Some war stories don't have much of anything to say. Not every anime needs to be deep – some are just raucous, plot-based fun. These shows (for example, most Gundam) are made entertaining by likeable characters, engaging storytelling, and maybe even a spark of originality somewhere. It can be anything – a great design aesthetic, an inspired premise, or even a standout character arc. Argevollen is not this. Until Argevollen, I'd never seen an anime so totally devoid of good traits without containing many actual bad ones. Of my previous disposable releases, at least Captain Earth had the sleek production values I expect out of Studio Bones, Brynhildr in the Darkness had its comically heinous depictions of women, and Hamatora was just all-around ludicrous. It's not even that Argevollen possesses nothing worth watching – there's nothing about it that sticks out in my memory.
While I can't say that I dislike Argevollen's characters, its plotting is impenetrable. The war's progress is depicted on a map in each episode. If you don't look at this map – which is onscreen for maybe a minute – you won't know how the war is going. It's trying to tell a story through diagrams of a battle's progression from a military history class. The problem here is that I don't care. I don't know what the various sides stand for – I can't even tell them apart. Ingelmia is vaguely imperialistic while Arandas is where the main characters are from. So with that a bust, what about the interpersonal drama? What does Argevollen want me to feel? Well, the show's emotional thrust consists of two wartime romances – Tokimune's with the Argevollen's engineer, Jamie, and the jaded commander Ukyo Samonji's with Tokimune's sister. This latter romance, which takes place in the past, ties into the Argevollen's creation. (Can you guess which popular series it ends up ripping off ? It starts with E and ends with vangelion.) Again, these aren't incompetent, just uninteresting. It reminds me of the boring parts of Aldnoah.Zero – lots of characters I barely know in stock relationships that are supposed to wean me over until the war stuff gets serious. But while Aldnoah.Zero eventually unleashed a ludicrous twist, Argevollen doesn't drop one in these first twelve episodes.
The visuals are falling apart from the first scene. While the production is far from impressive, the biggest problem is actually the art design. The main characters all look like they should be extras in another show. The main guys are all some flavor of sad-looking brunette, and I tell them apart by how old they're supposed to be. (Tokimune is young, Samonji is older, Cayenne is old.) I can't tell whether their perpetually overextended chins are intentional or modeling errors. The color palette is a morass of grey and green. It reminds me of Aldnoah.Zero, but without the small splashes of color that made that show pop. The robots (called “Trail Kreigers”) look all right, but again, totally indistinct. If you're a huge fan of giant robots, I don't know how it would stand out for you. Sentai's release is bare-bones, all twelve episodes on one disc with no dub.
Featuring absolutely nothing distinct, Argevollen fails as a piece of entertainment. It's the bottom of the barrel for Gundam knockoffs, lacking even the hilariously awful gimmick that makes some distinct. Maybe it'll improve in the second cour ? But really, who'd even stick around that long ? Me, that's who. I'm in this for the long run, Argevollen. War is hell, and so is some anime.
- Gabriella (ANN)
Voilà le genre de comiques qui font et défont la doxa en vigueur dans le supposé fandom depuis dix ans.
