Oct 6, 2012
There is one and only one way that could have saved this series from being more than just eye candy without any thought behind it:
Do not try to take a dating sim concept, and turn it into a legitimate anime by throwing in mindless racist attacks against America.
The first two episodes were good just for getting the concept behind the enemy, and the horrors of war straight. However, who in their right mind, when the species is on the line, sends a bunch of teenage girls who represent the best, brightest descendants of the Imperial heritage of Japan, out to the front lines? That is
...
called STUPID! There is a reason in most American sci-fi that the best and brightest are usually saved in reserve or their talents are used to help in other areas: you want those particularly smart people to make babies for the next generation to be the best and brightest, and so on.
Secondly, nowhere in this anime is there any tactics or strategy that make any kind of sense, or offer the species any chance of survivability. The "circling and descending" attacks Yui brags about that the underpowered, gutless 94 Second is designed to do are the same tactical maneuvers Japanese Zero pilots used to effectively die in the gunsights of American Wildcat, Hellcat, and Corsair aviators.
For serious discussions on proper ACM tactics, please refer to Colonel John Boyd's "Aerial Attack Study", Energy-Maneuverability Theory, and the OODA Loop.
Third: Who in their right mind builds a bunch of mecha to fight an overwhelming swarm of bugs (that of course have to have eyes, hands, heads, and mouths, even though they share no genetic similarities whatsoever to Earth lifeforms), when a simple EM cannon carried by one mecha can decimate an entire force of the enemy? Why not build a couple strategic bomber aircraft to sweep the Earth with these weapons at altitude, and avoid the messy business of killing humans unnecessarily? Oh right... because we can't have a plot driven off of anything except hand to hand combat with monsters!
Fourth: Ever since "Blood+" made that horrible effigy of Condoleeza Rice bragging about how Americans all want to conquer the world, I've been slowly turning off anime. This series is the straw that has broken the camel's back. Since WWII, America has profusely apologized to a nation it had to strike with two nuclear devices because the Imperial military was so hell-bent on fighting to the last man, over a quarter of the Earth's population would have been lost by the end of the war. Nevermind a pacifist movement in Japan's own citizens were cheering for America's resolution to drop the bomb, but even after over 60 years of rebuilding and peacetime, the Japanese still do not understand why they lost the war, and blame the "blue eyed devils" for all their problems.
Simply put, Muv-Luv is an exercise to duplicate the fanbase of Hetalia by stereotyping certain cultures in the series, and somehow trying to rewrite history to show Japan as an Imperialist nation would be feasible in the modern world.
All that's missing is Yui saying "and I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids, and your dog!"
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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