Apr8

First impressions: Captain Earth

By , posted under ANIME, Captain Earth, First Look

Have no fear! Captain Earth is here!

This season is a treat for Mecha fans and even when you can’t consider me in the die-hard ones, I still like the genre. Some old school stuff more than the new age but hey, for starters Captain Earth was not bad and so I’m here with my tag partner Fosh, to tell you its tale.

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Wooooooooooooo hoooooooooooooo! Captain Earth is finally here to save anime! Just kidding, but I certainly hope that it can bring Bones back into the world of Mecha especially after the mess with Eureka Seven Ao and the final episodes of Star Driver.

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Stage setting for a Hero

captain E (7)

These two might be fun villains!

Kyokai// For the first episode, the pacing was pretty good. We were spared the details of Daichi growing up year by year rather the short version of it. As we have this series for two-cours, which was fine by me. Whatever plot hints were required, were given to us on time and nothing seemed amiss. I was kept entertained with the pacing and jumping from past to future on how Daichi turned out to be the way he did. He seems like a good kid and you really don’t need to be a studious megane-kun to prove some trope-point. Gaming and slacking off is fine because Daichi had the air of the person who became detached from life after his father died and he was separated from people he called friends (Teppei mostly). Though, even with all that, one still wonders how the protagonists are always RIGHT-ON-TIME near the proximity of a mecha to save the day. Not to mention, knowing everything perfectly on how to pilot a very sophisticated mecha like a pro. This is anime logic but something that gets me all the time. Besides this though, the world building was good enough with a semi-futuristic world setting where alien attack is nothing new. I wonder the reasoning and if the loli is actually from the same alien race and how things will progress. I have hopes from the Star Driver team.

Captain Amazing!

captain E (6)

Daichi is ready to save the universe!!

Fosh// It’s no secret that I live and breathe giant robots because I love the genre even though we usually end up getting things like Kenzen Robo Daimidaler which is a horrible excuse for a mecha but we are here to talk about Captain Earth which I have been personally excited for ever since I saw the original trailers, but I have learned over the past year not to claim things as AMAZING until we actually sit down to watch the first handful of episodes. So did Bones deliver on this series? For me yes but I could see where some would disagree based on certain events that take place like when the older Daichi entered that strange building where he just so happened to find a kid with a recorder who takes him to the basement level where he discovered the magical key which teleported next to his shiny new robot? Sure I will say that whole scene was out there; however I think that is one issue most mecha story writers face and what problem is that exactly? The problem is how do you get the main character into their giant robot without making it seem super cheesy? Do you have them fall into it randomly like every other Gundam? Do you have the robot come to them like in Eureka Seven? Do they already have access to it like in Star Driver or did they guild it themselves like in Gundam AGE? I mean whatever method they decide to use in the end people will probably roll their eyes as they see the main character getting into his robot for the first time and in a matter of five or more episodes they suddenly become godly pilots, but judging from the next episode it seems that Daichi will be receiving help from a passing magical girl named Akari? I guess we will see if Bones can do something creative and new with Captain Earth.

Extra giant mecha

caprain EE

I want magical powers like Teppei!

captain E (3)

Don’t forget to feed them or they will bite!

captain E (4)

The enemy comes from planet Pizza Hut~

captain E (5)

Captain America would love this robot.

End thoughts

Besides the setting, the thing that got me was the amazing seiyuu cast. My favourite married seiyuu pair of Suzumura Kenichi and Maaya Sakamoto are voicing some very interesting aliens who run on LIBIDO! Yeah, SD team, I got you there. A crazy Maaya (Ryougi Shiki HNNGG), is always good but I’m pretty sure that Amara will not be as mild as one Kokutou Mikiya. The main protagonists are voiced by Miyu Irino (Jinta from AnoHana, Chizuru from Kimi to Boku), who is known to wear his roles and Hiroshi Kamiya (Koyomi from Monogatari, Quon from Towa no Quon) as his partner, so NOTHING CAN GO WRONG! I’m just disappointed that we did not get a KaMiyu theme song from them (a la Karneval ending theme), for Captain Earth but hey, hinthintnudgenudge, I hope this gets read by a studio person to have them sing the theme song for the second-half. And let’s not forget Rikiya Koyama (Kiritsugu from Fate/Zero and Samon from Zetsuen no Tempest). Yep, I am hooked.

