearted and revolve around your typical high school anime themed episodes, mixed in with some good old tourney fighter action. From there, everything else goes wrong: convoluted plot twists and very shallow character motivations spoiled a very promising series. I've never read the source material, so I don't know if the problem starts there, but it's almost as if someone changed their mind about the show's identify one third of the way through.

kenholic.com rating: 5.0