Gunparade March: Arata Naru Kougunka

Gunparade March is a unique anime.

The story based of the manga by the same name is great. Gunaparde takes place in a alternate future when after the end of WWII in 1945 a alien race appears on the earth and begins to kill of humans. Fast forward 54 years to 1999 humans are still fighting. The story takes place in Japan one of the last remaining strongholds on the planet. The story focuses on the 5121st Platoon who are made up mainly of young teenagers who were drafted.

The characters were great adding life and emotion to the anime. I personally ... liked the two main characters, Atsushi Hayami and Mai Shibamura the best. They helped the anime become great.

The animation and sound was very good but not great. I didn't like the design of the mecha in the anime, but it really didn't bother me much. The music was had some flaws but was still very good.

The biggest problem I had overall with Gunaparad March was the length of the anime. It was only 12 episodes long. I think it could have gone on for a lot longer. The story was broad and could have gone on a lot longer. I would have love to see the story taken to other parts of the world along with the great characters. Still it really doesn't take much away from the anime, it's still great and worth watching.

::QUICK REVIEW::
Story: 6 (Great action horrible drama)
Art: 7 (Most of the money went into the mech battles)
Sound: 4 (without the mecha, this would have been a zero)
Character: 3 (Never seen such a large group i could care less)
Enjoyment: 5 (it was both fun and agonizing at the same time)
Overall: 25/50 = 5.0 (watch this as one of your last resorts)


::FULL REVIEW::
Don't be fooled by the cool mecha action you get from episode one. Thats just there to draw you in to the story. As you keep watching, you will come to realize it's all a ploy. A ploy to lure you into a romantic comedy ... between two members of the military. It was a HUGE disappointment too. When the action was there it was just awesome. From the animation, to the monsters, to the action, and right down to the military chatter (dub of course) it was fast, fierce, and fantastic. Unfortunately those parts only took up of about 15% of the series. The romance and drama though was a bit iffy relying on the "will they ever confess" formula. If you enjoy that style of drama then give it a try. But people like me aren't real fans of that style. Don't get me wrong the drama wasn't horrible, but it was 'mediocre' (5/10) at best.

The production value was also a mixed bag as well. Considering its basically 2 different anime. On the warfare standpoint, I really appreciate all the detail and fluidity that they put into the mech battles. The sound effects were great in 5.1 and mix it in with some good old fashioned military chatter in proper English, I was on an action high when it ever came on. But on the drama/comedy/romance side of things it was just mediocre. They all wore the same outfits about 90% of the time. Of course they were all kids 18 or under so some loli tendencies were obvious. They tried to do some fanservice but it was really poor. And the voice acting was forgettable from both sides of ocean (English/Japanese dub). For the most part i just kept it in English during the battles and i kept it in Japanese during the drama.

The character themselves were pretty forgettable considering the voices were forgettable and their chemistry between each other really wasn't there. Even the two main characters didn't feel like they were playing their roles quite well. It's hard to explain but the only way I can say it is that tsundere didnt feel like a tsundere and the shy type felt more like a mumbling loser just repeating the same thing over through 12 episodes.

If you love mecha and you have absolutely no other mecha anime to watch I'd give this a try. Or if you like anime that sound like they're accomplishing one thing but in reality, its cover to tell a different less intriguing story give this a shot too. Other than that leave it alone.

Story 3/10

The thing that I hate most about this anime is the way it changes tone so spontaneously. For example, the characters may be rehearsing for a play one second, but a siren goes off and a voice says "Unit 5121 prepare for battle" then we see the characters getting in their giant robot suits to fight the aliens. What if an anime like Toradora did this? It's like the anime goes from being this slice of life anime to an action scifi anime at a moments notice.

However, what makes it worse is that it fails at both being a slice of life anime ... and a scifi action anime. To tell a good slice of life story requires strong characters, but these character are all dull with nothing interesting to say about them. This anime also fails as an action scifi story because literally every fight the characters have with the aliens is the same. The characters kill a couple of aliens, jam a bomb in the head of the "brain" alien, retreat, detonate the bomb, and the missions over. It's cool the first time, but the not the 12th time.

Also, can someone explain why the aliens pop like balloons after being shot once?

Sound 1/10

First, the music.

For an anime about teenage soldiers fighting in a war against alien monsters this anime has a very upbeat and positive opening which really doesn't introduce the show well. Furthermore, for some reason, whenever the characters are doing normal school stuff military marching music plays. Why?

Second, the voice acting.

The voice acting for this anime's English dub is awful. The VA's put so little emotion into their voices; it's so robotic that it almost sounds like the animators just used some text-to-speech program to voice the characters. Also, there are some characters like Mai who yell everything they say and others like Hayami that have this super annoying stutter.

Characters 3/10

All of these characters, with the exception of Mai who is the only character that goes through any kind of development, all feel like tokens with nothing memorable or likeable about them.
Takayuki is the ladies man who flirts with every girl he sees.
Matsuri loves money and is always trying to make a quick buck.
Tadataka is the level-headed leader.
Mio is clumsy.
Nonomi is cute.

The real tragedy is I feel like all these characters have the potential to be great, but none of the them get fleshed out enough or get enough focus.

Overall 3/10

Another anime that Gunparade reminds me of is Gundam Wing. Both anime are about teenagers fighting in a war and both have giant robots. However, what makes Gundam Wing superior is it doesn't just depict being a soldier as some part-time job you do after school, it shows that people aren't exaggerating when they say war is Hell. The life or death uncertainty of a battle field, the physical and psychological trauma it can cause, and even the gray area of morality that soldiers operate in. Gunparade is like "Hurry guys, let's finish our mission so I can be on time for my date."

If Gunparade was less serious like Girls & Panzer or more campy like a magical girl anime then I could understand, but because this anime goes from being super serious to being not serious at all so suddenly and it fails at both being a slice of life anime and a scifi action anime I'm giving it a 3 out of 10.