Poll: Active Raid, Knights of Sidonia, Cross Ange, Heavy Object

Four episodes of Prince of Stride left to go and it’s time for another poll. I mentioned in the last one that I originally considered Romance but chickened out in the end. I’m still cackling so no love to be found here. Instead, we have four Mecha shows. Bigass robots must be a reasonable amount of fun, right?

Since all these are 24-episode series, I’ll probably be covering two episodes per review.

Vote away!

Active Raid

After the Quicksand Disaster sunk large swaths of Tokyo, fast reconstruction now requires the use of powerful exoskeletons. Although most of these exoskeletons are used for good, once they fall into the hands of criminals or the criminally-minded, they can become a danger for the citizens of Tokyo. More commonly called the “the Eighth” only, the Mobile Assault Division is properly equipped to handle criminals empowered by their own exoskeletons. Such overpowered criminals require equally powered police officers. By connecting their minds to the ACTIVE system, members of the Mobile Assault Division, better known as the “Willwearers”, step into their exoskeletons and become superhuman.

Not every unit in the Mobile Assault Division is well respected. One unit of the M.A.D., Unit 18, unfortunately has a bad reputation due to their reckless and destructive way of solving crimes. That’s where Assistant Inspector Asami Kazari comes in. Although she is young, her experience in handling tough situations is unmatched. Can she pull the team together and help save the public image of the entire armored police force? Active Raid: Kidou Kyoushuushitsu Dai Hachi Gakari focuses on the efforts Asami Kazari must undertake to reign in a careless police unit.

Knights of Sidonia

After destroying Earth many years ago, the alien race Gauna has been pursuing the remnants of humanity—which, having narrowly escaped, fled across the galaxy in a number of giant seed ships. In the year 3394, Nagate Tanikaze surfaces from his lifelong seclusion deep beneath the seed ship Sidonia in search of food on the upper levels, only to find himself dragged into events unfolding without his knowledge.

When the Gauna begin their assault on Sidonia, it’s up to Tanikaze—with the help of his fellow soldiers and friends Shizuka Hoshijiro, Izana Shinatose, and Yuhata Midorikawa—to defend humanity’s last hope for survival, and defeat their alien foes. Sidonia no Kishi follows Tanikaze as he discovers the world that has been above him his entire life, and becomes the hero Sidonia needs.

Cross Ange

The royal life of Princess Angelise Ikaruga Misurugi was as idyllic as the life of a sixteen-year-old princess could be. Beautiful, talented, athletic, loved by her people, and soon to be baptized in honor of her ascension to the throne of the Misurugi Empire, Angelise had everything. Even her kingdom was in a blissful age of peace and prosperity thanks to the utilization of an extremely advanced technology materialization force known as “mana.”

However, everything Angelise has come to know soon crashes to the ground around her after she is revealed to be a “norma,” a member of society resistant to the effects of mana and unable to use it herself. Just like the rest of the norma, Angelise is arrested and removed from society. Now she’s being forced to work as a soldier based out of the prison camp, Arzenal, and fly a transforming robotic vehicle called a “Paramail.”

To survive, Angelise will have to adapt to several different aspects of her new life in Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo, coping with prison society, relationships with other “norma” women, and piloting her Paramail against giant beasts known as DRAGONs. Will revenge be a great enough motive to encourage her to overcome these challenges? Or will the hate for those that betrayed her tear her apart in the process?

Heavy Object

In the distant future, the nature of war has changed. “Objects”—massive, spherical tanks impermeable to standard weaponry and armed with destructive firepower—rule the battlefield; their very deployment ensures victory, rendering traditional armies useless. However, this new method of warfare is about to be turned on its head.

Qwenthur Barbotage, a student studying Object Design, and Havia Winchell, a radar analyst of noble birth, serve in the Legitimate Kingdom’s 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion, tasked with supporting the Baby Magnum, one of the nation’s Objects. Unfortunately, a battle gone awry places the duo in a precarious situation: mere infantry stand face-to-face against the unfathomable might of an enemy Object. As they scramble to save themselves and their fellow soldiers, a glimmer of hope shines through, and the world’s perception of Objects is changed forever.

Heavy Object follows these two soldiers alongside Milinda Brantini, the Baby Magnum’s pilot, and their commanding officer Frolaytia Capistrano as the unit treks all over the globe to fight battle after battle. Facing one impossible situation after another, they must summon all their wit and courage to overcome the insurmountable foes that are Objects.

 

[Summaries taken from MAL]