An exoskeleton weapon engineered by Japan, Infinite Stratos (IS) can be piloted only by women. Its power and combat prowess are so immense that an international treaty has been signed banning its use as a military asset.
When it is discovered that 15-year-old Ichika Orimura is the only male capable of steering an IS, he is forcibly enrolled in the Infinite Stratos Academy: an all-female boarding school, the students of which graduate to become IS pilots. At this training school, Ichika is reunited with two of his childhood friends, Houki Shinonono and Lingyin Huang, and befriends Cecilia Alcott, an IS representative from the United Kingdom.
Guided by the legendary pilot Chifuyu Orimura—their strict homeroom teacher and Ichika's older sister—Ichika and the girls will need to use everything at their disposal to defend themselves and their academy against the dangers that will arise during the course of their thrilling school life.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Archaeon
One of the problems with the anime industry is the tendency to overuse stereotypes and themes, and many of the studios in Japan continue to operate under the idea that the shows they create will generate a profit in some manner (regardless of the content), through DVD sales or merchandise. The sad fact is that many producers barely break even from one season to the next, which then prompts arguments of piracy, licensing, pricing, distribution costs, etc, all of which seems more than a little strange as while it may appear that the studios have some perfectly valid arguments, they've neglected to talk about onething - the anime they make.
Every season viewers are subjected to a barrage of average or substandard fare that serves no other purpose than mindless juvenile media, yet these shows continue to be made because the entertainment industries always prefer the safe bet over a "risky" venture. That said, there are always one or two anime that manage to rise above mediocrity, but there's still a very large gap between being good, and being great.
IS is, first and foremost, a reasonably popular ongoing light novel series by Yumizuru Izuru that began publication in May 2009. Six volumes have already been released under the MF Bunko J label (part of Media Factory), and the seventh is due out in April 2011. In May 2010 a manga adaptation by Akahoshi Kenji began serialisation in Monthly Comic Alive, with production on the anime adaptation beginning later that year.
Set in the near future, the story initially seems to be about powered exoskeletons called Infinite Stratos, an advanced piece of technology that is more powerful than any existing weaponry, but can only be used by girls and women. Because of this, society and the world have had to adapt so that females are now in authority, but all of that changes when Orimura Ichika, a 15 year old student, is found to be the only male in the world with the ability to pilot the machines. Because of this, and for his own protection, he is forced to attend the prestigious Infinite Stratos Academy.
Seems a pretty straightforward set up right?
In fact this show is so straightforward and predictable it verges on being dull. Aside from being a light novel/manga adaptation (which seems to be the rage these days), the storyline is about as generic as one can get in anime, with almost every stereotype and "popular" theme on display. The plot initially seems intriguing until one realises that the whole concept of Infinite Stratos is nothing more than an excuse to put a "special" teenaged guy in a school full of hormone crazed girls, and let them have fun with each other. The storyline is only peripherally about the problems resulting from the development of the Infinite Stratos machines as they never really come to the fore until towards the end of the series.
But those are only the surface issues.
The series is limited in terms of design as many aspects of the visuals are adapted directly from the manga. Unfortunately this doesn't really do the show any favours as aside from a degree of futurism in the backgrounds and the conceptualisation of the exoskeletal armours, everything else is the epitome of genericism. The big book of harem characters has been used extensively for pretty much everyone, with all of the lead roles looking more like cardboard cut-outs that would readily grace any other generic high school anime of this type. Granted there is a degree of facial expression, but that's not enough to raise the character design in any measurable way.
Thankfully there are two areas where the visuals actually manage to pass muster. The backgrounds are coloured and detailed rather well, but there are some scenes where the quality improves dramatically in order to focus the viewer's attention on the action. In addition to that, the animation is pretty good throughout the series, but the quality work only really comes to the fore during sequences of IS combat.
Another area where Infinite Stratos does manage to attain a degree of respectability is the acting, but even that's not really saying much. After all, this is a harem romantic comedy with some science fiction and fanservice thrown in for good measure, so viewers shouldn't expect Shakespeare. It's surprising then, that Uchiyama Kouki actually manages to play the role of Ichika rather well, and the same could also be said of Hikasa Youko et al in the roles of the girls who want to find out how well Ichika can use his weapon.
That said, all of the exclamations, weird noises, mannerisms, and changes of pitch and tone that one would associate with this type of show are on offer, but while they're handled rather well by the seiyuu, there's simply too little going on for them to really show off their talents. The main reason for this is the mundane script, and viewers may find themselves suffering from bouts of deja vu during specific scenes, especially if they've recently watched any other harem anime.
As for the music, the background tracks are nice enough and there is some variety to be had thanks to the composition skills of Nanase Hikaru, but the problems lie in the choreography, and more importantly, the relevance. There are occasions where the score seems out of place with the on screen action, and while this is due to a slight error in the timing in some cases, more often it's because the background music simply doesn't mesh with the scene. This is also true for the opening theme, Straight Jet by Kuribayashi Minami, which already has difficulty standing out since it's a pretty standard J-pop affair so the last thing it needed was poor choreography. As for the ending theme, Super Stream, this generic little ditty is sung by the actress of whichever female character is managing to keep up with the manliness of Ichika during the credit sequence, while the other female seiyuu performing backing vocals.
Speaking of manliness, it should come as no surprise that there's little in the way of it here, but then this is justified to a degree by the fact that Infinite Stratos features a female dominated society. Ichika is the typical harem lead who doesn't seem to have a clue that so many girls like him, especially as he has very few redeeming features and a slight complex about his older sister, and in true harem fashion he even forgets or misunderstands childhood promises so the story can have that little bit more drama.
And that's just him.
The girls are just as poor when it comes to characterisation, although thinking about it, maybe poor isn't the right word. They fit into the story rather well, they may look like cardboard cut-outs from other harem anime but they do retain some individuality. They can be annoyingly self centred and stupid, but they're supposed to be hormone crazed teenaged girls so maybe that's normal (apologies if you're a hormone crazed teenaged girl who doesn't act self centred and stupid).
Oh wait. Most of them are supposed to be tsundere characters (all of them except the one with the short blond hair in fact), so maybe poor was the right word after all.
There's little in the way of actual character development as the derived and contrived nature of the plot and story doesn't really allow for any great introspection from any of the roles. There are many potential opportunities to push the characters in a totally new direction, but these are not taken as the whole series is less about telling a good story, and more about cashing in on the harem bandwagon.
