First Impression – Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou
Aliens and superhumans and witches, oh my!
 |
I fully believe BONES decided to just throw in every kind of abnormal existence they could think of, and call it a show. I imagine the conversation went something like: “Hey, we have people with superpowers, what if they were aliens too?” “Sounds good to me.” “And a ghost.” “Alright.” “That can shapeshift!” “That’s a little…” “AND A WITCH” “Oh, what the hell, go for it.” 100% Exactly how it happened. Don’t quote me on that. |
There is a whole lot of crazy being thrown around here. I usually don’t do summaries, but I almost feel like I need to include something brief for future reference, if nothing else. If you still have no clue what in the world is going on, maybe this will help, or you can take solace in the fact that anyone who says they do understand is lying. Here we go:
Jiro recruits Kikko to help stop a transaction taking place in the restaurant she works at between Japan’s leading scientist and an industrial spy who’s trying to sabotage future scientific advancements. There’s a time skip to where Jiro is cornered on a train by Kikko and another person. Jiro uses his power (which I’m guessing is to manipulate metal) to escape, and we go back to the present time. Kikko uses her witch powers to take the package being exchanged, and the spy, who turns out to be an “S” Planetarian alien, retaliates by attacking her. The alien spy grows huge because reasons (I’m going to assume in human form they are literally superhuman, in general they are “superhumans,” and their true alien form is a giant, or maybe they just like being big) and another alien, Grosse Augen, appears with the intention of laying the smackdown on him. Grosse Augen teleports them both a short distance away to fight, also because reasons (possibly to avoid civilian casualties, but it’s still in the middle of the city so who knows). Jiro kidnaps Kikko into his car to talk exposition and then joins Grosse Augen in taking down the “S” Planetarian. Grosse Augen reaches down for a comrade handshake, but Jiro cuts his finger and injects a monster’s fluid into it, so he can be tracked. Jiro stops to capture the “S” Planetarian first though (because if they get huge when they’re powerful it only makes sense that they grow small when defeated). Another time skip to Jiro being held at magic laser point by Kikko when another mysterious man shows up and cut to present. Grosse Augen turns out to be possessing a human’s body who had offered it to the dying alien in exchange for protecting the planet. Since Grosse Augen’s body is finally reaching it’s limit, Jiro separates them from each other, appearing to kill them both. Jiro’s real priority was Grosse Augen all along, and the deal between the “S” Planetarian and Onda was used to bring him out. The “S” Planetarian was planning to avoid the possibility of Onda finding his one of his species’ bases via the device he gave him. Kikko joins the Superhuman Bureau who protect (and destroy, but they seem to like leaving that part out) superhumans. A final time skip where the unknown man with Jiro is revealed to be the one who was possessed by Grosse Augen. Jiro disobeyed the Bureau’s orders and merged the “S” Planetarian with that man in exchange for separating him from Grosse Augen. Jiro also isn’t a member (or maybe he just ran away) of the Superhuman Bureau anymore for unknown reasons. “S” Planetarian Man and Jiro flee. Kikko loves Jiro.
Phew.
Gotta catch ’em all!
I really despise writing “‘S’ Planetarian” every time. Mostly because of the “S.” What does it mean?! It doesn’t seem like there’s any rules to anyone’s powers right now either. Kikko can do whatever. Jiro can do whatever (with metal). Fuurouta can become whatever (from what the preview shows). Even the “S” Planetarian (ugh) can use sleep rays, but then starts palmslapping fairly neat and almost perfect circular holes into glass, changes his giant body shape to create spikes, and shoots heat wave lasers that look more like lightening. Things are more fun this way, but it certainly doesn’t help differentiate or put a classification on them until we get to know a little bit more about what they can or how they do it. Human’s attitudes toward superhumans are golden; half the time they are understandably upset or afraid of them and the other half they are completely nonchalant. “Ah! Aliens fighting!…Eh, that’s enough of that, time for work.” These kinds of occurrences might be so frequent that they’ve become accustomed to it, but that’s not exactly the best thing to get used to, hence some of their animosity.
That first time skip really threw me for a loop. It was probably because it took place in April, and the present time is July, so yeah, I kept thinking it was a flashback even though there was Fuurouta who we haven’t been introduced to yet (next episode) and Jiro and Kikko already knew each other. If you haven’t been able to tell I’m blonde yet…By the time the second time skip comes around, I was prepared for it. I won’t fall for that again. However, out of all three the only one I thought worked well enough was the second. The first on the train was too jarring; you’re pretty much confused the entire episode, but here’s this scene literally right after Jiro and Kikko get introduced that makes you even more lost. Jiro needs Kikko’s help. Okay, they’re on a train now and Jiro is being all sneaky; must be according to plan. Wait, she didn’t know he was there? And now she’s chasing after him? I thought he needed help! And, what does Kikko’s age have to do with anything? It makes sense by the end (I had no clue what was going on while watching, but revisiting it a couple hours after, everything clicked) but there’s definitely no hand-holding going on here. Meanwhile, I didn’t feel the premiere was entirely rushed, but there were a bunch of threads that were tied by the end. There’s Kikko, the package, the “S” Planetarian, Grosse Augen, and the future time skips (on top of the exposition and fight scenes), that all have their own mini stories attached and reached a conclusion in the span of an episode. That is a ton of material to cover, and it finally felt like “this is too much” at that last time skip.
