Rinne no Lagrange – 02

Lan-“Good girl…you are my slave.”                  Madoka-“EHHHHHHHHHH!?”

So Fosh was kind enough to ask if I wanted to tag with him and I figured mecha and pro wrestling? LOL sure, why not? I’m still not 100% sure what the plot is for this show, but I figure that anything with evil alien space bishies is worth watching.
Hell yeah, time for more Rinne no Lagrange! This time in high quality goodness, I am glad to have you aboard as my tag partner, Kara! Hopefully the random fan service doesn’t scare you away too early…I will leave you all the alien space bishies and I will take all of the moe mecha pilots. So look forward to more reviews for Lagrange here on Metanorn; I hope you enjoy the review.Plot this week follows Madoka lost on base, while redhead space bishie Izo decides to rescue his friend Array. Madoka prepares for another alien attack complete with a brand new flight suit before Kirius arrives with his machine to join Izo to take on Madoka.

Madoka calling the shot….or she’s seeing things again.

Starting off with Madoka learning a bit more about her new machine the Ovid, aka Vox Aura, which sounds like ox-something…. Meanwhile in space those colorful bishies are plotting ways to attack the earth again as Izo heads out to retrieve his friend Array from the humans. While Izo flew to earth, Madoka tried to use her cellphone to make a call, but she wandered around the base until she gets lost…oh wow, Madoka, you are really something special; thankfully I like characters like her. Madoka runs into someone else while she was lost and she meets Muginami, basically Mugi from K-On! that pilots giant robots…

Madoka-“Bars…where are my bars?…I have to use twitter!!”

Muginami-“I thought I was the only slow one here…”           Madoka-“You said something? I was tweeting again.”

Eventually Lan finds Madoka wandering around and prepares her for another alien attack complete with a fancy flight suit. She did ask Lan to help her change clothes so maybe that will be on the blu-rays for all the yuri fans out there? Madoka on the other hand is not too happy after she learns the whole world is counting on her to win! No pressure, right? While Madoka flies off to stop Izo the commander has a short chat with Moid about possible reinforcements arriving from his home planet Le Garite. Wait did I take a step back into Bleach? Where did all these Spanish sounding names keep popping up? And the space-bishies come from De Metrio, just in case you girls wanted to plan a future vacation.

Madoka-“The world needs me?! DO NOT WANT!!!”

Do a barrel roll to dodge the hot butter.

While Madoka fights Izo, which looked more like playing chicken for the first part, Yoko watches on as Madoka’s Vox gets knocked into the ocean. After getting beat by Izo she begins to question herself, like why is she doing this? Should she just quit and go home? ‘Course not, Madoka, because Yoko calls her phone and the two of them share a nice talk, until Yoko gives Madoka some “motivation to fight”. That seemed more like poking her until she snapped, using her anger to fight those alien bishies. After Madoka successfully broke Izo’s magical candy shield, Kirius arrives to help his friend. The episode comes to an end just as Lan decides to join the fight with her Vox Rympha and help Madoka.

Madoka-“Yea….I didn’t even get to eat lunch!”                     Yoko-“NOBODY CARES about your lunch. Move your ass!”

Yoko-“Muhahahah! My work here is done.”

Madoka-“Hulk mode, activate!!”

Kirius-“Arriving late sorry I was putting hair gel in my fantastic hairdo.”

Extra Madoka magic

Madoka’s Vox looks awesome! I wish it had neon green for default colors.

Pilot-“Dude, how is this even working??”

Yoko-“Yep that is my boob against your back…deal with it.”

Token fan service character! Look at dat plot…

Lan-“Hello? Madoka? Are you alright??”            Madoka-“Sorry…I was too busy staring at your butt in the mirror.”