Whoaaaaa what an amazing first episode! I have to say damn Bones is bringing out their A-game for the soundtrack which is straight out of Star Driver especially with Hana singing a maiden like song before the big battle and of course the top tier animation which created the best Voltron like mecha transformation! Then again I bet there were some people shouting HURRY UP ALREADY! Now what about the actual story so far? Since we only have one episode it is tough to say where things are going to go with this series but they do have some mysteries forming like what are Teppei and Hana? Aliens, Artifical humans or what? Also is Daichi’s dad even dead? Honestly he could be lost in space for all we know and what is the deal with the enemy team? Why are they attacking earth? I know eventually we will get those answers, but I can’t wait to see Daichi reunite with Teppei and Hana as they go on adventures in space together.

So what did you enjoy about this first episode?

Preview

captain E (1)

FK YA MECHA FIST!!

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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53 Responses to “First impressions: Captain Earth”

  1. Di Gi Kazune says:
    April 8, 2014 at 6:03 am
    POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments

    Captain Planet! He’s our hero! Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart! Go PLANET! Oh wait… wrong show. 😛

    I’ll wait and see if you can make it interesting enough for me to watch. ^^

    Reply
  2. Mexu2d says:
    April 8, 2014 at 6:51 am
    POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 44 comments

    I love the story but I just love the song in captain Earth, it’s great.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EKpRb4Iozg

    This is just the ending credits but it’s the song that matters.

    Reply
  3. Mexu2d says:
    April 8, 2014 at 6:52 am
    POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 44 comments

    Reply
    • Kyokai says:
      April 8, 2014 at 2:58 pm
      POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments

      There are a lot of high profile names affixed to this series so the music department in terms of theme songs, BGM and OSTs should be awesome.

      Reply
  4. skylion says:
    April 8, 2014 at 8:22 am
    POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments

    This one caught me on a bad day. I don’t think I liked it very much. But, after reading the FI, I am going to give it another chance.

    What kinda turned me off to it is that over over over long transformation sequence. Yes three times over; just as many stages as it to to transform. Golly gee…can we get a fourth stage to give the mecha an awesome hat!? LOL.

    So, I will watch it again at some point. Hey, did he technically fall into the mech by going down that oddball elevator?

    Reply
    • Highway says:
      April 8, 2014 at 9:27 am
      POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments

      And another stage for a cloak and pimpstick…

      Reply
      • skylion says:
        April 8, 2014 at 10:40 am
        POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments

        Lol

        Reply
        • Kyokai says:
          April 8, 2014 at 2:56 pm
          POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments

          I think they wanted to do something more to the Star Driver sequence and add in some Eva unit preparation. Looks superfluous to me and god help me if we have to go through this EVERY TIME. Though, the libido injection amused me to no end.

          Reply
          • Highway says:
            April 8, 2014 at 3:06 pm
            POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments

            Like I said about Star Driver a couple podcasts ago: The point of the transformation sequence being in EVERY episode was “Well, that’s a minute of animation we don’t need to do. Just come up with a new pattern to put in the background.” It was like the OP or ED – already done.

            Reply
          • skylion says:
            April 8, 2014 at 4:08 pm
            POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments

            It really bugged me, but I was having some cranky pants issues at the time. I’ll be rewatching tonight!

            Reply
    • Foshizzel says:
      April 8, 2014 at 11:54 pm
      POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments

      As a magical girl fan I am used to the whole super long transformation scene even the long one we saw every other week in PenguinDrum, but I just skip through it after seeing it a few times…

      Reply
      • skylion says:
        April 8, 2014 at 11:59 pm
        POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments

        Yeah, I suppose that if I dearly loved PenguinDrum, I can love this.

        Reply
        • Foshizzel says:
          April 9, 2014 at 12:04 am
          POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments

          I mean is it annoying? Yes I would agree but I have a feeling that Captain Earth will not use it as much every week and we might not even get a boss fight of the week.

