Clichés make a show boring. The more clichéd a story is, the less interesting and enjoyable it becomes. But my theory is that this relationship only holds true until you hit a certain magical event horizon where the laws of the universe break apart, one gets divided by zero and clichés become art.
How people react when I tell them I enjoyed IS
Infinite Stratos was my guilty pleasure from last season. I actually caught the last episode in Japan last month and have since read volumes 4-6 of the light novels, picking up from where the anime leaves off. Hence, I speak on good authority when I say that IS is one huge clichéfest. But for some reason, it’s enjoyable.
Only in anime: girls fight to feed you food
The basic premise of IS is one of the oldest stories ever told by anime: some lucky bastard ends up in a situation where he is constantly surrounded by sex-deprived girls who lust for the first man they bump into in the hallway. The inclusion of fighting mecha is initially reminiscent of Sakura Wars, but the storytelling is closer to Tenchi Muyo.
Hey wasn’t this from Gundam 00?
The Chosen One
In the story, IS are personalized powered armour suits, equipped with insanely powerful weapons ripped straight from the Gundam multiverse that — for very feebly conceived reasons — are not used for warfare but given to teenagers for unspecified purposes that no one really bothers explaining. They can only be piloted by girls, except for the one single exception, chosen by the almighty plot device, that is the main character, Ichika Orimura. As a science fiction, IS is pretty terrible, so it’s a good thing that the author is not trying too hard to make it one.
Spot the tsundere
The cool part about the character interactions is the fact that almost all the heroines are tsundere! Okay, it sounds lame when I articulate it in words, but really it is an impressive feat. Probably.
Of the five female IS pilots chasing after Ichika, only one can be categorically excluded from the tsundere classification, while each of the remaining four represents a different sub-division of tsundere. I am pretty sure making 80% of the characters tsundere violates some kind of international convention governing harem anime. This is either a work of madness or genius.
How people react to IS‘ storytelling
Just to be clear, the story is absolutely terrible. But the story is really not that important when it comes to having a good time with IS. You must enjoy the characters and relish the ridiculous situations they create when they get together. It’s one of those shows.
Of course, such a formula only works well for some quick laughs. The lack of an engaging story is definitely unsustainable in the long run.
Tatenashi Sarashiki is introduced in Vol. 5
The light novels injected life into the post-anime story by introducing a new character, Tatenashi Sarashiki (the playful but capable head of the student council), into the mix, hence covering the previously unoccupied teasing-senpai (i.e. Tama-nee) spot, but it is clear that constantly introducing new characters is not a viable long-term solution to generate interest. The author does take a huge step in advancing the overarching story in Volume 6, but so far it has failed to impress.
Beach episode: the forward pass of harem anime
But for the length of 12 episodes, the formula works just fine. In fact, the anime’s excellent pacing is almost sublime in its execution, like the well-timed punchlines of a skilful comedian. I was particularly impressed by episode 9, the fan-service episode, where the writer has somehow managed to fit an unbelievable amount of character and visual fan-service into one tight 20-minute package. That is truly the work of artisans.
So much armour and yet so little is covered
The animation and art quality is also surprisingly decent and consistent across the 12 episodes, all things considered, especially when you compare it to the typical cookie-cutter low-budget adapted-from-game titles found in great abundance in the same genre. Okay, maybe my bar was just set very low.
Ultimately, it takes a particular kind of mindset to get into IS. In my case, I started with very low, almost non-existent, overall expectations and found myself liking the characters, hence a good story was never within my range of considerations and its absence was not disconcerting. It also helps a great deal if you love tsundere, because the show is full of them… XD
More screencaps
Ichika’s teacher/sister is kind of tsundere
As IS technology advances, the skin exposure increases
The kendo-girl childhood-friend tsundere
The twin-tail childhood-friend Chinese tsundere
The twin-drill refined-lady British tsundere
The stoic tough-yet-naive flat-chested German tsundere
Three tsundere caught in an infinite loop of mutual contempt
Tsundere rule: smiles like this are usually followed by swift violence
Possibly the boss character of some fantasy RPG
Floating shoulders, how do they work?
This is a job for Admiral Ackbar’s brother
Some kind of futuristic mating ritual
I think this is what people call a reach around?
Okay so this is my favourite character in the show…
â—__â—Ž
Unlimited?! That’s over 9000!
Okay not twin drill. More like quad drill. It’s the future
Bunny ears…
How people react when I told them I was going to Tokyo last month
Eye-patch moé?
Mecha designs in the IS universe are often suspiciously convenient…
tl;dr version: Infinite Stratos is for people who appreciate the finer subtleties of tsundere.
I watched and enjoyed IS for the plots. Specifically Charlotte’s plots. Mm-mm. DEM PLOTS.
Oh god, episode 9 was amazing. Possibly the best episode of the whole damn show and made me LIKE the cliche Kuribayashi Minami OP as well.
Also, Charlotte!
It’s ok DM, you are in good company.
I love you omo
I have a different take on your theory on cliches, DarkMirage. That is, they have little bearing on the quality of an anime. What really matters is how the cliches are executed.
Madoka’s plot developments, for instance, are predictable to the point of cliche, but they hit home and make sense, and it makes for a great story.