End thoughts

I have two words for this anime: FABULOUS MAX. Once I got over the fact that Madoka is expected to pilot robots in a cheerleader outfit and the fact that she finds it completely okay to have a casual phone conversation in the middle of a battle (at least the bad guy was polite enough to wait until the phone call was over to attack), I quite enjoyed this. Madoka has certainly grown on me in a very short amount of time. Hell, I classify her as moe now. Though if I had to list my favourite characters, it would definitely be the evil alien space bishies. For one,  Izo(aka the hot headed red haired bishie)’s seiyuu is Yoshino Hiroyuki (aka Bossun from Sket Dance). I love his voice. Secondly,  they don’t look like your average bad guy material. Or at least they don’t based on the next episode preview. Give me some more of that comedy or maybe a complicated backstory where they’re not actually the villains behind whatever os going on (not that anything big is really going on yet) and I’ll be a very happy fan. …On another note, I think the Sheryl look alike will be another of my favourite characters, but I’m not entirely sold on her yet.

Hmmm, so Madoka’s cousin WASN’T part of whatever the hell organization Lan is part of? Weird, I assumed she was. I loved her part of yelling at Madoka over the phone though despite it being so casual when they should probably be a tiiiiiiny bit more worried. I guess it runs in the family. I wonder what Lan’s deal is though. She says that the only thing she can do is fly (I assume she’s talking about the robot), so why is Madoka so much more capable? And what’s that about kitsune eyes (I forge his name) talking about a prophecy or something? Why does he refer to her as ojou-sama? Where the hell did those two come from? Why do I find him to be the only semi attractive male in the defending the Earth section? Too many questions. Plus I don’t think this has even hit the main plot yet since we don’t know why Madoka suddenly has to pilot a weird colour changing mecha or why the space bishies decided to attack. Plus I think I read something about this being split Fate/Zero style so obviously this is is going to have a pretty long plot.

Since I’m going to be here for a while, I might as well talk about what I’m expecting in the future. What has me excited about this show though isn’t the mecha, fanservice, OR the space bishies (though admittedly, the last one is significantly more exciting to me than the other two), but the promise of things to come. My Japanese being as broken and unbalanced as it is (I can understand a conversation about a villain planning on destroying the earth using the moon or some other crap, more than someone describing what they ate for breakfast), I immediately recognized the kanji in the title for “rinne” as the term for ‘samsara’. Or to put it in more English terms, the Buddhist belief that there’s a cycle of reincarnation when people (or living things in general) die based on karma. Assuming that the title actually has something to do with the plot, the whole reincarnation thing actually sounds pretty interesting and this anime could get really deep. …Or maybe I’m just expecting too much. Though it hasn’t disappointed me yet (which is more than I can say for Guilty Crown when it was 2 episodes in). Let’s see if this lasts for an entire season.

Hooray! What a great episode as we got to see more Madoka being her usual cheerful self, but we also saw her getting discouraged especially when she began to question herself. That is a common theme in action anime with our main character “falling” apart after they get their asses handed to them. Sure that is annoying but I find that happens a lot in Mecha anime, like Simon from TTGL, Kira from Gundam Seed and Shinji from Evangelion series. But hey, I think those moments are great; we really need some character drama here and there, because watching those characters grow up is interesting.

Anyone else like Madoka’s amazing flight suit? Not bad at all! Just like Kara said, it is such a cheerleader style mixed in with an Evangelion plug suit. We already got to see some of Lan’s clothes with episode one, so I really can’t wait to see Muginami enter the fight to have a cute trio of cheerleader styled pilots. And this episode had less fan service than the first episode aside from a usual dat ass shot from Lan and one with Madoka inside the Vox. But that is a minor thing and they might be taking a page from Mouretsu Pirates, as in focus on the characters first without too much fan service getting in the way.

Now for the actual mecha fight. Wait was that even a real battle? All they did was play chicken and a quick game of tag. At least the next episode will have lots of fighting. And what is with Lan? She is scared to pilot…I swear if there is a contract style thing going on I will just laugh…what contract am I talking about? Maybe if your machine explodes you die with it? There was rumor of legendary Vox and some huge secret Lan is hiding from Madoka. For some reason I feel there are no real reinforcements coming from Le Garite to help defend the earth.

Preview

Great ending art this week.

Madoka and Lan fight Izo and Kirius. I wonder if Muginami will join the battle?

