First Impressions – Comet Lucifer

Adventure in Crystal Disneyland–with mechs!

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

Isaiah 14:12 (KJV)

Well, I have to say that I’ve fallen for 8-Bit’s latest. It’s wonderful to have some original content that succeeds on a tremendous level of charm and perspicacity; it knows what it wants to say, and exactly how to say it from the get go!

 

Lucifer–the light bringer, the fallen angel, the morning star, the destroyer, the liar, the deceiver. A young girl falls from the skies, but is she good or evil? Does she bring life or death? A world far far away is about to find themselves caught in an epic conflict of biblical proportions.

To be honest, when I first saw this series advertised, I dismissed it. Cute but strange loli girls going on adventures with awkward but good-hearted teenage boys and their friends, aren’t really my thing. The PV showed that the animation was going to be top notch and I can always appreciate that, and the fantasy world of Gift, also looked like a very interesting setting. But still I hadn’t decided to commit to trying it out until it was revealed in the promo art a few weeks before the show’s release, revealing that this show was actually going to be a mecha series of all things!

Now, that intrigued me. A fantasy world with mechs and girls getting born out of crystals? Okay show, you’ve hooked me, I can at least try it.

And boy, was I glad I did.

Gift is the New Gaia

IreneSharda// Before even the plot gets started, the setting itself takes center stage. We are introduced to the world of Gift and the country of Garden Indigo, a small, idyllic nation that hearkens to classical southern European style in terms of landscape and architecture. The town, the buildings, the beautiful skyline, even the people of the town, scream “provincial”. That is, until you see the rather advanced technology of this place, which for some reason reminds me of the worlds of Final Fantasy. It’s the sort of land where you might see outlandish cars and hover boards right next to horse and buggies. Where holograms sit right next to oil paintings and newspapers, and where countryside German cottages and tiny French boulangeries sit next to futuristic stone citadels. It’s like if Disneyland’s Tommorowland and Fantasyland crashed into each other. It’s just the kind of world this is.

Fantasy meets Technology

The juxtaposition between the idyllic fantasy/science fiction land, and the bridge scenes out of Gundam and pretty much any mech series ever, was not as jarring as one might think. It actually seems to flow seamlessly from one to the other as we are taken on this new adventure with our new characters.

Back on the Starship Enterprise…

skylion//I was immediately taken by the shows world design. Just a glance and you can see that it cleanly and clearly evokes television anime and films of old. I get hints of The Cat Returns, Laputa The Castle in the Sky, Nadia of the Blue Water, and parts of Steamboy, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Is This Order a Rabbit? But while it borrows from those influences, it does stand out on it’s own. To be sure, those sights went by in quick order, but it didn’t fail to deliver on the promise that Lucifer’s quasi-European cityscape was a working environment. It was a place where we could meet familiar faces despite it’s science-fantasy background; an aspect tons of creators either forget or just don’t care about in the rush to make things “different”.

As We Begin Our Tale…

sky// It’s a great place to tell a story. In that, we get a tale that looks to be very character driven, the focus on the male and female leads. Sougo and Kaon is instantly followable. Again, it borrows from a lot of other conventions, but it does it well. But before I go any further I would like to address one thing. Both of these two should be either dead or crippled by their exploits. I counted at least four times where they played way too fast and loose with the action. But, it’s engaging enough to give it’s wild and wooly chase the benefit of the doubt and move on.

Meet Sougo Amagi–resident caver,  geologist, and breaker of the speed limit.

Irene//And what is our story anyway? Well, it actually pretty standard fare so far, with a shadowy secret organization that watch the skies for a living, and the assumed leader of said group, telling us of a prophecy regarding two beings of light and darkness battling it out for supremacy. And that that legend will set the stage for this current story.

We are introduced to our major cast, including our main character, Sougo Amagi, who is an adventuresome boy, if a little clueless. An amateur spelunker, geologist, and crystallographer, his hobbies include digging out crystals in dark and dangerous crevices and caves at the break of dawn, and studying said crystals (called gifdium) in order to prove his deceased mother’s theories.

He’s friends with three others, the spunky, rich tomboy Kaon Lanchester, the foppish, spoiled prince of the land and heir apparent to the throne of Garden Indigo, Roman Valov, and his servant/lackey Otto Moto.

It’s interesting seeing the one normal, average guy, hanging out with the odd and elite of this town, but not unusual either. I mean, what kind of adventure troop would it be if everyone in the group was an average Joe Shmoe?

