This. This show. Because of it I barely watched anime for about two years. It was maybe the first show I've fully watched that annoyed me so much I started to look with different eyes to everything else I've seen since then. The good part of it is that my critical opinion about the japanese industry took a drastic change, something that I believe helped me filtering the sh*t shows and becoming somehow immune to most hype they create these days.
Yet, Linebarrels of Iron (Linebarrels) still bring back some terrible memories whenever I mention it. A dramatic tale, a shonen epic, a promising show that slowly learned how to become worse and worse. Nearly all elements that I've always disliked about the japanese industry are here, and the mix manages to extract the worst of each of them.
Linebarrels is the tale of Kouichi Hayase, a normal highschool boy who was always bullied and tormented. He is weak and submissive, only managing to survive in school because he is always saved by his best dude Yajima and cared by his (girl/childhood)-friend Risako. Yet, one day he is hit by a falling mecha, revived by a mysterious girl and granted super-human powers. At the same time the city is attacked by the Katou Organization and is up to him to save the city with his newly acquired power and the ability to summon the ultimate mecha: Linebarrels.
- The Annoying Protagonist
"A nice turn of events" as told by Hayase, is what the early episodes of this show is about. It is the cliche'd you'd expect from a shonen-mecha show, yet it has a nice twist to it: Hayase becomes absurdly annoying with his new powers, he turns arrogant, he ignores others and think he is the chosen one. Instead of a typical righteous boy or broken Shinji we have a different starting point for a shonen protagonist.Great Start
Perhaps even more interesting than the protagonist's behavior is the initial chain of events. Joined to the typical "save the city from mysterious foes and join NERV... I mean, JUDA", you have some dark drama surrounding the main trio's past, a love polygon, and a slow but steady progression of Hayase's behavior that culminates into a interesting and promising death of an important character. But from there, my friends, the shows embarks in a one-way trip to the sewers of japanese industry.Want some harem or comedy? Dig in!
Comedy is always welcome to break the mood in some serious shows and ecchiness can be kinda welcome if it comes naturally to the plot (like when having a bunch of horny teenagers for a cast typically does), yet Linebarrels completely miss the mark here. Why? Let's elaborate.Harem takes over everything in the mid part
Tired of mecha shows? Linebarrels assumed you are after about five episodes and jumps in the daily life of Hayase and his chick-magnet. He turns from a promising annoying protagonist to the basic harem-lead template. He is aided by the stupid joke of his new boss, who is just an excuse for lame comedy and creating ecchi-scenarios so you can constantly see girls in lingerie, pantsu shots, gropping, swimsuits, even fuc*n tentacles.As if it couldn't get worse, the plot is nearly forgotten, girls that thought Hayase was annoying magically start swarming over him, his childhood friend makes a return to the spotlight and all males in the vicinity somehow go away to leave Hayase as the only male-alpha in the pack (joined by two boys that could be easily mistaken as girls).
What about the initial drama?
Oh, you liked the first episodes and thought you were about to see a shonen with meaningful deaths and nice turns of events? You may still hope things will be on rails again after the mid harem-centered part? Ha. Ha. Ha. Unfortunately, Linebarrels never get back on its feet. In fact, whenthe plotline return in the late part you are gifted with stupid revivals, the protagonist turns out to be the only damn person in the entire world who can just put a fight against the enemy's random mob. Betrayals occur out of the blue without any kind of development, the female cast becomes a bunch of frail damsels to be saved by Hayase, and the small comedy input (that was barely fun anyway) is zeroed. Linebarrels mocks the death of its characters and never ever manage to build something nice out of it...It is Gonzo, after all
Linebarrels production value is amazing. Gonzo does an awesome job in both art, animation, and sound direction. It only fails in giving a better opening (seriously, this kind of music will always only work on Rozen Maiden or similar stuff) and with the mechas sometimes being unfit to the rest of the art. However, as Gonzo dictates, the plot will be completely bizarre. It's an attempt to mimic Evangelion that loses itself to ecchiness and just get as convoluted and unexplained as it could. Here, however, you have no easter eggs, no complex backdrop, or anything else... it's just about people from another world invading ours and a harem-lead using a super-magical mecha against them, while supported by an army of girls that love him somehow.
Linebarrels' most annoying factor is its attempt to make you expect a serious show with a deep initial drama and slowly taking everything away from you as the harem, ecchi, and nonsense takes over everything. Every episode from the mid-part foward surprised me in how they could worsen things. A beach episode with tentacles, a christmas episodes with minuscle dresses, pantsu everywhere, a stupid boss who only acts as a ecchi-catalyst, girls who never manage to do anything on their own, a protagonist that turns from annoying boy to harem lead, reviving characters whose death were the only events truly good in the show, making allies and foes switch sides for the sake of having fanservice combats. Hell, it's a neverending list of terrible choices.
The show grew more and more annoying to me, with fillers episodes to show the beach, another to put the girls in short christmas dresses, etc. What it really bothers is that none of these episodes are used to evolve the characters in meaningful way or to bring a better comedy. In Fullmetal Panic! we had a beach episode, but with Sanada's completely lack of awareness to bring very comical moments and with a bit of development in his relationship with Akane. Here in Linebarrels is just girls in bikini and mindless scenes, nothing more. It returns to the plot later, but enduring 10 episodes or so of complete nonsense (and bits more of nonsense in the later episodes) is not something I can classify as good.
