Otakuism

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (no, this isn’t star wars), there was the Golden Tribe, god-like beings who had the power to create planets and tell the future. Seeking out other species that could travel the stars, they found three: the Bronze Tribe, Silver Tribe, and Hero Tribe. But just as the Golden Tribe was about to leave this universe, one more species answered their call; humanity, which became known as the Iron Tribe. Mankind now roams the stars, and one of those roaming ships is the Argonaut. The Argonaut is commanded by the telekinetic princess Dianeira, who is leading the ship to find mankind’s saviour. Turns out, mankind’s saviour is a savage little boy named Age, who lives on a ruined planet all alone except for a ship’s computer that he affectionately calls mother. The Argonaut manages to find Age, but just as they do a ship from the Bronze Tribe attacks. The Bronze Tribe are a bunch of centipede-like insects that attack in swarms. The Argonaut sends out its mecha troops, but they are greatly outnumbered and begin to retreat when Age transforms into a giant robot, ala Tekkaman Blade, flies into outerspace and kills the queen bug on the ship. He then falls back to planet and Dianeira proclaims him the last of the Hero Tribe.

Originally I was wary of Heroic Age, seeing it as another generic mecha show, and decided not to pick it up. But I’ve heard from several people that it’s actually kind of good, and since I’ve been in a mecha mood lately (watching Gaogaigar, Tekkaman Blade, Gurren-Lagann, Kotetsushin Jeeg, and Dancouga Nova) I gave it a try. One thing HA has going for it is that it’s an honest to god Space Opera. I love the scale of everything, like how just one ship has a million drones in it to fight or when the ship is the size of a planet itself. The plot itself is fairly interesting, though not exactly original. I feel like I’m watching To Terra with mecha. I mean, it even has the pschic girl! But it looks like this show will promise many epic space battles in the future, which is always fun to watch. Lot of random greek, too, like Argonaut and Iolaus. And Heroic Age probably refers to the Age of Heroes in greek mythology.

The animation is pretty good, especially the scenes of space. The character designs are by that same guy who did Gundam Seed, so every character looks terribly generic and boring. Swear the guy can only do three faces tops. The mecha designs for the normal troops are pretty standard, but I’m really liking Nodoss Age’s form. It’s part-giant robot/part-bionic monster, and reminds me a lot of Betterman. Very cool. Also seems to be powerful as hell. More of an Ideon than a gundam. No OP song, but I loved the orchestral music. Perfectly set the tone for this space opera. While the story isn’t exactly original and the animation isn’t stellar, I’m geniunely intrigued at where this is going, so I’ll stick with it for the moment. I’ll watch all the subbed episodes and see how I like it then.