Korea Zombie Desk-Car was also like IS in terms of cliched setting, but they knew they would be doing cliches, and took it to the max in terms of parodies.
Both anime knew what they wanted to do, and they did it well, regardless of the cliched nature of either the premise, or the plot.
In fact, I’d venture out to say that relying on cliches can in fact make for better storytelling if you know what you’re doing. I’d raise Avatar, which everyone knows to have a cliched, like, everything. I’d point out that in falling back on a simple, serviceable plot, they gave themselves more space to work on everything else to deliver a thoroughly satisfying experience.
Of course, one must also give credit for a willingness to depart from traditional cliches, but that’s not within the scope of my present argument. My point is, cliches have the propensity to be entertaining as fuck. It all boils down to execution.
Now, Infinite Stratos, on the other hand, I thought was an interesting experience. The fights were pretty good, and Ichika was so damn alpha male at numerous points. And Kana Hanazawa is Charlotte. And the rest of the harem is likeable. But just about everything else, especially the lead female, is kind of meh-ish. So they got some bits right, they got some bits wrong. It’s like watching a JC Staff anime.
I strongly suspect that a lot of the English audience is “tsundere” for this show as well, given the inordinate amount of both attention and public posturing that occurred related to it. It’s as if there’s some innate sense in people that “no self-respecting anime fan would admit to liking this”, and yet almost everyone appears to have watched it to the end anyway… “…just in case it got better” or “…just because I don’t like to drop what I start” or “…just because I wanted to see what the fuss was about” or a myriad of other reasons… “…but don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean I liked it!” Even this review is full of qualifications like “just to be clear, the story is absolutely terrible”, and calling it a “guilty pleasure” from the get-go.
This was a fun show, full of energy, good visuals, and confident direction. It knew exactly what it was trying to be, and executed consistently. And these sorts of clichés are designed to be comfortably familiar to long-time anime fans; seeing them “done right” is bound to put a smile on some people’s faces, especially if they can get over themselves and just put themselves back in the mindset that caused them to enjoy anime in the first place. It’s nostalgic (in addition to being well-produced), and I suspect that’s one of the reasons it’s one of the top-selling anime in Japan.
But (to no one in particular) you keep going, Anime Community, pretending that you hate these sorts of shows while secretly watching them and trying to hide your inner fanboy-ing. That tsundere behaviour is what makes you cute! ^^;
Instead of watching IS, I ate a bowl of razor flakes with gasoline!~
All that masochistic goodness except with half the pain!!
yum. high in iron 2.
>tsundere
You forgot Chifuyu the sister. Although she’s not a main heroine, she’s one of the most important character in the story. By the end of Vol 6, it has become obvious that absolutely everything in the IS world is a direct result of her actions in the past.
I actually think that starting with Vol 5, the author has improved his comedy writing to a point that it is legitimately funny. He’s still utterly clueless about how to write the serious part of the story, however.
By “forgot”, I should have said “she’s more than a little tsundere”. The anime actually removed all her deredere moments from the LN, some of which are so horrendously written it’s an improvement to remove them. But OTOH, did you know that she chose her swimsuit based on Ichika’s taste?
I’ve already written about some of my thoughts on IS as a comment here:
http://ogiuemaniax.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/a-tale-of-two-harems-kore-wa-zombie-desuka-vs-infinite-stratos/#comment-7908
Addenum to my previous post:
1)
ä¸äºŒç—…, essentially the intellectual process a maturing teenager undergoes, is directly linked to geopolitics. The very first time I read of ä¸äºŒç—…, that article lists among its typical signs “realizing ‘the USA is so evil!'”
2)
When it comes to the meager materials in IS that can actually be read from a feminist angle, I like Chifuyu’s line “fight if you’re a woman” a lot.
In Vol 2 of the novel, there was an aside about a Japanese swordsman who, out of love for his wife, invented a fighting style for women that would allow them to defeat men. I also like this story, despite the fact it’s so awkwardly inserted into the book almost as if it’s an editorial error.
>I am pretty sure making 80% of the characters tsundere violates some kind of international convention governing harem anime.
Tsuyokiss.
Also, the show was cool[1], people who hate it just like to hate on dem moe shows.
Don’t hate.
1 – “enjoyable”, not “has substance”
The only non-tsundere in this show wins the heart of many. Charl too moe for my heart.
I’ll reiterate the sentiment saying when something is good, predictability doesn’t matter. It’s something I’ve been trying to advocate and put into words for the past year. The harem aspect of IS was certainly well executed. It felt fresh despite how overly familiar we are with it. The plot is just stupid, but I don’t think anyone sets out to watch IS for the plot, so it can be disregarded.
This is also why I feel like spoilers shouldn’t matter, if a story is good to start with (which is actually the post I’m procrastinating on). An example I always give is ef memo, which has the most generic of stories and couples it with the most interesting of executions. Madoka was named in a previous post.
Of course, this quality can be argued, but that is another story entirely.
Dude, I really like your blog and everything
but IS is a TERRIBLE TERRIBLE show!
I almost felt like punching my monitor after I finished the last episode!
cuando una chice ace kendo se infla el hakama la pipi se exita prepucion para atras maja la pipi