Regardless of its flaws, Infinite Stratos will undoubtedly find a home in the hearts of some viewers, which is perfectly fine if you like this type of show, and to be honest much of the series is reasonably inoffensive, especially if the viewer has managed to sit through any other harem anime. That said, it should be pointed out that the concept of the story had the potential for being something special. The idea of a society dominated by women due to the development of a new weapon offers up questions of gender roles, societal balance, political machinations, technological advancements, etc, etc, all of which are treated as minor annoyances that get in the way of finding out which girl Ichika is going to choose.
Granted there are some good points to be found in various aspects of the series, but these are outweighed by a lacklustre storyline, poor characterisation, and an overall sense that everything has been done before.
GodlyKyon
With the dawn of the second season, I think it's time to revisit an old friend. In this review, I will attempt to describe IS: Infinite Stratos and it's components, then give you it's worth as a series. The basic premise of Infinite Stratos is set in a world where armored mecha suit, the Infinite Stratos is invented, thus rendering all other technology obsolete. One catch, this suit can only be worn by women. While this was an interesting premise, the setting itself just attracts questions. Why can only women wear it? What has the effects of this technology had on society? What happened to the politicalrelations of the world after this technology? What governments has used it?
Sadly, none of these questions are satisfyingly answered, because the next portion of the premise is going to make the TRUE premise apparent. While the original premise demanded world-exploration and examination, none of that is shown because the series basically only sets in one place: IS Academy. The place where Students aspiring to learn the techniques of IS from all over the world, where the armor/suit is used as an entertainment device(I will get to this later).
Our Main Character is Ichika Orimura, an average High School student and the only male on the planet so far to discovered to have had the capability to use Infinite Stratos. And because of circumstances, he has to head to IS Academy, a place where he will be the only man.
And because of this setup, the show faithfully follows the route to harem, where 90% of the girls wants the Main Character's D, otherwise is interested(and certainly the main protagonists). Since it sets itself up as a Harem series, what is should do is explore the characters who are complex and makes us care for them, let's see the components of this series:
Coherency/Continunity: While the series sets itself up as a series that begs exploration of the world's politics and what happened in the world after the invention of IS, this is merely a setup where the main character can have a school full of girls all to himself.
The idea that women started to dominate the world is hardly ever shown, since the show secludes itself in the IS Academy. Where contrary to common sense, depicts females just about every other Harem series does! I will get into the characters later. The main point is, the social/political changes is shown without any changes!
And the fact that IS is a weapon(more powerful than any, mind you) begs the question on why has it not been used militarily? A weapon this powerful would have the government SCRAMBLING for it, and certainly not only used as an entertainment device(LOLWUT?). The idea if that if it is women who controls it would lead to world peace is completely illogical and is given as a fact. Any person has the power to commit evil, and being a part of a gender does not exclude you.
Characters: The worst aspect of the series are the characters. Virtually all but one of the female cast is depicted as a Tsundere, and often violent too and nothing outside her stereotype. Rin the Chinese girl and Houki the Japanese girl are basically the same in terms of personality. While Cecilia the British girl have nothing really defines her other than "Ojou-sama" type of character. The only one that is not depicted as a Tsundere is Charlotte, whom is wonderful.
And the main character? About as generic as you get, and so dense that you can't even find it on the periodic table. Ichika is a self-insert character that has to deal with the woes of "GIRLS ALL AROUND ME! OH NOEZ!!" Difficult to achieve an level of empathy to and overall a dumbass to peoples' feelings to an unrealistic degree.
Production: The production of the series is relative above average. By no means is it bad. but the sound is rather generic and nothing I could remember to write home about, although the opening song was somewhat memorable. The character designs are generic by today's standards, again, nothing to write to home about. Although there are several prominent Seiyuus acting in the characters, such as Kana Hanazawa. But obvious incoherencies is show, such as one episode, a character fights the main character but is somehow stopped by Chifuyu's sword... Out of nowhere
Being a mecha anime, there are also fight-scenes featuring the Infinite Stratos'. Probably the best part of the series, unfortunately, are short, insignificant, and CGI-animated
Plot: Wait, what? Oh, the plot. Simply put, there isn't much other than a string of events that puts Ichika in various situations where the main characters fall in love with him. Infinite Stratos, as well as the expected consequences of it existing, is not a part of the plot. A random IS does show up and destroy stuff, but next episode, that is no longer a worry.
Verdict:
If you are here looking for a good plot that maps out the consequences of it's premise, turn around. If you are here looking for an above average harem story with quality characters, go elsewhere. Truthfully, without the ridiculously unnecessarily armored IS, this series is just a generic RomCom Harem series that is barely funny at all.
There are bunch of holes in the plot and story. If you are looking for fanservice and cute girls(relatively) or Charlotte Dunois with a splash of CGI-animated Mecha fighting, come right in.
ADDITIONALLY:
If there's one thing thats also great about this series, it's that the series does not pretend to be deep or anything that it is not, making it far less cringeworthy for some viewers to enjoy.
GloriousKaiser
PLEASE READ: This is a review of both IS seasons. Scroll to the very bottom of this review to see IS S2 review (it's legit I promise!!) There is absolutely nothing wrong with over-used generic stories. Nothing, really! Except when they're like IS. The anime that failed from the start. Though I can't say I'm surprised, with predictable story, characters, there's nothing to keep me guessing or wondering what's going to happen next. I can sum up the story with a couple of common words: Boy Girl(S) High school MechasNow go ahead and guess: Will the story be interesting or not?
There you go.
Instead of putting us into a world where the reality of a Woman > Man type world with mechas and perhaps applying Marshall Mcluhan's four laws to that, and showing us the complexities of it's layout. Instead we get, teen boy hustled by horny teen girls.
Plot? Oh I'm sorry, THAT WAS THE PLOT!!!
In all honesty though: the story takes a while to introduce the full cast using a few episodes dedicated to each girl. In some parts there are fights and a tournament, terrorists yadda yadda blohmadda.
The art suffice to say was, great!(it is in no way close to any of the other factors in terms of weight) The settings were detailed enough so I could recognize the general things. You could identify the main characters easily as well (although you can't remember their names cause they're blander than me blending water). The fights were, pretty good but the MC should really ask people to stop giving his butt to him as a damn Christmas gift. All I can say is, decently-good.
The sound was fine as well, but no really interesting music to get your blood pumping.