About

We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
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32 Responses to “Rinne no Lagrange – 02”

  1. skylion says:

    Mugi from K-ON! ? I was thinking it was Yacchan, Ryuugi’s Mom, from Toradora, myself. But she’s everyone’s favorite dead girl, the exiled princess of Turan, and that messed up imouto Mana.

    • Foshizzel says:

      True! You could be right about that skylion! She is more of a Yacchan from Toradora I want to see her fight! Maybe she is a bamf mecha pilot like Asuka? Lolol messed up Mana is great <3

  2. BlackBriar says:

    Looks like this season has a lot of animes that concern space and mecha stuff. There’s this, Ano Natsu de Matteru and Moretsu Pirates. I was surprised when the guy next to Youko mentioned OOPArts. That’s an artifact from the Mega Man Starforce 2 game for DS. Again, space, what a coincidence.

    Madoka is still upbeat for someone engaged in a war. She’s nonchalantly going on ahead with this and she’s hot in that green outfit. A two on one fight is unfair but it’s as if the bad guys are doing it out of fear and desperation. This story just makes me more and more curious.

    • Foshizzel says:

      I love space and mechs this makes me really happy since previous seasons were missing some serious mecha action! Yeah I was surprised that Ano Natsu had a “sci-fi” theme I did see bits and parts of that teacher series.

      Madoka is awesome! Such a great lead character, lolol those bad guys….they are interesting to watch I have a feeling they will switch sides and join with Madoka, Lan and Mugi eventually because they don’t act all “evil” to me.

      • BlackBriar says:

        Space and mecha do seem to work well. I like it since I watched Gundam Wing and G Gundam. I was equally surprised about Ano Natsu as well. But here’s what I noticed: What happened to the male lead at the start is similar to Kore Wa’s Ayumu and High School DxD’s Issei. We have another trend besides pulling weapons out of people’s bodies.

        Yeah, the “bad guys” don’t seem evil at all. There is more to them than what is showing. Maybe a plot twist? I’m definitely continuing this.

        Speaking of continuing shows, Fosh and Kara, have you been following Naruto Shippuden lately? Because if you haven’t, then you’re really missing out especially with this week’s episode 245. Naruto’s undone the seal and is confronting the Nine-Tails. Here’s a quote for more motivation: “Sage Art: Super Giant Rasengan!”

        • Karakuri says:

          AHAHAHAHA I’m back at like, episode 25 of Shippuden. Give me half a year and maybe I’ll be there xD. Though I fully intend on skipping the filler of doom crap so maybe it will only take a month or two.

          • BlackBriar says:

            Well, I had to suffer that kind of choice as well. Before I started watching again at episode 200 with the Five Kage Summit, the last episode I saw was when they found Sasuke at Orochimaru’s hideout, and that was around the 50’s. I missed the entire fight between Naruto and Pain (Nagato) and the one between Sasuke and Killer Bee. So you’re alone in being left behind.

          • BlackBriar says:

            “So you’re not alone in being left behind.” My bad. It’s annoying how one little mistake can change an entire sentence.

        • Bob from Accounting says:

          ‘Recent Naruto’. ‘Missing out’. DOES NOT COMPUTE. Well, missing out on lulzy facepalm moments, perhaps…

  3. Bob from Accounting says:

    Totally agree on the Space Bishies. It isn’t helping matters for the protagonists credibility that the designated ‘villains’ are acting so much more like Big Damn Heroes right now.

    • Karakuri says:

      Ahaha I’m waiting on the big reveal behind their motives.

    • Foshizzel says:

      Indeed! I don’t think those bishies are actually “evil” maybe misguided? If anything they probably have someone above them giving orders.

    • akagami says:

      When I saw space bishies, the first thing I thought was Asuran, Dearka, and Yzak. Good times.

  4. anaaga says:

    Man, I have hots for the evil bishies. Are they even evil? I don’t think so. They’re not giving the evil vibe.

    • Karakuri says:

      LOL me too, me too. Not to mention not one of them has even said anything about destroying the world. It’s all kitsune eyes.

