Shock of all shock, Infinite Stratos wasn’t the greatest and it’s not hard to see why it’s not a lot of people’s favorite. Which saddens me to say, not because I was hoping to tear it down for being “the worst thing ever’ or go “hot take, Infinite Stratos is a based show and you just don’t get it”, because it’s not your average bad show. It’s not like Aldnoah.Zero where the concept was interesting, but poor writing decisions led to its downfall. Or a show where only a handful of positive things are blocking the sum of its negatives (cough cough Witch from Mercury). No, IS does everything it’s trying to do well, but what it’s trying to do WAS THE ISSUE. This was a Mecha show that tried to follow the trend of having a harem in a RomCom setting. And this isn’t going to go into some obnoxious rant on harem shows. Outside of the show we’re talking about today and Monster Musume, I haven’t seen much of that genre and would probably enjoy it if given a chance.
While I haven’t read the light novel it’s based on, you can clearly tell that it was trying to mix the Mecha genre that was starting to decline during the 2010’s, with a popular genre of that era, the RomCom harem. That describes an overwhelmingly amount of shows in that decade with an ensemble of female characters fawning over the MC. Combining genres can lead to your project being the best execution of those genres, or can come off as very desperate. But as the creators of the series taught back then, they thought the Mecha genre wasn’t a variable genre in the anime sphere anymore. I’m the kind of guy who’ll give anything a shot, as long as it aligns with my interests. So here’s my thoughts on Infinite Stratos (S1 & S2)
Story:
After the development of special exoskeletons called IS Frames, a school was formed to train ladies to use these frames and improve their uses. And while only women are the only ones able to use IS Frames, it comes as a shocker that a man named Ichika Orimura was able to pilot one. Leading him to be the 1st man to join the academy, with some shenanigans to follow. I had a few issues with the premise the moment I started the show. For one, the only way this premise would work if they stuff the story with various contrivances in the plot. Luckily it’s not as bad as Rent-a-Girlfriend, as that show had contrivances that was pulled out of the writer’s ass, here it’s at least justifiable with Ichika being the only man in the academy (though, that’s an issue in it of itself, that I can talk about later). But my issue is how they forced drama in the show though some ecchi BS. Like, Ichika getting attacked by Houki just for entering his room without knowing that she is her roommate. Or walking into his restroom while his other roommate, Charl was showering, just to give them a body wash where he could’ve just knocked instead. I’ve seen a couple of ecchi shows that handled these kinds of situations way better, hence why I find it so annoying in this show. However, there were some moments involving ecchi that were genuinely funny. So it wasn’t miserable the whole way.
Another issue is that, you kinda forget this was a Mecha show at times with how overly focused it is with the RomCom side of things. We would spend so long in the school that we don’t often see that much action until later on. “Doesn’t that mean that we have time to develop the characters”? On paper, yes. In practice….no. 90% of the time we just see the girls fool around with Ichika, and then when they do show some mecha action, it just feels underwhelming. Mainly because it feels like them throwing us a bone instead of feeling necessary to the plot.
Which leads to another issue, there’s no antagonistic force that keeps the plot going until Season 2 with Phantom Task. The issue is that they were introduced way too late into the story, so they don’t have too much gripe on the plot. Overall, the storytelling is poorly written for all the reasons I just listed. These probably won’t be as bad if they balanced both the RomCom stuff with the Mecha action evenly. But since they didn’t, it leads to the show feeling really disjointed. There’s more issues with the writing, but you’ll see within the other sections for what I’m referring to. Otherwise, the storytelling left a pretty bad impression
Characters:
Most of the cast of the show weren’t the worst characters I’ve ever seen, hell most of them were more tolerable than what I expected. It’s just that some of them didn’t left a good impression on me. Which leads to an issue with this being an harem, as the show put all their eggs into the harem basket. The problem is that, if they break, your left with nothing.