Characters: Shit. Now I know what you're thinking, "Hey don't be too harsh, the characters are vibrant and have different personalities". I say NO. Let me explain:
What makes a good character? Personality sure! but what other qualities should they have? A decent art model yes. But what makes the character -stand out from the rest-? There we go.
Picture those 5 girls. Imagine in your head about how they interact with Ichika. Now take away Ichika. What do you see now? Nothing.
You know that saying where you say "I can't imagine X without X". Yeah well that's mostly used in a positive context. Here? Bad.
Ok I found their names and here: let's see how this goes now.
Houki: Childhood Tsundere. Enough said.
Cecilia: Proud, stuck-up rich girl who likes Ichika.
Rin: Chinese Loli (pig-tails are bonus OH YEAH!!)
Charlotte: Blonde girl who tried to be a guy.
Laura: Angry German Loli with military background.
BONUS: Chifuyu: Angry older sister, constantly hits Ichika. Gets mad at him for unfair reasons.
BONUS: Tabane: Created the idiocy that was IS.
See? Aside from the 2 bonus characters, I can't see any sort of character in these Haremettes. All I see is some saltless-butter of a bunch of dolls. This is the problem in most harems. (ignoring the fact that harems in general suck) The girls are nothing without the dumb MC to anchor them to be pseudo realistic in any sense.
Almost forgot Ichika.
He sucks......I won't go too much into it I'll point form it.
-Too stupid to exist.
-Boring personality
-Scared of girls
-Did I mention boring?
Enjoyment. I forced myself to watch this because it was so bad, I really had to see just to what extent of bad this was. No I don't torture myself to watch anime, I did this as a self experiment to see just what to expect when going into this type of genre. It didn't disappoint my expectations at least (good!) because they were zero (oh...). But seriously, I was bored as heck. I was very tempted to skip to the second halves of the episodes to see some action... then to my dismay finding out that there was no action in some episodes. Boring Boring Boring. *SPOILER* Not even that climactic battle with Laura was good, it was just stupid in all places. *END SPOILER*
This anime was bad, I'd hate to see it's manga/LN version because I bet that's a bunch of useless writing.
I obviously expected too much from this anime. No wrong. I expected too much of what I WANTED from this anime. Instead, it did the usual pander otaku schtick and rolled with it. Obviously it was a harem/romance/romcom/highschool/mecha anime. But still, just seeing these always piss me off at how blatantly Japan doesn't care to try and even try something new for once.
The settings could really have been expanded on. Like I said, Marshall Mcluhans 4 laws could have been applied here.
Enhancement: No brownies here, this is too easy to explain.
Reversal: Instead of it's intended purpose of space exploration, it could have added on to that, explaining how technology can be manipulated into a purpose of reversal.
Retrieve: What earlier actions/service could have been brought back because of the intricacies of IS?
Obsolesce: What does this technology make obsolete. Again too easy.
It could have showed these 4 laws applied in greater detail. EVEN IF YOU DON'T KNOW MARSHALL MCLUHAN, there could have been some more focus on looking at the mechs do stuff. But no, Ichika and his teenage crisis with his girls is wayy more important. (sigh)
But as I said. It was doomed from the start when it said Harem, Ecchi and those buzz words right off the bat.
...
Anyways here's my IS S2 review.
It's shit.
THANKS FOR READING!!!
Exkalamity
Infinte Stratos has absolutely dreadful plot but top notch harem romance comedy and fan service. The key to enjoying this anime is to completely ignore the attempts at plot throughout the anime while savoring the characters and their fanservice. Infinte Stratos' premise is begins with our main protagonist, Orimura Ichika, just happens to be the only male that can pilot the Infinite Stratos mecha unit, which was thought to be only compatible with females. Thus our main protagonist is sent of to the IS academy and becomes the only male in a sea of females. And by stint of being male, he becomes the mostpopular student in the academy -_-.
The plot is simply torturous to watch. Throughout the series, major story developments have been random and sporadic; the events throughout the anime seem to have no relation to one another. Major events often occur suddenly only to fade away without leaving any trace of their occurrence or importance. The premises and themes used all have their potential, they were just extremely poorly developed by sloppy writing. The societal structure of woman dominating men which would have provided numerous opportunities for genuine conflict and for Ichika to develop as a main character is completely ignored. Various fancy names and technical terms are thrown around without explanation of their significance or origin. The power levels between characters are not only ambiguous, but also inconsistent, so no apparently growth in IS piloting skill actually takes place. The complete abolition of plot would have made IS much more tolerable.
Character development simply fails due to its ties with the plot. Ichika undergoes no development at all; his skill at pilotnig the IS as well as his thickheadedness remains constant throughout the story. The development of the girls themselves lacks the drama needed to make their supposedly difficult pasts believable, which results in a general lack of empathy for the characters. Important plot elements used in character development are grazed upon so shallowly that they fail to be thought provoking and emotion evoking and end up as just laughable. The development itself is sometimes overly drastic; some characters experience complete 180 shits in attitude and personality that do not coincide with the resolutions of their non-existent drama.
Once their development has been completed however, the characters become astoundingly entertaining; the actual characters are easily the strongest part of the anime. Ichika, although undergoing no development, was never really a weak or herbivorous character, given his tendency to feed and massage the ladies around him. Each female character can be easily related to a certain trope or character archetype, but they are portrayed as more than just moe anthropomorphisms of abstract personality fetishes, although this certainly does not mean that the characters are not moe. Each character is given personality traits and quirks outside of their defined trope that makes them more real and likeable; even aspects that seem trivial are given some detail. Most entertaining is the interactions between characters, the abundance of various personalities allows for different chemistry mixtures that spice up situations that are otherwise very cliched and trite. Although all the reactions are often predictable, the characters are executed soundly and the situations are still fun to watch. Easily the weakest character is our main protagonist himself, as he remains a thickheaded punching-bag for the girls around him.
The production quality for Infinte Stratos is quite high, which is a shame given it's agonizing plot. Immediately noticeable is the cast of seiyuu; most characters are voiced by a well established seiyuu famous for her roles in other anime. Not surprisingly, the voice acting is top quality; special props goes to Kana Hanazawa for the most moe anime voice this season. The music is of satisfactory quality with a catchy opening theme and a decent ending theme. The animation for the ending theme is actually not a harem-o-meter; the most recently captured character runs closely behind Ichika and moved to the back of the line as the next character is captured. The art itself is clean and vibrantly colorful, up to today's standards as a 2011 anime. The IS personal units themselves are well designed and easily differentiable from each other. The battles themselves are quite well done, with dynamic camera movements drawn well and plenty of special effects.
