Premise: Eight years prior, the world has gone through a "robot boom," rapidly developing the technology for 10-foot humanoid machines. Kaito Yashio is a fighting game enthusiast and reluctant member of his high school robotics club. When he discovers that one of his classmates is a genius programmer who designed the engine for a popular fighting game, Kaito decides to build a fighting robot that uses command inputs and motion capture. He sets out to find someone from the karate club who will perform the motion capture sequences.
Initial Thoughts: There's a lot of promise here. The groups behind the visual novel on which this anime is based, 5pb. and Nitroplus, have also done two other mind-boggling sci fi stories: Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate. I'd also be remiss not to mention that Production I.G. simply does not make projects that aren't guaranteed to be gold. Finally, as a young person who likes to make things, I have a soft spot in my heart for shows about groups of young people who make things. Basically, this show is pushing all the right buttons, and I'm pretty sure I'll like it as long as there are no major slip-ups.
Post-Credits Verdict: So far, so good. The show begins teasingly with a cold open that introduces all the characters, including the giant robot, then pulls a Tarantino and takes us back to when Kaito and co. were just a down-and-out club of misfits. At the beginning of the story, the robotics club consists of just Kaito and Akiho, and the robot, Gunvarrel, is collecting dust in an abandoned air hangar. Undeterred by the club's low standing, Akiho dutifully submits the same exorbitant budget to the school's vice president in hopes of completing said robot in time for the world expo. On the other hand, Kaito is a member in name only, preferring to play the fighting game Kill-Ballad on his nifty tablet/computer/phone/augmented reality camera thingy.
Kaito's down-to-Earth nature serves as a much-needed foil to Akiho, the robotics club's (not so) charmingly enthusiastic president. The only other major character to make an impression is the intelligent but abrasive Hidaka, who steadfastly turns down Akiho's pleadings to join the club.
The show itself is unsurprisingly beautifully animated, and the futuristic technology has been believably implemented. Giant robots aside, the tech really looks like it belongs in 2019 Japan. The pacing is a bit slow, but then again it's the first episode. I'm more than willing to give this one a few more weeks to get off the ground.
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