Lets start with getting the MC elephant in the room, Ichika Orimura. I heard multiple people calling him the worst part of the show for how dense he is, but I think they were sorta overexaggerating. While Ichika isn’t really a great protagonist, I wouldn’t go as far as to consider him the worst character, but I can see the cracks in the facade. A lot of people call him “dense as a brick”, and….yeah, I can see it. There are some times where he really should’ve read the room. Like when one of the girls asks him to go to a park with her, he asks to invite the others. Or when he sees simulations of their “desires”, of him flirting with them, he doesn’t really make anything of it. But to play devil’s advocate, in most of the other situations he’s in with the other girls, he probably wouldn’t act too differently than how most of us will react. Another issue I have with him is that he sort of remains weak throughout the show. Which wouldn’t be all bad in a vacuum if he grew as a character. But he really doesn’t, and remains weak in terms of fighting throughout the show. A lot of people will complain about “Gary Stus”, being able to do everything, but I find the opposite to be just as bad. There needs to be a balance between being confident and having flaws when it comes to writing an MC and Orimura doesn’t really have that. That said, I don’t think he was straight up awful like most people may think. I thought his backstory of him being kidnapped and being saved by his sister was pretty interesting, and makes his goal to become stronger understandable. I just wished the anime actually made him progressively stronger. I also liked that he was willing to support his friends, but that’s the bare minimum of what I expect from a protagonist.
Since this is a harem, the selling is the girls. While they’re mostly fun waifus, some of them didn’t leave a good impression on me. Mainly because they have something I like to call, “the tsudere trail”, where they start off overly aggressive and hostile, but eventually become clingy towards the MC. Which would work if properly developed, but here, it’s handled pretty poorly.
I’ll start off with the girls with these problems. Houki Shinonono was honestly a mixed bag with me because of this issue, as she started off as pretty unstable & strict. Making her pretty unbearable at first. However, it’s sorta justified with her being raised in a Kendo Dojo and the fact that she & her sister were constantly on the move, because her older sister made a weapon of mass destruction. She’s luckily becoming less bitchy and a lot more mellow, but that 1st impression really didn’t sit well with me. Laura Bodewig is another subject of this issue, as her slapping Ichika was really unnecessary (unless you have a hateboner for the guy). Though it’s also understandable, since she looked up to his sister and he caused her to forfeit a match she was in. Plus her being a test tube baby makes her social skills nonexistent. I’ll say this, she’s pretty funny and Tiffany Grant gave her this hilarious German voice. It’s just that, again, she left a pretty bad impression on me. Kanzashi Sarashiki seemed tamed with her shyness and desire to be saved by “a hero”, with how hostile she acted towards Ichika, it was hard to sympathize with her. She does become more bearable later in the show, but too late to fully get invested in her. But the worst one is easily Lingyin Huang. It’s bad enough that she’s the stereotypical loli. But making her overly impulsive and irresponsible really got on my nerves. Even more so, when she doesn’t grow at all.
While some of these girls become better throughout the show, that 1st impression really dampens any good will they had. It’s the character equivalent of getting your mouth burnt before eating a meal. It’s hard to taste whatever the food has to offer, if the initial bite was physically painful.
That’s not to say all the girls were bad, because there are still some I found interesting. Starting with Cecilia Alcott, while her arrogant and snobby nature can get annoying for some, when she falls for Ichika after their duel, she becomes pretty entertaining at times. Especially with how comically bad she is at cooking. I also like that British accent Brittney Karbowski puts on. But the one who everyone unanimously agrees is the best girl is without a doubt Charlotte Dunois. And for good reason, she has a well balanced personality. She’s kind-hearted, calm, and easy going with everyone, especially Ichika. She may have started as a cross-dressing spy, but that doesn’t make her any less lovable. She’s basically my 2nd favorite girl. Who’s my number 1 favorite? Glad you ask, because it’s without a doubt, Tatenashi Sarashiki. Hell, her in a cat bikini is one of the reasons why I even watched the show. I just like her mischievous nature, along with how charismatic she is. A lot of people said that she didn’t leave an impression because she was introduced in season 2, I still found her enduring.