The amount of negative reaction Infinite Stratos has received is definitely understandable; I myself at first whined and pussy bitched about the horrendous plot, and found the character interactions to be predictable and boring. However approximately half-way through the season, I finally accepted that Infinte Stratos was not the awesome mecha anime that I expected, but was instead a decent romantic comedy. Suddenly the plot became much easier to ignore since I stopped looking for it, which allowed my mind to be more positive and accepting of the character interactions, making them more entertaining. Therefore, although still accompanied by the frequent face-palm, I found myself smiling much more naturally and frequently as I watched this anime, and was sufficiently entertained.
Questions, comments, criticisms and compliments are welcomed whether you found this review helpful or not.
WrysOfTalys
Here's the deal: I have a dream animé. It's a show that's primarily mecha, with the robots piloted by humans and function like body armors rather than bigass robots that tower over the skyline (Zero--and pretty much all the other Maverick Hunters--from the Megaman X franchise inspired this). I wanted a little romance on the side, and awesome fights here and there, with possibly a few moments of comic relief. Character designs should be clean and crisp, with detail in the eyes and the mecha suits. Fanservice is not desired, but allowable to an extent. A male or a female lead would be fine, solong as the female lead doesn't lead the series into a shoujo dive.
Keeping this in mind, I searched for shows that have any one or a combination of these characteristics. I searched high and low (I wasn't aware of MAL at the time I watched Infinite Stratos), and I eventually stumbled on Infinite Stratos.
Characters:
- Clean and neat, with the occasional excessive cheek tints. (AWESOME!)
Fanservice:
- Bordering the allowable and the excessive, but nevertheless still allowable. (Fine.)
Mechas?:
- Yes. Battle suit-style mechas. (F**K YEAH!)
Tags:
- Mecha (AWESOME!)
- Romance (NICE)
- Harem (...huh?)
Then the plot dawned me. Frankly I was initially disappointed to see that the title closest to being my dream animé was quite possibly the largest harem I've ever encountered (and frankly, it still is). At least Gundam 00 had 4 Gundam Meisters; Code Geass had a myriad of pilots; even Megaman X had Maverick Hunters and Navigators. And here we have Infinite Stratos, set in an instructional school in a setting where females are the only ones capable of piloting these mecha suits--with the exception of our lead character. (Whether this is positive or negative is entirely up to the reader.) I'll leave my ranting for now, and move on with my review.
Story: 5/10
Infinite Stratos introduces itself by giving us a heads-up on what's going on in their world: mecha suits called Infinite Stratos (or IS for short) are the latest in technological innovations, but only females can control them. A worldwide pact was made to prevent the use of these suits for war; instead, the suits are used for sport, and a school off the coast of mainland Japan teaches students how to use them. Obviously, the school would be an all-girls school, with a peculiar exception of a student: Orimura Ichika, the only male in the world who can pilot an IS.
The show manages to compress all this in one episode, which was good. The bad part was that they didn't follow it up. They didn't give so much as an amply descriptive story behind why Orimura is the only male who can control an IS (they tried it near the end of the series, and even by then it was still largely vague). Also, for some magical reason only females can pilot the suits. No explanation given. It's probably just a plot device to maintain the "harem" status of the series, but it doesn't help the story at all besides giving the viewers girls and more girls.
The 12 episodes of this series are roughly about class competitions, a single person's flashback, and one mission that was supposed to be a climactic ending but certainly fails to do so. If Infinite Stratos is bad at somethine, it's the story.
Art: 9/10
Here Infinite Stratos tries to redeem itself (and at least in my case the redemption effort works). Art in this show is clean and fluid--just the way I like it. People are drawn quite well, and nothing is left without detail. Even the GUIs of the students' workdesks and the classroom screens are well-made. Mechas are presented in 3D when in combat, and in 2D when in static frames. I think this is a plus, since the 3D action scenes are certainly eye-catching (I mean, with all those lasers and boosters and all that). Color schemes for the mechas aren't really stellar, but at least they match the mood of the show. Also, if you're going to do a mecha show, you have to pay attention to the mecha designs. Luckily, Infinite Stratos does this well, and the mechas certainly look great.
Environment-wise, it's pretty much standard. You won't expect any vivid settings from a school that's pretty much isolated at sea, but at least they try their best to give it a futuristic feel. Personally, I liked the art direction of this series.
I suppose animation goes here as well, and the fight scenes are well-done. Not the type of fight scenes you'd expect from a 12-episode harem series, but still well-done.
Sound: 10/10
Here's something Infinite Stratos is definitely good at. Sound in this show is quite excellent; the quality of BGMs on battle scenes are at a level that probably won't match the storytelling. Opening and ending themes are also well-done. Look, if you want to get a general feel of Infinite Stratos without watching it, then go look for its OST tracks. You pretty much get all the good points of Infinite Stratos by listening to the OST alone. (There's no harem in OSTs, right?)
Character: 6/10
The only reason I didn't give this a score lower than 5 is because of a certain French girl (this statement also happens to be a weird Titanic reference). The rest of the characters are pretty much shallow; actually, they're just "pretty." Not even the lead character stands out. Our lead Orimura is just a dense boy with a strange admiration for his older sister (no worries, it isn't incestuous); his childhood friend is the usual tsundere; the English girl is just simply arrogant and aggressive (but she's not annoying, though; I did like her at one point); the Chinese girl is also a tsundere (surprise, surprise); the French girl is the only character that has an actual backstory worthy of being called a "backstory;" the German girl is the one with a weird obsession for both Orimura and his sister (this is the kind of obsession you should worry about). I've pretty much described the other 4 characters. I'd really like to do defense on the French girl, but she comes out near the middle of the series, so I'll leave it for you guys to watch and find out.
Enjoyment: 10/10
This might seem confusing, since I gave some components pretty low scores. I already mentioned that Infinite Stratos pretty much embodies my dream anime (only ruined by a harem element). In this sense, I did give it a chance, and I did like it. I suppose it was because of the suits? Perhaps I really just wanted to see mecha-stye battle suits. It was so close to being my dream animé. So close.
