Busou Shinki Episode 1 - First Impressions

Not all anime are created equal. Some are blessed with massive budgets, staffed by top-shelf talent giving their all to a project that they clearly believe in. Others, like Busou Shinki, were made with the intent to sell plastic toys. Of course, this does not necessarily preclude an entertaining product - most beloved cartoons from the 1980s were made for the same reason - but does Busou Shinki manage to transcend its uninspiring origins and become something worthy of your time?

Of course it doesn't.

Based on Konami's multimedia experiment/action figure line of the same name, Busou Shinki takes place in a world where the spoiled rich kids of the world are able to play with toys way cooler than anything in this article - namely, the Shinki. Shinki are 15 cm-tall (that's just shy of 6 inches, for any Americans reading this) robots that can fly, express emotions, do your chores for you, and just generally be the objects of pure otaku fantasy. Of course, while Shinki may be cool, the focus of this show is on the elite Shinki, the Busou Shinki - the ones that do battle with each other in virtual reality competitions that are unquestionably the best part of the show. The look of the heavily-armed Busou Shinki will doubtless be familiar to most anime fans, as the original figures were designed by famed artist Humikane Shimada (Strike Witches, Sky Girls, this season's GIRLS und PANZER). Shimada's art style has certainly looked better - unknown character designers Ryouma Ebata and Takahiro Kishida's interpretation of the original designs certainly falls far closer to the mediocre-looking Sky Girls than the slick, stylish Strike Witches - but the CG models used for the Shinki's weapons systems fare far better. Naturally, the CG models are the ones that appear far more infrequently.

Taken on its own merits, Busou Shinki is thus far an awkward combination of slice-of-life comedy and mecha action. If this sounds like a terrible combination, that's most likely because it is. Of the two VR fight scenes in the first episode, only one has even a thin pretense of explanation given (a flying envelope bumped into an irritable Shinki, resulting in her picking a fight with the protagonists), with the other literally only existing to show what it's like when two tiny robots fight in a virtual reality environment. It's well-done when considered independently of context, and more like it would definitely be welcomed, but the jarring changes of pace and mood mar what was already far from a promising show.

The first episode's paper-thin plot (as I had noted above, it is largely a slice-of-life show with mech battles interspersed throughout) regards the protagonist, whose name I am informed is Rihito but I am pretty sure is only ever referred to as "Master", moving back to Japan after spending time abroad, and his fancy toys unpacking his stuff into his new place for him. The Shinki, which he has three of at the start, are a typical bunch - but nothing about the show is particularly daring anyhow, so it's nothing unexpected. Arn is the devoted one, the one who's been with him the longest, and the one voiced by Kana Asumi. Aines, voiced by Kaori Mizuhashi, is the blue-haired tomboyish one, and Lene is the large-breasted one who likes dressing up in maid outfits. Megumi Nakajima does her voice, and the OP animation reveals that her breasts can apparently bounce despite this making no sense at all. As the Shinki are unpacking their master's stuff, a misadventure occurs when an envelope goes flying out the window and they chase after it, running into the aforementioned hot-headed Shinki who starts a battle with said toys over more-or-less nothing. The three seiyuu do perfectly fine jobs of voicing their one-dimensional characters, and while their lack of removable clothing makes most traditional sorts of fanservice impossible, they do get dressed up as maids. Seiyuu nuts will probably want to look out for the next episode, as the cliffhanger ending (well, as much of a cliffhanger as it can be) to episode one finds Rihito opening a black box with a mysterious new Shinki in it - one whose voice work will be done by none other than the incomparable Minori Chihara.

The next-episode preview showed some hints of improvement in other aspects, too, as it primarily showed scenes of Shinki shooting at each other, so hopefully the awkward slice-of-life content will start to be balanced out by more action as a plot starts to develop. It doesn't have to be a particularly great plot - the whole show is based on an action figure line, after all - but any plot involving more than a barely-seen high school student's insanely devoted robots doing his chores for him while he's out at school would be very much welcomed. Whether or not Busou Shinki will actually go ahead and do that remains to be seen, but thus far it has been the kind of anime you can fall asleep halfway through and not really miss anything of too much significance. Not a great debut by any means, but good shows have recovered from worse beginnings.