As for the chemistry each girl has with Ichika, it’s obvious that both Charlotte & Tatenashi have better chemistry since they actually care about him and treat him pretty well. Cecilia is a middle ground between genuinely caring about him and going ballistic when he’s near a girl. Laura just wants him to be his “bride” or just house husband, so I don’t have too much to say. Kanzashi appeared way too late to form any meaningful relationship with him. And both Houki & Lin are his childhood friends, with Houki being marginally better than Lin due to actually growing out of “Tsudere phase”. The girls’ interactions can be cute when they’re not at odds with Ichika or with each other, but it can get old pretty fast when it goes on for too long.
As for the other girls who aren’t in Ichika’s harem, Both his sister and teacher were entertained in their own right. Chifuyu Orimura kind of rubbed me the wrong way at 1st with her stern and strict demeanor, but as time went on, I see it as pretty believable since she’s Ichika’s older sister. Plus, she does have some badass moments at times and is a pretty confident commander. Maya Yamada is a pretty fun character, since she’s basically the opposite of Chifuyu, Shy and Nervous. She’s also completely chill with her male student landing on her boobs, make that as you will. There’s also Houki’s sister, Tabane Shinonon. There’s not much to say, since she only appears in a couple episodes. All you need to know is that she’s a chaotic wild card.
Finally there’s the antagonists, Phantom Tasks, who were unfortunately introduced way too late to have any lasting impact. Too be fair, 2 of the characters could’ve been compelling villains with how they present themselves. Squall Meusel is a mature & level-headed woman, with a ruthless side that can come out if needed. Autumn is arrogant & sadistic, who can put up a convincing professional look to deceive her enemies. The only weak character in the team is Madoka Orimura, who as the name implies, may have some connection to both Ichika and Chifuyu. A shame the show never went anywhere with this, as all we’re left with is a cold & distant girl who wants to kill the Orimura siblings for reasons that we’ll never know about.
In spite of some characters leaving bad impressions or not having the room to grow, I could never say these are “terrible characters”. Poorly written? Sure, I’ll admit that. But a handful of them were still entertaining to watch, especially with the English dub. I’ve already mentioned Brittiny’s British interruption for Cecila and Tiffany’s German accent for Laura, but everyone else deserves some credit too. Monica Rial makes Houki more bearable, Shannon Emerick’s French accent for Charlotte was pretty cute, I love Jessica Calvello as Tatenashi, Luci Christain does a really good job at bringing out Chifuyu’s strict nature, and even Jessie James Grelle deserves some props for play Ichika. Sentai Filmwork’s dubbing is pretty underrated in the anime English VO industry, as these are pretty great voice actors. But overall, the characters could’ve been better.
World Building (or just the antagonist and mecha lingo):
The most the anime does in terms of world building is add some cool looking tech to the IS Academy, but that’s about it really. So all I’m really going to really talk about is Phantom Pain & the technical stuff with the IS Units. While Phantom Task are an effective threat whenever they show up, the fact that they showed up in season 2 really dampens any impact they could’ve had as antagonists. While we know that they were responsible for kidnapping Ichika, it really doesn’t add anything since it doesn’t give Ichika any personal stake in the plot. There are some moments where they can be sinister, like the aforementioned kidnapping and nearly killing all the IS Academy students in a train, along with some espionage, they just don’t have the impact of any other antagonist from any other anime, because they’re not a threat that looms over the narrative.
And then there’s the IS units. In my Kuromukuro review, I talked about the important questions a mecha series has to answer for having mecha in their universes, so I’m going to apply them here to explain why the IS Units don’t really work. For starters, I don’t think mecha needs to be justified by “how are they able to stand up without falling down” or “why don’t they just use jets, tanks, or nukes”, but rather “what led to the creation of these mecha” or “why do certain attacks work and others don’t”. They answer the 2nd question pretty well, since the IS Units have shields and high mobility, but not so much the 1st one. In this universe, the Infinite Stratos Units were made by Tanabe Shinonono for space travel, which is reasonable. However, what’s never explained is why only women can use it and men can’t outside of the main character. There is a throw away line where Tanabe hinted at giving Ichika an IS on purpose, but it’s never explained beyond the anime. It also doesn’t help that the Alaska Treaty feels really hard to get behind, since I doubt the military would turn down these obviously powerful machines with high mobility and powerful weapons (especially America). The latter is also hard to believe, since these were supposed to be used for space work. Yet we’re slapping blasters and swords on these things & allowing high school girls to use them.