A host of strange friends and strange circumstances.

Something Strange This Way Comes

A crystal womb appears.

Irene//And just in time to incite said adventure, comes our main female lead, that appears in the most weird way one can imagine, but it definitely leaves a bit of mystery to her character and her origins. A comet appears in the sky, light surrounding a dark and demonic figure that suddenly transforms into our main mystery loli. She hits a poor, unsuspecting Sougo head on, but all that he has when he awakens is a very strange red crystal. So excited at the sight, he totally forgets that he was just hit by an exploding ball of light that came from the sky, he rushes home to study it.

After some antics with his friends, including a betrothal and a car chase of all things, he eventually finds himself in a dark underground lake where the crystals that beautifully cover the walls reveal a red crystal geode-like “womb” that reacts to the red crystal “seed” that Sougo’s been carrying and two join together to “birth” the little lady, that just fell to the planet that morning, in an extremely explosive and yet beautiful display.

The most explosive birth ever seen.

It’s a rather silly scene, and it’s a rather convoluted way of coming to Earth (or Gift in this case), but I can go with it. The shadowy organization with no name so far, is also partially responsible, and they look to be our antagonists for the present. It will be through them that the mecha angle will be achieved, as they seem to pilot “Armors”, and for some reason, instead of talking to the young teens they didn’t expect to find, or even explaining it to their superiors, they just decide that cold-blooded murder is the best option for getting rid of nuisances. *rolleyes*

Sorry Weather Girls, forget men, it’s rainin’ lolis!

I can only assume they are trying to get their hands on the newly “born” Felia for obviously sinister reasons, or at least that’s the most I can gather. We’ll need to see more in order to get a better idea of what’s going on. The only thing I know is that our main mech is pretty sweet.  It seems to be self-aware and seemingly pops out nowhere as a defense mechanism.  It has animalistic mannerisms as well, which makes me ask if it’s really a mech, or a creature of some kind? There’s still so many questions about what’s going on, but we have a lot of time to discover the answers.

Mecha powers activate!

sky//This action starts off with that hoary old trope, the Runaway Bride, and soon that chase leads them into the parallel B-story. I don’t know precisely what is going on with the mechs and mysterious mining details, but it looks to be sinister, and promises to be the wheel around with the larger plot will revolve. I like how the show was able to switch between Sougo discovering the mysterious gem, how it gave hints of the development to come, and how that connected to what the mysterious side of the plot was engaged in. I also enjoyed how they didn’t show this mechanized force as anything evil right off the bat. Sure, they don’t exactly look like good guys, but our mains don’t really look like good guys either. It looks to be, “just folks” doing what they need to do, one of them much more serious than the other.

Is Felia good or evil? Only time can tell.

Well, I really like this series start and I’m excited to see more. All of the main characters are likable so far, and the setting is definitely something that I really want stay immersed in for the season. I was so pleasantly surprised by this premiere and I will be excited to keep going with this series. I know some people got snapped out of it by the fact that the world doesn’t seem to obey the laws of physics, and several main characters should already be dead from gravity alone. However, I guess I’m used to cartoon physics by now so it didn’t bother me at all, and since it another planet anyway, perhaps it has a different set of physics? As for the plot itself, is Felia as good and nice as her form now suggests? Or is there darker things about? And what about that prophecy that started this whole thing? I’m excited to have fun finding out the answers while the series develops, and watching the mech battles that will come up along the way.

It began with what felt like a creation myth, and it ended with Sogo being on the receiving end of a mystical birth metaphor. With a wise man looking at the heavens, and the heavens reflected in both a telescope, and a pool of water. Who are those strange wise men? Who is this mysterious LOLi from the crystal? What is this opposing force looking for? I like how the episode ended with more questions than answers. It did so with a good degree of confidence and style. This is a Fun show, and it doesn’t forget to remind you of that. From it’s chases, to it’s awkward teen relationship, to that lovely short, sharp, shock mech fight at the end following the magic pixie girl appearance, it looks like it’s doing what all good stories are supposed to do; take what is familiar and put it’s own spin and attention to new details on that. I’m looking forward to more.

On the technical side of things, 8-bit has done a good job on its budget. The character designs are crisp and uncomplicated, and everything looks good in it’s static shots. The mech combat and magical birth scene was where they put the most attention, and it’s pays off. The VAs are doing good work. Nothing in the shows screams ::ironic:: QUALITY! I love the OP by Fhana.