EXPLOSIONS. COOL POSES.
As I was watching Concrete Revolutio, I had this persistent feeling. It’s like an alternate reality version of Kekkai Sensen (obvious differences aside). Without the demons, monsters, and vampires, and with superhumans, aliens, and witches (okay, probably the most obvious difference). I’m fully expecting Concrete Revolutio to have all of those creatures make an appearance at some point. I think I’ll actually be disappointed if it doesn’t. Maybe I’m the only one who feels they’re similar. I’m also probably the only person to like Mahouka (yes, I know I’m going to mention how I hate infodumps in literally the next sentence). Even though Concrete Revolutio has started completely off the wall, I, at least, prefer to witness however wacky the world may be than being exposed to even the slightest hint of an infodump (which wasn’t entirely avoided, but it certainly didn’t last that long because if it did we’d actually have an understanding of some things). Hopefully, the series will slow down a bit, so we have more time to take everything in instead of throwing it all in our faces, but we’ll see how it goes; it still has the potential to do fairly well even with this rapid moments style if it manages to stay focused, which it seems to so far in spite of everything.
About Kyon
I am a fear of life, I am afraid of life, and I am a fantasm of life, always a flame, always aflame, and always the same.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t know what problem people had keeping up with this show, because it seemed totally straightforward to me. Well, at least as straightforward as a show that has Kaiju robots, magical girls, body modified superpowers, time skips, and all that kind of stuff can be.
I actually like when they throw all the ideas in together. I like when DxD does it with belief systems, and I liked it here. I’m also interested in seeing how the get from the early time period to the later time period, which seems like it’ll be kind of the halfway point of the show. I’m guessing we’ll spend a few episodes getting to the point where Jiro leaves the Bureau, and then figure out where to go from there.
I just thought the story was setup pretty well with the time skips presented the way they were, and I liked the show.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Well, while this show was an interesting idea, it was just so way out there that I don’t think I need 3 episodes. It wasn’t that it was hard to follow, it was that it was doing too much at one time that I felt overwhelmed.
And while I understood the story, I just wasn’t that intrigued by Jiro and Kikko all that much. Also the parts they showed of “superheroes” has the really old school cheesy Japanese flair that I don’t really care for. Sailor Moon-esque transformations? Super sentai fights? It’s just not my thing.
I liked the idea, but the execution didn’t really grab me.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Basically, this show is about a melting pot of a city harboring various supernatural special. We’ve run across something similar in Kekkai Sensen. Not that it’s a bad idea to tackle but I personally feel that Kekkai does that kind of exposition better.
The problem is too much happening at once plus throwing in a seamless flashback was jarring, making things go all over the place and thus incoherent. It left me with a disorientation here that I didn’t feel in Heavy Object’s first episode (Yes, I was able to follow the latter without a problem).
The plot is averagely interesting at this point. Maybe it will do something to make me want to invest and right now, the two leads aren’t much to talk about. Though it’s ironic to have a frame showing Kikko (surely against her will in the beginning) joining the Bureau and one after with Jiro saying he isn’t going back.
The animation is loose, a lot of crazy designs. Appropriate for this kind of series that doesn’t look like it will hold back on any over the top sequences it will dish out. Not to mention bringing memories of Kill la Kill and Rolling Girls the first time seeing.
I’m on the fence with this series so the 3 episode rule is in effect.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I had no idea what was going on in the slightest until the very end. Even then I’m probably kidding myself a little. It really is a hot mess of just about every idea BONES could think of, but I will admit that it’s really fun to watch. It feels a little weird to say I liked it when most of it left me baffled, but I honestly had a good time!
…I swear I am an adult and not a baby who just reacts pleasantly to bright colours and flashiness.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
The flashback wasn’t that obvious, so I was confused for a bit (actually quite a while). This was just weird to me.
Weird and not really that coherent, other than there’s this alien who needs to be subdued and people want to get in touch with Grosse Augen… but everything else that happens along the way seems haphazardly thrown in together. Why? Director: “Why not?”
The only thing I did like was Kikko’s witch outfit, and her air scooter (who needs brooms these days). The Super Sentai stuff just doesn’t appeal to me at all.
One week in, this season looks like it’ll be unusually light for me. Guess that’s good once in a while, so I can work down my backlog.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Well, yeah, I was one of the people that didn’t like this one at first. But it wasn’t anything really obvious, just one of my inflammatory pet peeves. They had that line near to the very start “This will put the worlds scientific progress back 10 years!!!!!” dun dun dumb. I hate, to my very core, stupid, idiotic, moronic, and easy lines like that.
But I got over it!
As for the rest, the story seems fairly simple, but you just can’t have BONES going all KISS on you, can you? Nope, they just got to dress it up in a bunch of silly stuff they don’t bother earning. Ah, well, it’s early days for the show. I’ll give it a break.