And look, I watch a lot of mecha throughout my life. It’s my favorite genre after all. But to explain why this show doesn’t use it’s mecha concept well, I want to talk about other shows. Take Gundam for example, where the reason for having mobile suits was for Zeon to overpower the Federation’s massive space fleet with high mobility and a power system that blocks radar. Leading the Federation to develop their own mobile suits to counteract them. But if you want to use a non-Gundam example, Gurren Lagaan has the Gunmen to fight the Anti-Spirral and what powered them was their “fighting spirit”. Explaining why both humans and Beastmen can use these machines. There’s more mecha, like Knights of Sidonia or even a non-anime example like Pacific Rim that explains the use of mecha way better. That’s not to say that Infinite Stratos uses their mecha poorly, as the fight scenes are really good. Added with animation that was pretty top of the line with 2010’s animation is concerned, and even looks really good by today’s standards. The issue is just that it’s more concerned with being a Harem more than anything.
Mecha:
At that point, the only thing that’s worth talking about is the IS Units themselves. But since this is a Mecha Musume show, it’s kinda hard to compare it to other mecha. All I really want from these designs are cool looking armor and weapons that fit the characters using them. This anime does this really well, but like I said so many times in the past, good mecha designs isn’t enough to carry an anime. But to be fair, a lot of these are really good designs.
Starting with Ichika’s unit, the Byakushiki is a pretty good design for a protagonist. It kinda resembles the Freedom Gundam in a way. It’s pretty mobile and it’s really good at close quarter combat. But unfortunately, it doesn’t have that many weapons. At the beginning, all it has is the “Yukihira Nigata” sword, which is cool and all. But that’s all he has until later on, with his sister’s justification being “it’s not his style”. That finisher with it in the form of the One-Off Ability called the “Reiraku Byakuya” is pretty cool at least. Plus he does get palm blasters later on, so that’s neat.
Moving onto the IS Units used by the girls, they’re all also well designed. Houki’s Akatsubaki seems to be a lot of people’s favorite, and it’s easy to see why. It’s red color scheme fits the character really well, along with the armory that matches her Kendo background. She has 2x Katanas with different abilities; the Amatsuki on the right that can shoot out beams and the Karaware on the left that can send an energy wave. It also has leg mounted blades, winged beam blades that can shoot out, and the One-Off ability called Kenran Butō, which can recover energy or transfer it to other units like the Byakushiki.
Cecilia’s IS Unit, Blue Tears is one of my favorites. A long range unit that looks oddly similar to the Strike Freedom. It has a beam rifle called Blue Pierce, a couple of drones with beam guns, and 2x missile racks. It’s a pretty unique looking long-range sniper unit.
While Lin was annoying AF, her IS unit Shenlong wasn’t half bad. While the pink, yellow, & “brown” don’t really mesh well with each other, the design perfectly represents her Chinese heritage pretty well. But all she really has are 2x chinese scimitar that can combine with each other called Souten Gagetsu and 2x back cannons called Ryuhou. So pretty versatile for a little hellspawn.
There’s 2 types of the same IS Unit called the Rafale-Revive; the Basic and the Custom II. The Rafale-Revive Basic is used by Maya Yamada and it’s a more tactile unit with a sniper rifle & grenade launcher. The green is a pretty good touch. The Rafale-Revive Custom II on the other hand, is Charlotte’s unit and it’s PACK with weapons. An Assault Rifle, Sub machine gun, a shotgun, a knife, and a pile bunker. All of that and a good mix of Orange & White makes this another favorite IS Unit of mine.
Laura’s Schwarzer Regen never really left an impression on me. Like, it looks good with the black & red. It just is not as great as the other IS Units. It is however loaded to the teeth with weapons; 6x wired blades, 2x beam blades, a rail gun called the Purizushi, and the ability to block a lot of projectile attacks.