Overall: 8/10
Generally, Infinite Stratos is lackluster. My scores for Enjoyment are pretty much fed by bias; had I had a different idea for a dream animé, Infinite Stratos would have scored pretty low. However, if you're into harems and fanservice, and if you have the slightest interest in mechas, then you might just like Infinite Stratos. I watched the show like how I leisurely go hiking on a mountain. You don't hike to meet and talk with your fellow hikers; you hike to enjoy the view. That's what I did with Infinite Stratos: I didn't watch to understand the people inside; I really just watched for the view. And by my standards, it was a pretty good view.
masamvne
Whenever I watch anime, I try to keep a critical mindset. This doesn't mean I examine and inspect every aspect of the show, but that I try to discern the things it does well and the things it doesn't do well so that I may develop an informed opinion of it. Sometimes, however, I don't really want to bother with that, and I just want to sit back and enjoy myself without having to worry too much about reading through the lines, and usually I'll reserve moeblob anime such A-Channel or Hidamari Sketch for this role. This time, however, I decided to go with aharem.
And it was not a good decision.
Infinite Stratos has a standard harem setting: the slow, kind, and incredibly normal male main character, Orimura Ichika, transfers into an all-girls military academy that trains teenagers to pilot 'IS', highly advanced power suits which can be piloted only by women and, mysteriously, our male hero. Okay, so maybe that's not very standard, but it certainly isn't as awesome as it sounds. The all-girls setting naturally paves the way for a harem (though pretty much the whole school wants to shag Ichika), this particular one consisting of five main archety-COUGH I mean 'characters': the tsundere childhood friend, the posh foreigner, the genre-savvy bishoujo (well they're all bishoujos, really), the stoic social retard, and a second tsundere childhood friend.
None of these characters are developed particularly well, any development being completely cliché or just simply not existing – this is particularly evident in the case of our main character, Ichika, who remains constantly stupid, hard-headed, overly-optimistic and COMPLETELY oblivious to his harem throughout the entirety of the show. No, I don't like him, why do you ask?
In any case, regardless of the characterisation, the story doesn't very much help to relieve it: the opening sequence shows the group battling a mysterious IS, with heavy hints at a bigger plot in the background being dropped all over the show, with a major one presenting itself roughly halfway though. The thing is, though... that this 'secret and dark background plot' never actually happens. All the introduced implications are completely ignored by the finale and never dealt with, leaving one with a bitter taste regarding the last few episodes due to its nature as a random 'monster of the week' crisis, and whilst the 'harem' plot shows some development, it is quickly shunted back to square one.
As such, the majority of the series focuses on Ichika's school life and the various perverted situations he finds himself caught up in. But, as a general rule, this rarely works very well, and Infinite Stratos is no different, eventually becoming outright annoying due to Ichika's obliviousness to everything. And its not exactly as if the aesthetics help matters much: the animation is low quality and in some areas, outright shoddy, using some weak form of 3D CGI for the IS suits that doesn't work very well and can be very jarring to switch to; the audio is, frankly, completely forgettable.
Infinite Stratos is an anime that achieves at, basically, absolutely nothing. Everything about it is completely standard, and represents exactly the issues the anime industry is facing with harem-based romantic-comedies. Nothing whatsoever is resolved by the conclusion, and the show just pissed me off more than anything else. As you have probably gotten by now, I don't recommend watching this in the least. 2 out of motherfucking 10.
Tiddlesworth
First of, if you're gonna watch this, fuck you, you think this is some sort of Mecha Anime, you're horribly wrong, not even close. Oh it must be a harem then? Wrong again! Listen up children, this show is the story about your best girl. The only girl archetype this show probably doesn't have is a Yandere, but if you're looking for a yandere you're in the wrong place bud, Date A Live road is next door, perpendicular to Harem street. This isn't something you watch to ponder about your existence and learn it's deep philosophical value. You're watching this to discover your best girl, somethingfor a lonely Friday night, something to remind you why 2-D girls > 3-D girls.
Let's start of with the MC, you can't see him of course. He may have mass, but his volume is zero, because he's as dense as a black hole, that's how he gets all the girls. The girls happen to stumble into him and stare into the event horizon, never to return from his infinite grasp. Hence why the show has the term "Infinite" in it, or un-ending so you don't have to google that term.
If you happen to watch this because it had the rag "Mecha" in it, you've probably done the near impossible and became a super heated quasar, escaping the black hole, because genetics is a bitch and you thought "the show sucks, the story is shit." Well you're fucking wrong kid, it's a harem cum Romantic comedy, it just HAPPENS to have mechas in it.
Now that you actually know how to watch this show, turn off half your mind, relax, because the blood is gonna flow else where as you frantically search for porn of it.
11/10 would mecha again.
Mindjack
Infinite Stratos... Oh boy, where do I start? Infinite Stratos is THE ultimate harem. The main character is a retard who happens to be the ONLY male in the world to be able to operate an IS. The reasoning for this is explained later in the series, but if you haven't watched it then I won't say how. Did I mention how he had a sister complex? Anyway, this show contains almost all the harem cliched elements that one show could have. Elements: [X] Tsundere [X] Robot Girl (Laura) [X] Retarded male character [XX] Childhood friends [X] Girl with glasses [X] Reverse trap[X] Bossy older sister
[X] Main character walks into someone else changing (This happens way too often -___-)
Those are the things that I remember seeing off the top of my head. I watched the show around 3 months ago and just now decided to write reviews. Anyway, Ichika is also oblivious to the extremely obvious signs that the females are giving showing that they want the D and it's not even funny. It's actually really annoying and stupid.
I think this is how it went down:
Ichika: "I'll go out with you."
Houki: "R-really?!"
Ichika: "Out shopping that is!"
Me + Houki: -_____-
Art: 5
The artwork is average. It doesn't look any different than any other show that aired around the same time. Pretty standard modern anime designs. Nothing too special.
Sound: 6
The sound is average, but I really liked the ED. I downloaded the song. Nothing really needs to be said about this other than average.
Character: 3
The characters are pretty bad. Cecilia was really annoying and went from tsun to dere in one episode. It might not really be a big deal, but that's just not right. Ichika is a complete idiot and gives off the idea that he has no fucking clue what is going on around him and somehow that gives him the attention of the entire academy. The girls there must have low standards or not like men with brains at that school.
Enjoyment: 4
Honestly, the only thing I enjoyed about this show would have to be Charlotte. I'm a huge moefag and she was just adorable.
