With their introductory cirriculum’s completed, Zero and
his classmates are now introduced to their partners, the Repairers. These girls will follow their Pilots to hell
and back…if they can get along. How will
Zero react when he discovers his partners peculiar feature? And who is this strange ace pilot named Erts,
who feels a kinship with Zero? Meanwhile,
the current roster of Goddess pilots find themselves up against tougher Victim,
some that can even withstand their most powerful weapons. Have the Goddess’ reached their limit or are
the pilots beginning to falter?
Well before I reached the now halfway point of this
series, ive begun to realize why this show failed to find an audience and
eventually become forgotten by time.
Even though one or two things might find a way to make me go “ok this
isn’t bad”, the rest of Pilot Candidate continues to be uninteresting,
unoriginal or unnecessary. And
sometimes, it’s just plain annoying.
This week, the Candidates met their Repairers, all girls
who will serve as their support crews in battle. Of the five introduced, only three get
significant screentime and even then TWO are the central focus, and you get two
guesses as to why that is. That’s
because Kizna and Ikhny are the Repairers of Zero and Hiead respecitvley and
yeah, neither seem like a good fit (even if Zero and Kizna do make some
progress). For starters, Zero’s
annoyance hits new levels when he basically ignores Kizna and insists on
continuing to call every girl he sees “WOMAN!!!” at the top of his lungs. I mean sure he and Kizna do lighten up but
more of that is because Kizna’s probably the most interesting character
introduced so far…mostly cause she’s cute and is a cat girl but is also good at
her job. And there is a bit where Zero
and Kizna both take responsibility for being tardy and share punishments…still
this isn’t moving me any closer to liking Zero.
His partner on the other hand, eh she’s ok. Ikhny worries me. Hiead at one point physically slams the poor
girl against a wall and tells her to stay out of his way before walking
off. Come on guys, girls are not the
monsters you make them out to be in this series. Even worse, Ikhny says nothing to anyone, not
even Hijikata about this and decides to just stay close to Hiead’s side, trying
to hope he’ll just automatically be ok with her. Oh Ikhny, Hiead is a silent brooding punk
with no respect for anyone, good luck getting through that iron wall of
stereotype. The only other repairer who
gets screetime is Saki, Clay’s partner…not much on her really, she’s just there
to confirm Clay’s “Press Start Button for Info” commentary. Also, ive gotta say, what the hell says a non
skinny person cant be a pilot? Have they
met Ryu Jose from Mobile Suit Gundam? Or
Hunk from Voltron? To say an overweight
individual cant be a pilot is pretty insulting…it’s just surprising it didn’t
come out of the mouth of Zero or Hiead but the former overweight Sawamura’s
Repairer, Wrecka.
Most of this week dealt with the Pilots and their
Repairers getting to know each other and bicker back and forth during
simulations. It’s here that I ask…is
there a point to dragging this all out?
We spend two episodes on intros and rides in the simulator and it feels
like things have barely progressed storywise.
I feel like by the time I get to the last episode, nothing of value is
going to be accomplished for the story.
Again, this is why Pilot Candidate feels like a Shonen title. Well, to give Shonen Anime a bit more credit,
even if they have a super lengthy episode run, the pacing is a helluva lot
better. Pilot Candidate seems to be
playing the waiting game, knowing its never going to pay off. Im betting right now that when we get to the
finale, someone’s going to say “now it begins” before cutting to black or “to
be continued…”
It isn’t helping that the CG animation isn’t really
getting any better. I dare say it’s actually getting worse. This is beginning to look like animation from
a half assed Anime you’d find randomly in a promo catalogue without much heart
or fanfare behind it, a title churned out to make a quick buck. The Pro-Ing Ingrids move more clunky than the
Goddesses, it doesn’t matter if theyre being piloted by rookies or not. To see that the CG ever got approved is
almost unforgivable and embarrassing.
This goes double when trying to mix the 2D and 3D art styles as they did
during Zero’s second test run, where it all just looked rushed and unfinished.
Oh and there’s a whole subplot with some of the the
current Goddess pilots actually showing fear for their lives when Victims kick
the crap out of one or two of them in battle.
But truth be told, I don’t care.
The show wants to be about Zero or Hiead and hardly ever wants to focus
on anyone else. So why the heck should I
care about the current roster of pretty people piloting the pretty mecha who
are more bland and forgettable than…well anyone else in this show.
The good news is, I’m halfway done with this snooze
fest. The bad news is…ugh im only half
way done and not all the way done. Could
I at least re-edit the last seven episodes so it’s just Hijikata punching Zero
or Kizna kicking him repeatedly for…well lets face it for being a total little
asshole? (it’s about time someone finally did.)
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