Another favorite of mine is Tatenashi’s Mysterious Lady. I love the aquatic look with the light blue & white color scheme with red highlights. It has a whip sword, a lance with a gatling gun, the ability to control water with nanomachines to create clones, and her One-Off ability called Sökkvabekkr can create a pretty powerful field. I’m starting to realize that my favorite IS Units are used by my favorite girls, who would’ve thought.
Kanzashi’s IS Unit, Uchigane Nishiki is pretty cool, albeit unremarkable since it basically shares the same color scheme as Mysterious Lady, which makes sense. She has a Naginata, a particle cannon, and a lot of missiles. Balletus numbers.
The final IS Units are all from Phantom Task, and they all look pretty good as well. Madoka has 2 IS Units; Silent Zephyrs and Black Knight. Both of them have a good mix of black & purple. As for their weapons; Silent Zephyrs have drones with shields, the Star Breaker cannon, and a knife. While Black Knight has a Buster sword, 2x lancer bits, 6x drones, and a gatling gun. Both of these make Madoka a massive threat.
Autumn’s IS Unit, Arachne is a really unique design, being one the only demi-human looking machines in the show. Its armaments include 4x bladed legs, a cannon in the abdomen, a railgun, a machine gun, some spider webs for twiping acting, and the spider half can explode if need be.
The final IS Unite we got is Sqaull’s unit, Golden Dawn. And true to its name, it’s a really shiny unit with some pink to break it up. But all it has is 2x claw cannons and its tail. I know there’s also Silver Gospel & White Knight, but they didn’t show up enough to make a lasting impact.
Overall, these are genuinely really good designs. Hell, dare I say better than most Mecha I’ve seen. And as mentioned before, the fight scenes we see are really good. The issue that all of this is basically 2nd Fidel towards the harem stuff. All to sell waifu figures. Side tangent, I’m surprised they haven’t made any model kits of these girls. Bandai did make figures for their Armor Girls Project line, it’s a massive no brainer to turn a handful of these IS designs into model kits. Even now, since we have stuff like Megami Device & 30 Minute Sisters that are the apex of mecha musume model kits. But umm… yeah time for the conclusion.
Verdict:
It has been a spell since I’ve seen a show like this. Infinite Stratos isn’t the worst series I’ve seen, hell it’s not even close. It’s not even in the discussion when I think about my most hated anime. It’s a completely watchable show, with entertaining characters & good action. But the issue is that it had trouble balancing both its genres and became a run of the mill RomCom show that doesn’t leave an impact beyond being a guilty pleasure harem show. But that’s why Infinite Stratos is as infamous as it is, so you probably knew that already.
I often hear what an Infinite Stratos reboot would look like. But ignoring how contemporary the show feels, it would be hard to do a reboot without just making a new show. Because the issue with the show isn’t that it has aged, as the true issue is buried at the core of the show. A harem show trying so hard to appeal its audience that it forgets to be a Mecha show.
Such a shame we’ll never get to see this story finished, as the creator, Izuru Yumizuru, left the industry indefinitely due to copyright disputes & losers online bullying him into retirement. Now he’s a Vtuber, don’t ask. And it’s not like the series did poorly. It may have received some bad critical reception, but it still sold really well. When it came to Blu Ray sells, it out sold SAO II, Gurren Lagann, Kill La Kill, and even Full Metal Alchemist. Yet it still didn’t have a chance to finish it story or continue it like the shows I listed. Something similar happened to Gargantia having its 2nd season being outright cancelled in spite of its great reception. And it’s now become a common thing in the industry, when an anime is released being instantly popular and being on the highest sells charts, but their stories won’t likely be completed due to lack of source material or the studios lacking the needed resources & professional animators. Something that has become an issue in the late 2010’s and it’s definitely becoming an issue now.
Infinite Stratos became what it is due to the market not caring about Mecha anymore. However, 2 years after the show finished, Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans released to rave reviews. Now I know anything with the name “Gundam” will dominate in the Mecha industry, but this was also released when the franchise was at its lowest point compared to the 90s & 2000’s. Either way, that show got people talking because it was a show that had a story tackling social themes like poverty, had characters with real depth to them, and had Mecha actually that felt grounded. So those ideas of Mecha weren’t out of style or anything. Proving that Infinite Stratos was a flawed concept from the very beginning
