Linebarrels of Iron

[raktus]

Linebarrels of Iron - Wiki

The Linebarrels of Iron story takes place in a fictional alternate future, centering on a junior-high school student named Kouichi Hayase, who escaped his daily life of being bullied as a child by daydreaming about being a hero. His life was forever changed during a class trip in the year 2016 when an artificial satellite fell from orbit. Due to this "accident", Kouichi was left in a coma for half a year, and upon awakening, found himself with strange powers, including superhuman strength. Then, in 2019, a mysterious robot called "Linebarrel" appears before him. It is revealed that the accident from three years ago was not caused by a satellite, but rather by the Machina robot Linebarrel, and that this turned him into a "Factor", which is the name given to Machina pilots. This leads him to encounter Emi Kizaki, a mysterious amnesiac girl whose unknown past seems to be related to Linebarrel. He joins her in fighting for JUDA, the world's largest medical equipment maker, which happens to secretly own several other Machina robots.

______________________________

The character of Kouichi was described, in the Anime TV review, as unlikeable. I disagree only slightly in one respect. He was a relateable character to myself, in that I was that picked on kid that I'm sure a number of us must have been at some point. Much like Kouichi I dreamed of having the power to do what I wanted and here we see what happens when a kid like that gets the power... and the character development forced upon him by the story. Not going to go that far into the story as I would prefer opinions based on views, but needless to say his enviornment and his friends all hold key roles in his changing.

Episode four had a strong reminder of one of Rah Xephon's strongest emotional scenes. While it didn't give as much backstory leading into it, the way the characters were portrayed up till that point kind of placed just as much emphasis on their relationships to give it that same sort of depth in less time. I can see where a more casual viewer might not enjoy the depth of the episode, I felt it was a fairly good, unintended, omage to that great scene.

I did appreciate the offkilt humor that pops up at times, like in episode six where Kouichi is being introduced to the team. They show the person being described over a backdrop of their mecha and the mecha's stats. After going around the circle and introducing everyone, the first person that starts talking has a guy with a bunch of signs that have the pictures you just saw walking away. That was very funny to me.

Other than the things already covered by the show CGI mixed in with the animation, naked women falling from the sky, etc, it's pretty par for the course when it comes to mecha. If you've watched Eva, Rah or Eureka nothing should really come as a huge suprise for you. By the same token if you have watched Eva, Rah or Eureka this is definantly an anime you'd want to see... in my opinion that is.

Raktus gives Linebarrels of Iron:

[raktus]

By the way, one of the few anime's that handles the United States Military with honor.