Overall: 4
This show is really no different than any other harem. It's pretty average. If you like average, then this is the show for you. If you like looking at pretty faces, then I recommend you watch this show.
swagzzz
With Infinite Stratos, I only watched through it mostly because i wanted a good laugh. Not because it was a comedy, but just because of how bad it could get. The story mostly surrounds a boy who gets put into an all girls school because he's the only male that can operate these machines. Why is he the only male? Why can females only use them? Don't ask, you're here for tits. This is the equivalent of to love ru but with mechas. But don't get too carried away because there is no advancements from the MC to the females. The main character is basicallyautistic so get used to him not catching on to the clues that the girls around him want the cock. He also needs help because he literally can't do shit so that's when the girls come in to aid him in everything. Now i can dive into a super informative review of how this anime sucked or how it did decent or whatever, but you don't need to.You sit there, pop a squat (or occasionally pop a stiffy) and you watch for tits and ass and all that. Want amazing plot or just a good romance? Spice and wolf or Toradora. Want a good Mecha? Idk any good mecahs but find one that's highly ranked and go for it. Same goes for season 2 of this show since the formula is repeated.
AquaHaze
Ohhhhh sweet! A decent looking mecha series! Well that’s what I first thought when I picked up Infinite Stratos. However I would soon realize that I was totally wrong. The series opens up with an amazing battle lasting for about 90 seconds which shows off some stunning animations and visuals, it also makes the series seem promising. Then we get to the real story, if you can even call it that. Instead of calling this the “story” section I would like it to be called the “content” section because there is only sort of a plot in the last 2 or 3 episodes.The plot presented in the end wasn’t even that good because there was hardly any build up to it. So for the most part we aren’t given a plot, which isn’t the problem because if done right a series with no plot could become really successful. However, like many, it doesn’t do this right. Each episode would focus on a character or two but the series didn’t even distribute the episodes evenly. I think they gave maybe 5 episodes to Charlotte and maybe about 1 or 2 to each of the other characters. However the things that happened in these episodes felt boring and it was just really another textbook Harem with the addition of ISs.
The characters themselves weren’t even done too well. Our male lead Ichika really is one of those weak, clueless harem leads, who does one nice thing for each female, getting them to all fall for him. I really want to know the magic spell that makes all these useless male protagonists have endless amounts of females falling for them but I guess some things remain a mystery. Why on Earth did the IS have to choose him!?
The female characters are better but they still had problems. Perhaps it was because there were too many characters in the series and they weren’t given enough time to develop. But I think the real problem was that some of their personality traits were unrealistic. Some of the girls would get overly jealous when they saw Ichika with another girl and some characters would even have their whole personality change when they saw Ichika. Another problem I found was that some girls would appear to be super powerful one week but when a new girl was introduced they would some how lose all that power. The characters aren’t bad actually and the majority of them are likeable but they could’ve been better if they just toned down the jealousy a bit.
The art was amazing though, the designs of the ISs were stunning and the battles themselves were really satisfying to watch. The animation is up to par with most anime out there.
Sound isn’t really something I pay attention to. The opening and ending were catchy and the background music seemed alright (although I only listened to it sometimes) and the voice actors seemed to fit the character that they were playing.
Although there were many things that I could think were wrong with the series, Infinite Stratos was actually something I wanted to watch every week. Yes I did face palm quite a bit when watching this, but at the end of the day I did find this entertaining and it did make me laugh sometimes.
At the end of the day I still felt that the final product of Infinite Stratos could’ve been much better. It’s not bad but I was disappointed in the direction the series went.
Thanks for reading :)
saosurvivor69
In general, harem shows are often just about the ecchi/romance and focuses very less on the actual plot that it's constructed on. Nevertheless, I watch many harem anime just for the lols and the fanservice moments. Sometimes, the character interactions are fun too. Where I.S. failed even in doing this much is with its extremely annoying main character, Orimura Ichika. I can't write an unbiased opinion of him because I just hate him so much. There is a fair line of how much your character can be based of a stereotype, Ichika is so overly generic (the extremely dense harem king who just gets thepanties wet) that you wish he was gay just so that it would be one of the best trolls ever.
The anime is about a type of mech that was engineered in Japan and can only be used by women. However when Ichika touched one by mistake, they discovered that he was the only male who could operate it.
So, he gets transferred into an all girls school and instantly, all the girls fall in love with him. Yep, that's the story.............. (-_-)
I watched through it waiting for it to get so bad that it became good but that never happened. I would much appreciate if this became a yuri in an all girls school with Charlotte Dunois as the main character. That ought to bring some fun to this bland piece of trash.
I really hope creators of shows don't assume that if a show looks pretty and has some streotypes thrown in, it would instantly make them a profit.
ap1001
Hi kids, ever wonder which show killed the LN industry and is responsible for the protagonist-kuns that we get every season? Here it is then, IS, also called "the wall of shit that blocks masterpieces", it got this nickname when it out sold almost all other animes in merchandising and made a huge buck causing almost all the studios to go, "holy balls, why are we trying hard to make a story when we can just stick in some tits and wait for the cash to start rolling". And even though this putrid work is now died, its legacy lingers on creating the genre ofLN which is now know as "pretty pictures and toilet paper" (including works like cavalry, asterisk, bahamut and many more).
So for this reason alone it is worthy of the magnificent 1/10 simply because you can't gave 0 out of 10. now on to the actual review
Story - 0
There isn't any, and if you think any otherwise you are wrong, cause nothing matters, its all excuses, for tits. That's the only story, Tits and Ass, there is no other story beyond it.
Character - 0
You know normally I would say these character are cardboard cut-outs, but I realize I was giving the show too much credit. The characters are actually more like a scribble of a cardboard cut out made out of poop, that no one actually bothered to cut out. There are two characters in the show, the MC and thirsty girls, and IS does the amazing thing of making the girls so dull I can't even tell the girls apart.
As for the MC, take off your sock, put it on your hand and have the sock puppet say "tits". Congratulation, you have made a character with more personality than the MC.
