Holy…Fraking…Crap. Back in college when I was getting into Red vs Blue on YouTube, I never would’ve dreamed the guys who made that series with the Halo multiplayer engine would ever create something like this. But here we are, after about a couple years of build up. Rooster Teeth (the brains behind the aforementioned RVB and RWBY) has brought us another game changing epic with Gen:Lock. If the rest of the series can stay as strong as the premiere, and improve on a couple of things in the process, we’re in for one helluva ride.
Coming up on it’s 17th Anniversary, Rooster Teeth looks like it’s pulled out all the stops on this one. Not only is Gen:Lock boasting the best visuals to date, even better than RWBY in some cases, but it’s also got some major voice talents backing it. Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther), Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds), Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) and David Tennant (Doctor Who) are just a few of the big names joining some RT veterans and other longtime voice actors to bring the mecha epic to life and not a single one disappoints (although Maisie Williams’ character doesn’t appear in EP1 but im sure Arya Stark will kick plenty of butt too). It’s fun to hear David Tennant bringing some of his Doctor magic to his role as Dr. Rufus Weller (even gets in a fun Doctor Who quip if you know your Time Lord stuff). But I was most impressed with Dakota Fannings Miranda Worth, whose character kind of goes through a lot in the first episode and Fanning sells all the bad ass and the feels Miranda must endure. Can never give Michael B. Jordan enough praise. As a self professed Anime fan, it’s gotta be a dream come true for the guy to play a part in this kind of project.
But that’s the technical, voice acting side, what about the
story? Well, it isn’t made clear in the
first episode how the major conflict has come to pass. We don’t know anything about the evil nano
boosted armies laying waste to everything in their path or what their endgame
is (conquer the US maybe?). And normally
such mysteries would bother me. But when
the action gets going, you kind of push logic to the back of your brain. As RWBY has taken cues from fantasy action
games like Final Fantasy, Gen:Lock is def bringing some Macross magic to the
proceedings with some wicked dogfights over New York City. And there’s def some Evangelion/Super Sentai influence
on the brand new mecha that appear at the end of the first episode, man can
they move. What also stunned me was how
brutal the combat was. When soldiers got
taken out, they got taken out. No longer
are in the age of Spartans cracking jokes in a small box canyon. It’s almost tough to watch soldiers getting
swallowed up by nanoclouds and pilots watching in horror as they lose friends
in battle. This is Rooster Teeth’s most
emotionally packed and serious show to date…and im proud of them for being able
to pull it off (granted they’d had successes in this field with later seasons
of Red vs. Blue and definitely RWBY. RVB
hasn’t left all of its trademark humor behind but RWBY left the laughs in the
dust following the end of Vol.3…but im getting off track).
I was glued to Gen:Lock from the first frame and I was
never lost, even if the story wasn’t incredibly clear. As a premiere, the first episode did its job
and roped me in with some cool action scenes, a solid cast and the promise that
if this is just the beginning, we haven’t seen anything yet. It fills me with joy to know that Anime
played a huge role in getting this project to the light of day. Gen:Lock reminds me that the possibilities
with the medium can be endless and even translated to American animation
projects like The Legend of Korra and Teen Titans. Gen:Lock looks set to join those ranks
alongside it’s similarly inspired series, RWBY.
Rooster Teeth has another gem on its hands and it is gonna shine big
time.
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