Infinite Stratos Review

Title: IS or Infinite Stratos 
Genre: Harem, Mecha, Comedy
Episodes: 12
Director: Yasuhito Kikuchi
Publisher: Media Factory

IS follows the story of Orimura Ichika, a 15 year old boy who can operate an IS armoured exoskeleton, which are usually only usable by women. After realizing the potential of creating a harem mecha comedy crossover, the Japanese Government sends him off to the prestigious Infinite Stratos Academy, an international academy where gifted IS pilots from all over the world are trained. 

Did I mention his sister is an instructor at the academy and two of his childhood friends are world renowned IS pilots, what are the odds? Plot aside I actually enjoyed IS, even though it was a bit short. It doesn't bring anything new to the genre and the animation is average, but the fanservice and comedy hijinks more than make up for it. If you enjoy harem and mecha, and don't mind a harem anime that sticks to the formula, IS is for you.

Plot:  2/5   
Boy meets girl, and another girl, and has a fight with a girl, and meets another girl. Very generic plot designed solely to accommodate the MC and the reason he is surrounded by beautiful girls. There is nothing remotely interesting about this story and is carried by solely by the cast of good characters.

Characters: 4/5

Tsundere - check, Reverse trap - check, Chinese girl - check, just tick all the boxes. Ichika, the main protagonist, is pretty dull when it comes to girls, but doesn't suffer Shinji syndrome and embraces his role as an IS pilot. He isn't a very deep character but fulfils his role without ruining the series. Houki, his childhood friend and sister to the famous scientist who invented the IS unit, is your typical tsundere and the primary love interest. Her motivations and personality are well outlined and she works well together with Ichika to pull the story along. The rest of the main cast are made up of the German girl, Laura Bodewig, who flies the most badass IS (German engineering is the best), Charlotte Dunois, the cute french reverse trap, Cecilia Alcott, the token British girl, and Lingyin Huang, the uninteresting Chinese girl (sorry, she is just a bad character). Overall, it was clever to play on nationality stereotypes and the characters definitely make up for the story.

Music: 1/5

Uninspiring and average. The opening and ending themes are also entirely forgettable. 

Animation: 3/5
Character animation is average and doesn't push any boundaries. It is by no means bad, but considering the production values, they could have been much better. In contrast, the animation and CGI battle scenes are well done and provide some pretty visuals. Nothing spectacular but not bad enough to poke your eyes out with forks. 

Style: 1/5

Seen one, seen 'em all. Put IS side by side with any other harem and you can barely tell them apart. Maybe that's not a bad thing, but studios should strive to innovate.

Theme: 4/5

Probably the best thing about the series. The IS exoskeletons were well designed and looked cool. It was also clever how they introduced the personal shield, so they could have open cockpits to show copious amounts of fanservice (aww yeah). Interestingly enough the pseudo-technical explanations were consistent throughout and never left you going "WTF?". If there was any reason to watch IS it would be for the IS designs themselves.

Overall: 2.5/5

If you enjoy harem and mecha, and have a bit of spare time, then give IS a shot. I was pretty harsh on my ratings but still enjoyed it. If you don't like it after the first episode you can go ahead and drop it, it doesn't get any more interesting and the story ends all too soon.



Closing comments:
Houki is the best girl.