Sound, Art - 6, 6
Here is the reason it sold bunkers, because it has "cute girls" that allow all the basement dwellers to fap to. The formula that the industry is now treating like it is the formula of making gold, screw story, screw character, T&A
Overall - 0
I hate this work, its author was a tremendous faggot (have no shame, and proclaimed himself a master of writing), its sells poisoned the industry, and its disgusting putrid children basically killed the LN industry (Along with the WN plague lead by Mahouka but that is a different story). So hate it, forever remember IS as what happens when we lower our standards too far, and gave all those generic LN 1 out of 10, put them in their rightful place, at the very bottom.
x3Rampage
Honestly, IS had all the ingredients to be a great series. Art (8) and Sound (8) are both wonderful, the animations were great, action scenes were eye-catching, pretty girls were darn pretty, the new Mecha idea was fresh and interesting, the settings were nice, etc etc etc. After the first few episodes I really had high hopes for IS to be able to at least match up against, say, Highschool DxD. But no. IS turned out to be a project with great potential but no ambition. It's not like I don't like Ecchi and Harem. I like fan service a lot too. But watching Is I couldn'thelp thinking that it could have been better.
Let me tell you what I'm on about.
Story: 1
The story couldn't have been simpler. Orimura Ichika, a male student, is thrown into an academy, which trains it's students to pilot the IS weapon system. As it turns out, he is the only male in the ENTIRE school full of young girls looking for a boyfriend.
Really? Come on man...
Character: 2
The only male character, Ichika, is an idiot and after intense training from elite students, has OK piloting skills. He is somehow entirely oblivious about the fact that every female in the academy loves him because there's no one else to fall in love to.
And then there's the girls. There's the childhood friend (Houki), the prideful blond (Cecelia), the Loli (Lin), the shy girl (Charlotte), and genetically engineered super soldier (Laura), all trying desperately to get Ichika to love them. But Ichika obviously doesn't know that despite many obvious attempts.
Overall: 2
Overall, it's a huge let down from my expectations after the first 2 or 3 episodes. There were many copy and paste works and many events in the series were overused.
In IS they tried to have a bit of everything. Romance, comedy, ecchi, harem, action, mecha, science fiction, the lot. But it just didn't work out. Maybe too many ingredients spoils the soup too.
And the most frustrating thing was that, it could have been so much greater! The only redeeming point was the great artwork, soundtracks and the background music which, unlike the story and the characters, were quite outstanding.
Sagelund
Many anime I've seen using the incredibly cliché theme of harem generally come out the same, with characters seeming to all fall into a very similar rut at which point you soon start finding every single almost identical to the characters of many other anime. Quite often a somewhat gimmicky twist is tossed in that is supposed to refresh the watcher and make that anime rise above others of the same type. This anime doesn't break that mold, but it creates a great set of characters, and it'll keep you laughing. Story: The story is probably the biggest lacking factor of this show, it leaves youwanting more story in a way that turns you off. It featured an annoying amount of plot holes, with somewhat crazy crap happening with no specific reason. If you are in the least bit versed in any anime of a similar kind, you will see "twists" a mile away. Even though the show features mech battles, they are quite infrequent, and are rarely long enough to satisfy mech enthusiasts.It does hit the typical ecchi anime bumps every ecchi anime hits, with the main lead always accidentally fall on the women around him and then as such, slaps him and gets incredibly mad (blah blah blah). It does have it's golden moments though, and when you finish it, you will be wanting more.
Art: Genuinely surprised me. The mechs are throughly detailed, beautifully animated,and the mech battles appropriately flashy and very well done. The characters all have little details that are rarely forgotten when the characters are shown, even if for a brief moment. The varied use of colors makes it pleasing to the eyes, never sinking into territory too dark, light, or bland unless trying to give off that vibe, to which point it displays it well.
Sound: The opening song is just the typical anime opening, nothing special but at least it's not grating or saccharine sweet like many others I've seen. But when it comes down to matter of sound effects, voice acting, ambient noise, and non-opening music, it does it's job well, making the sound an important part of the show overall, as sound should.
Character: Most characters are well fleshed out, and have a few traits to put them above the rest of the pack. I would have probably given it a 10 for characters if it weren't for how annoying they made the lead character. He is pretty much the "Oh no! My friends are in danger, I'll go save them even if all my limbs are torn off and my body burned to ashes!" Although that may be an exaggeration, the main character is painfully similar to so many others. I understand that how oblivious he is adds to some of the comedy, but it's just so predictable and painful to have such a character. He's probably not as bad as I portray him to most, but there is definitely a pattern. Like I said, all the other characters are well done, and are a breath of fresh air in the genre.
Overall: I highly recommend you watch this if you are a fan of romantic comedy, ecchi, harem, high school life, and those who like mechs get a fair share of what they desire. As the show does typically forgo the action in turn of a perverted accident scene, mech-heads will enjoy the detail put into each mech and mech battle, no matter how few there are. The characters are typically wonderful and consistent. The show looks great. Although the story isn't the best I've seen, it in no way hinders this fine show. It's sad how inconclusive they made the ending, but it hints to another season when plot holes can be filled and we can be reintroduced to such great characters.
9/10 Highly Recommended
MessageInTime
I was going to write a review for this earlier, but I decided to rewatch the entire series in one sitting before I did. Infinite Stratos was not what was advertised, I was expecting something completely different than what I got. And the answer is yes, this is not a good show. It will not be remembered in 10 years. The only way that will happen is if the light novels do something drastic. But if it was a bad show, why is my score so high? Infinite Stratos' story is simple enough, 5 girls all find out ways how to get in Ichika's pants. Theyhaven't really given another story for me to consider, which is expected as apparently the story in the light novels doesn't pick up until the 5th one. So right now, it is a generic harem with mechs. But these mechs aren’t any normal mechs; they can only be piloted by females. Or so the world thought until Ichika stumbled upon a personal IS. He is the first, and as of now, the only male able to pilot them. I can only guess that it has something to do with magic, as physically, males are much stronger than females. Another theory suggests that females can fit into an IS and males can't because females do not have a penis, and Ichika's is so small he is able to pilot one. The story is the shows weakest aspect and do not watch this if you are looking for a deep compelling plot.