    • Foshizzel says:

      Agreed Anaaga! I can bet money they will join Madoka, Lan and Mugi eventually because I don’t feel they are really all that evil…sure they blew up some ships and attacked Madoka, but they were trying to save their friend…

  5. Overcooled says:

    MADOKA IS SOOOOO CUTTEEEE OH MY GOD, THE CUTE NOISES SHE MAKES FOR NO REASON AHHH~~

    Onto more coherent thoughts, I’m starting to like the show even more as it progresses. The battles are all kind of peppy and cheerful instead of actual fights though, at this point. Madoka spends most of the time talking or being cute, and then…only sometimes…an actual battle-related thing happens. She spent most of the battle underwater on her cellphone OTL Like you guys pointed out, how is that even an effective use of time in a fight? Why did the evil guy take SO MUCH TIME to attack her again? HE CAN FLY AT MACH 2.

    But really..oh my gosh…so cute…the outfits too…I want to try them all on! Mooeeeeee~

    • Karakuri says:

      A-are you okay, OC? XD

      Ahaha I think as long as there isn’t a phone call/ newound friendship every battle (though this show doesn’t have a great track record so far), I’ll be okay with any amount of ridiculousness the pacing in this throws at me. …And I’m just assuming that his robot doesn’t have radar or whatever, so he had to search underwater for her. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

      It’s your inner cosplayer, YOU MUST OBEY!

    • Foshizzel says:

      Buhahahahah OC you are so right! Madoka is cute and she has some of the best “sound effects” Like when she dropped her phone and went to pick it up? Lolol so hnngggg worthy <3

      Battles are good! Yea why did it take Izo that long to find Madoka? When like you said he can travel at mach 2...Maybe he was giving her time to make that phone call?! Lol

      Nice! I am waiting for the cosplayers to spam Deviantart soon those flight suits...not bad <3

      • Overcooled says:

        He definitely has some sort of radar if he could tell the signal from her robot was different -_- Ugghhhh. Although I guess maybe he can pick up the signal but not know where it’s from? Like a radio? I dunno, maybe because they spent all their efforts building robots, they’re behind in radar technology u.u

        Yeah, even I have moments where I’m weak to cute things. I can’t be a murder machine all the time! 8D

  6. Hawthorne says:

    Ahmagawd this show is awesome, might even be my favorite of the season. I like Madoka so much more compared to last episode too.

    That’s an interesting observation about reincarnation, Kara, I hope it comes into play in the show. (What if Madoka actually drowned that day at the beach and the mecha was what brought her back to life? As far as good karma goes, she did try to save that drowning girl.)

    • Karakuri says:

      SAME HERE. I wasn’t so sure before, but it’s turning out pretty good!

      Or at least I hope this has something to do with reincarnation. I don’t think I’ve seen that many anime with reincarnation that aren’t romance based. BRING ME SOMETHING NEW, LEGRANGE!

    • Foshizzel says:

      Hooray! I am happy to see my fellow metanorn team loving this series so far, yeah compared to episode one Madoka is quite interesting to watch.

      Ahh yeah that is a good one Kara, maybe like my “contract” idea too like owes her life to her vox? But not sure on the whole Lan thing quite yet some fans think she is a princess or something.

      • Karakuri says:

        Lololol Madoka should be more careful with those contracts. We all know what happened with the other Madoka.

  7. Jrow says:

    Whenever I see Lan, I always think of Major Kusanagi with her outfit and jacket. Mugi may have nice plots, but the backstory on Lan is rather intriguing.

    Good episode, fun show. I watch this with Aquarion in Jrow’s Mecha Power Hour.

    • Yippy says:

      I watch them both too! So far, it’s kinda neck-and-neck between them for me, though Rinne has a slight advantage thanks to the lack of fuzzy terms.

  8. akagami says:

    I really love the OP and ED and now I finally know why – they’re sung by Nakajima Megumi (Ranka Lee of Macross Frontier fame). She is sooooo cute in this video (this came out right after Macross Frontier on Nico Nico Douga)
    Be Yourself!

  9. […] still, at least gives you an idea about what to expect (remember Lagrange pre-air and how beautiful the real thing turned out?). The avatar design for Haru is ironman-ish but still shiny; also, I love the CG of […]

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