Episode One-Derland: Plawres Sanshirou

Plot: The incredibly popular sport of plawrestling is sweeping the nation. People called modelers create and control small robots called Plawrestlers in battles/wrestling matches. A boy named Sanshirou and his plawrestler, Juohmaru, strive to be a great plawrestling team.

Breakdown: I think I inadvertently found Angelic Layer’s 80’s predecessor.

Seriously, barring the target audience, they’re pretty much the same show in regards to the game. The modelers are deuses, the plawrestlers are dolls and the plawrestlers battle each other in an arena from the modeler’s computer commands. Angelic Layer is just more high-tech and shoujo-esque.

That aside, this does seem like a really fun classic shounen gaming anime. In a time where the market was being completely flooded with giant mech anime, this small robot anime is a big breath of fresh air. The game is really cool, and this is yet another instance where I wish the game existed. It seems like the robots don’t use special weapons and abilities really, either. They have stuff that helps them maneuver and special features but seemingly no special attacks like swords or lasers like Angelic Layer would have.

The matches are interesting, exciting and very fun, and it definitely has a feeling like a shounen gaming anime.

A bit too much.

In our first episode, we’re introduced to our main character, Sanshirou, who is a very typical lead in these shows in that he already loves the game and is basically a prodigy at it. He’s loud, he’s incredibly confident to the point of obnoxiousness but still retains likability.

That being said, if he suffers from the messiah trope, I can see this becoming a chore to watch.

The extended cast is really only touched upon, which is fine as I imagine we’ll explore them more later. I think we got enough to realize that they’re really good friends. The girl is obviously the love interest and the fat guy is kinda irritating. The stand out character in this regard is Shota, who acts like he’s a really brash adult when he’s really about seven years old. The first time you see him, he’s ‘smoking’ a chocolate cigarette.

The main plot of this episode is what made me dread the messiah trope in the future as, in this episode, Sanshirou is challenging the repeat champion to a battle and wins….Yeah, he’s going into episode two with a win against a champion under his belt. This might get annoying.

However, despite my worries for the future, this was still a really fun anime that made me want to pick up Angelic Layer again.

The art and animation are of course dated, and the backgrounds get really trippy for some reason sometimes.

The music is alright with my particular favor going to the ED. While Sanshirou’s voice got a little annoying when he yells, the Japanese voice acting was also fairly good, albeit with that classic 80’s cheese.

I’m ready for more plawrestling!

Verdict:

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30DAC – Day 22: Favorite Weapon, Gear or Armor Used in Anime

This was neck and neck and….neck between three options; The Punisher, Wolfwood’s weapon from Trigun, Automail from FMA and 3D Maneuver Gear from Attack on Titan.

Automail are incredible prostheses that can be modified in all sorts of ways to add weapons and other capabilities. The problem is the obvious negative to such a device; needing to lose a limb first. Ow. Plus, all the really cool stuff involved with Automail is really just alchemy.

The Punisher very nearly made it because it is truly an incredible device. It’s three weapons in one, a rocket launcher, a machine gun and it contains several fully loaded pistols. Plus it acts as a shield and just looks awesome. The major downside is the sheer size and weight of that thing. I really like it, and I’d love to wield it, but that is a major issue.

So, by the powers of deduction, you can surmise that the 3D maneuver gear won out. This is a device that is not only awesome, but it’s compact, fairly lightweight and is a device meant to make travel more convenient while also providing soldiers in the world of Attack on Titan to stand a fighting chance against beings much larger than they are.

This’ll be sure to win the rhythmic gymnastics competition next week!

For those unfamiliar, maneuver gear is a device placed on the hips of soldiers. Using triggers, they shoot out metal cables with hooks to forcibly latch onto any surface that it can bust through, usually trees, buildings and sometimes even the titans themselves. It’s a web-slinger, to a degree.

The gear also holds the blades that the soldiers use to take down the titans with the triggers for the hooks residing in the hilts of the swords.

The only real drawback to this device is that it runs on fuel which can run out incredibly fast if you don’t moderate it properly. While this is just an inconvenience when training or using them for recreation, this can be a death sentence if titans are around. It’s also obviously useless in open areas. While some may be fairly unimpressed with this choice, it is the option that I would say is the most fun. Falling would suck, but it’d be awesome to just swing around a city or forest like that.

Honorable Mentions: The death note, the borgs from Alien 9.