Dashing Entrance! Captain Earth!

Let me start by saying I like breaking promises about as much as I'm sure you like having promises to you broken, but I don't think there's going to be a comprehensive Witch Craft Works review any time in the foreseeable future.  I just...couldn't really find a lot to say.  It wasn't a bad show, the words just wouldn't come.  So, I'll make this quick so we can move on.

If you like harem shows (of which I may be incorrect on), magical girls, comedy parodying ridiculous tropes in anime (legions of students who idolize their school prince/princess which I sincerely hope doesn't actually happen in Japan), or any combination of the 3, than you might like Witch Craft Works.  It's on Hulu if you want to check it, and here's a funny screencap.

And now that that's out of the way, we can talk about Captain Earth

To be perfectly honest, I had kind of gone into anime hibernation (had to spend the last couple months using Anime Night to catch up on Game of Thrones before the premier...I'm sure you understand) and wasn't even really certain I was going to be watching any of the new shows this season.  But now we're all current on GoT, so Anime Night's back in full swing.  It was actually at last week's pilgrimage that I first heard about Captain Earth.

A friend of mine said to the room "So who's excited about Star Driver 2?" to which I was the only one in the room to hesitantly raise my hand.  In answer to my confusion, she explained to me that so far there isn't actually a Star Driver 2, but a good chunk of the crew (studio Bones, director Takuya Igarashi, and music by Satoru Kousaki) got together to make Captain Earth, a new show that is just getting into it's third week.

This news piqued my interest because I happened to be incredibly fond of Star Driver when it was airing in 2010.  Put simply, it was a 25 episode, feel-good action/mecha/romance show that praised living life vibrantly, being a shining star as it were (it's on Hulu).  Also there's epic bromance, bitchin' coats, and dual-wielding...so I was sold.

But enough about that, let's talk about Captain Earth.

Captain Earth revolves around a boy named Daichi Manatsu who's just getting into the summer of his senior year of high school.  He's in a bit of a slump, presumably due to the death of his father, an astronaut and a captain (which is...apparently a big deal...ionno Japan, you act like Captain is synonymous with heroism).

Let me put it into perspective for you.  If the Air Force ranks are anything to go on, being a captain is...something, but I don't think it's what Japan thinks it is >___>

Anyways, Daichi's grades have been slipping, he's disconnecting from his friends, he's kind of apathetic and spends all his time playing video games (at which he is incredibly good), reading books and Wikipedia spiraling about subjects that interest him, but not necessarily his schoolwork.  We spend a good chunk of the first episode pitting flashbacks of Daichi's former, vibrant youth, against the man he's become, leading me to believe that his father's death was A) pretty recent and B) really traumatic for him.

There's also some interesting story about this weird guy he met at an abandoned lab during those flashbacks (my money's on an alien) and a girl who sleeps in a giant sphere of water until Daichi touches it and wakes her up (some kind of "chosen one" plot gears here...or something, the encounter was really short so I didn't have a lot to go on).

So anyways, Daichi goes home for the summer, visits the old lab and meets a...ghost(?)...alien(?)...strange person who shows him that there's some weird...cult-gang(?) with a secret handshake that's attacking Earth,

...just sayin'

gives him a space gun that's not really a gun and teleports him to the launch pad of the Livlaster, this show's mech.  He takes off, flies through a series of satellites that give his ROBOT a robot to pilot (something that took close to sixteen episodes in Gurren Lagann) and is ready to take on the first villain.  And that's where the first episode ends.

But hey, you got my attention, I'll say that much.  So, in a nutshell, that's the first episode of Captain Earth without too too many spoilers.  Overall, I liked it.  It's shiny, well paced, and interesting enough to get me to tune into the second and third episodes as soon as this post hits the press.  Not my top ten, but a real solid mech show that's cool, innovative, and (as far as I can tell) not terribly serious, because sometimes you need whimsical mechs.  If you want super serious, go watch Gundam!

So you captain on, Captain Earth, you got my vote.

Can't go wrong with mechs with hats