          Reply
          • skylion says:
            April 9, 2014 at 12:17 am
            POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments

            It just felt overwrought, like it was trying to draw too much attention to the show. I feel the same way about the Regalia stuff in ZA Fool.

            Reply
  5. Highway says:
    April 8, 2014 at 9:33 am
    POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments

    Captain Earth was ok. Hopefully it doesn’t turn into an anime tokusatsu hero show, I’d like a little more depth than that would generally confer.

    I thought the mechs looked good, tho.

    Reply
    • Kyokai says:
      April 8, 2014 at 3:05 pm
      POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments

      Oh god, I hope this is not another toku for sure. Coming from the SD team I think we should be rest assured of not having a monster per week. I’m really interested in the alien race and how they will progress the whole mecha thing. Would look forward to some scandalous concepts or this would get boring fast.

      Reply
    • Foshizzel says:
      April 8, 2014 at 11:57 pm
      POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments

      They didn’t do it EVERY week on StarDriver so we gotta have faith 😛

      Reply
      • Highway says:
        April 9, 2014 at 12:41 am
        POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments

        They did. There may have been one single episode that they didn’t have the transformation, but other than that, it was every single week. Exactly the same except for background pattern and music.

        Reply
        • Foshizzel says:
          April 9, 2014 at 3:21 am
          POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments

          There were like 3 episodes where they didn’t fight >.>

          Reply
        • akagami says:
          April 9, 2014 at 7:46 pm
          POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments

          I actually enjoyed Star Driver’s transformations! But I agree, this one is a bit long. It kind of reminds me of Gundam Seed Destiny’s Impulse… why the hell was it always launched in pieces and wasting pieces each time just so it can combine? Why not launch the damn thing in one piece to start with?!?! What if someone mixed up the order and you got the legs > head > body combined order?

          Reply
  6. zztop says:
    April 8, 2014 at 10:03 am
    POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments

    Tanegashima Island is a real-life island in southernmost Japan, off Kyushu Island, and houses the Tanegashima Space Complex rocket launch facility, depicted in the episode.

    Reply
  7. BlackBriar says:
    April 9, 2014 at 12:17 am
    POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments

    A decent start. If I recall right, this is the first mecha series made by Bones since Eureka Seven AO. Hopefully Captain Earth won’t end as confusing toward the end of the story like AO did with all the time travelling and space altering tropes. Right now, my two problems are assembling of the robot with extra parts which I found was needlessly long and believing that Daichi can pilot it right off the bat with no training whatsoever.

    Reply
    • Foshizzel says:
      April 9, 2014 at 3:22 am
      POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments

      Yeah I have high hopes for Captain Earth but I will hold my excitement back a bit until we actually see what Bones is going to do! I made that mistake with Eureka Seven AO and I did not enjoy it…

      Reply
      • akagami says:
        April 9, 2014 at 8:09 pm
        POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments

        Mmm, that reminds me, I still need to watch AO. But I need to get through the first few episodes of this season first to decide if I’m going to continue to follow all of them~~~

        Reply
  8. akagami says:
    April 9, 2014 at 7:50 pm
    POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments

    This show is such a tease. I want to see more of Sasaki and Aizawa~~~

    Reply
  9. skylion says:
    April 9, 2014 at 10:52 pm
    POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments

    Alright, I watched it again. And it has me even more ticked than I had originally been with it. I mean, the over long transformation was just the tip.

    The had good verisimilitude in the first act. We learned a bit about the character with every passing moment. And even when he spotted the Avalon Rainbow, it kept pace with itself. I loved the music that tied the modern day with his recollections of past. The character animation was spot on, fun and interesting. Find the girl in the bubble had a sort of magic…

    And then he does what he says he shouldn’t do.

    They had me at the beginning. And then they just had to go make the same derp all other robot show do to get the kid in the cockpit.

    But…..argh, I wanna watch it MOAR.

    Reply
  10. Irenesharda says:
    April 13, 2014 at 8:34 pm
    POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments

    Gosh, its been so long. Thought the episode was okay, but wasn’t impressed. The second episode it probably out by now, so I’ll have to watch that to see if my I end up liking it more than my first impression.

    Reply

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