The second weakest aspect of this show is the characters. We have our dense protagonist, Ichika, who couldn't tell if a girl liked him even if she were sucking his dick. He is the definition of clueless and it is quite frustrating to watch him be completely oblivious to all of the girls around him. Then we have our harem members: Houki (Japan), Cecilia (Britain), Rin (China), Charlotte (France) and finally Laura (Germany). Houki doesn't really have any redeeming qualities, except for tits that can sink the titanic. I'm not sure what is up with Japanese girls having the biggest breasts out of any other girl in every anime, but Houki is no exception. Oh, and she's a tsudere... I guess. Cecilia is the stereotypical British snob who makes terrible food. That's the best summary I can give of her as I literally do not know what else to write. Rin is the smallest of all the girls, and never really got anywhere with Ichika. She has a short temper, I guess. But other than that she gets the least amount of screen time. Charlotte is by far the best and hottest character on the show. She has many redeeming qualities including boobs that can change size for the convenience of the plot, deep purple eyes and silky white skin. Not even Ichika, the gayest of the gay harem main characters can resist that... Or so I thought. She is the best character on the show in my opinion. Then we have Laura, the warmongering German who sneaks into Ichika's bed at night. She apparently isn't aware that sleeping in the same bed as a boy naked might give him the wrong (or right, depending how you look at it) impression. Aside from Charlotte, the show has no memorable characters.
The animation and sound in this show is excellent. I typically don't like CG effects in anime but this show does it excellently. The mech fights are beautiful and fast paced. The way the camera moves during them makes you feel like you're part of the battle. The music during the battles is usually hit and miss, but the battles that have good music are noticeably better. The OP and ED are J-pop, so I wasn't a fan of them. There is also not one average looking girl in this show, they are all extremely hot.
Despite this shows flaws, and it has a lot of flaws, I found myself thoroughly enjoyed and thoroughly annoyed at the same time. I am fully aware that this show is bad, but it's so bad it's good. If you want to sit back and watch some mindless entertainment, look no further as Infinite Stratos fits this bill perfectly.
xIncursio
Lets make this short. Summary: Ichika Orimura, a 15-year-old Japanese boy who starts a busy high school life surrounded by nothing but girls who can use IS. This anime is for people who wants -light-hearted stuffs -Harem comedy -MC who is an average nice guy but sometimes really dumb and relies on others -Girls falling in love with him after being defeated [ how retarded this is] -Girls from different countries o.O with different personalities -Mecha battles-a little bit of plot
-hot chicks & TsundereS
Not for people who wants
- Seriousness
- Two-sided romance
- Super Intense Mech fight/battles
- Deep plot
- Smart and cool and op MC who understands everything
- more than 2 teachers in the class.
- Dual Gender Academy
- yanderes
The Story
Infinite Stratos has a generally well-written story . It has its own originality and it was developed quite smoothly. The mecha stuffs were average as compared to other mecha shows. It is mainly because the story revolves around the love aspect. So its basically like a comedy-harem plot with an extra "mecha" aspect to simply prevent it to be like any typical harem anime
Art
The visuals were standard as They focused more on the interactions between the characters . However the character designs were really great. As you can see from the poster, the character designs were above average and we can really pick off any emotions that characters try to hide, just from their facial expressions . And the character designs highlights every individual in the show and portray them more efficaciously .
Sound
The OP and ed was catchy and worth listening to , However the sound effects were horrible. They did not stand out and left no impressions. The sound effects literally did nothing in the entire anime but fortunately there's the great art to back up for it
Character
The worst aspect of the anime. In merely 12 episodes , Infinite Stratos have to micro manage and cover 6 main characters . Of course with the first episode as introduction being left out , 11 episodes to develop the characters were simply insufficient. Another of a harem member kept joining the crew and there's no time to stop ,and understand more about every single character. Almost all the characters were briefly introduced and we do know anything beyond that. At least the "main" main character ; Houki was at least more concisely introduced.
Enjoyment + Overall
Even though this anime has its flaws , i believe its worth your time . I really enjoyed it and i had fun watching all different personalites coming in at once.
But dont ever watch this seriously , instead try to enjoy it because of its humour and its light-heartedness.
Story-7
Art-8
Sound-5
Character-5
Enjoyment-7
Overall-7
helur
Infinite Stratos is a tale of one boy and a huge harem. Ichika is the only male able to pilot a IS well he is always the center of attention. Unfortunately, I could count the fights on one hand while it would take two to fit the female harem members or at least the ones with names. That’s not to say that there isn't anything to enjoy in this school setting story... right? Every country gets one personalized IS machine and send their representative to the school where he is located for training. There are plenty of others that get the old run down machines essentially.Ichika, being the only male pilot, gets his own personal machine… That about sums up the uniqueness of our lead. Otherwise he is dense, but of course too kind for his own good. Typical. However if you are going to watch this harem, then the only thing that matters is the female characters right?
The girls are good, but even if you start to like one they are introduced one after the other. In total there are 6 in his harem and if you take into account there is twelve episodes… Well as soon as one is introduced the next one comes to steal your attention. There is little development in the characters never mind the relationships.
If there is any reason I liked this show it would be Charles. He being the second male IS pilot steals away Ichika from the other females as Ichika tries to bond with this new male presence in a sea of women. Charles is one of the most intelligent and capable characters in the show, and makes the show much more likable.
However, that cannot save something that has no plot. A story centered on mechs that don't have battles… That doesn't sound very entertaining does it? It seems by episode 10 rolled around they finally finished the introductions and decided to introduce the story. It was just too late. This is the norm for harem shows as they focus on each girl's episode and like IS, they run out. Thankfully they fall back onto battles, but at this point it is too late. If your looking for another average harem be my guest because there is no hidden gems in this show. Hence, i reward it with what MAL calls average: a five out of ten.
SatellitePass
Honestly I really liked the idea of the story but all the girls were REALLY and I mean REALLY annoying the "love conflicts" voices make me want to scream into a pillow and throw my computer against a wall, and their always getting on the mc's ass about them being better than him and about how he's not doing things right and that's the entire show. I would like to say that was just the beginning of the anime but it was the entire 12 episodes this was probably one of the worst animes I have watched in a LONG while.
magaiverix
My first Anime, after which I now understand the difference between PG 13- older (Genre) Echhi and Echhi 17+. Just say! this Anime is for his own taste people who dont cares about the plot, the main thing is HAREM (people who love this genre like me) In spite of the main story I like when there are lots of girls and one lucky guy, so my enjoyment as a minimum will be 8/10. First season main story in overall was booring= mech vs mech in workouts all the time and only at last episodes something appeared so the story I didn't like, BUT!..... what happened withprotagonist and his girls it was just fantastic, I love it when the girls were fighting among themselves for one guy love.
Music also point at the point and the sounds also liked, Art very well especially girls. That's all I am satisfied with the exception of the same main story, I hope next season will start with of what happened the first season ending will.
